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« Linking Theory and Empirical Research« 

Berlin, July 15 – 25, 2019

We are delighted to announce the 9th Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences. The summer school aims at supporting young researchers by strengthening their ability in linking theory and empirical research. The two-week program creates an excellent basis for the development of their current research designs.

In the first week, we address the key methodological challenges of concept-building, causation/explanation, and micro-macro linkage that occur in almost all research efforts. We strive for a clarification of the epistemological foundations underlying methodological paradigms. In the second week, these methodological considerations are applied to central empirical fields of research in political science, sociology, and other related disciplines. In this second part of the program, participants are assigned to four thematic groups according to their own research topic. The thematic areas covered are: « External Governance, Interregionalism, and Domestic Change », « Citizenship, Migration, and Identities », « Social Struggle and Globalization », and « Democracy at the Crossroads ».

The program is characterized by a varied format comprised of lectures, workshops, seminars, and a one-to-one consultation. During the summer school, participants will also have the opportunity to present and discuss their own work extensively. Participants will be provided with hands-on advice for their research designs.

The school brings together a faculty of renowned international and Berlin-based scholars. Among the confirmed international lecturers are Phillip M. Ayoub (Occidental College), John Gerring (The University of Texas at Austin), Hendrik Wagenaar (University of Sheffield), Anita Gohdes (Hertie School of Governance), Felix Berenskoetter (SOAS University of London) and Peter Hedström (Linköping University).

The Berlin Summer School was co-funded by the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Details on the location and tuition fees can be found on our webpage www.berlinsummerschool.de.

The international summer school is open to up to 60 PhD candidates, advanced master students, and young postdocs. The call for applications is currently open. Applications can be submitted online via the application form on the summer school webpage until April 15, 2019.

The decisions of the selection committee will be announced to the applicants in April. If you have any further questions, please contact the organizing team at summerschool.bgss@hu-berlin.de

Berlin, July 16 – 27, 2017

We are delighted to announce the 7th Berlin Summer School in Social Sciences. The summer school aims at supporting young researchers by strengthening their ability in linking theory and empirical research. The two-week program creates an excellent basis for the development of their current research designs.

In the first week, we address the key methodological challenges of concept-building, causation/explanation, and micro-macro linkage that occur in almost all research efforts. We strive for a clarification of the epistemological foundations underlying methodological paradigms. In the second week, these methodological considerations are applied to central empirical fields of research in political science, sociology, and other related disciplines. In this second part of the program, participants are assigned to four thematic groups according to their own research topics. The thematic areas covered are: « External Governance, Interregionalism, and Domestic Change », « Citizenship, Migration, and Identities », « Social Struggle and Globalization », and « Democracy at the Crossroads ».

The program is characterized by a varied format comprising lectures, workshops, seminars, and one-to-one consultations. During the summer school, participants will also have the opportunity to present and discuss their own work extensively. Participants will be provided with hands-on advice for their research designs.

The school brings together a faculty of renowned international and Berlin-based scholars. Among the confirmed international lecturers are Dorothee Bohle (Central European University), Donatella della Porta (Scuola Normale Superiore), Gary Goertz (University of Notre Dame), Macartan Humphreys (Columbia University), Sanjay Reddy (New School for Social Research), Saskia Sassen (Columbia University), and Hendrik Wagenaar (University of Sheffield).

The Berlin Summer School was co-funded by the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (BGSS) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. Moreover, we receive generous funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Details on travel grants and tuition fees can be found on our webpage.

The international summer school is open to 50 PhD candidates, advanced master students, and young postdocs. The call for applications is currently open. Applications can be submitted online via the application form on the summer school webpage until March 31, 2017.

The decisions of the selection committee will be announced to the applicants in April. For more information, please visit our webpage at www.berlinsummerschool.de.

If you have any further questions, please contact the organizing team at summerschool.bgss@hu-berlin.de

ECPR General Conference, Prague,

September 9, 2016, 16.00-17.00 pm

Faculty of Arts, FA018

1. Organisation of meeting.
2. Election of Chair, vice-chair, treasurer, secretary of SGPS, 2016-2018.
3. Next year’s ECPR General Conference in Oslo. Theme, organisers.
4. OA publication in political sociology. Joint publication with other SGs (see background information below)?
5. Any other issues.

