WHAT IS THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND WHY SHOULD I CARE?
The ECPR's Executive Committee consists of twelve persons elected by the ECPR Council. Six members step down and six are elected every three years. Each member of the Executive Committee must be a member of a full (not associate) ECPR member institution and is elected in order to serve the organisation, not to represent a constituency. Each member of the Executive is allocated a 'portfolio' covering one of the main areas of responsibility – publications, Joint Sessions, finance, for example – that is backed up by a sub-committee, but members are also expected to contribute to furthering and publicising all the Consortium's activities. The Executive is responsible for deciding policy and directing the affairs of the Consortium and though it is supported on a day-to-day basis by the Academic and Administrative Directors and Central Services staff, it is an important and increasingly demanding job that requires commitment and energy. Anyone who cares about the ECPR and wishes to see it flourish should consider standing for the Executive Committee. It is, however, important to understand that being a member of the Executive Committee is not simply one more line on one's CV. Doing the job seriously needs time and commitment and may be hard to combine with other significant responsibilities.
WHAT HAPPENS IN 2009?
Each member of the Committee is entitled to serve for a maximum of two three-year terms. Six members retire every three years, thus ensuring continuity. The term of office of the six members of the Executive Committee who were elected during the Edinburgh Joint Sessions in 2003 will come to an end during the Lisbon Joint Sessions in April 2009. The following people are required to stand down:
- Carlos Alba, Autonoma University of Madrid
- Michael Cox, London School of Economics
- Maurizio Ferrera, Università degli studi di Milano
- Ursula Hoffmann-Lange, Universität Bamberg
- Hanne Marthe Narud, University of Oslo
- Erik Neveu, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Rennes
In addition, Joaquim Molins of the Universitat Autònoma Barcelona will be required to stand again for election, because in 2006 he was a reserve candidate who took the place of Martin Bull (who resigned from the Executive Committee in order to take up the position of the ECPR's Academic Director). There will, therefore, be a total of seven vacancies to be filled.
The following people will continue in office:
- Klaus Armingeon, Universität Bern
- Luciano Bardi, Università di Pisa
- Eileen Connolly, Dublin City University
- Vello Pettai, University of Tartu
- Jacob Torfing, Roskilde University
Nomination forms and guidelines for nominations and the election process will be sent to all official representatives at least three months before the election takes place. This information will also be available on the ECPR website. The deadline for nominations (which require the signature of the person standing for election, together with the signatures of five nominees who must be official representatives of ECPR member institutions) is approximately two weeks before the election takes place (18 April 2009).
WHAT DO I DO IF I AM INTERESTED?
Talk to a current member of the Executive Committee or one of the Directors. Their email addresses can be found in the 'ECPR people' pages of the ECPR website at www.ecprnet.org
Please note that this is a corrected version of the notice that was published in the September 2008 issue of EPS.
first ecpr capital lecture
Speakers at the ECPR's first capital lecture, L–R: Carmen Navarro, Daniel Kübler and Ken Newton
GOVERNING THE METROPOLIS: BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND EFFICIENCY
Speakers:
Ken Newton, University of Southampton
Governing the Metropolis: Metropolitanization and Political Change.
Daniel Kübler, University of Zurich
New Challenges of Metropolitan Governance: A Comparative Analysis.
Carmen Navarro, Universidad Autnoma de Madrid
Madrid Metropolitan Area: New Developments and New Policies.
The first of this new lecture series took place in Madrid on 24 September 2008. The speakers engaged with an audience of about 80 people (academics, university students, civil servants, politicians, citizens) on the theme of 'Governing the Metropolis: Between Democracy and Efficiency'. As a launch of a new venture designed to reach out and give the ECPR a higher profile beyond the academic community, it can be judged as a significant success. Over the next few months, the lecturers will revise their presentations for publication in a future issue of EPS.
The next ECPR Capital Lecture is planned to take place next year in London.
2008 ecpr summer school in methods and techniques, faculty of social sciences, university of ljubljana
Summer School students ready for a night out in Ljubijana, wearing their souvenir t-shirts.
The ECPR held its third Summer School in Methods and Techniques over three weeks in July and August in the beautiful surroundings of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The purpose of the Summer School is to meet the growing demand for methods training, in particular for those graduate students working on empirical research projects. The Summer School is not meant to compete with existing spring and summer schools but rather to complement these. The academic programme has been developed to cover the entire field of social science methodology, with a disciplinary focus on political science. It covers quantitative methods, but special emphasis is placed on course offerings in comparative and in qualitative methods. In combination with the Graduate Conference, it marks a significant improvement in ECPR provision of academic and organisational facilities for graduates in political science – in other words for those who are the future of our profession.
The 2008 programme offered a broad array of courses: four intensive 'refresher' courses (three days long), followed by thirteen main courses (held over two weeks), which built upon the strengths of the 2006 and 2007 programmes. We also kept the so-called 'Monday Mix' on the first day of the main courses, which enabled each participant to attend the introductory lecture of their chosen course as well as the introductory lecture of up to three other courses. This way they were able to receive a much more detailed and concrete 'opening' on three other methodological perspectives. The evening plenary programme consisted of a guest lecture which focused on the construction of Slovenian Identity as well as two roundtable events and an evening of workshops which gave pre-selected participants the opportunity to present some of his/her research with a key emphasis on methodological issues which is then followed by an open debate, led by an instructor and teaching assistant, with all the participants present. For the first time in 2008, the Summer School also organised a day of research design seminars which gave participants the opportunity to attend a seminar on the following topics:
- linking theories, methods and data in political science;
- how to manage one's research planning and how to write a research proposal;
- how to write a journal article;
- how to present qualitative data;
- visualising quantitative data.
It is recognised by the team that when organising the Summer School, one of the most important aspects after the academic content is to provide opportunities for participants to build foundations of future relationships with colleagues, and this is offered through the plenary programme. The social programme also gives participants the opportunity to get to know their fellow participants, and offered a variety of activities that included organised excursions to the beautiful Slovenian coast, or for the more adventurous participants, rafting on the river So
a. There were also opportunities for participants to arrange their own activities such as friendly football games, nights out in the vibrant city of Ljubljana and trips to Venice after the Summer School had ended.
In 2009, the fourth Summer School in Methods and Techniques will offer up to six short intensive/refresher courses and fifteen full-length courses, and will run from Wednesday 29 July to Saturday 15 August. Further information on all aspects of the Summer School, including a detailed academic programme will be available on our website (www.ecprnet.org) from January 2009.
Emer Padden
Summer Schools and Special Events Manager
ECPR Central Services
