Unpacking the Green Deal: Redefining approaches, shifting methodologies

The present contributions follow a workshop held in Florence on 3 and 4 of June 2024 which aimed to reflect on whether the analysis of the European Green Deal (EGD) and its policies require an ontological and methodological shift. We asked prominent experts from different disciplinary backgrounds such as history, social sciences, law, and economics, to present and reflect on their approaches and methodologies with respect to the Green Deal. We sought to explore historical continuities and discontinuities, issues of scale and disconnections with reality on the ground, as well as regulation in times of complexity considering the diverse array of data, instruments, and forms of expertise shaping the Green Deal and its effects. This collaborative workshop, jointly organized by the Environmental Cluster of the EUI and the GIS-Europe France, served as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and reflection. We aspired to foster a deeper understanding of the European Green Deal's dynamics and its transformative potential on social and environmental transitions through collective inquiry and critical analysis. Moreover, methodologically, if European regulatory methods had transcended traditional categories, then research into these regulations should develop in step. The project was intended to take advantage of the diversity in disciplines (law, sociology, political science, history and economics), as well as specializations (for example, in European, Transnational studies, or in Science, Technology and Society). This Working Paper aims to build a transdisciplinary dialogue to look past the regulatory ambitions of the Green Deal to consider the challenges and opportunities created by its novel regulatory approaches. Together with five other texts, it summarizes the preliminary responses to interdisciplinary questions arising from the richness of our debates.

Ouvrage disponible en livre accès sur les sites de l'EUI et du GIS Euro-Lab.