Koen van Zon (K.J.A.)

Koen van Zon is a postdoctoral researcher at Studio Europa Maastricht. He obtained is PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Utrecht University.

Koen is a historian who specializes in the European Union. His research revolves around the relation between Brussels and citizens. The EU is often seen as a technocratic project which is far removed from the concerns of citizens and is lacking in democratic control and participation. At the same time, democracy is one of the core values of the EU, and we elect our representatives in the European Parliament and the European Council. How does European integration then relate to the history of democracy since the Second World War?

His research revolves around the continuous tension between democracy and technocracy in the EU. In his PhD, he studied the history of representative institutions in the EU such as the European Parliament, and how these institutions struggled to democratize the EU from within. In his later research, he studied the EU as a project of market integration and free trade, and how citizens and civil society organizations have influenced and shaped it through their commitment to the protection of consumers and the environment.

Among Koen's specialisms are the history of democracy in postwar Europe, social movements, political representation, the European Parliament, European market integration and regulatory politics and the history of consumer and environmental protection.