Another look at unelected governmental elites
- Actualité Sciences Po
In two recent books*, William Genieys, a CNRS Research Professor at the CEE, looked at health insurance reforms in France and in the USA and studied unelected governmental welfare elites that made those reforms possible.
He thereby identified correlations between the career paths of those policymakers and the development of health policies. This also enabled him to refute a few preconcieved ideas, such as the “Government of strangers” and the prevalence of interest groups in such reforms in the USA, and the thesis of the dominance of neoliberal ideas on policies in the health insurance sector in France.
* References:
- Elites, Policies and State Reconfiguration. Transforming the French Welfare Regime. William Genieys, Mohammad-Saïd Darviche. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.
- A Government of Insiders. The People Who Made the Affordable Care Act Possible. William Genieys. John Hopkins University Press, 2024.
Interview and video by Véronique Etienne and Sébastien Wony.
Download a transcription of the interview (PDF, 96 ko)
The European Investor State: when public actors act like investors
- Actualité Sciences Po
In the wake of financial, sovereign debt and health crises, public interventions in the European economy have taken on a new level of breadth, marking a reentry in force of the state in economic life that goes beyond the regulatory state. Yet, these interventions do not follow the old Keynesian interventions neither, being shaped through a particular logic of investment that link public and private actors in a particular configuration. By the concept of “European Investor state”, Ulrike Lepont and Matthias Thiemann refer to the redefinition of the role of the EU and its member states in the economy as “investors,” in reference to private investment funds, which the state seeks both to imitate and to enroll.
In this video, they present a special issue of the journal Competition and Change on “The European Investor State in the Making”, that they co-edited.
Interview by Véronique Etienne, January 2024.
Download the transcript (PDF, 73 ko) of the interview.
Links to the articles of this issue:
- The European Investor State: Its characteristics, genesis, and effects, by Ulrike Lepont and Matthias Thiemann
- The three ages of the European policy for productive investments, by Pierre Alayrac and Antonin Thyrard
- Off-balance-sheet expertise to the rescue: the role of statistical expertise for European Public-Private Partnerships, by Vanessa Endrejat (forthcoming)
- The European Investor State has no clothes. Generic promises and local weaknesses of green public subsidies in France, by Antoine Ducastel, Camille Riviere, and Edoardo Ferlazzo
- Between investor state and investment gaps in the just transition in Romania, by Clara Volintiru and Sanda-Elena Nicola (forthcoming)
- Public spending and austerity: The two faces of the French Investor State, by Ulrike Lepont
- Breeding ‘unicorns’: Tracing the rise of the European investor state in the European venture capital market, by Dan Mocanu and Matthias Thiemann
- as well as a forthcoming article by Damien Piron
Job Offer - Research Assistant for OPENMIN PROJECT
- Actualité Sciences Po
JOB DESCRIPTION RESEARCH ASSISTANT OPENMIN PROJECT
Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée, CEE (UMR 8239) - Sciences Po
Background
We are seeking to appoint a Junior Researcher to work with Prof Laura Morales (the Principal Investigator, PI) in the project “Consolidating Open Science and Data Initiatives on Ethnic and Migrant Minorities in Europe (OPENMIN)”, funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche within the CHIST-ERA ORD Call.
OPENMIN is a multinational project jointly undertaken with five other partners across Europe.
The team led by Prof Morales at CEE will coordinate this project, as well as take care of the coordination of the collaboration with ETHMIGSURVEYDATA and several European research infrastructures, in order to:
- Expand and consolidate the Ethnic and Migrant Minority (EMM) survey metadata registry developed by ETHMIGSURVEYDATA and SSHOC,
- Expand the EMM Question Bank (EQB),
- Create the Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Post-Harmonized Survey Data Bank,
- prototype a new Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Qualitative Study Registry
- prototype a new self-depositing Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Open Data Repository,
- generate a metadata collection on surveys conducted with Ukrainian migrants and refugees
- prototype for an Ethnic and Migrant Minorities Survey Data Playground, and
- think strategically about the long-term sustainability of research and data infrastructures in the EMM and Migrant Studies field.
The appointed Junior Researcher will thus join a large international team of experts from all across Europe on the integration of EMMs and on survey and qualitative research and will have the chance to work on a research project that will break new ground in these fields. This is, thus, a unique opportunity to build a career in open and FAIR research and data focusing on this specific sub-population.
Contract details
The appointment is full-time and available from May 2nd (or as soon as possible thereafter, and always before 13 th May) with a contract duration until the end of the project on 28 February 2026.
Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract (CDD).
How to apply
Please send:
(1) A cover letter outlining precisely the essential and desirable qualifications and skills outlined below (listed under "Requirements") that you meet for this position, as well as any previous experience in open science and survey research; and
(2) A CV which includes a detailed list of the courses and training on survey research followed at undergraduate and postgraduate level, to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr by 5 pm (Paris, CET) on March, 20, 2024 with the subject “OPENMIN researcher position application” in the email.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Interviews will be planned between 25 March 2024 and April 6 (interviews through video-connection possible for those not residing in Paris).
Tasks
The RA will be expected to:
- Coordinate the daily work at CEE on this project as well as the collaboration with all other consortium partners in order to achieve the goals of the project (under the supervision and guidance of the PI);
- Prepare and undertake all necessary tasks relating to the goals of the project, including data entry from questionnaires in several languages (English at least, and when proficient also another language);
- Document the technical and research processes, outcomes and options emerging from the project and support the writing and publication of papers and reports stemming from the project;
- Participate in the dissemination of the project activities and outputs within the European communities of data producers and users;
- Responsible for the maintenance and version control of the data compiled. This will also include inputting of data and its safe storage using the agreed protocols, as defined by Sciences Po’s research data protection policy and any other such protocols imposed by the ANR and the OPENMIN consortium;
- Identify and understand work requirements prioritising tasks and responsibilities within an agreed timeframe agreed with the PI;
- The post holder will be required to effectively manage their time to deliver on the priorities of the project. The post holder will need to plan ahead to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines. This may include defining tasks and schedules, organising meetings, preparing intermediate reports on data and findings, and contributing to the project final report;
- Any other tasks that might be necessary for the proper undertaking of the role and the successful completion of the project.
Requirements (please, do not apply if you do not meet those outlined as Essential)
Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience
Essential:
- A PhD degree in any Social Science with a strong methodological focus relevant to the project, specifically relating to survey methodology.*
- Demonstrable training in survey research methods and techniques at undergraduate or postgraduate level.*
- An expertise, backed up by research or work experience, in survey research and open science.*
- Proficiency in English (active and passive use of the language) at intermediate level (i.e. B2 or C1 level).*
- Proficiency in at least one other EU language at intermediate level (i.e. B2 or C1 level). *
- Experience or training in the management and documenting of survey data.
- Research experience in topics relating to ethnic and/or migrant integration.
Desirable, but not essential:
- The ability to read and write in one of the following languages: Croatian, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian or Spanish.
- Prior research experience in externally funded projects.
- Experience in international collaboration in social science research or consultancy experience.
Skills, Abilities and Competencies:
Essential:
- Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Excel.*
- Proven ability to write up research findings.*
- Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project.
- Expertise with relevant office packages.
- Ability to work as part of a team.
- Good oral and written communication skills.*
- Attention to detail.*
Desirable but not essential:
- Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Stata or R.
- Familiarity with international standards for the production, documentation and archiving of survey data (e.g. DDI, Dublin Core, RDA recommendations, etc.)
- Intermediate-level quantitative analysis skills (e.g. up to multivariate regression analysis).
(* Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
The Far-Right Protest Observatory
- Actualité Sciences Po
Far-right extra-parliamentary mobilization has gained importance globally, notably as a grassroots reaction to migration, Covid-19, and climate action. Today, street activism has emerged as a crucial avenue for far-right parties and movements to voice their grievances and shape public debates. Studying how the far right mobilizes in the protest arena is therefore essential for fostering informed discourse and democratic responses to right-wing extremism, radicalism, and populism.
The Far-Right Protest Observatory, FARPO, provides systematic comparative data on far-right protest events in Europe. It offers a comprehensive repository for researchers, journalists, policymakers and the general public, allowing to understand the drivers, dynamics and outcomes of protests by far-right groups, including crucial details such as location, date, initiator, and motive behind each event.
Key Features of FARPO:
- Comprehensive data covering several thousand far-right protest events spanning two decades (2008-2021) in 17 European countries.
- User-friendly interface to download datasets and explore data visualizations.
- An international network led by Pietro Castelli Gattinara (Sciences Po, CEE and ULB, Cevipol), Caterina Froio (Sciences Po, CEE), Andrea Pirro (University of Bologna) & Anders Ravik Jupskås (University of Oslo, C-REX).
- FARPO is backed by the European Union’s H2020 program, FNSP, and C-REX.
Several studies have already been derived from this data, for example on the reasons why the far right takes to the streets in Europe and on the media coverage of these mobilisations.
Visit www.farpo.eu to access the observatory and start exploring the data.
What drives support for the European Union?
- Actualité Sciences Po
Why do people in the EU consider themselves as European, or not? How does a European identity emerge and evolve? How do European and national identities interact with each other? Those are a few questions Ronja Sczepanski is investigating. As she just joined the CEE as an Assistant Professor in political science in December 2023, she talks about her background and research in this video interview.
Video: Alexandre Maginot, Sciences Po audiovisual department / Interview: Véronique Etienne, CEE
Transcription of the interview (PDF, 61 ko)
Call for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship for ReHousin Project
- Actualité Sciences Po
Call for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship - "Environmental and energy policies and housing inequalities"
funded by the EU Program Horizon “ReHousIn” CEE of Sciences Po
24 Months, Fixed-term, 100 or 80% Postdoc. Possibility of 80% of time with teaching at the Urban School, Sciences Po, might be discussed.
Position Summary
The CEE of Sciences Po aims to hire a Post-Doctoral Researcher with expertise in social sciences and an interest in energy efficiency, housing, and the green transition.
The CEE is a participant in the "ReHousIn" consortium, funded by the EU Program Horizon, alongside the Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest; TU Wien and University of Vienna; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Politecnico di Milano; the Norwegian University of Life Sciences; University of Lodz; University College London; ICLEI; ETH Zürich. The research will theoretically frame and analytically understand how various levels of governance (EU, national, regional, local authorities, energy providers, regulators, users, etc.) contribute to the development of different national environmental and energy policies.
