2006 ecpr council meeting
The ECPR Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday, 29 April 2006, during the Joint Sessions in Nicosia. The Council is made up of one representative from each full member institution of the ECPR.
The agenda for the meeting will include reports from the ECPR Central Services, a financial statement from the Treasurer and reports from other members of the Executive Committee. Also for discussion is the most recent strategic review of the ECPR's services and activities. The report of the review is available on the ECPR website and in the hard copy review sent to all members. The strategic review is designed to look back over the last three years and to look forward with new plans, ideas and suggestions. Of particular significance are the new initiatives regarding publications, the new graduate conference and the new ECPR methods summer school.
Any member of the ECPR may suggest further items for the agenda and can do so by contacting the Central Services or by raising matters in the meeting itself.
As always during the Council meeting, there will be an election for members of the ECPR Executive Committee. Executive members may serve for a maximum six years and under this rule, four members will be standing down from the Committee (Fulvio Attinà – Università di Catania, Dirk Berg-Schlosser – Philipps-University, Marburg, Gabriella Ilonszki – Corvinus University, Budapest and Jan Sundberg – University of Helsinki). A further two members will be required (if they wish) to stand again for election, having replaced two previous members who stood down mid-term (Carlos Alba – Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and Jacek Wasilewski – Warsaw School of Social Psychology). This means that there will be at least six available slots up for election, with six members entitled to continue for a further three-year period (Martin Bull – University of Salford, Michael Cox – London School of Economics, Maurizio Ferrera – Università degli Studi di Milano, Ursula Hoffmann-Lange – Universität Bamberg, Hanne Marthe Narud – University of Oslo and Erik Neveu – Institut d'études politiques de Rennes).
Any person belonging to a full ECPR member institution may stand for election to the Executive Committee. S/he should be willing to serve for at least three and up to six years. Executive Committee members are expected to serve the ECPR by contributing to all areas of its services and activities; each member of the EC is expected to take on a 'portfolio' and to take responsibility for this area, as well as to represent the ECPR in a more general sense within the organisation and the political science profession as a whole. Being a member of the EC requires attendance at two full meetings each year (held during the Joint Sessions and the General/Graduate Conference) and, depending on the portfolio held, other meetings, such as site visits to future venues for conferences or summer schools.
Those considering standing as members of the Executive Committee should note a change in the electoral procedure, as agreed at the 2003 Council meeting in Edinburgh. Candidates must state their intention to stand at least two weeks prior to the election and they must provide a short CV for publication on the ECPR website when their candidature is announced. Nomination forms are available from Official Representatives and the Central Services.
Please contact Clare Dekker (dekker@essex.ac.uk) if you have any queries or require more information about the Council meeting or Executive Committee election.
Clare Dekker,
Administrative Director of the ECPR
prizes
ECPR PHD PRIZE
First awarded in 2004, the ECPR's PhD Prize was conceived not only to recognise and reward outstanding scholars in ECPR member institutions, but also to feed into its book series ECPR Monographs, providing an opportunity for newer members of the profession to get published. The criterion for this prize therefore, is that, with suitable amendments, the thesis would make an outstanding book that addresses central themes in the relevant subfield(s) of the discipline and hence would be suitable for inclusion in the ECPR Monographs series.
The PhD Prize is open to students from all full ECPR member institutions. Each member institution can nominate only one candidate for the Prize, which must come via the ECPR Official Representative or the Head of Department. The Prize is open to theses written in all languages, though the abstract required for the initial shortlisting must be in English.
Kevin Casas Zamora was awarded the Prize in 2004 for his thesis 'Paying for Democracy in Latin America: Political Finance and State Funding for Parties in Costa Rica and Uruguay' (Figure 1). Dr Casas Zamora's thesis was published by the ECPR Press in 2005. The 2005 Prize was awarded to Laura Morales Diez De Ulzurrun for her thesis 'Institutions, Mobilisation and Political Participation: Political Membership in Western Countries' (Figure 2). A developed version of the thesis will be published by the ECPR Press in 2007.
Figure 1.
Alan Ware awards the first ECPR PhD Prize to Kevin Casas-Zamora at the Granada Joint Sessions.
Full figure and legend (61K)Figure 2.
Laura Morales is awarded the 2005 PhD Prize at the ECPR General Conference in Budapest.
Full figure and legend (85K)For more information please see the ECPR website www.ecprnet.org/funding/prizes/phd_prize.aspx or contact Rebecca Knappett rknapp@essex.ac.uk.
ECPR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The first ECPR Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Giovanni Sartori at the ECPR General Conference in Budapest (Figure 3) for his outstanding contribution to the discipline and profession. The laudatio was given by Kris Deschouwer (Vrije Universiteit) and can be seen in full on the ECPR website.
Figure 3.
