Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LOBFRAM (Lobbying and framing in foreign policy. EU and member states’ foreign policies towards Israel and Palestine)
Reporting period: 2015-09-01 to 2017-08-31
More specifically, the project started from the understanding that framing is a social process whereby the actors involved construct their understanding of events and of their surrounding reality through exchanges and in an interactive way. Knowledge construction is thus not an individual effort, but a collective enterprise. Hence, the project looked at how frames are collectively constructed, codified and how they can travel across venues and levels. The initial hunch was that networks of actors are behind framing processes.
Main results:
1) Three articles in peer-review journals (two published, one under review). Given the considerable amount of material collected over the duration of the project, future research articles will be based on it. Four articles are currently in preparation and the submission of a special issue is also under consideration.
2) Co-editorship of a special issue in Mediterranean Politics on the impact of framing on EU policies towards the countries on the Southern shore of the Mediterranean.
3) Participation in five international conferences (ECPR, EISA, UACES, AFSP), invitation to two workshops on EU foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine (London School of Economics and University of Copenhagen), invited talk on EU/Israel/Palestine (London School of Economics) and on framing in EU foreign policy (King’s College London).
4) Organisation of two workshop at Sciences Po Paris (Lobbying and Diplomacy in/of the EU: Two Faces of the Same Coin? in May 2017 and The Framing of Crises in Europe in December 2017).
5) Enlarged network of contacts within the academia and with policy-makers and representatives of interest groups in Brussels and in France.
In terms of wider societal implications, the project highlights how non-state actors contribute to the policy-making process of the EU and its member states. This aspect is related to the broader issue of transparency and the need to ensure more information to the public concerning the interactions that occur between policy-makers and interest group representatives.