Doctoral Dissertation Research: Traversing Legal Channels: An Ethnography of the Kent/Calais Euroregion

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9308604 COMAROFF This project will examine the impact of European Community (EC) law on the development of new patterns of local/regional politics operating inside and outside member-states' national borders. Focusing on the British Kent and French Calais Transmanche Euroregion (1990), the investigator will conduct primary fieldwork in Kent. The main objective is to present an analytical ethnography of how local attitudes and allegiances to Britain have shifted in Kent over the past five years, overcoming strong British nationalism, and resulting in the region's joining with Calais as a new trans-border territory of Europe sanctioned by EC law. This project will make an important contribution to scientific understanding of processes of sociolegal change. The investigator will use observational methods and conduct in- depth interviews in Kent. The project will also require analysis of legal and policy documentation for the period. The result will be a thorough description and analysis of how a shared (transnational) legal system is used as both a technical tool to bring about change and an ideological framework to mediate processes of political, economic and cultural affiliation. ***