What is European Studies?

The chapter explores the question ‘What is European Studies?’ and aims to describe how European Studies is understood, practised and articulated by the scientific community at a point in time. The chapter proposes a conceptualisation of an academic field as consisting of an intellectual dimension (referring to actual research content) and a structural dimension (referring to the institutional components) and uses a novel methodological approach to perform a meta-analysis of European Studies as a field of study, research and practice. The chapter relies on a structured reading of recent academic publications discussing the field in combination with a qualitative content analysis of mission statements by academic affiliations and journals self-declaring as pertaining to European Studies. Findings suggest three distinguishing traits of European Studies: a fluid definition of Europe, disciplinary and thematic openness and an interplay between the intellectual and structural dimensions. The chapter provides a basis for understanding how European Studies is practised and understood by central adherents and identifies potential challenges and opportunities for the field in the future.