Co-Producing the European Higher Education Area: The (Somewhat Overlooked) Role of the Social Sciences

While comprehensive research has been conducted on the Bologna Process (BP) as well as on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the roles of the social sciences in these reforms have remained mostly overlooked. Based on a systematic literature review of articles and reports from 1999 to 2018, we analyse the interplay of social sciences with politics in the creation of the EHEA, employing the theoretical concepts of co-production of knowledge, boundary objects as well as invited and uninvited participation. We argue that in order for a highly abstract and global concept such as the BP to become so pervasive, it requires that efforts be made to make sense of it in different local contexts. We see this done by representatives of national and European policy, who explicitly and implicitly interact with different stakeholders in the social sciences.