The project Europe in Numbers: European Governance and Policy Instruments is a one-year project (2013–2014) based primarily at the Department of Political and Economic Studies at the University of Helsinki. The project explores numerical objectification and its political implications in European governance. It is funded by the Network for European Studies (NES) at the University of Helsinki.
The research builds on the project team’s previous work concerning numbers, indexes and global governance. So far, the members of our project team have looked at transnational governance with regards to democracy indexes, ‘good governance’ indexes, global university rankings and demographic statistics. In connection to our research on numerical objectifications, we have also published conceptual analysis on university autonomy, transparency and accountability, and gender equality. All in all, we have an excellent base for conceptual, semiotic and institutional analysis combined with proven competency in analysing data production and use of quantitative methods.