Giovanni Sartori accepts the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award from Dirk Berg-Schlosser and Kris Deschouwer at the General Conference in Budapest.
Full figure and legend (35K)The prize will now be conferred every two years at an award ceremony at the General Conference. Nominations for the prize can be made by the Official Representatives of ECPR member organisations or by national political science associations.
The next prize will be awarded in 2007, and nominations should be received by the Central Services by the 1st March in that year.
Rebecca Knappett,
ECPR Central Services
ecpr summer school on methods and techniques
From August 2006, the ECPR will organise a new Summer School in Methods and Techniques (Figure 4) which will initially be hosted by the University of Ljubljana for a period of three years, after which it will move around different ECPR member institutions. The aim of the summer school is to provide methods training opportunities in addition to MA and PhD curricula at European universities and to foster debate, interaction, and understanding of various methodological perspectives by academics, at an early stage in their careers. As such, the Summer School is open to students at the Master level and beginning PhD. The language of instruction will be English. The ECPR Summer School is designed to compliment the well-established Essex Summer School held every year at the University of Essex.
The curriculum covers introductory and intermediate courses in both quantitative and qualitative methods and students who successfully complete the two-week course will be offered five ECTS credits. In 2006, the following courses will be offered:
- Basic statistics – Katja Lozar Mandfreda and Anuska Ferligoj, Faculty of Social Science, University of Ljubljana.
- Mathematical concepts and formal modelling – Rebecca Morton, New York University.
- Expert interview – Beate Littig, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna.
- Cross-national survey design and analysis – Bruno Cautrès, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris.
- Multivariate regression analysis – Bernhard Kittel, University of Amsterdam.
- Interpretive methods – Dvora Yanow, Free University of Amsterdam.
- Quantitative textual analysis – Roberto Franzosi, University of Reading.
- Systematic comparative methods – Benoît Rihoux, Université Catholique de Louvain, and Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Universität Marburg.
- Comparative historical analysis and case study design – John Gerring, Boston University.
- Network analysis – Vladimir Batagelj and Andrej Mrvar, University of Ljubljana.
Besides the two-week courses, evening presentations, podium discussions, and debates on contentious methodological issues will also be offered.
For more information please see the ECPR website http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/summerschools/ljubljana/index.aspx or contact Emer Padden at the Central Services (ecpr@essex.ac.uk).
Emer Padden,
ECPR Central Servicers
ecpr publications update
ECPR PRESS
Six books were published by the ECPR's publishing imprint ECPR Press in 2005, a further four are scheduled for publication in 2006, these include Individualism by Steven Lukes and Elite and Specialized Interviewing by Lewis A. Dexter in the ECPR Classics series, and The Politics of Income Taxation by Steffen Ganghof and Gender and the Vote in Britain by Rosie Campbell in the Monographs series. ECPR members receive a discount on all books in both series, and a further pre-publication discount is now available for all 2006 titles. To place an order, or for more information please see the ECPR website www.ecprnet.org/publications/ecpr_press.aspx
From the beginning of 2006 all ECPR Press books will be available in a digital format through the online academic library Questia. For more information please go to www.Questia.com.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH (EJPR)
ECPR members will be well aware that in 2005, the Political Data Yearbook, edited by Richard Katz and Ingrid van Biezen, expanded to cover additional material related to EU elections. We will be building on this successful expansion in 2006 to offer even better value to readers and authors of EJPR.
Extra Issue in 2006: The 2006 volume will include a special supplementary issue on the 'Greens in Power'.
Extra pages in 2006: The 2006 volume will include two extra papers per issue, making more research available to readers quickly.
Digitization of archive: During 2006, we will launch a complete digital archive of EJPR back to Volume 1 – originally published in 1973 – providing an invaluable reference source for students and researchers in political research worldwide.
OnlineEarly: From February 2006, we will begin publishing individual articles online on Blackwell Synergy ahead of publication in a print issue – dramatically reducing the time from acceptance to publication. OnlineEarly articles are in their final form and are fully citable.
EJPR is edited by Kris Deschouwer and Edward C. Page. For further information please visit the journal webpage at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ejpr
If you are interested in submitting your article to EJPR please do so online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ejpr
Rachel Smith,
Blackwell Publishing
ECPR/OUP COMPARATIVE POLITICS SERIES
In 2005, the ECPR formalised its long-standing publishing agreement with Oxford University Press over the publication of the Comparative Politics Series (edited by Ken Newton and Alfio Mastropaolo). This new agreement strengthens the ECPR's relationship with OUP, and allows for the continued development of this successful series.
ECPR/ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN EUROPEAN POLITICAL SCIENCE SERIES
In late 2005, the ECPR renewed its contract with Routledge for the Studies in European Political Science series.
