Standing group activities

Invitation to the 18th edition of the International Symposium ‘Ideologies, Values, and Political Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe’

Organized by the Department of Political Science, West University of Timișoara
The Symposium will be held on December 4-6, 2020, in an online format.
Deadline for proposals: 20 November 2020. Selected participants will be informed before 27 November 2020.

It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in the upcoming 18th edition of the International Symposium Ideologies, Values, and Political Behavior in Central and Eastern Europe. This edition marks the 20th anniversary of the Department of Political Science at the West University of Timișoara, Romania.

The event aims to bring together researchers interested in Central and Eastern European politics. We welcome paper proposals from scholars on political topics in Central and Eastern Europe as detailed below. The proposal should be no longer than one page and it should include a short Curriculum Vitae.

Selected papers will be included in the forthcoming volume of the Political Studies Forum journal, published yearly by the Department of Political Science and relaunched in 2020: https://pfc.uvt.ro/political-studies-forum/.

The Symposium will include panels such as:

• The European Union at crossroads: political, social, economic and cultural challenges
• The specter of populism: continuity, change, diversity
• Diplomacy and international relations: shaping the 21st century
• 30 years since the reunification of Germany: regional and international implications
• Intelligence and security studies: challenges and opportunities

These are just some of the scientific topics that will be addressed during the conference. We welcome contributions on similar topics from the fields of political science and international relations.

There is no participation fee. For further information, details and for sending the application please contact Dr. Emanuel Copilaș at emanuel.copilas@e-uvt.ro.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to our event!

http://pfc.uvt.ro/cs-events/ideologies-values-and-political-behavior-in-central-and-eastern-europe/

We are happy to inform you that our section “Society-State Relations in Post-Democracy: Illiberalism and Populism and their Alternatives” has been accepted for the ECPR General Conference at the University of Innsbruck 2020 with seven panels. See below our section description.

The call for panels (with 4-5 papers) and papers is open until midnight UK time on 19 February 2020. You can submit your abstracts for panels and papers via the ECPR website.

Our section proposal:

Title: Society-State Relations in Post-Democracy: Illiberalism and Populism and their Alternatives

Chair: Laura Landorff, Aalborg Universitet

Co-Chair: Oscar Mazzoleni, Université de Lausanne

Abstract

This session addresses several topics crucial for political sociology, regarding severe threats to the liberal democratic political order brought on by the emerging illiberal nationalist and populist agency in different European countries. These new threats on the political scene build up their ideological and practical challenges from being against a set of heterogeneous and interchangeable targets, such as established national and EU political elites, global economic powers, migrants and refugees, underserving people, minorities, intellectuals, and others. In addition, growing social inequalities increasing risks and uncertainty, and the crisis of the political representation of different social groups create a specific context in which these tendencies have proliferated. New digital technologies offer innovative instruments and patterns of communication with the electoral body, and are often well used by nationalist and populist leadership. What will be the political consequence of these post-democratic illiberal trends? How do these challenges transform the relations between society and state? What kinds of alternative political discourse are emerging to contest these phenomena?

The ubiquity of these transformations posits challenges not only in terms of empirical knowledge but also in terms of a new theoretical reflection, re-assessment, and renewal. For instance, what can social theory say about populism in confrontation with the new forms of nationalism? How do populism and nationalism alter the European supra- and trans-national integration? How do they reshape the European and global borderscapes? In what ways do these new trends affect the most vulnerable social groups? How might we rethink political dis-engagement and re-engagement of individuals and groups in our societies? In what ways do new technological tools and their ordinary uses challenge the significance of expertise? Finally, what political and social alternatives to the illiberal trends can be identified today in the European context?

These questions will frame the focus of the session, but others may be proposed as well. This Section invites Panel proposals from various disciplinary angles and multiple methodologies to address key theoretical debates and empirical research in political sociology regarding the challenges of illiberalism and populism.

These questions will frame the focus of the session, but others may be proposed as well. This Section invites Panel proposals from various disciplinary angles and multiple methodologies to address key theoretical debates and empirical research in political sociology regarding the challenges of illiberalism and populism.

We are happy to announce that the Workshop proposal on the Lefts and Nationalisms, supported by our SG, has been accepted for the next Joint Sessions, that will take place in Toulouse between 14th and 17th April 2020.

You can find it also on the website of the ECPR:https://ecpr.eu/Events/PanelDetails.aspx?PanelID=8474&EventID=129.

Proposals, in English, must include a title, a summary of 300 words maximum and 3 to 8 keywords, and must be submitted online here:https://ecpr.eu/MyEcpr/Forms/PaperProposalForm.aspx?EventID=129.

Deadline: 5th November 2019 (midnight UK time).

The two directors of the Workshop invite those interested to contact them beforehand to discuss their communication project:

emmanuel.dallemulle[at]graduateinstitute.ch

tudi.kernalegenn[at]uclouvain.be

The political sociology panel proposal « Thinking Reflexively about the Political Sociology of the EU » for the upcoming ECPR General Conference in Wroclaw is still looking for further paper contributions. If you are interested in submitting a paper, please get in touch with dswartz[at]bu.edu before February 18, 2019.

PANEL DESCRIPTION

TITLE

Thinking Reflexively about the Political Sociology of the EU

ABSTRACT

In European politics today, new forms of transnational power are emerging that challenge the traditional parameters of action by nation states. New actors are creating new spaces of contest that may overlap but do not snuggle fit with the traditional spaces of political action.   This has called into question both institutional and constructionist perspectives that neglect underlying forms of power at work. New forms of solidarity and differentiation, both in terms of knowledge and social groups, are being created. The purpose of this panel is to encourage a more critically reflexive practice of the tools of political sociology in order to better account for these new political realities.  The panel draws inspiration from Niilo Kauppi’s 2018 book Toward a Reflexive Political Sociology of the European Union: Fields, Intellectuals and Politicians.  We are looking for papers that employ types of reflexive thinking to assess the recent political changes in the EU.

We are very happy to inform you that our section ‘Political Sociology: Contemporary Challenges to State-Society Relations’ with eight panels has been accepted for the next ECPR General Conference in Wroclaw, September 4-7, 2019. The steering committee of the SG with the support of its advisory committee took the initiative for the section. Hence, now it is time to come forward with some very interesting suggestions for panels and papers. The call for panels (with 4-5 papers) and individual papers is open since December, 5^th via the ECPR website. It will close on 18 February 2019. See the section description here: https://ecpr.eu/Events/SectionDetails.aspx?SectionID=839&EventID=123