ReHousIn investigates existing housing inequalities in Europe and the potential effects of the green transition on housing inequalities. Considering the significant differences in Europe and within countries, ReHousIn's provides context-sensitive knowledge about how green transition initiatives affect housing inequalities and which policy and planning tools have the potential to address them.
Sciences Po's role in the consortium focuses on the effects of Environmental and Energy Policies (EEPs) on housing inequalities in nine European countries, their various regions, and different social groups, considering both internal (dwellings) and external (habitat and neighborhood) features. This task will provide a theoretical introduction to the impacts and evolution of EEPs, with a focus on the mix of national and local policy options affecting housing and habitat conditions. Special attention will be given to (a) Nature Based Solutions (NBS) development, (b) improved energy efficiency through building retrofits, and (c) densification through sustainable land use (re)development.
Sciences Po's team will provide the theoretical and analytical framework to analyze the impacts and evolution of EEPs. The analysis will focus on the mix of national and local policy options affecting housing and habitat conditions, with a specific focus on (a) NBS development, (b) improved energy efficiency through building retrofits, and (c) densification through sustainable land use (re)development. It will also analyze and assess the EU regulatory system of EEPs, the Green Deal, and individual countries' (particularly France's) regulatory systems of EEPs. Eventually, the team will prepare a Comparative Report on environmental & energy policies.
Therefore, we propose a two-year post-doctoral researcher position to reflect on the relationship and impacts of energy efficiency, housing, urbanism, and NBS. The post-doctoral researcher will:
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develop a personal research program on the effects of Environmental and Energy Policies (EEPs) on housing inequalities;
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be responsible, with the support of the CEE's team, for preparing the introductory document, the national case study, and the comparative report;
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assist the CEE's team in the management and implementation of the project, coordinate with international partners and the EU commission, and plan the research outputs.
Within the scope of the project, the postdoctoral fellow will conduct an analysis of grey literature, legal documents, regulations, policy assessments, and will conduct interviews with key policy actors in France, including policymakers, representatives from public agencies, and members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Additionally, the postdoc fellow will provide a summary of economic mechanisms, norms, institutional structures, and contextual factors that influence Environmental and Energy Policies (EEPs), such as monopolies or competitive markets in the energy sector, interventions in NBS, energy retrofitting, and changes in land use, among other factors. The analysis will also encompass case studies of pertinent projects, policy experiments, as well as both failure and success stories.
The post-doctoral researcher will actively participate in the intellectual and academic life at the CEE, researching and eventually teaching key issues on sustainable urban development policies (and their governance) that intertwine cities and NBS.
As an integral part of the research team, the postdoc fellow is required to demonstrate a distinctively comparative profile, capable of comprehending diverse political and social contexts, as well as varying processes of conceptualizing the role of energy and housing policies within urban settings. Some travel, both nationally and internationally, is anticipated as an inherent component of the research responsibilities.
The post-doc must work collaboratively on an interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional project on the topic of nature in urban, suburban, and metropolitan settings. The post-doctoral researcher will collaborate with other researchers and postdoc fellows at the CEE and Sciences Po. Sciences Po relies on robust expertise in the environment, anchored in criteria of academic excellence, pluralism, and critical analysis. Through the research, the postdoctoral fellow will deepen and renew existing initiatives within Sciences Po's CEE.
A particular feature of the role will be the opportunity to collaborate with an international network of other post-docs and PhDs working in Urban Studies, encompassing all disciplines, at Sciences Po. The postdoctoral fellow will also participate in outreach programs and the research seminar "Cities are back in town" and will contribute to the activities of the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Environmental Research (AIRE) or the activities developed at the Institute for the Arts and Creation.
Requirements
Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience
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A PhD in Political and Social Sciences (‘Urban Policy Analysis’ and ‘Urban Planning’ included) with a strong methodological focus relevant to the project.
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An understanding of the issues studied in the project: energy, housing, NBS, comparative research, case study methodology…
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Proficiency in English; working knowledge of French has an added value (capacity to conduct interviews in French).
Skills, Abilities and Competencies:
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Proven ability to organize academic and public events.
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Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project.
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Ability to work as part of a team.
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Good oral and written communication skills.
How to apply
The chair of the selection committee is Prof. Marco Cremaschi, Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics.
Other members: Dr. Charlotte Halpern, FNSP tenured researcher at Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics in Paris. Prof. Tommaso Vitale, Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Dean of the Urban School.
Informal enquiries can be made in confidence to Prof. Tommaso Vitale - tommaso.vitale@sciencespo.fr
Please send:
- a cover letter precisely outlining the qualifications and skills that match the requirements for the position,
- a CV,
- a research proposal (5 pages max.) describing the issues, hypothesis, overall theoretical framework, methods, and objects of investigation, as well as a timeline and academic publication goals.
Candidates will be selected based on their scientific merit, their ability to mobilize trans-disciplinary interest and the quality of their research project.
Applications must be submitted by email to: recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr, clearly indicating: “Application for Post-Doctoral Fellowship, ReHousIn Project”.
Candidates should apply before 12 noon (Paris Local Time) on March 27. No late applications will be accepted.
Interviews might eventually be planned in early April.
The contract will start on May 2nd.
Sciences Po is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to ensuring a balanced representation of gender, geographical areas, and minorities. Applications from women are particularly welcome.
Isabelle Guinaudeau awarded a CNRS Bronze Medal
- CNRS Bronze medal / Isabelle Guinaudeau
"It's quite a surprise to receive a medal from the CNRS and I'm very honoured by this recognition," says Isabelle Guinaudeau. "It's also an opportunity to appreciate how lucky I am to be able to carry out my research at the CNRS, in a laboratory as dynamic and friendly as the CEE. I'm aware of how much this research owes to the colleagues I'm lucky enough to work with. We will be all the more enthusiastic, after such recognition, to continue studying the links between political competition, public action and representation and to disseminate our results to the general public."
To find out more about Isabelle Guinaudeau's research, watch this interview (in French with English subtitles; interview by Sébastien Wony, spring 2022):
A look back at the roundtable "From austerity to sobriety?"
- Actualité Sciences Po
The notion of "sobriety" entered the public debate in the wake of the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On November 13th, 2023, we organised a roundtable discussion entitled "From austerity to sobriety?", with the aim of conceptualising the role of sobriety in shaping public policy and questioning its relationship with the idea of "austerity", which has dominated public policy for over ten years. At a time when investment needs have increased to ensure the ecological transition while protecting our social models, it is crucial to grasp the issues raised by these two concepts and their implications for the direction of public spending.
Listen to the presentations (in English) by two members of the CEE, Colin Hay, professor of political science and an expert on the evolution of welfare states, Ulrike Lepont, CNRS research fellow who studies public investment policies, as well as by Clara Leonard, PhD in economics and co-founder of the Institut Avant-Garde, a nonpartisan think tank whose aim is to transform economic thought by drawing on research. The roundtable was introduced by Claire Lejeune and Meryem Bezzaz, Phd Candidates at the CEE.
Read a wrap-up by the Institut Avant-Garde (in French).
Read academic articles recently published by Colin Hay and Ulrike Lepont (in English):
- “Public spending and austerity: The two faces of the French Investor State”, Ulrike Lepont, Competition and Change, first published online on 13 November 2023.
- "The ‘New Orleans effect’: The future of the welfare state as collective insurance against uninsurable risk", Colin Hay, Renewal: A journal of social democracy, 31 (3). pp. 63-81. ISSN 0968-252X, first published online on 27 September 2023.
From a Master’s course in research methods to an academic publication in 18 months
- Actualité Sciences Po
Eileen Böhringer, a second-year Master’s student in political science (major in comparative politics), and Charlotte Boucher, in the first year of her PhD at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), have just published their first academic article, in the journal Electoral Studies. The article originated 18 months earlier in a course on quantitative methods taught at the School of Research by Jan Rovny, political science professor and researcher at the CEE. We talked to them together.
In this article, you look at how much trust European citizens have in the justice system, depending on their political preferences. What do you show?
Eileen Böhringer: I’d like to start by stressing that public confidence in the justice system is crucial if court decisions are to be respected. We know that government and parliament are perceived politically: citizens who identify with a political party in power have more trust in those institutions than citizens who identify with an opposition party. You might think that it would be different for the justice system...
Charlotte Boucher: Yes, because the judiciary is supposed to be impartial and independent of partisan concerns. We wanted to find out whether this kind of “winner-loser gap” existed for trust in the justice system in Europe. We show that this gap does exist, although it is smaller than for trust in government and parliament. “Winners” (supporters of governing parties) trust the justice system more than “losers” (supporters of opposition parties).
Secondly, we distinguished between supporters of populist parties and those of so-called “mainstream” parties. You might think that all populists have less confidence in institutions (government, parliament and the judiciary), but we found that it’s not so simple: it’s mainly the populist “losers” who have a lower level of trust than the mainstream “losers”, while the level of trust among populist “winners” is no different from the mainstream “winners”. The same trends can be seen if we focus solely on the judiciary: the gap between “winners” and “losers” is greater for populists, which is explained by the fact that populist “losers” have a much lower level of trust than mainstream “losers”.
Jan Rovny: It’s a rather troubling conclusion, when you think about it. Populist “losers” lose more confidence in institutions, even independent, non-political ones like the judiciary.
E.B.: It must be said that in practice, the level of independence of the judiciary varies from one country to another. By comparing the different countries in the study, we show that the more genuinely independent the justice system, the smaller the trust gap between “winners” and “losers”. For example, the gap is significant in Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland, where the judiciary has been politicized. The gap is narrowest in Scandinavian countries, where the judiciary is effectively independent. France and Germany lie somewhere between those two extremes.
Can you tell us how this article originated during a course at the School of Research?
E.B.: We have to go back to the spring of 2022 when we were in the first year of our Master’s, taking Jan Rovny’s course Quantitative Methods 2.
J.R.: The course is compulsory for almost all Master’s students in political science at Sciences Po’s School of Research. It teaches them how to use quantitative data to answer research questions: if I’m asking such-and-such a question and I have such-and-such type of data, what method should I choose to analyse the data and make it “talk”? In which cases might a particular method be useful? What are its limits, what problems might it cause? The course also aims to develop students’ coding skills using the programming language R, which is widely used in the social sciences but also elsewhere. Students learn how to prepare and process data using this tool: how to clean it, analyse it and display the results graphically.
