COMPARATIVE REGIONALISM: A FIELD WHOSE FRAMEWORK HAS COME?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbeuropaea.2025.2.09Keywords:
Comparative Regionalism, Ecological Framework, Regional Integration, Member-types, Governance, Non-eurocentrismAbstract
As the literature on Comparative Regionalism studies increases, more and more scholars take a chance at creating a new or better tool to explain how regions have become more integrated, and what has caused them to want to come together in the first place. As one of the new researchers, I have seen a huge fragmentation in my attempts to find a suitable methodology for my case of comparing two regions (through pure interregionalism). As such, this research brings together a collection of scholars who have extensively exchanged knowledge and papers, with some who belong to other research fields, in an attempt to settle this need. This is how the ecological framework, a tool that aims to be both extensive and flexible, has been created. While limited, for the moment, by a strong political lens, and with a focus on EU and AU literature, it can provide a reliable analysis of various integration processes.
References
1. Acharya, Amitav, (2012), “Comparative Regionalism: A Field Whose Time Has Come?,” in The International Spectator, 1, 3–15.
2. Acharya, Amitav, (2016), “Regionalism Beyond EU-Centrism,”in Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 109–130.
3. Acharya, Amitav, (2007), “The Emerging Regional Architecture of World Politics,” in World Politics, vol. 59, no. 04, 629–652.
4. Balassa, Bella, (1962), The Theory of Economic Integration, Routledge.
5. Balogun, Emmanuel, (2021), Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford Research Encyclopedias, International Studies.
6. Börzel, Tania (2016), “Theorizing Regionalism: Cooperation, Integration, and Governance,” in Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 41–63.
7. Börzel, Tania and Risse, Thomas (2019), “Grand theories of integration and the challenges of comparative regionalism,” in Journal of European Public Policy, 1231–1252.
8. Capoccia, Giovanni and Ziblatt, Daniel (2010), “The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies: A New Research Agenda for Europe and Beyond,” in Comparative Political Studies, 931–968.
9. Chou, Meng-Hsuan and Ravinet, Pauline (2016), “The emergent terrains of ‘higher education regionalism’: how and why higher education is an interesting case for comparative regionalism,” in European Journal of Higher Education, 271–287.
10. El Maaly, Saad Chiekh (2022), “What the Analysis of 136 Studies from 1960 to 2020 Tells Us About Comparative Regionalism Studies,” in Economic Issues, 31–85.
11. Fioramonti, Lorenzo and Mattheis, Frank (2015), “Is Africa Really Following Europe? An Integrated Framework for Comparative Regionalism,” in Journal of Common Market Studies, 674–690.
12. Hartmann, Christof, (2016), “Sub-Saharan Africa,” in Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 271–296.
13. 13. Huliaras, Asteris et al. (2024), “Rethinking the Collapse of the First East African Community (1977): Lessons for the EU” in Jean-Marc Trouille, Helen Trouille, Penine Uwimbabazi, The East African Community: Intraregional Integration and Relations with the EU, Routledge, 15-30
14. Lenz, Tobias and Burilkov, Alexander (2017), “Institutional pioneers in world politics: Regional institution building and the influence of the European Union,” in European Journal of International Relations, 654–680.
15. Lenz, Tobias and Reiss Mariel, (2023), “Globalising the study of diffusion: multiple sources and the East African Community,” in Journal of European Public Policy, 1–29.
16. Lenz, Tobias and Söderbaum, Fredrik (2025), “Comparative Regionalism beyond Europe versus the rest,” in Review of International Studies, 1–17.
17. Lopez Lucia, Elisa and Mattheis, Frank, (2020), “New concepts for understanding the entanglements of regionalisms,” in Lucia-Lopez, Elisa and Mattheis, Frank (eds.), The Unintended Consequences of Interregionalism, Routledge, 2–23.
18. Mumford, Densua, (2020), Comparative Regionalism’s Decolonial Turn: A Proposition, E-International Relations.
19. Nesadurai, Helen, (2022), “The politics of developmental regionalism,” in Deciancio, Melisa; Nemiña, Pablo and Tussie, Diana (eds.), Handbook on the Politics of International Development, Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 75–90.
20. Nye, Joseph, (1968), “Comparative Regional Integration: Concept and Measurement,” in International Organization, 855–880.
21. Panke, Diana and Stapel, Sören (2024), “Multi-level governance,” in de Lombaerde, Philippe (ed.), Handbook of Regional Cooperation and Integration, Edward Elgar Publishing, 417–430.
22. Pradhan, Mahmood and Scott, Alasdair (2012), “Economic and Financial Integration in Europe: Recent Stresses and Policy Challenge,” in Davoodi, Hamid (ed.) The East African Community After Ten Years: Deepening Integration, 47–57.
23. Risse, Thomas, (2016), “The Diffusion of Regionalism,” in Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 87–108.
24. Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (2016), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
25. Salajan, Florin; Barnes, Theodore and Becker, Anna (2024), “Comparative regionalism cases of artificial intelligence governance in education: the Caribbean Community and the European Union,” in The Round Table, 71–85.
26. Söderbaum, Fredrik (2016), “Old, New, and Comparative Regionalism,”in Risse, Thomas and Börzel, Tania (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 16–40.
27. Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad et al., (2020), “Regional Economic Integration in Asia: Challenges and Recommended Policies,” in Journal of Economic Integration, 1–9.
28. Tuluy, Hasan, (2016), “Regional Economic Integration in Africa,” in Global Journal of Emerging Market Economies, 334–354.
29. Wiener, Antje and Diez, Thomas (2009), “Introducing the Mosaic of Integration Theory,” in European Integration Theory (Wiener, A. and T. Diez (eds.)), New York: Oxford University Press, 1–24.
30. Zürn, Michael, (2012), “Global Governance as a Multi-Level Governance,” in Oxford Handbook of Governance (David, L.-F. (ed.)), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 730–744.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai Studia Europaea
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
