Decentralised and soft (law) methods of governance are an important trend in EU integration and governance. In her contribution, Nina questions orthodox accounts of this trend and proposes a plausible counter-explanation that focuses on the influence of the communities of expertise operating at its core, over moments of governance (trans)formation. She proposes a research agenda that inquires whether these communities' influence over policy-making processes (which is well-documented) extends to the design of the governance practices through which they exert that influence.

Nina's contribution features in a multi-disciplinary panel on 'The Rise and Decline of Neo-liberalism: Scientific Communities, Political Technocracy, and Regulatory Regimes'.