As a final assessment, I ask them to write an article, with a short literature review on the chosen subject and hypotheses to be tested, using the methods learnt throughout the year in Quantitative Methods 1 and 2. It may be on any subject, as long as the data exists, and ideally it may be the starting point for a Master’s thesis.
E.B.: Since we wanted to work together, we tried to find a compromise between our research interests. Charlotte wrote her dissertation on political trust, while at the time I was looking at constitutional courts. So the subject of trust in the justice system was a good compromise.
C.B.: Trust topics lend themselves well to quantitative methods. What’s more, data on these subjects already exists—otherwise we would have had to work for years to produce it. We merged data from several sources, including the European Values Study and the Quality of Government survey.
How did you go from a course assignment to an article published in a peer-reviewed journal? Were there any challenges?
J.R.: When I saw Charlotte and Eileen’s paper, I immediately thought, “this is really interesting, with a bit of work it could become something publishable”. Even if the course is technical, they had chosen an important, interesting subject and dealt with it well from a technical point of view but also, and most importantly, with a real scientific contribution. Other studies had already shown political perceptions of the judiciary in Europe, but never with this approach based on the winner-loser gap. I keep saying in class that methodology is only important if it serves a good question, and in this case it did. My support then mainly consisted in giving Charlotte and Eileen advice on how to turn the paper into an article, the process of submitting it to a journal, and the various stages of review and revision.
C.B.: Jan Rovny recommended that we try to publish our work as an article and suggested a number of journals. He gave us lots of suggestions on how to adapt it, as we had concentrated mainly on the methodological part. For example, he encouraged us to develop the literature review and the section on populism. Then, the challenges were no doubt those that all academics face: freeing up time (between our classes and dissertations) but on the other hand not spending too much time on it because there would always be something more to read or write; not losing the motivation to rework an article that had been written several months previously...
E.B.: I’d also say striking the right balance when responding to reviewers’ comments: taking them into account but without losing sight of what we wanted to say ourselves. Jan Rovny gave us guidance in that respect too.
J.R.: It’s an important thing to learn, and requires a certain style of writing. My role was mainly to urge you to take the time to respond to all the points, and explain all your decisions so as to be convincing.
C.B.: In the end, we were lucky because the first journal that we submitted our article to in March 2023, Electoral Studies, accepted it. And the review process was fairly swift, as the article was published in October of the same year.
J.R.: That’s pretty rare, so don’t get used to it! (laughs) Often an article is rejected two or three times before it gets picked up, and I speak from experience.
But it’s also extremely rare for Master’s students to publish in such a high-calibre journal. There are colleagues who try and fail, it has to be said. So the fact that you did it in just a few months is impressive!
Interview by Véronique Etienne (December 2023)
Find out more:
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Between impartiality and politicization: Confidence in the judiciary among political winners and losers , the article published by Eileen Börhinger and Charlotte Boucher in Electoral Studies.
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Master’s degree in political science at Sciences Po School of Research
Patrick Le Galès elected to the French Academy of Technologies
- Patrick Le Galès © Alexis Lecomte / Sciences Po
Patrick Le Galès, a CNRS Research Professor in sociology, political science and urban studies at the CEE, has just been elected to the French Academy of Technologies alongside 15 other personalities from academia or the private sector.
He will be part of the “Habitat, mobility and cities” working group, whose focus is on technological and environmental issues, social and inclusion issues and the economic and industrial issues of cities, housing and transport.
Among other subjects, Patrick Le Galès studies large metropolises and also European cities with a comparative approach, focusing on middle classes, governance, urban conflicts, mobility, economic development, inequalities, as well as the financialisation of housing and real estate. He just co-edited, with Jennifer Robinson, The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global Urban Studies (2023) and, with Francesca Artioli, La métropole parisienne, une anarchie organisée (Presses de Sciences Po, 2023). His work already earned him a CNRS silver medal in 2018.
Members of the French Academy of Technologies are elected by their peers based on criteria of scientific and technological excellence and following a rigorous recruitment process. A person cannot decide to stand for election but must be proposed by a member. After internal elections, a ministerial decree approves the election of members. The reception ceremony for the newly elected members will take place on March 11, 2024.
Find out more
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List of the 16 newly elected members of the French Academy of Technologies (in French)
- Patrick Le Galès’ personal page
Isabelle Guinaudeau awarded a Best Paper Prize at the ECPR 2023 general conference
- Isabelle Guinaudeau © Alexis Lecomte / Sciences Po
Along with her co-author Elisa Deiss-Helbig (University of Konstanz), Isabelle Guinaudeau, a CNRS Research Fellow at the CEE, has been awarded the Best Paper Prize granted by the ECPR Standing Group on “Public Opinion and Voting Behaviour in a Comparative Perspective” for a paper presented at the 2023 ECPR General Conference.
In their article, "From Electoral Pledges to Coalition Agreements: Coalition bargaining and policy payoffs in Germany (2002-2021)", Elisa Deiss-Helbig and Isabelle Guinaudeau study which election pledges end up in coalition agreements and which are abandoned during negotiations to form a government coalition. Based on original longitudinal data on the inclusion of German governing parties’ electoral pledges in coalition agreements over two decades, the two authors reveal that coalition negotiations filter out conflictual electoral pledges, including those made by the largest parties. One might have expected each party to focus their efforts on placing their proposals on their issues of predilection. But coalition agreements rather reflect a lowest common denominator.
The prize committee, composed of Wouter van der Brug (University of Amsterdam), Kees Aarts (Twente University), Romain Lachat (Sciences Po) and Hanna Wass (University of Helsinki) chose this paper because it does an excellent job in combining political science relevancy and sound theorising, with a solid research design and skilful analyses of freshly collected data, yielding convincing and interesting results.
Find out more
- Abstract of the article
- Isabelle Guinaudeau’s personal page
Congratulations to Soazig Dollet, awarded the MiDi Research Prize
- Soazig Dollet © Aurore Papegay
Soazig Dollet, a PhD Candidate at the CEE, was awarded the MiDi Research Prize 2023 for her article Entre contrôle de l'image de soi et fermeture.Retour sur la grammaire des attitudes adoptée par des personnes réfugiées dans le cadre d'entretiens biographiques. Published in the Bulletin of Sociological Methodology, this article on research design and reflexivity addresses the interviewer-interviewee relationship that arose with beneficiaries of international protection schemes. It examines how the use of biographical interviews produced forms of docility and resistance on the part of some interviewees, both in the accounts they give of themselves and in the option (or lack of it) of refusing interaction, and more generally with regard to the injunction to tell one’s story. The jury found the article highly stimulating, and likely to be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.
Soazig Dollet’s PhD work aims to capture how beneficiaries of international protection schemes experience the public policies they are the target of. This research was carried out as part of a Cifre programme in collaboration with the COS Alexandre Glasberg Foundation (2019-2022), whose missions include housing and social work towards refugees and asylum seekers.
This prize, launched in 2023 and awarded by Sciences Po's Migration and Diversity (MiDi) interdisciplinary collective, aims to reward young researchers at the master’s and PhD levels across all Sciences Po schools and departments, and raises the profile of rigorous and innovative research on issues related to international migration and/or ethno-cultural diversity.
The jury, composed of Hélène Le Bail (CERI), Virginie Guiraudon (CEE), Hélène Thiollet (CERI), Christophe Pouly (Sciences Po Law School), and Mohamed Elsayeh (Sciences Po Law School), also awarded the MiDi Research Prize to two master's students: Noémi Cassiau (PSIA) and Irène Coelho Gaspar (Sciences Po School of Research).
Find out more
- rewarded article (in French): Entre contrôle de l'image de soi et fermeture. Retour sur la grammaire des attitudes adoptée par des personnes réfugiées dans le cadre d'entretiens biographiques
- Soazig Dollet’s personal page
- website of the MiDi interdisciplinary collective, which brings together researchers from all Sciences Po research centres working on issues of international migration and ethno-cultural diversity.
Alumna Aifang Ma, winner of a Laura Bassi scholarship
- Aifang Ma © Céline Bansart / Sciences Po
Aifang Ma, alumna (PhD 2022) and associate researcher with the CEE, just received a Laura Bassi scholarship for editorial assistance on an academic article comparing the anti-trust regulation of digital economies in the USA, China, and the EU.
Currently a Lecturer and a Boya Post-doctoral Fellow at Peking University (China), Aifang Ma leads a comparative research programme on the antitrust regulation of economy in the USA, China, and the EU. She argues for a regulatory convergence over time along 3 dimensions: objectives, approaches, and interactive patterns between regulators and regulated firms. She identifies 3 explanatory factors: first, due to the globalisation of the digital economy, large platforms increasingly adopt similar growth paths and therefore create similar dilemmas for national governments. Second, the regulatory power of states increasingly matters in the geopolitical competition. Third, tech firms are becoming more cooperative towards regulators, whose intervention is, in addition, gaining wide support from citizens. A novel approach in the study of antitrust regulation in the digital economy, this comparative study could benefit policymakers dealing with digital regulation elsewhere in the world.
The Laura Bassi Scholarship was established in 2018 by Editing Press. It aims to provide editorial assistance to postgraduates and junior academics whose research focuses on neglected topics of study, broadly construed, within their disciplines.
In addition, Aifang Ma succeeded in being admitted into the 2024 CyberBRICS Fellowship Programme hosted at the Center for Technology and Society of Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro.
Find out more
- about the Laura Bassi scholarship
- about Aifang Ma’s research through this recent article: A comparative look at antitrust regulation of the digital economy in Europe and China (Schuman Papers n°730, December 2023)
- Aifang Ma’s personal page
The EU and the war in Ukraine
- Manifestation devant le Parlement européen à Bruxelles © Alexandros Michailidis
How does the war in Ukraine differ from previous crises faced by the European Union? In terms of consequences, according to Tanja Börzel (Freie Universität Berlin), whom we hosted in mid-November for the Journal of Common Market Studies (JCMS) Annual Review 2023 lecture, co-organised with CERI and Sciences Po's School of Public Affairs. Unlike the recent financial and COVID crises, this new crisis has not increased the EU's powers, nor has it put European integration on hold like the migration crisis. Professor Börzel argues that this is due to the combined use of discourses on European identity and, to a lesser extent, on European interdependence.
Watch the whole conference. Watch a short video interview with Tanja Börzel. Read Tanja Börzel's article in JCMS Annual Review (open access).