NEW INITIATIVE – DIRECTORY OF EUROPEAN POLITICAL SCIENCE
In 2006, the ECPR Press will publish the ECPR Directory of European Political Science; a newly researched resource that will include information on institutions (departments, research centres that teach and/or research political science); individuals (members of academic staff – teachers and researchers); national associations, European data archives and journals. The on-line version will be available in 2006.
NEW JOURNAL – EUROPEAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW (EPSR)
The ECPR is currently in the very early stages of establishing a new journal with Cambridge University Press. The EPSR will include translations of non-English language articles published elsewhere.
For more information on all ECPR Publications please see the website (www.ecprnet.org/publications).
Rebecca Knappett,
ECPR Central Services
standing group profile: international relations
The ECPR Standing Group on International Relations (SGIR) seeks to facilitate the exchange of ideas, experience and findings in the field of international relations; the strengthening of the discipline of International Relations within European academic institutions; and the improvement of research and teaching of international relations.
SGIR ORGANISATION
The SGIR conducts most of its work at semi-annual meetings of the Steering Committee held at rotating sites around Europe. Additional work is carried out by various ad hoc working groups, and by appointed members such as the treasurer, the Summer School board director, and Chair. The Steering Committee runs in three-year cycles. Brigitte Vassort-Rousset is the current Chair 2004–2007.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Launched in 1995, the EJIR has quickly achieved a high ranking among the world's IR journals. Successive editors – Walter Carlsnaes, Friedrich Kratochwil and Barry Buzan – have been successful in making the journal one of the discipline's prime journals. The EJIR seeks to foster an awareness of methodological and epistemological questions in the study of International Relations, and to reflect research and developments of a conceptual, normative and empirical nature in all the major sub-areas of the field. The Journal also seeks to strengthen ties with cognate areas in social science and beyond, in particular with international history, international law and international economics.
PAN-EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CONFERENCE
Beginning in Heidelberg in 1992, tri-annual Pan-European conferences have been held in Paris, Vienna, Canterbury and The Hague. Participation has grown from an initial 400 to some 770 participants in The Hague. Such a forum has undoubtedly improved scholarly communication across national boundaries. Arguably, during the more than a decade long process, an (embryonic) European IR community has been created. The Conference papers from The Hague are online at http://archive.sgir.org
EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS SUMMER SCHOOL (EIRSS)
The SGIR doctoral and post-doctoral IR Summer School started in 1999 and has been held in Tampere, Grenoble, Jena, Canterbury, Vienna, Moscow and in Prague in 2006. All the EIRSS sessions have several components: a common course in which all the students (20 per Session on average) are expected to participate, guest seminars from visiting staff, individual presentations by students of their own work and, where appropriate, individual consultations. There is also a study trip to relevant Ministries, and IGOs and NGOs.
NEWSLETTER AND WEBSITE
The SGIR has since its inception published a newsletter, 'International Studies in Europe'. The paper version was terminated in 1999 and replaced by a web-based version. It gradually developed into something very close to a website. Thus, at the Amsterdam meeting of the SGIR in 2002, the Steering Committee decided to establish its own website: http://www.sgir.org. All the activities of the SGIR: the Steering Committee, the European Journal of International Relations, our Newsletter, the annual Summer School, and the Pan-European Conferences are presented there. Furthermore, a Newsletter mailing list informs subscribers about SGIR activities and items of interest to the European IR community.
Chris Jones,
SGIR
ecpr at apsa 2005
Since 2004, the ECPR has put on two or three panels at APSA as a related group. We have tried to devise panels that invite some sort of Europe-US comparison. So two years ago we had a panel on A Transatlantic Crisis?, seen from the US and the European side, and another on a United States of Europe?, looking at the proposed constitutional treaty in various sorts of US perspective.
Last year we organised panels exploring the European origins of US political science and IR. This topic was deliberately provocative. What Bernard Crick dubbed 'The American Science of Politics' has had a tremendous influence on the development of the discipline in Europe. Indeed, the ECPR was originally modelled on the American 'Inter-University Consortium for Political Research' (ICPR) at the University of Michigan. However, this American science was often promoted by European émigrés to the United States and influenced as much by models of European politics as that of their adopted country. In fact, there has been a continuous interaction between the US and Europe, as represented by the careers and work of such figures as Arend Lijphart – the first editor of the EJPR and a past-President of APSA. In many respects, these panels form a continuation of that dialogue. For example, next year, my last as Academic Director, I have organised a panel on The Americanisation of European Politics? The Rise of Judicial Review. I hope my successor will continue this tradition, and I look forward to attending rather than planning them in the future.
Richard Bellamy (UCL),
Academic Director of the ECPR
REVIEW OF THE 2005 ECPR-SPONSORED PANELS
American Exceptionalism in IR Perspective
Towards an Intellectual History of American International Relations
On behalf of the ECPR Mick Cox (LSE) organised two well-attended panels at APSA 2005 in Washington – one dealing with the European origins of American 'IR' (a thesis that some on the panel even seemed to disagree with!) the other with the idea of American exceptionalism and its intellectual role in understanding the contours of US foreign policy, past and present.
