University of Canterbury Home
    • Admin
    UC Research Repository
    UC Library
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    1. UC Home
    2. Library
    3. UC Research Repository
    4. Faculty of Arts | Te Kaupeka Toi Tangata
    5. Arts: Theses and Dissertations
    6. View Item
    1. UC Home
    2.  > 
    3. Library
    4.  > 
    5. UC Research Repository
    6.  > 
    7. Faculty of Arts | Te Kaupeka Toi Tangata
    8.  > 
    9. Arts: Theses and Dissertations
    10.  > 
    11. View Item

    Philosophical foundations for a constructivist and institutionalist relationship between the European Union and Australia. (2014)

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    thesis_fulltext.pdf (6.153Mb)
    Toth_Use_of_thesis_form.pdf (67.26Kb)
    Type of Content
    Theses / Dissertations
    UC Permalink
    http://hdl.handle.net/10092/10036
    http://dx.doi.org/10.26021/5045
    
    Thesis Discipline
    European Studies
    Degree Name
    Doctor of Philosophy
    Publisher
    University of Canterbury. National Centre for Research on Europe
    Collections
    • Arts: Theses and Dissertations [1761]
    • NCRE: Theses and Dissertations [42]
    Authors
    Toth, Gyula
    show all
    Abstract

    The European Union (EU) and Australia share a significant volume of historical connections in languages, cultures, economic and trade relationships, political views and ideas. These associations have had different levels of strength and frequencies in the past, depending on how these two political entities interacted with each other in the framework of international relations. Australia and the EU jointly developed an important political and socio-economic basis for working together, and cooperation between them is deeper and more common than the public might perceive to be the case. The EU is a growing superstructure; meanwhile Australia is a developed and successful nation, a successful democracy and a middle power. Nevertheless, Australia cannot expect to match the power and position of a polity, which comprises 28 different countries. This fact can produce a certain asymmetric relationship in the connection between these two political entities' communities. These asymmetric elements in the collaboration between them are liable to create certain discrepancies and disharmonies in the development of their different agreements in general. This thesis aims to examine the scope and depth of the EU-Australia working relationship, the convergent and the divergent issues within it. This exploration provides an analysis of the philosophical and sociological foundations of international relations in general, with special regard to the framework of sociological constructivism and sociological institutionalism, as possible catalysers in the growth and furtherance of the many-sided EU-Australia collaboration. To reach the most effective and efficient cooperation between the European Union and Australia, which includes the efforts to alleviate the urgent environmental sustainability and related problems regionally, and in a globalising world, will go a long way to create peace, security, and prosperity in Eurasia and in the Pacific. The EU-Australia mutual relationship is facilitated through shared values, norms and normative principles, such as the constitutive norms of liberty, democracy, good governance; the regulative norms of the centrality of peace, human rights, social solidarity, environmental sustainability; and the evaluative norms of the rule of law, transparency, human dignity and anti-discrimination. The willingness of the European Union and Australia to partake in a joint experience of continuous social learning process, provide them the power to achieve their aims together in a changing world.

    Keywords
    Constructivism; European Union; Australia
    Rights
    Copyright Gyula Toth
    https://canterbury.libguides.com/rights/theses

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Conceptualising the nature of relations between the European Union and Japan: Using the frameworks of Identity and rational choice Analytic Narratives as a means to interpret this dynamic relationship, 1990-2005. 

      Begg, Jeanine (University of Canterbury. National Centre for Research on Europe, 2006)
      This thesis explores the bilateral relationship between the European Union (EU) and Japan as interregional partners and as united global actors. The principal aim is to navigate the nature of relations between these two ...
    • "Untangling the webs of influence" : a policy network study of relationships between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, 1996-2000 

      Whelan, Megan (2002)
      This thesis examines the policy process of the European Union and the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries in forming a successor agreement to the Lome Convention. The Lome Convention was a comprehensive ...
    • The Final Frontier? New Zealand engagement with the European Union in the field of research, science and technology 

      Deerness-Plesner, Gina Eleanor Mary (University of Canterbury. National Centre for Research on Europe, 2008)
      This dissertation endeavours to address an identified gap in literature concerning the relationship between New Zealand and the European Union (EU) in the field of research, science and technology (RS&T). Examination of ...
    Advanced Search

    Browse

    All of the RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThesis DisciplineThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThesis Discipline

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • Research Outputs
    • UC Theses
    • CONTACTS
    • Send Feedback
    • +64 3 369 3853
    • ucresearchrepository@canterbury.ac.nz
    • ABOUT
    • UC Research Repository Guide
    • Copyright and Disclaimer
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • Research Outputs
    • UC Theses
    • CONTACTS
    • Send Feedback
    • +64 3 369 3853
    • ucresearchrepository@canterbury.ac.nz
    • ABOUT
    • UC Research Repository Guide
    • Copyright and Disclaimer