In Cogito, Sciences Po's research magazine, our researcher Matthias Thiemann examines the conditions that could make the reconstruction of Ukraine a turning point for the Union. Looking back at the EU's rapid response, he notes that the financial resources allocated to date have fallen short of what was promised, raising the dual challenge of the EU's credibility and Ukraine's stability.
Read his article in English or in French.
Follow us on LinkedIn
- LinkedIn icon. Picture credit: Ink Drop
The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics now has its own page on the social network LinkedIn.
There, we will share news about our members, our flagship events, recruitment opportunities and news-related analyses, in French and English.
Congratulations to Caterina Froio
- Actualité Sciences Po
Caterina Froio, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po, member of the CEE, earned her accrediation to supervise research (HDR) in political science at Sciences Po on December 13, 2023. Her habilitation thesis is entitled "The Cultural Shift: Digital Media's Role in Normalizing Far‑Right Politics”.
The jury was composed of:
- Donatella Della Porta,
- Florence Faucher,
- Cas Mudde,
- Nicolas Sauger,
- Ralph Schroder,
- Emilie van Haute.
Abstract
Santiago Abascal, Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, Donald Trump or Alice Weidel. Current discourse is primarily centered around concerns regarding the far-right's use of digital technology as a potential threat to democracy. But does the use of digital media contribute to support for the far right? The habilitation contends that this fear that dominates public and elite imagination is not supported empirically. It argues that we must shift attention from these suggestive but empirically exceptional phenomena to more structural transformations in the public arena brought by the far right, namely processes of attention allocation in public debates eventually leading to the normalization of far-right ideas and to a cultural shift in the way people discuss and engage with political issues.
Combining the literature in political science, media and political communication, this volume is developed along six empirical studies which deal with the two main complementary mechanisms explaining the interplay between digital technologies and support for the far right. First, I explore the digital communication strategies of far-right collective actors on social media and websites, to study how digital campaigns shape the visibility of far-right agendas and the diffusion of their ideas among the public. Second, I consider the impact of digital media such as online newspapers and news channels, to assess how exposure and consumption of these digital outlets shapes individual attitudes and vote for the far right.
The habilitation builds on extensive empirical material including original digital and protest event data. Leveraging Large-N comparisons and case studies covering Europe and the US, it finds that digital media help far-right frames to enter public debates, but only under the condition that these frames align but distort liberal values. Similarly, this volume dispels common misunderstandings about far-right supporters by revealing that their online media consumption is not significantly distinct from those of other voters. Far-right sympathizers, contrary to misconceptions, engage with public service news and mainstream media, showing no notable preference for so-called hyperpartisan websites over legacy press.
Establishing the linkage between political behaviour and political communication dynamics, the habilitation sheds light on the mechanisms that facilitate the normalization of the far right in contemporary democracies. In a broader context, these findings contribute to our understanding of the potential impacts of the growing use of digital means of communication in politics.
Structuring Global Urban Studies through Comparison
- Actualité Sciences Po
The comparative method is one of the distinctive features of the identity of our Centre, which is committed to pluralism in research methods in general, and in ways of comparing in particular. Part of this endeavour is The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Urban Studies , co-edited by Patrick Le Galès (CNRS Research Professor at the CEE) and Jennifer Robinson (Professor at UCL). It was published at the end of September 2023.
The book, targeted at an academic readership, brings together contributions from over 50 authors from almost every continent and from different fields of urban studies (anthropology, geography, history, political science, sociology and urban planning). It includes syntheses of the major comparative methodological traditions, both geographical and disciplinary, as well as chapters on innovative current projects.
The handbook is intended as a comprehensive overview, structuring the field of global urban studies through a variety of comparative approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, and encouraging methodological and scientific innovation. It is a plea for new forms of comparison and original methods that take into account both places, territorial social formations, circulations at different levels and connections, at a time when cities can no longer be thought of as independent units.
Contributors include Dominique Boullier , Professor Emeritus at the CEE, Christine Barwick , former postdoctoral researcher at the CEE, as well as Daniel Kübler and Michael Storper , both associate researchers with the CEE. Other academics associated with Sciences Po Urban School also contributed to the handbook, such as Laurent Fourchard from CERI.
Find out more
3 questions à Patrick Le Galès, CNRS website (in French)
Published on December 5th, 2023, updated in February 2024
Visiting with us this term
- A research seminar photographed through a window
18 researchers, at all stages of their careers, are visiting with us this term, for a few weeks to a full year. Coming from Europe, Africa, North and South America, Oceania, they reflect the broad range of our research interests.
5 invited professors
Fernanda Natasha Bravo Cruz is an Associate Professor at the University of Brasilia (Brazil). Her research focuses on public action instrumentation in the environmental and political participation fields in Brazil.
Mona Krewel is an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). She studies political communication, particularly on social networks, and is interested in the reasons behind the rise of far-right parties in Europe.
Ayan Meer, an Assistant Professor at Queen Mary University London (UK), is interested in the political economy of development, and in particular the social and territorial transformations brought about by the international mobility of capital.
Paavo Monkkonen, a Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, United States), studies housing policies at different scales, local and national, comparing the United States and Europe.
Barbara Risman, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago (USA), is a specialist in gender studies, with a particular focus on gender inequalities. She is currently conducting comparative research on people who identify as non-binary.
Visiting junior scholars researching on key topics of the CEE
A number of visiting scholars are working on topics related to EU economic policy: Odysseas Konstantinakos, a PhD Candidate at the European University Institute (EUI, Italy), is preparing a thesis on the changes in the EU's macroeconomic policy, from the debt crisis to the Covid crisis; Lucas Schramm, a Postdoctoral Fellow at LMU Münich (Germany), is studying the transformations in European economic integration under the effect of the current geopolitical context; Jordy Weyns, a PhD Candidate at the EUI, is studying the instruments of foreign trade policy in Europe.
Several of our guests are working on environmental issues. Like Fernanda Natasha Bravo Cruz (see above), Hamidou Diallo, a PhD Candidate at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (Senegal), is interested in public action in the environmental field – his case study is the Great Green Wall project in the Sahel. We also welcomed Sören Altstaedt, a PhD Candidate at the University of Hamburg (Germany), who is interested in the limits to growth through the genesis of modelling practices since the Meadows report; Reja Wyss, a PhD Candidate at the University of Oxford (UK), who is studying the response of populist parties to climate change, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe; and Nikolaj Schultz, a PhD Candidate at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), who ended his stay by publishing with Bruno Cousin on the residential behaviour of the ultra-rich in the face of the climate crisis.
Two PhD candidates from Oxford University, invited as part of the OxPo partnership, are working on the far right (as is Mona Krewel – see above): Lena Schorlemer is looking at the relationship between far-right political parties and radical militant groups; Reja Wyss is studying the response of these parties to climate change (see above).
Kira Renée Kurz, a PhD Candidate at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and the University of Strasbourg (France), and Robin Rentrop, a PhD Candidate at the University of Trier (Germany), are looking at the political representation of young people. The former as part of a thesis on intergenerational conflicts and political parties, and the latter as part of the Franco-German UNEQUALMAND project co-directed by Isabelle Guinaudeau.
Finally, Øystein Solvang, a PhD Candidate at Norway's Arctic University, is working on administrative reforms at regional and local levels (a subject tackled here by Patrick Le Lidec); Lou Raisonnier, a PhD Candidate at the University of Ottawa (Canada), is working on justice responses to the return of jihadist women from Syria and is taking part in the ProMeTe project, which Sandrine Lefranc is part of; while Eleftheria-Theodora Koutsioumpa is working on the resocialisation in France and Germany of migrants who have passed through camps on EU's borders, in connection with the Cities, Borders, Mobilities key theme of the CEE.
Find out more
- All the visiting fellows (including those from previous years).
- The procedure for requesting an invitation to a visiting fellowship at the CEE.
Recruitment - Assistant Professor (tenure track)
- Actualité Sciences Po
Job description
Status: Private sector employment as Assistant Professor with tenure track
Discipline: Political science
Profile: The Political Economy in or of Europe and the European Union
The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po is actively seeking a tenure-track Assistant Professor with specialist knowledge in the political economy in or of Europe and the European Union.
The successful candidate will have demonstrated their ability to conduct substantive empirical and theoretical research to an international standard. We welcome applications from highly qualified candidates with a strong profile, an international record of publication and a well-grounded expertise in comparative methodologies and analytic strategies, be they qualitative, quantitative, or mixed. They will contribute to the research cluster on the transformations of capitalism as well as at least one of the other clusters (cities, borders, and mobility; the state and public policy; tensions in representative democracy).
The successful candidate is expected to teach the political economy in or of Europe and the European Union (whether comparative, international or a combination of the two) at graduate and undergraduate levels. Annual duties comprise teaching (the equivalent of three courses of 24 hours each for tenured faculty) and administrative service (to the Centre and to Sciences Po more broadly). Teaching and service obligations are reduced during the first three years of the tenure track. At least one course will be delivered at one of Sciences Po’s regional campuses at Collège universitaire level (in Reims, Le Havre, Dijon, Nancy, Poitiers or Menton), the others in Paris (whether for the Collège universitaire or at Master level, in one or more of Sciences Po’s Schools). The specific workload will be agreed by the Head of the Department of Political Science in consultation with Sciences Po’s Learning and Teaching Directorate. Proficiency in English is a prerequisite, fluency in French is not a requirement.
Sciences Po is an employer that respects equal opportunities and is committed to ensuring a balanced representation of gender, geographic areas, and minorities. Applications from women are particularly welcome.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Application
- Applications from candidates holding a PhD must be electronically submitted before 29th January 2024 (4 pm Paris time) to the following email address: recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr
- The application must include the following documents:
- A covering letter setting out the research projects and priorities of the applicant were they to be appointed;
- A CV containing a complete list of publications;
- Copies of 3 publications showing the range and quality of the research of the applicant;
- A synopsis of 2 potential courses that the applicant might credibly teach (at Bachelor and Master level) and, if possible, student evaluations of courses already taught.
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
The selection committee will review applications and establish a short list of candidates who will be invited to present their research in the form of a ‘Job Talk’ to the academic community prior to a formal interview.
The anticipated start date for the post is September 2024.
UNIT OF AFFILIATION
Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (UMR 8239)
https://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/en.html
The CEE is a multidisciplinary laboratory dedicated to Comparative Political Analysis.
