Research profile
The research of Political Science at the University of Wuppertal focuses on the conceptual and analytical approach to processes of norm formation in the politics of the European Union and international relations. Norm-building is conceived both as inclusive and exclusive processes of common European domestic policy (e.g. in the constitutional debate, security and defense policy) and as an inclusive and exclusive procedural component of European foreign policy (e.g. economic and environmental policy).
Norm formation is understood by Wuppertal political science as a culturally shaped, integral strategy for exercising and gaining power, not as an endogenous cultural process of identity formation. According to this understanding, norms are strategic means of exercising power. The consistency and concrete form of normative discourses is tied to the genealogical and traditional influences of European actors in all their diversity.
