Magali Gravier

About

View research profile and publications

E-mail

mg.msc@cbs.dk

Telephone

Office: +4538153569

Departments

Department of Management, Society and Communication

Room: DH.V.2.60

View research profile and publications

Subjects

Public management Qualitative methods Methodology EU International relations France

Primary research areas

The EU’s staffing policy

I am interested in the Commission’s recruitment policy and the way in which nationality matters. I explore the notions of “geographical balance” and “geographical imbalance”, and the current recruitment difficulties for the EU to recruit staff from some member states. Why does geographical balance matter for the EU? Why don't all Member States have a fair staff share? What can be done to rebalance the Commission’s staff composition?

Multilingualism in the European Commission

What does multilingualism look like in the Commission. How does a multilingual institution work? How many languages are really spoken? Has multilingualism disappeared from EU institutions and been replaced by English? How do EU civil servants deal with languages in their daily work? Is multilingualism challenging for them?

Civil service in a post-modern society

This is my newest research topic. I try to understand the recruitment crisis of the European Commission using the lenses of postmodernism. I analyze how the perception of traditional civil service has changed in West European societies. The idea of lifelong employment is no longer as attractive as it was a few decades ago: how is this compatible with the traditional civil service type of employment? Have all Member States evolved the same way regarding the idea of lifelong employment?

The EU as an empire

What if the EU could be analysed as a new sort of empire? The first democratic empire... How does a democratic empire stand its ground in the face of other big powers with imperial ambitions, such as the USA, Russia and China?

I wish to provide useful knowledge for the EU and its member states

My research on the EU’s staff aims at providing knowledge and elements of analysis on the EU’s civil service that can be useful for the European Commission and its member states. I use a tool of analysis from the field of public administration: the “theory of representative bureaucracy”. This theory considers that civil servants contribute to the representation of citizens. I have mostly analyzed the issue of nationality and geographical balance. But I also investigate the issue of language. I want to understand what this form of “representation” does in a multinational and multilingual organization like the EU. Why is this important? How does it shape the social contract between the EU, and its member states and its citizens?

Another part of my research uses the concept of empire to analyze the EU. First, I use historical comparisons with other European empires to understand what makes the EU look like an empire (and what does not). Here, “empire” is a technical concept (like “state”) that helps analyze better some aspects of the EU. Second, the concept of empire helps analyzing relations between the four big powers: USA, EU, Russia and China.