Contacts
President of the selection committee
Colin Hay, Full Professor
Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics
Administrative contacts
Eleonora Russo, General Secretary
Silvia Duerich-Morandi, Executive Assistant
Job Offer - PhD Candidate in political science and comparative politics
- Actualité Sciences Po
The CEE (Centre of European Studies and Comparative Politics) at Sciences Po in Paris invites applications for a PhD fellowship as part of the Horizon Europe ERC Starting Grant POLLOT of Dr Brenda Van Coppenolle (PI), “Political Lotteries in European Democratisation”.
Applicants should hold a Master degree in political science, history, economics, social science research methods, or a related field, completed or close to completion.
The position is funded on a full-time basis for a period of 3 years with no teaching obligations. Yet, a daily involvement in the project’s and research center’s activities is expected. The starting date for the fellowship is 1 September 2024.
Job description
The tasks include:
• Conduct research towards own scientific qualification (PhD)
• Involvement in collecting the (quantitative) data relevant to own PhD research
• Supporting the organization of team meetings and workshops
• Assistance with project reports and publications
Project POLLOT Description
The ideal candidate for the PhD fellowship will have a keen interest in empirical research, and in quantitative research methods, to answer questions in Comparative Politics and Historical Political Economy. Their research will benefit from drawing on newly digitised, historical data from various resources, libraries and archives, compiled as part of the POLLOT research project. The student will develop and conduct novel empirical analysis under the theme of the POLLOT project. They will benefit from the supervision of Dr Brenda Van Coppenolle (PI), from interactions with the broader POLLOT project research team, from the doctoral programme and support of the CEE at Sciences Po, and from insertion in a wider international research network. Candidates may be particularly interested in quantitative research methods to analyse historical natural experiments, as well as in designing and managing present-day online experiments.
The PhD research proposal should focus on one or several of the key historical cases of the POLLOT project, and/or on experimental research (https://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/fr/node/38676.html). Within these broad parameters, the candidate may design an original research proposal and may also focus on related questions.
Supervision
The PhD fellow will be part of a research team led by PI Dr Brenda Van Coppenolle at Sciences Po, CEE, who will co-supervise the dissertation along with a senior member of the Political Science department.
PhD Programme
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the PhD programme of Sciences Po (School of Research/Ecole de la Recherche) and the work will result in a doctorate in political science.
Requirements:
Essential:
A Master's degree in Political Science (or a closely related discipline in the social sciences, e.g. Economics, history, social science research methods) with a substantive and methodological focus relevant to the project, completed or close to completion.*
Excellent academic track record
Advanced-level quantitative analysis skills: Demonstrable training and experience using quantitative research methods and techniques.*
Advanced-level data processing skills: Proven ability of social science data entry, management and analysis skills with Stata or R; General digital literacy and experience with Python is desirable.*
A keen interest as well as some research experience in some of the relevant subjects is desirable: historical political economy, historical empirical research, (natural) experiments in political science, political representation, political inequality, political institutions, elections, lotteries, or political parties.*
Proficiency in English: Good oral and written communication skills (for academic research).*
Experience with writing up research findings.*
Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the project.
Ability to work as part of a team, and independently.
Attention to detail.*
Desirable:
- Some knowledge of French (the PhD candidate will be based at Sciences Po in Paris).
- Reading proficiency in at least one more of the following languages would be an
- advantage: French, German, Danish, or Dutch.
- Some experience with (designing and conducting) experiments or moderating focus groups would be an advantage.
- A good qualitative understanding of the historical cases under study in the project, or a willingness to learn.
- Some experience with Python; general digital literacy (including for example knowledge of LaTeX)
- Experience in writing reports for funders.
(*Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
We offer
- In addition to the benefits of forming part of the POLLOT research team, Sciences Po offers:
- Internationally competitive salary for 36 months
- Funding for international conference attendance to present project results
- Optional teaching opportunities
- An academically stimulating working environment
Assessment
In assessing the candidates, particular emphasis will be placed on the quality and originality of the research proposal as well as the individual project’s fit within the overall research project. Academic qualifications, writing skills, language proficiency and other qualifying experience will also be of key importance.
Application deadline: 10 January 2024
Interviews: expected to take place between 22 January and 9 February 2024
Final decision expected by mid-March 2024.
Application procedure
The application procedure consists of two required steps:
-
Online Admission: The application must be submitted online, according to the Admissions conditions and calendar of Sciences Po.
https://www.sciencespo.fr/ecole-doctorale/en/content/admission-phd.html
The application must include the following documents:
• Two academic recommendations (an optional professional recommendation may be added)
• Copy of ID
• Letter of motivation
• Outline of ideas for the doctoral project (2,000-3,000 words)
• Copy of BA and MA (if already available) degree diplomas. For candidates currently in the process of obtaining the requested diploma, please attach all the transcripts available at the time of your application.
• CV with full summary of education, practice, academic and non-academic work experience, language proficiency, positions of trust, and other qualifying/extra-curricular activities. The period of enrolment (admission-completion) in the Master’s study programme must be specified
• If applicable: up to two academic research outputs (such as a Master thesis or published articles)
-
Applications must also be submitted through the Centre of European Studies and Comparative Politics.
When the first step of your application has been completed, please send an email to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr and pollot@sciencespo.fr with the following documents:
- Cover Letter of Motivation
- CV
- Outline of ideas for the doctoral project (2,000-3,000 words): A draft research proposal for the PhD that fits into the remit of the POLLOT project as described above
- If applicable: up to two academic research outputs (such as a Master thesis or published articles)
- Optional: Master thesis, or thesis proposal
The deadline for completing both steps is 10 January 2024. Team
Brenda VanCoppenolle, Senior Research Fellow, Sciences Po, CEE (Principal Investigator)
Equally well qualified disabled persons will be given priority. Women and people with an immigration background are expressly invited to apply.
If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to Brenda Van Coppenolle: pollot@sciencespo.fr
Further information about the School of Research https://www.sciencespo.fr/ecole-recherche/en/
Meet Paavo Monkkonen, visiting professor comparing housing policies in the US and Europe
- Actualité Sciences Po
Paavo Monkkonen is a Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, visiting with us this academic year. In this interview, he tells us about his research and ongoing projects.
Can you tell us about your academic background?
I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and studied at UC Berkeley and UCLA. But I’ve lived and worked for many years in different cities in Mexico (Tijuana, Mexico City, and Merida) and was an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong University for three years.
What is your research topic?
I study housing policies, especially land use planning as an important housing policy that is sometimes overlooked. In recent years I have focused on what we call fair housing in the US, which are the policies that seek to create integrated and mixed neighborhoods across a city, and promote housing affordability for lower-income households. My research is not only about policy analysis (here’s a recent example), but also about understanding the political conditions and governance institutions that create and sustain different policies (here’s an example).
Why did you choose to come to Sciences Po and to the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE)?
I am excited to be at Sciences Po and the CEE. The mix of approaches to politics and public policies at the CEE is unique, and I am especially interested in comparative research on the connection between local and national politics around urban issues like housing affordability, segregation, and real estate development. I think the demand pressures in many major cities around the world will require sophisticated political mobilization for growth and inclusion, and failure to do so brings risks for national politics. So there are many researchers and students here working on topics I want to learn about! Also, my department at UCLA has a dual degree in Governing the Large Metropolis with the Urban School at Sciences Po, so it’s important to build relationships between the two schools.
What are your projects at the CEE during this stay?
I have two main research projects while in France. The first is a comparative analysis of the local and metropolitan politics and governance of housing development in France and the US. The second is a book project on housing policy, which uses cases from across the globe to illustrate the challenges of sustaining good housing policy. For that, I am studying different social housing systems in Europe but especially the French system.
You will be presenting your work here: can you tell us the details?
I look forward to presenting at the ‘Cities are back in town’ seminar on November 30th at Sciences Po. In January, I will participate in a seminar focused on Los Angeles at the Géographie-Cités lab in the Campus Condorcet. I’m also interested in meeting students and researchers while I am in France, so please reach out (paavo.monkkonen@ucla.edu). Students may also be interested in a podcast I co-host on housing research called the UCLA Housing Voice.
Interview by Véronique Etienne, October 2023.
Welcome to our 10 new PhD candidates
- Actualité Sciences Po
10 new PhD candidates in political science and sociology joined us this fall. They presented their background and research project during a special lab seminar on October 10, 2023. This year again, several PhD projects deal with environmental issues, others with some of the pressing questions the UE faces, and others focus on the comparison of European cases.
In political science
Simon Audebert’s thesis is about the diversity of political behaviours towards ecology in French rural areas, under the supervision of Florence Haegel. He plans to analyse data at national level and then select a number of cases for fieldwork. This thesis benefits from a CIFRE contract with the Fondation de l'écologie politique.
Co-directed by Philippe Bezes and Cyril Benoit, Jean-Baptiste Bonnet's PhD work looks at the development of electric vehicles and the rise of dedicated public policies in Europe, using mixed methods. Jean-Baptiste is particularly interested in the role of administrations and firms and their interactions in these developments.
Using mixed methods, Charlotte Boucher studies the political effects of the reforms and transformations of social protection in Europe. Her thesis, supervised by Bruno Palier, focuses specifically on the effects on political trust and social integration.
Lea Dornacher is interested in deciphering the persuasive power of economic models, and more specifically how these models shape interpretations of policy-makers in the policy process. Her thesis, supervised by Colin Hay, uses mixed methods.
Marie Inès Harté's PhD work examines the category of victims and its use by memory actors in transitional justice processes following the armed conflict in Colombia. This thesis is co-supervised by Sandrine Lefranc at Sciences Po and Patricia Herrera Kit at the Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Thomas Laffitte's thesis focuses on the creation of a common European debt during the Covid-19 crisis (eurobonds), and more generally on the recent history of European fiscal integration. After a first year of doctoral work at the Central European University (under the supervision of Thomas Fetzer), Thomas joined the CEE for a co-supervision by Colin Hay.
Francesco Nardone studies the evolution of the rights of victims of terrorism in criminal trials and in compensation procedures. His thesis, co-directed by Sandrine Lefranc and Liora Israël (EHESS), examines the construction of victims of terrorism as a particular category of victims whose specificity justifies the implementation of ad hoc compensation procedures based on a "national solidarity" principle.
