Charting transnational fields : methodology for a political sociology of knowledge / edited by Christian Schmidt-Wellenburg and Stefan Bernhard.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

How to chart transnational fields--introduction to a methodology for a political sociology of knowledge / Christian Schmidt-Wellenburg and Stefan Bernhard -- How many fields can stand on the point of a pin? Methodological notes on reflexivity, the sociological craft and field analysis / Niilo Kauppi -- Adjusting a Bourdieusian approach to the study of transnational fields. Transversal practices and state (trans)formations related to intelligence and surveillance / Didier Bigo -- National, international, transnational, and global fields. Theoretical clarifications and methodological implications / Andreas Schmitz and Daniel Witte -- The post-national analysis of fields / Monika Krause -- European elites as (a) field(s). Reflections on the uses of prosopography and geometric data analysis based on three joint surveys of transnational objects / Frédéric Lebaron -- Global change. A field theory perspective on the end of empire / Julian Go -- The double function of rankings. Consecration and dispositif in transnational academic fields / Julian Hamann and Christian Schmidt-Wellenburg -- A weak field of social policy? A transnational perspective on the EEC's social policy-making (from the 1940s to the 1970s) / Karim Fertikh -- The rise of a European field of evidence-based education / Tomas Marttila -- The Euro crisis dispositif. Heterogeneous positioning strategies in polycentric fields / Jens Maesse -- Tracing 'the transnational' in the nationalization of school policy. The transformation of standards-based reform in the US / Sigrid Hartong.

"The volume provides a field-analytical methodology for researching knowledge based sociopolitical processes of transnationalization. Drawing on the seminal work by Pierre Bourdieu, we apply concepts of practice, habitus, and field to phenomena such as cross-national social trajectories, international procedures of evaluation, standardization and certification or supranational political structures. These transnational phenomena form part of general political struggles that legitimate social relationships in and beyond the nation state. Part 1 on "Methodological Foundations" discusses the consequences of Bourdieu's epistemology and methodology for theorizing and investigating transnational phenomena. The contributions show the import of field-theoretical concepts for post-national insights. Part 2 on "Investigating Political Fields" presents exemplary case studies in diverse research areas such as colonial imperialism, international academic rankings, European policy fields, and local school policy. While focusing on their research objects, the contributions also give an insight into the mechanisms involved in processes of transnationalization. The volume is an invitation for sociologists, political scientists and scholars in adjacent research areas to engage with reflexive and relational research practice and to further develop field-theoretical thought"--