Some background information on item 4 of the agenda:

Proposal to launch a new ECPR Open Access journal

The ECPR is considering launching a new, Gold open access journal, with a leading academic publisher in 2017. This journal would allow the ECPR and its members to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities OA presents, as well as supporting authors who must publish OA in order to comply with funding mandates.

a. Editorial focus

As suggested by market research carried out last year, the journal would be broad-based, aiming to cover the full spectrum of the ECPR’s members, groups and networks.

b. Standing Groups

To provide that breadth of subject field, all Standing Groups (SGs) and research Networks (RNs) would be invited to become a formal and integral part of the journal, each providing their own stream of copy under the wider umbrella of the journal. Their role would thus be pivotal in securing both content and readership. For those SGs that do not have their own journal, but would like the opportunity to launch one, this could provide an attractive option, free of charge and with all of the benefits of being part of a large journal published by the ECPR and a leading academic publisher. These streams of content would sit under the umbrella of the wider journal, which would also invite copy from authors from both within and outside of the ECPR community.

SGs and RNs would be invited to nominate an editor from within their groups to manage the copyflow for their field; where there is a degree of cross-over between a number of groups the Convenors of these would be invited to select just one person to represent all groups. This model could provide around 20 ‘sub-editors’ all with expertise in their field and access to networks of hundreds of scholars working on research in that area.

c. Editorial structure

With a journal of this potential size, with 20+ sub-editors all working within their fields, it will be imperative to put together a robust editorial structure and team to ensure quality, rigour and smooth and efficient production. Therefore, at the head of the structure would be an Editor in Chief (EiC) – a high profile European scholar. All copy would, in the first place, go to them via an online submission system. They would then allocate it to the appropriate sub-editor to process. Working to a clear set of editorial and procedural guidelines, the sub-editors would have the article peer reviewed, and then if they wish to accept it, submit a recommendation to the Editor in Chief to publish. The final decision would rest with the EiC. All members of the editorial team would be supported by a managing editor.

d. New Generation

For early career scholars, getting their work published is vitally important, yet increasingly difficult. This journal could provide a location where the best research from younger scholars can be published alongside that of their senior colleagues. The ECPR’s GSN could provide a sub-editor for this part of the journal.

e. Innovative features

Being open access is not, of itself, enough to differentiate a journal within the marketplace. Speed of publication and openness are two key benefits of OA publishing, but we are also investigating other innovations to make it an attractive destination for the best research.

The flexibility of online-only publication provides for articles of varying types and lengths. It can also encourage debate through open peer review – whereby articles would be reviewed during the publication process. Articles could also include non-technical statements to provide context to policy makers and practitioners, expanding the scope and appeal of the journal. Developing these additional, innovative features of the journal will be key to helping establish it within the marketplace.

f. A benefit for ECPR members

One of the clear messages from the research we carried out last year was that while there is widespread enthusiasm for OA as a concept in many quarters, accompanied by a growing mandate for OA publication from funding bodies (including universities), the funds are not yet available in the social sciences to pay the high APCs some journals are charging. The ECPR is therefore well placed to establish a first-tier journal where ECPR members would pay deeply discounted APCs of around £70 per article. It would be the aim to establish the journal as the ‘go-to’ OA journal for ECPR members, establishing a rich and high quality stream of content. Non-members would also be charged relatively low APCs (around 50% of the current average APC) making it an attractive proposition for them also.

With the nominal APCs for members, the journal would be a very real benefit to both those individuals and their institutions that need to encourage OA publishing but do not have the funds to pay high APCs for their faculty.

A message from our Rotterdam-based colleagues:

We are very excited to announce that Erasmus University Rotterdam’s Department of Sociology will offer a new master specialisation entitled Politics & Society: Understanding Contemporary Politics. The programme will start in the upcoming academic year (2016-2017) and is explicitly devoted to the complex interplay between political and societal developments, drawing on insights from both political sociology and political science.

Combining both classic and contemporary theorizing with empirical research, we aim to provide students with understanding of key issues in contemporary politics. In the course The Social Bases of Politics, we address social differences in various value orientations, ideologies, and support for political parties, and social inequalities in political trust and political involvement, both in the formal political domain and in non-institutional politics. The course Political Attitudes and Behaviour in Context focuses on the various institutional and cultural conditions relevant for understanding why political attitudes and behaviours differ across and within countries and change over time. The third course, Citizens, Parties, and Governments in Global Times analyses how citizens react to globalisation processes, discusses new challenges that political parties face due to globalisation, and scrutinises how governments behave in a globalised context. Besides these core courses, students can enrol for relevant electives on topics in Urban Studies, Management & Organisation, and/or Public Administration. The program concludes with an extensive thesis, which has the format of a research paper.

We hope that the focus of the programme will be a useful addition to existing programmes that are more institutionally oriented or focus on political theory. In case you have students who might be interested in the programme, we would appreciate it if you could refer them to http://www.eur.nl/fsw/english/sociology/education/master/politics_society . In case they have specific questions about the contents of the programme, they can contact the head of the programme, Willlem de Koster, by email (dekoster@fsw.eur.nl).