In sociology
Eva Bossuyt's thesis, supervised by Gabriel Feltran, looks at the global circulation of second-hand clothing and the value chains associated with this circulation. At the crossroads of urban studies, economic sociology and waste studies, it will build upon ethnographic fieldwork in France, Nigeria, Chile and Pakistan.
Jointly supervised by Bruno Cousin and Fabio Quassoli, Thalia Creac'h's thesis focuses on conflicts of use and appropriation of space in neighbourhoods in Marseille and Liverpool undergoing important transformations . After starting her doctorate last year at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Thalia joined the CEE in the framework of a co-supervised thesis.
Maxence Dutilleul is interested in the problems of inflation and monetary stability in the eurozone. His PhD work in historical sociology, supervised by Matthias Thiemann, uses interviews and archives to shed light on the development of monetary policies in Europe, and in particular the role of macroeconomists and economic forecasting.
More
On this page, discover all our PhD candidates.
Published in November 2023
“My time in Oxford helped me refine my methods skills”
- Jan Boguslawski in front of an Oxford bookshop. © Martyna Miernecka
Jan Boguslawski is a PhD candidate in political science at the CEE and AxPo, researching the evolutions of the welfare state in Central and Eastern Europe, under the supervision of Jenny Andersson and Bruno Palier. Like Meryem Bezzaz and Lucien Thabourey, he spent last semester in Oxford University as part of the OxPo exchange scheme, and shares his experience in this interview.
Why did you apply to the OxPo visiting scheme?
I applied to the OxPo scheme with an interest in exploring the academic environment of Oxford, particularly its Department of Social Policy and Intervention. My previous interactions with certain professors, whom I knew from the Sciences Po network and through their involvement with the OxPo scheme, further piqued my interest. I also felt that the serene and scholarly atmosphere of Oxford would complement well my academic journey in Paris.
Can you share some memorable experiences?
I really enjoyed cycling around Oxfordshire and spending time in the town's green areas. Thanks to the inclusive and welcoming departmental community, the bonds of friendship I fostered during my time in Oxford will stay in my memory for a long time. Paradoxically, living in the Maison Française d’Oxford and being part of its community was also arguably my most “French” experience - in spite of having spent a few years in Paris!
What did you bring back with you, literally or metaphorically?
Books, of course! Say what you will about Oxford, but it certainly boasts some of the finest libraries and bookstores in Europe, including those from my favourite publisher, Verso. Beyond tangible items, my time in Oxford helped me refine my methods skills and exposed me to ways of doing political science that I have not seen before. This enhanced knowledge will benefit my future research, but I also hope to share it and discuss it with my PhD colleagues at CEE.
Would you advise your colleagues to apply and if so what would you tell them?
Absolutely, I'd recommend applying! A word of advice: start your housing search early, as Oxford's housing situation mirrors that of Paris. And while you're there, venture beyond the university community; connecting with Oxford locals is a great way to get a different sense of the place.
Interview by Véronique Etienne, Knowledge Exchange Officer at the CEE
GEG Weekly: Innovative Perspectives on European Affairs
- Actualité Sciences Po
A few months ahead of the 2024 European elections, the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics is delighted to launch a new series of weekly roundtables in partnership with the Groupe d'études géopolitiques (GEG), "GEG Weekly: Innovative Perspectives on European Affairs".
The European Union is at a turning point. The war in Ukraine, climate change, and the future of the EU's enlargement raise the question of its place in the world and of its integration process. This new series of weekly talks aims to offer high-level, transnational, in-depth discussions to address these questions by bringing together high-level scholars, policy experts and highly motivated students.
These talks consist of 1-hour weekly roundtables in English uniting the best of academia, decision makers and European stakeholders in order to better integrate the work of academics and operational approaches.
They are organised by the Groupe d’Études Géopolitiques in partnership with Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics and in collaboration with the College of Europe, European Institute at Columbia University, European Centre at the University of Cambridge, European University Institute in Florence, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
They will take place on Thursdays, 5:30-6:30 PM Paris time, on Zoom and occasionally in a hybrid format in Sciences Po, Paris.
Provisionnal agenda (1st semester)
- October 12: The future of the EU’s enlargement policy
- October 19: Competing Models of Political Capitalism: An Assessment of the European Strategy
- October 26: The New Global Financing Pact (postponed to a later date)
- November 9: The European Green Deal: a first assessment and outlook for the next legislation
- November 16: The reorganization of globalization
- November 23: The reconstruction of Ukraine
Our research featured in Cogito, Sciences Po Magazine
- Actualité Sciences Po
EU enlargement, "green" mobility, public opinion on climate change, state reorganisation: those are our lab's research topics featured in the latest edition of Cogito, Sciences Po research magazine.
In Folio
The invasion of Ukraine has brought the question of European Union enlargement to the fore. Prospects are uncertain given that the influx of Eurosceptic MPs into the European Parliament from 2014 onwards has deepened the divide on this issue and shifted the debate towards positions more hostile to further enlargement – at least in the discourse. This is what Natasha Wunsch demonstrates in the journal West European Politics.
Read her interview Enlargement of the European Union: Stop or Else?
Research in Projects
Achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is another major challenge for the European Union. This has major implications for European cities and the transportation sector. How can they initiate and manage the transition? Charlotte Halpern presents some evidence from her work as part of the CIVITAS SUMP-PLUS European project.
Read her article European Cities: Governing the Transition to Sustainable and Decarbonised Mobility
Data
While extreme weather events dramatically increase, how is climate change perceived by the public around the world? Are people worried? Do they consider the fight against global warming a priority? Are they ready to act? For nearly fifteen years, EDF and Ipsos have been polling public opinion around thirty countries to answer these questions. Discover our researchers’ takeaways (Emiliano Grossman, Charlotte Halpern, Richard Balme, Lucien Thabourey and Florence Faucher).
Read the article Global Opinion on Climate Change
France. Across the mainland, new governments, new ministries, and new secretariats of state are merged, separated and created. Not only is this a fact of life, it’s an important one. As our researchers have shown, every year around 10% of the main internal structures of central government ministries are reorganised. Yuma Ando and Philippe Bezes unveil what lies behind this figure, resulting from the SOG-PRO research project.
Read the article Is State Reorganisation Perpetual?
Job Offers: 3 Junior Positions
- Actualité Sciences Po
We offer 3 Junior positions, with contracts from 1 month to 1 year, to work on 3 different European projects:
- We are recruiting a Junior (Predoctoral) Researcher to work with Brenda Van Coppenolle (PI) on the Horizon Europe ERC Starting Grant project POLLOT “Political Lotteries in European Democratisation”.
12 months contract starting in January 2024
Apply before October 16.
Read the full job offer - We are seeking to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher to help disseminate the results from the H2020 project "BRIDGES: assessing the production and impact of migration narratives” with Virginie Guiraudon and Hélène Thiollet.
4 months contract, starting in November 2023.
Apply before October 5.
Read the full job offer - We are hiring a research assistant to work with Dominique Boullier on the H2020-Swafs (Science with and for Society) project "COESO: Collaborative Engagement on Societal Issues"
1 month contrat, starting on November 20th, 2023.
Apply before October 5.
Read the full job offer
Job Offer: Research Assistant
- Actualité Sciences Po
The Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics is hiring a research assistant for COESO project (H2020- SWafs, Science with and for Society, 2021-2024). The research assistant will contribute to the finalization of the final report on the indicators of cooperation in citizen science and to prepare future developments in Latin America.
Contract length: 1 month (Nov. 20, 2023 - December 22, 2023), 100% (35h per week).
Main tasks
- contribution to the final report of WP5 of COESO and its deliverables in English (draft, revision, structure, editing)
- translation of relevant parts to Spanish for the follow-up of the project
- helping in the finalization of the dashboard of indicators of cooperation together with citizens projects' representatives.
Skills / Qualifications
- Having completed a Master degree in social science (PhD students and post doc are also welcome)
- Fluency in French, English and Spanish
- Experience in citizen science projects
- Basic Ms Office skills
Application procedure / Selection process
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV, to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr. Please indicate in the subject “ COESO - Research Assistant”.
Deadline to apply: Oct. 5, 2023 at 23.59 pm.
You will hear back by Oct. 10, 2023 to know if you are shortlisted. If shortlisted, you will be contacted to attend an online interview, estimated to take place before Oct. 19. The final decision and job offer to the successful candidate is expected by Oct. 20, 2023.
Job Application - Post Doc Researcher
- Actualité Sciences Po
Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, CEE (UMR 8239)
Background
We are seeking to appoint a Researcher to work with Virginie Guiraudon and Hélène Thiollet in the project “BRIDGES: assessing the production and impact of migration narratives” (Grant number 101004564) of the H2020 program funded by the European Commission.
Project web site: https://www.bridges-migration. eu/
BRIDGES aims to understand the causes and consequences of migration narratives in a context of increasing politicisation and polarisation. By focusing on six current/former EU countries (FR, GE, HU, IT, SP, and UK), it has a three-fold objective.
First, at the academic level, it aims to understand the processes of narrative production and impact and their mutual interaction. This entails analysing: a) why some narratives have become dominant over others in public and political debates from a historical perspective; b) how narratives shape individual attitudes in Europe and potential migrants’ decisions in countries of origin and transit; c) how narratives impact policy decisions and outputs both at the national and EU levels; and d) how individuals and policymakers become in turn narrative producers (‘shaped shapers’) and influence each other. Second, at the policy level, it aims to foster evidence-based policies. By developing a typology of government strategies for responding to populist narratives, we will provide policymakers with recommendations on how to redress a tendency towards increasingly symbolic policies in the field of migration and integration. Third, at the societal level, our objective is to create spaces for dialogue between actors involved in narrative production. A key added value of the project is its interdisciplinarity and co-production approaches, including interactive workshops with policy, media and civil society actors, an itinerant photojournalism exhibition and two hip hop contests to reflect on the challenges of multicultural and increasingly diverse societies.
More specifically, the Sciences Po, CEE (FNSP) team has been in charge of the empirical work in WP 3 on narrative production in the media arena and WP7 on the impact of narratives on policymaking at the national level. The French team must now disseminate its results to a variety of relevant actors and thus create a dialogue with policy, media and civil society actors.
This involves
- Helping to disseminate the results of the project through relevant media outlets
- Organising a large-scale event to present the project results to policy, media, and civil society actors open to the public
- Organizing a medium-sized event to present the results of WP7 to policymakers and relevant expert circles
The appointment is full time starting from Nov 2nd 2023 with a contract duration of 4 months.
