Does Function Matter? Researching Comparative Regional Governance

The comparative studies of different regional processes has now evolved into a relatively well developed sub-discipline – or perhaps a sub-sub discipline if the study of regional integration is a sub-discipline in itself. It is, in the words of one of the more recent collections on the topic, Comparative Regionalism (CR) is “a field whose time has come”. And it’s fair to say that the UNU CRIS as well as the wider membership of the GR:EEN project have played a significant role on moving the research agenda forwards. In the process, a number of potential pitfalls have been identified that might impede the development of a truly comparative method.