TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparative Regionalism beyond Europe versus the Rest

AU - Lenz, Tobias

AU - Söderbaum, Fredrik

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The British International Studies Association.

PY - 2025/2/26

Y1 - 2025/2/26

N2 - What is the current state of Comparative Regionalism (CR) as a field of research? Since its inception, CR has suffered from a chasm between those who take European integration as the model for conceptualising, theorising, comparing, and designing regionalism worldwide, and the critics, who reject EU-centrism in favour of more contextualised approaches focusing on the Global South. This paper challenges this characterisation by showing how CR has fundamentally changed in the last decade or so. We detail three 'silent' transformations: (i) conceptually, scholars disaggregate regionalism into specific components, rendering systematic comparison more tractable and less individual case-centric; (ii) theoretically, scholars develop frameworks that build on general social science theories and actively seek to move beyond EU-centrism; and (iii) methodologically, scholars use more rigorous comparative designs and a broader range of data. These changes, we suggest, indicate a 'mainstreaming' of CR, with attendant benefits and costs.

AB - What is the current state of Comparative Regionalism (CR) as a field of research? Since its inception, CR has suffered from a chasm between those who take European integration as the model for conceptualising, theorising, comparing, and designing regionalism worldwide, and the critics, who reject EU-centrism in favour of more contextualised approaches focusing on the Global South. This paper challenges this characterisation by showing how CR has fundamentally changed in the last decade or so. We detail three 'silent' transformations: (i) conceptually, scholars disaggregate regionalism into specific components, rendering systematic comparison more tractable and less individual case-centric; (ii) theoretically, scholars develop frameworks that build on general social science theories and actively seek to move beyond EU-centrism; and (iii) methodologically, scholars use more rigorous comparative designs and a broader range of data. These changes, we suggest, indicate a 'mainstreaming' of CR, with attendant benefits and costs.

KW - Politics

KW - comparative regionalism

KW - EU centrism

KW - European Union

KW - regional integration

KW - Regional Organisation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85219119586&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1017/S0260210525000038

DO - 10.1017/S0260210525000038

M3 - Journal articles

JO - Review of International Studies

JF - Review of International Studies

SN - 0260-2105

ER -