How to apply
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining precisely the qualifications and skills that match the requirements for the position, as well as the expected salary, (2) a CV, to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr by 23h59 pm on 5 October 2023.
Interviews will be planned before Oct. 15.
Tasks
The researcher will be expected to:
- Prepare and undertake all the necessary tasks under the supervision of the French PIs.
- The post holder will be required to manage his/her time to deliver on the priorities of the project notably the two public events required by the project. The post holder will need to plan to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines. This includes defining tasks and schedules, organising meetings;
- Any other tasks that might be necessary for the proper undertaking of the role and the successful completion of the work packages.
Requirements
Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience
- A PhD in Social Science with a strong methodological focus relevant to the project ∙ An understanding of the issues studied in the project: migration, integration, racism, borders∙ Fluency in French and English, the two working languages of the project.
Skills, Abilities and Competencies:
- Proven ability to organize academic and public events.
- Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project. ∙ Expertise with relevant Office packages.
- Ability to work as part of a team.
- Good oral and written communication skills.
How do the media report on immigration, in France and Europe?
- Actualité Sciences Po
How and by whom are the dominant narratives on migrations produced? How do they impact public policy, individuals and society as a whole?
These questions are at the heart of the BRIDGES European project, in which Sciences Po is a partner. Marie Moncada, a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, examined media coverage of immigration in France. She shares her findings and considers them in the European context.
Download the transcript of the interview (English translation) (PDF, 87 ko)
Interview by Véronique Etienne
Video by Aurore Papegay, Saory Giovanni, Nils Bertinelli
Read the reports mentionned in the video:
- Working Paper on the narratives conveyed by the media in France, by Marie Moncada.
- Working Paper comparing different European countries, by Marcello Maneri.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004564.
The contents of this presentation are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. The European Commission and the Research Executive Agency are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information this presentation contains.
The CEE talks to Sergei Guriev
- Actualité Sciences Po
In this new podcast, Sergei Guriev, Sciences Po Provost, talks to members of Sciences Po's research centres to convey a multidisciplinary approach to major contemporary questions.
In this second season, Conversations with Sergei Guriev explores the challenges facing democracies, autocracies and populists.
Conversation with Sergei Guriev - Brenda Van Coppenolle on Political Leaders : From Dynasties to Lotteries
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Nonna Mayer on Women's Vote for the Extreme Right
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Emiliano Grossman on Governing Well Under Social Media
This first season focuses on environmental transformation through issues such as citizen mobilisation, public policy, international negotiations and the historical roots of society's relationship with the environment.
Charlotte Halpern, Joost de Moor and Thomas Kayzel explain their projects and research into environmental and climate change.
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Charlotte Halpern On Sober Cities
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Joost de Moor on Climate Movements Struggle
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Thomas Kayzel on Growth Thought
Brenda Van Coppenolle: “Random selection to open up the political system?"
- Actualité Sciences Po
For the next five years, Brenda Van Coppenolle will be leading a large comparative project on "Political Lotteries in European Democratisation", to find out how random selection of individuals to make political decisions can widen access to the political system, both in the past and today. Brenda Van Coppenolle joined the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) as a Senior Research Fellow in May 2023. In this video, she talks about her career so far, her research project, and her reasons for choosing to join the CEE and Sciences Po for this project supported by and ERC Starting Grant.
Combating racism, antisemitism and xenophobia: our members contribute to the CNCDH barometer
- Illustration Jiatong Liu / CNCDH
The French National Consultative Commission for Human Rights (CNCDH) has just published its 2022 annual report on the fight against racism, antisemitism and xenophobia. Nonna Mayer, Vincent Tiberj, Yuma Ando and Tommaso Vitale contributed to the report by analysing data from the "racism barometer".
Every year since 1990, the CNCDH submits a report to the French government on the state of racism, antisemitism and xenophobia in France. These reports are based in particular on an opinion survey carried out face-to-face onlarge national samples representative of the adult population living in metropolitan France (1,214 people in the 2022 survey conducted by IPSOS). Over the last twenty years, the data from this barometer has been examined in detail by a research team currently made up of three members of the CEE, Nonna Mayer, Emerita Research Professor at the CNRS, Yuma Ando, Statistician at the CNRS, and Tommaso Vitale, Associate Professor at Sciences Po, as well as Vincent Tiberj, Professor at Sciences Po Bordeaux and associate member of the CEE.
Over the long term, the barometer shows a decline in prejudice, as measured by the Longitudinal Tolerance Index constructed by Vincent Tiberj on the basis of recurring survey questions. Expressed on a 0 to 100 scale, the index has risen by 12 points since 1990, from 52 to 64. In detail, the various minorities are not equal when it comes to prejudice: although tolerance is improving for all, the Roma are still the most discriminated against of all.
For their part, the members of the CEE systematically explore the relationships between prejudices, their explanatory factors and the underlying rhetoric using various statistical techniques. They converge to show that negative perceptions against different minority groups (Jews, Muslims, Blacks, North Africans, Asians, Roma, immigrants, etc.) are on the whole correlated. However, it is anti-immigrant sentiment that appears to be the most structuring: a person who rejects immigrants has a high probability of also expressing anti-Semitic or anti-Islamic views, and so on.
Generation turnover, level of education, political orientation and perceived personal economic status (but not gender) are correlated with the level of tolerance: the younger generations, those with higher levels of education and those who declare themselves to be on the left are on the whole more tolerant; those who perceive their financial circumstances as deteriorating are less so.
Finally, the barometer dispels some common misconceptions. For example, anti-Semitic opinions in France are still underpinned by old stereotypes linked to power and money, rather than by a negative image of Israel. And rejection of Islam does not come in the name of secularism or feminism: on the contrary, aversion to Islam is strongest among the least feminist and least pro-secularism people.
Find out more
A synthesis of the report is available in English on the CNCDH website.
Published on July 18th, 2023
Laura Morales appointed at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ Scientific Committee
- Actualité Sciences Po
On May 26th, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) Management Board appointed 11 new members to form the Agency's new Scientific Committee. Laura Morales is one of those 11 independent members highly qualified in fundamental rights, whose role will be to guarantee the scientific quality of the Agency's work. FRA helps defend the fundamental rights of all people living in the EU, by sharing evidence-based insights and expert advice with policy- and decision-makers from member States and EU institutions.
Laura Morales, Full Professor in political science, specialises among other subjects in the political representation and participation, associational engagement and political inclusion of citizens with immigrant ancestry and other minorities, as well as of people with ‘protected characteristics’. Her expertise in survey research on these populations as well as the coordination of the COST Action EthmigSurveyData will allow her to offer scientific advice on the numerous surveys and empirical studies undertaken by FRA.
The appointment followed a transparent call for applications and selection procedure after having consulted the competent committee of the European Parliament.
Sustainable Mobility in Cities: The Major Role of Public Policies
- Actualité Sciences Po
In order to achieve the European Union's target of carbon neutrality by 2050, the transportation sector must reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.
The implications are significant for European cities.
Charlotte Halpern, a researcher at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), discusses in this video the lessons learned from three European research-action projects she contributed to: CREATE, MORE, and SUMP-PLUS.
Transcription of the interview (PDF, 75 Ko)
Conversations with Sergei Guriev - Charlotte Halpern On Sober Cities (14/06/2023)
In the first episode of the new research podcast "Conversation with Serguei Guriev", Charlotte Halpern talks about the central role of cities in building a sober world.
Recruitment - Junior Researcher
- Actualité Sciences Po
Description
We are seeking to appoint a Junior Researcher to work with Prof Laura Morales (the PI), from October 2023, in the Horizon Europe project ActEU: Towards a new era of representative democracy - Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization”. Sciences Po is a partner in this project led by the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and of Saarland (Germany), and the Sciences Po team is led by Prof Morales at CEE, who is joined in the project by researchers at both CEE and CEVIPOF.
The ActEU project studies political trust and legitimacy in Europe using a new conceptual framework – the ActEU conceptual triangle. The project focuses on the interactions between citizens’ political attitudes, their political participation and the representation of their policy preferences with the aim of mapping and investigating the sources of the decline of political trust and legitimacy in Europe.
In addition to the overall conceptual triangle, ActEU considers the specific challenges posed by new controversies that are polarizing European societies as well as by the multi-level structure of the EU multi-level system of governance. Therefore, we place specific emphasis on the different levels of the polity that are pertinent in the EU multi-level system as well as on major policy fields – migration, the environment, gender inequalities – around which European societies are highly polarized.
Our research methods range from descriptive large-N analyses of publicly available data sets (all EU member states + additional countries wherever necessary), qualitative focus group discussions, to quantitative survey experiments and web-scraping techniques for selected countries:
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We provide deep insights for the following ten EU countries: Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain (i.e., quantitative survey experiments and web scraped data).
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For the focus groups, we opt for a smaller country selection (Czechia, France, Germany and Greece)
Based on the empirical findings, one of the major aims of ActEU is to develop a toolbox of remedial actions including two toolkits for (1) European, national, regional and local policymakers, and (2) civil society and the educational sector to (re-)activate citizens and to enhance trust in and legitimacy of representative democracy.
The project started in March 2023 and will run until February 2026. The Junior Researcher will join a team at Sciences Po formed by 7 senior researchers of CEE and CEVIPOF, 2 PhD researchers of CEE and a research engineer at CEE, as well as an international team formed by senior and junior researchers in 11 other universities and research organizations.
Tasks
We are seeking to appoint a Junior Researcher who will undertake the following range of tasks:
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Supporting the coordination of all deliverables and data collection/analysis owed by Sciences Po for the project;
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Analyzing cross-national survey data on the dynamics and patterns of political trust and political action, as well as on the role of ethnic diversity and the politicization of immigration on such dynamics and patterns, and contributing as necessary to the reports and deliverables relating to such analyses;
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Supporting the coordinators of WP2 on citizens’ attitudes;
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Contributing to the design of toolkits and policy briefs for policymakers and other stakeholders on the results of the project produced by the Sciences Po team;
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Contributing to the preparation and delivery of all dissemination, communication and exploitation activities of the project;
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Being responsible for the maintenance and version control of any data used for the project, including the preparation of Data Management Plans and any other formal Personal Data Protection requirements established by Sciences Po, the ActEU coordinators or the European Commission. This will also include inputting of data and its safe storage using the agreed protocols, as defined by the research team and Sciences Po’s research data protection policy;
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Prepare and undertake data analysis and tests using quantitative and qualitative techniques and approaches agreed with the Principal Investigator and the rest of the team;
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Attending the relevant meetings of the international consortium;
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Actively contributing to (and where necessary and appropriate depending on qualifications and experience, leading) academic publications stemming from the project, also including the preparation of any replication data submission for journals, as required;
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Supporting the PI in all administrative and project management tasks as required;
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Identifying and understanding work requirements prioritising tasks and responsibilities within an agreed time frame agreed with the PI;
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The post holder will be required to effectively manage their time to deliver on the priorities of the project. The post holder will need to plan ahead to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines. This may include defining tasks and schedules, organising meetings, preparing intermediate reports on data and findings, and contributing to the preparation of the project final report.