The ECPR is shocked to learn of the murder of Giulio Regeni, a PhD Student at an ECPR member institution, the Department of Politics and International Studies of the University of Cambridge. Giulio Regeni was in Egypt to do fieldwork for his study of changes in organised labour in that country. His body was found in Cairo on February 3. We offer our deepest condolences to Giulio’s family, friends, and colleagues. ECPR accepts that the precise circumstances of Giulio Regeni’s death have not yet been established, but the politically sensitive topic of his research, combined with State Prosecutor Ahmed Nagi’s statement that there were signs of torture on the body, raises concern that Giulio Regeni may have been killed because of his research. Academic freedom is vital for political scientists, and ECPR calls on the Egyptian authorities to conduct a full and impartial inquiry into the circumstances of Giulio Regeni’s death, and to ensure that the principles of academic freedom are honoured.

CALL FOR PAPERS
10th Jyväskylä Symposium on Political Thought and Conceptual Change
11-12 June 2015, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä
Organised by the FiDiPro project Transformations of Concepts and Institutions in the European Polity (TRACE)
https://www.jyu.fi/ytk/laitokset/yfi/en/research/testi/research/projects/moral-and-political-agency-projects/trace

Theorising the European polity: Conceptual and institutional transformations

The aim of this year’s Jyväskylä Symposium on Political Thought and Conceptual Change is to contribute to developing a political theory of the EU – political theory with an emphasis on the political and an approach to the European integration as a process creating new spaces for political action and new interpretations of political struggles and debates.
The key argument of the symposium is that both the EU and the processes of European integration bring about politicization in several new respects and dimensions, as they question established conceptions of political identities, institutions and practices. The political processes of polity formation around the EU, and an increasing fusion of what formerly was named ”internal and external political structures”, not only transform those established conceptions – the EU also is to be seen as a major agent of politicisation.
But, so far, these political aspects of European integration have been weakly theorised. Besides the debates around the ”normative turn” in EU studies, the attempt to apply deliberative democratic theory to international organisations, or the study of the ”Europeanisation” of European integration, theoretical approaches to European integration such as Federalism, neo-functionalism, constructivism, or intergovernmentalism do not address integration as a new space for political action. A political-theoretical approach to the EU must take into account the conceptual, historical and institutional transformations brought about by European integration.
We encourage papers that seek to develop a political-theoretical approach to the EU that strives to make sense of the growing complexity and the development of novel structures and opportunities for political action that European integration entails: political theorising should recognise the European polity as an eminently political phenomenon. Theorising the European polity has been underdeveloped, so has the linkage between political philosophy and political theory. The symposium aims to fill these gaps in current scholarship, and invites scholars working on European studies, political theory, history of political thought, political rhetoric and other disciplines to participate in this endeavour.
Contact person. Send abstracts (one page) before April 15th to Anna Bjork (anna.k. bjork@jyu.fi).
Decisions will be communicated during the first week of May.
Keynote speakers. Dario Castiglione (University of Exeter), Michael Freeden (University of Nottingham), Claudia Wiesner (Marburg University)
Limited funds are available to provide graduate students with travel stipends.
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Nominations are open for the Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize

Center for Place, Culture and Politics Post-Doctoral Fellowship 2012-2013

DEADLINE: February 15, 2012

The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) announces a post-doctoral position for the academic year 2012-2013 (pending budgetary approval). The theme of the fellowship is “Uprising,” referring to social change in the context of understanding processes of uneven geographical scales.

Postdoctoral appointments are residential and normally run for the academic year (September-May). In addition to the salary and research space, the postdoctoral fellow will have access to all CUNY research facilities. In addition to conducting their own research, the fellow will be expected to attend and contribute to the weekly seminar and support other initiatives of the Center, such as promotion of conferences and symposia. S/he will also be expected to teach a one semester graduate seminar on a topic of their choice. Finally, s/he will be responsible for content oversight of an online resource library focused on struggles for social justice which is produced by the Center.

Candidates should have their doctoral degree in hand by September 1, 2012 and must have received their degree within five years of taking up the appointment. The salary is $55,000 and includes comprehensive benefits. Applications are invited from international scholars as well as U.S. nationals. For further details on the work of our center, please visit pcp.gc.cuny.edu

The deadline for receipt of applications is FEBRUARY 15th, 2012 . On-line applications only will be considered; please visit http://pcp.gc.cuny.edu/fellowships/post-doc-application/ to apply.