The European History Network has run a number of projects under the banner of the Creating Links and Overviews for a New History Agenda (CLIOH) since 1988, including CLIOH, CLIOHnet and CLIOHnet2. Both CLIOHRES and CLIOH-WORLD are currently in operation as of December 2011. It was initially founded as the ECTS History Network, a pilot project of the ECTS.
CLIOH-WORLD CLIOH-WORLD is an International Academic Erasmus Network.The European 'Archipelago' of Humanistic Thematic Network ; Europa Press Release; European Commission Education and Training It is supported by the European Commission, DG Education and Culture, under the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013, for the period October 2008 to September 2011. It aims to increase critical understanding on the part of European students and citizens in general—of Europe's past, present and future and its role in the wider world.European Commission Education and Training It offers a vision of an inclusive European citizenship and produces free educational materials and reflections for learners of all ages.
It builds on the efforts of previous European History Network projects (CLIOH, CLIOHnet,University of Bergen news CLIOHnet2, CLIOHRES) to improve the understanding of national histories as they are studied, taught and learned in European universities. These projects have linked national historical narratives, and prepared tools and materials to structure history programs. These help make learners aware of how national historical viewpoints have been created, and how and why they may contrast with the beliefs and understandings about history in neighboring countries.
CLIOH-WORLD is using its consolidated experience and methodology to develop the learning and teaching of European Union history, including European integration and expansion, and to encourage awareness and understanding of the links between European history and the histories of other continents. CLIOH-WORLD has five working groups.
Working groups
1. History of European Integration and of the European Union Why is there a need for the History of EU and European Integration?
History is a tool not only used for the purpose of increasing knowledge of the human past, but also for enhancing the awareness and the identity of human social and political communities, of which the European Union is one. In order to achieve a better understanding of what the European Union is and what it means to be a European citizen it is essential to improve the knowledge and understanding of both the history of the European integration process and the history of the European Union itself. Universities are an important place where students can acquire such knowledge and awareness.
European Union History is not the same as the History of European Integration and vice versa: the two terms cover different aspects of European History. The main focus of the History of the European Union is on the history of European Integration, centered on institutional integration and the member states of the European Union.
The History of European Integration also covers aspects of integration that go beyond the European Union. Moreover, the sociopolitical schema in which the EU is conceived upon can be more holistically understood with insights observed before 1945 and World War II. One tool of analysis that history offers is 'historical perspective', the diachronic dimension that provides important insights into present-day phenomena. The understanding of long term aspects, events and processes, is also vital in building a critically aware European citizenship.
The task of the Working Group is to increase both knowledge and understanding of the European integration process and the history of the European Union. In order to reach such important goals the group has decided to map the current situation and to produce and disseminate Guidelines and Reference points for Higher Education programmes in Europe. The findings are offered freely as information, ideas and recommendations. The tools produced by the group can be adopted by or may simply inspire those who face the need to (re)design history programmes.
The Role of History of EU and European Integration on European Universities: the Mapping Results
The Working Group undertook an extensive survey of the current state of European Union and European Integration History learning and teaching, through detailed mapping of selected countries (Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the UK), and supplemented this with further sample-based mapping of other countries in Europe (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Romania) and beyond Europe (Japan). On this basis the Group feels confident that it has produced a reasonably representative basis on which to assess the field.
Although the mapping covered a broad and diverse range of countries and institutions, a number of common points were evident. In particular, it was striking that there is little learning/teaching specifically dedicated to the history of the European Union or European integration. Courses devoted to these subjects are overwhelmingly oriented towards political science, legal or linguistic studies. Where there was evidence of a historical approach to the subject it tended to be framed within either national histories (the relations between one state and the rest of Europe) or included in general histories of Europe, wherein the history of the EU and of European integration was treated either as a discrete part of the whole or implicitly (rather than explicitly) embedded in studies of post-1945 west European political and economic development.
The difficulty of identifying historical approaches to the subject underlined the problems of defining what that history is, however. There are a number of issues that make a neat definition of European Union history and the history of European integration problematic. These are principally chronological and thematic. If we seek to add a historical dimension to existing institutional studies of the European Union and of European integration, for example, questions arise about cultural and historical connections (what might be termed 'European-ness') which in turn open up problems of periodisation (specifically, whether an exclusively post-1945 focus is adequate, but if not how should the chronological parameters be defined?).
