This collection explores the development of socio-legal/law and society approaches within and across Europe, focusing self-reflexively on academic and legal cultures, institutions, kinship, and scholarly agency.

What makes a socio-legal approach socio-legal? How does it differ across legal cultures, countries, or regions? How do scholarly identities develop and change in academia's places, spaces, and contexts? This collection features contributions from socio-legal scholars who engage in a critical examination of their own work. They delve into the underlying motivations behind their research questions, as well as the methods and theories they employ. This process involves reflecting on these aspects within the broader legal and academic landscape in which they operate, taking into account their personal journeys and the historical trajectories of their research fields. The chapters not only contextualise individual socio-legal research within intellectual, institutional, and political frameworks but also explore national and transnational developments, influences, networks, and conversations.

With an emphasis on exploring the link between contextual structures and scholarly agency, underpinned by self-reflection, the contributions provide a fresh and fascinating comparative perspective on contemporary socio-legal studies.