The first panel was perhaps the more contentious of the two. While the organiser of the event made the strongest case possible for thinking in terms of the non-American roots of that very American discipline known as International Relations – think of Carr and reflect on the background of Morgenthau and Spykman – others disagreed. Indeed, one of the more interesting aspects of the discussion was the extent to which putative opponents on the central issue nonetheless agreed that the traditional story about the origins of modern IR being born after the World War is no longer an entirely credible one. In fact, according to Briand Schmidt not only should the birth of the profession be traced back to its specifically American roots before WWI, its central focus was not originally on war and peace but imperialism and its implications, something that struck a chord with a largely American audience grown increasingly weary with Bush's recent adventurism in Iraq.
The United States again formed the backdrop to a wide-ranging discussion of the implications of American exceptionalism for the study of America's relationship with the rest of the world. Here again the present impasse in Iraq proved a vibrant point of reference for many of the papers. Two things were common to all of them however: first, that we deny the difference between the US and other nations at our peril – America is no ordinary country; and second, understanding US strategy over the past five years without recognising how different the nation happens to be, can only lead to vague generalisations about this most unique of polities.
Mick Cox (LSE),
Member of the ECPR Executive Committee
wisc conference 2005, istanbul
WISC is a new taste in the acronym soup which some 800 international scholars enjoyed in Istanbul at the First Global International Studies Conference which was held at the end of August 2005. WISC stands for World International Studies Committee and is formed by 20 international studies associations or international studies sections of political studies associations. All the large associations are members such as the Japanese, British, Korean and the European IR Standing Group of the ECPR; the Brazilians, Mexicans and FLACSO from Latin America; a host of Europeans from the CEEISA and the Russians in the East, the Nordics in the North, the Italians and Croatians in the South and the Portuguese in the West. The French and German IR sections play their part while ISA is a pillar of support.
WISC has been an organisation 'in waiting' for several years exchanging information, trying to avoid clashes of dates and the like but the suggestion, coming from the Russian ISA, that the time had come for a global conference was taken up with alacrity. Istanbul was the chosen place and a conference team set to work led by John Groom, Executive Secretary of WISC, comprising of Clare Dekker from ECPR, a programme committee of Bob Kudrle (Minnesota and Chairman), Bertrand Badie (Sciences-Po, Paris), Diana Tussie (FLACSO, Buenos Aires) and Chung-in Moon (Yonsei, Seoul) together with Tom Volgy (ISA) and the head of the local organising team Ilter Turan who is not only President of the Turkish Political Science Association but also brought all the resources of Bilgi University and his extensive network of contacts into play. These individuals and the support staff from ECPR, ISA and Bilgi embarked, successfully, on the long and arduous climb up a steep learning curve.
The key to a successful conference was not only in the quality of the individuals and the papers but that it had a global element in content, attitude and persons. In this it succeeded, at least partially, with contributions from Central Asia, China, Egypt, Libya and the Near East which are usually absent from International Studies meetings, as well as the 'usual suspects' from the Americas, Europe, Japan and Korea. But there remained serious lacunae – Africa and the Indian sub-continent.
If we were partially successful in being global we were wholly successful in being local. The Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul addressed a plenary session and Former President Demirel took part in a plenary roundtable with Yale Ferguson. Many Turkish academics presented papers and the rapid growth of international studies in both well-established and new English-medium Turkish Universities such as Bilgi was striking. Indeed, the participants ranged from intellectual stalwarts such as Jim Rosenau to young scholars filled with the adrenalin of their first major international event as they gave their papers, networked and matched faces to the textbooks of their not so distant past.
It was fun too. Istanbul is a wonderful city and many participants and their partners took the opportunity to arrive early or stayed on to explore not only the city but the wonders of Turkey. Our Turkish hosts organised several receptions including one magical one overlooking the Bosphorus. A further highlight was the end of conference dinner cruise through the Bosphorus where the palaces were floodlit while we were able to enjoy another wonder of Turkey – its cuisine.
Should we do it again? The WISC Committee met at the end of the Conference and decided 'yes' – in 2008. The place has yet to be decided and anyone who has a suggestion of a suitable place and host should send it to wisc@kent.ac.uk quickly since a decision will be made in March.
Lastly, but not least, the Istanbul conference was a genuinely transnational conference leaning heavily on the ECPR and ISA secretariats and the resources of Bilgi. BISA, the European Standing Group and JAIR came to our aid when we needed it but above all over 800 people contributed their research, insights, networks to the melting pot out of which came ideas, contacts and scholarship.
AJR Groom,
Executive Secretary of WISC