The importance of history in programmes of European Studies is in fact not pronounced, although history is often mentioned in the programme descriptions. Even where European Union history is reasonably well covered, it is usually as one optional module, a fact which raises issues about coherence, or the importance of thinking about what that History is. Although dealing with "Europe" is popular in European academic institutions and multiple universities and departments offer courses on "European history" or the history of European regions, an explicit focus on European History or the history of European integration is not widespread.
"European history" is often seen as history that happened in Europe or parts of it, not in a comparative way that contrasts or connects different structures and addresses the process of European integration. With these problems and questions in mind, it was possible to return to the original mapping results with a view to identifying 'interesting' practice that might illuminate some of these issues and how they had been addressed, and allow the Group to move towards a more meaningful interpretation of what constitutes European Union history and the history of European integration. It is these results that are to be used to inform the development of guidelines framed within the language and methodology of Tuning.
What can we learn from examples of good and interesting practice?
2.) Courses are seen as good and interesting practice if they cover European Union history and history of European integration in a way that goes beyond an institutional history of the European Union and its organisations. Some selected examples will illustrate these examples of good and interesting practice. At the beginning of the Masters programme "Sociology – European societies" (Freie Universität Berlin [DE]) there is a module that deals with "the process of political integration in Europe and the development of European societies after 1945".
The link between European integration and the development of societies broadens the horizon of the history of European integration. Critical views on the process of integration are also presented in a lecture series forming part of the Master of European Studies (MES) offered by the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt on Oder (DE). What is interesting in this example is also the interior multi-disciplinary approach, also used in other courses such as "Interdisciplinary Analysis of EU" (in the "Integrated Studies of Europe" Programme, Universität Bremen [DE] ).
Here topics such as cultural pluralism and "European identity" or the transformation of the welfare state and "social Europe" are dealt with. The latter topic is the main focus of the Master in European Union Studies offered at Paris-Lodron Universität, Salzburg (AT). Here, courses on social and economic history in the longue durée (18th – 21st centuries) and courses that put EU integration in a pan-European and global framework can be seen as examples of good practice. That is also the case in a course on "Transnational History" at St Andrews (UK) that deals with the interconnections between European societies and non-European regions from the 18th century. That the history of integration after 1945 is very much affected by historical events that happened before 1945 is dealt with in a course on "European History since 1945" (University College, University of London [UK])
There particular attention is paid to the impact of experiences and memories of war, occupation, resistance and the holocaust in the period after 1945. Also the programme in European Studies (M.E.S.) at the University of Vienna, Austria, offers compulsory courses on "Plans for Europe in a historical context before 1945" and "Basics of European integration politics on a historical foundation". A comparative and transnational approach to the idea of Europe in a long durée perspective is pursued in the second cycle programme in "European Historical Studies2 at the University of Évora (Portugal).
Emphasis on the above-mentioned aspect of "European-ness" can be seen in several courses, such as "Culture and Identities in a Contested Continent" (Open University, UK). Here, Europe is defined as a contested and a dynamic space, rather than as a fixed geographical entity. Ideas and concepts of Europe are also part of the programmes on the European Union and European integration at the University of Coimbra (Portugal) that are mainly taught from a historical perspective.
The Faculty of Humanities (Letters) of the University of Coimbra emerges as an example of interesting practice due to the strong presence of the subject across a range of scopes and levels: from a single course unit on EU history compulsory for history students to first and second cycle programmes on European Studies where History is one of the five major fields of research. The University of Coimbra is – as one example – a member of a network of Universities that, with the support of the European Commission, organises a Master in European Studies: "The Process of Building Europe".
Good practice in EU and European Integration history
As the group mapped the situation and took a deeper look at examples of good and interesting practice, several factors emerged that – by integrating historical approaches – are useful for improving learning and teaching of European Union and European integration history:
Placing recent decades in a longue durée perspective, including history before 1945.