Requirements
Research Field
Political sciences
Education Level
Master Degree or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications
Essential:
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A Master's degree in Politics or Political Sociology (or closely related discipline) with a substantive or methodological focus relevant to the project, completed or close to completion (e.g., will be completed in the Summer);*
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Demonstrable training and experience using quantitative research methods and techniques;*
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An expertise, backed up by research experience, in the subfields of political behaviour and political attitudes in Europe, and in one or several of the following fields:, political representation, political institutions or political parties;*
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Research experience in subjects or projects relevant to the research project;*
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Proficiency in English (oral and for academic writing);*
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Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Stata or R;*
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Advanced-level quantitative analysis skills (e.g., including pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, multilevel regression analysis, etc.);*
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Proven ability to write up research findings;*
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Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project;
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Expertise with relevant office packages;
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Ability to work as part of a team;
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Good oral and written communication skills;*
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Attention to detail.*
Desirable, but not essential:
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Experience in primary survey data collection;
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Some proficiency in French (oral reading);
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Reading proficiency in at least one more of the following languages would be an advantage: German, Italian or Spanish;
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Some experience with Bayesian statistics, the analysis of social media data and/or the design of experiments in surveys would be an advantage;
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Prior research experience in externally funded projects;*
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A track record of international collaboration in social science research or consultancy experience;
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Experience in writing reports for funders;
(*Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
Languages
English
Level
Excellent
Research Field
Political sciences - Governance
Additional Information
Selection process
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV and (3) a sample of single-authored written piece of work in English that includes quantitative empirical analysis to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr copying laura.morales@sciencespo.fr and eleonora.russo@sciencespo.fr. Please indicate in the object “ActEU junior researcher application”.
Application Deadline - 14 Jun 2023 - 23:50 (Europe/Paris)
Start of the KNOWLEGPO Project
- Actualité Sciences Po
The Project
Central banks have been drawn into debates over how to address the challenges of the 21st century, namely inequality and climate change. In the process, they have become increasingly contested, both among experts and in the broader public sphere. KNOWLEGPO aims at developing an extensive theory of central bank behaviour in this new context and testing it through a mixed-methods approach.
It is funded for a period of 3 years (June 2023-May 2026) by the ANR and the DFG in the framework of the Franco-German Programme in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Project Objectives
Central banks used to be solely focused on inflation, and their status as apolitical and independent was accepted. But in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, central banks have become politicised to an extent that finds parallels only in the 1930s and the 1970s.How do these technocratic organisations navigate this newly politicised landscape? How do monetary theory and practice evolve under these new pressures?
KNOWLEGPO will build an original theoretical framework that is capable of explaining the behaviour of independent central banks in this new context. To this end, it will combine cutting-edge quantitative analysis of large volumes of textual data (text mining) covering a three-decade period with detailed case studies (European Central Bank, US Federal Reserve, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, South African Reserve Bank) based on document analysis and expert interviews.
At the end of the project, the data will be made available in the form of an open-format database to allow further study of the interaction between economic knowledge and technocratic policy making. The broader societal objective is to contribute empowering the civil society to monitor the activities of central banks.
French Team
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Matthias Thiemann, Associate Professor, Sciences Po, CEE (Principal Investigator)
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Jérôme Deyris, Post-doctoral Researcher, Sciences Po, CEE
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Vincent Lépinay , Associate Professor, Sciences Po, Medialab
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Frédéric Lebaron , Full Professor, ENS Paris-Saclay, IDHES laboratory
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Jacqueline Best, Full Professor, University of Ottawa (Canada)
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Marion Fourcade, Full Professor, University of California, Berkeley (USA)
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Manuela Moschella , Associate Professor, Scuoala Normale Superiore di Pisa (Italy)
Partners
This French-German project involves a German team led by Benjamin Braun, Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG).
Jessica Pidoux co-laureate of a European Union Prize for Citizen Science
- Jessica Pidoux © Aurore Papegay / Sciences Po
The project ‘When gig workers regain control’ was awarded an Honorary mention at the first edition of the European Union Prize for Citizen Science, on May 22, 2023. For this project, Jessica Pidoux, post-doctoral researcher at the CEE and director of the non-profit PersonalData.iO, worked with Uber drivers.
The project produced scientific knowledge about the working conditions of gig workers through the lenses of the personal data recovered by Uber drivers. Based on a participatory methodology, drivers organised at the cooperative Maze worked with Jessica Pidoux, digital sociologist at Sciences Po, CEE, and director of PersonalData.IO, and David Décamps, artist and digital mediator at PersonalData.IO. The drivers recovered their personal data from Uber by making use of their data access rights and are now seeking to first analyse it with open access tools for reverse engineering Uber’s algorithmic management and then to build a new mobility service by means of a bottom-up governance.
“In this project, Uber drivers tracked their own driving data, analysed it and this way eventually made sense of the Uber algorithm. They concluded that the algorithm calculates their wages inaccurately. Through the acquired evidence citizens now fight legally for higher wages”, emphasised the jury of the prize.
The European Union Prize for Citizen Science is awarded by Ars Electronica on behalf of the European Commission in the context of the IMPETUS project. It honors, presents and supports outstanding projects whose social and political impact advances the further development of a pluralistic, inclusive and sustainable society in Europe.
More
On the projet “‘When gig workers regain control” and its initiators
Replay - CEE's General Seminar Jane Green
- Actualité Sciences Po
Family Matters: How Concerns about the Financial Wellbeing of Younger Relatives Shape the Political Preferences of Older Adults
CEE General Seminar, 11 April 2023
Speaker: Jane Green, Nuffield College and Professor of Political Science and British Politics at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College)
Chair: Florence Faucher, FNSP Professor Director of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po
Discussant: Théodore Tallent, PhD candidate at the CEE.
Abstract
We derive a family-centred theory of electoral behaviour wherein older adults are willing to forego benefits to their own generation if they perceive younger family members to be struggling financially. Employing a large novel survey, multiple new family-centred survey items, analysis across policy domains and a survey experiment, we demonstrate support for our theory. Negative evaluations of the financial wellbeing of younger family members – which are closely linked to objective economic circumstances – are associated with older adults being more likely to support ‘pro-youth’ policies, to forego spending on their own generation, and to vote against the incumbent. These effects are not reducible to explicit self-interest motivations on behalf of older relatives themselves. We argue that conventional self-interest assumptions require modification: people vote for the well-being of their close family members. The implications are important for understanding voter behaviour and the electoral incentives of politicians in an era of aging populations.
Speaker
Jane Green is a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Professor of Political Science and British Politics at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College). She is the Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre, Co-Director of the British Election Study, and Elections Analyst for ITV News. She is author (with the British Election Study team), of 'Electoral Shocks: Understanding the Volatile Voter in a Turbulent World', OUP, and author, with Will Jennings, of 'The Politics of Competence: Parties, Public Opinion and Voters', CUP, 2017.
Recordings of the CEE General Seminar
Find all the seminar recordings on this SoundCloud page.
Rationing drugs in England and France: How a ‘depoliticised’ regulator can become a source of politicisation
- Video_Creative
A key trend in European politics since the 1990s has been the delegation of important policymaking responsibilities to unelected decision-makers such as independent agencies and supranational actors. Takuya Onoda writes that while this has frequently been viewed as a process of depoliticisation, the use of unelected bodies can paradoxically increase the political contestation of policy decisions.
Read Takuya Onoda's blog post on LSE's "European Politics and Policy" blog.
Read the full paper (open access) published in the Journal of European Public Policy
Laura Morales, an ambassador for open data and open science
- Laura Morales © Aurore Papegay / Sciences Po
Laura Morales has been selected as an Ambassador to help raise awareness and increase open science contributions from researchers in ethnic and migration studies in Europe throughout 2023. This RDA / EOSC Future Ambassador role comes with a small grant aimed at funding the awareness-raising activities.
While most researchers in the social sciences are aware of the Open Science and Open Data agenda and have heard about the FAIR principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability), very few actually know what this entails in practice for their everyday research activities and undertakings. This motivated the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the H2020 EOSC Future project, two initiatives to open up research data, to appoint “ambassador” researchers, whose role is to raise awareness on tools and good practice among colleagues from the same research field. Until the end of September 2023, Laura Morales (Full Professor at CEE, Sciences Po) will thus contribute to the onboarding of key research groups in the ethnic and migration studies field into the universe of Open Science in Europe. Her goal as an RDA / EOSC Future Ambassador is to achieve a greater level of awareness of, engagement with and adoption of (1) RDA activities and recommendations (of which she has been a member since 2018), and (2) EOSC (the European Open Science Cloud) as an overall infrastructure and set of tools to provide access to research data across borders and scientific disciplines.
Laura Morales has a longstanding interest in quantitative surveys on the inclusion of ethnic and migrant minorities in Europe and she has played a major role in making these data available. Between 2017 and 2021 she was the Chair of COST Action 16111 - Ethmigsurveydata and an active participant in the H2020 research infrastructure cluster project SSHOC, where the main data infrastructures of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) have joined forces to ensure the inclusion of SSH in EOSC a reality. The work she has coordinated has allowed the creation of a number of FAIR resources to enable the discovery and the reuse of survey data on the inclusion and integration of ethnic and migrant minorities across Europe: the Ethnic and Migrant Minorities (EMM) Survey Registry and the EMM Question Data Bank. The EMM Survey Registry was awarded an Open Science prize from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2022.
Sciences Po is hiring an Assistant professorship
- Actualité Sciences Po
GENERAL PROFILE OF THE POSITION
Discipline: Political Science (section 04 of the CNU)
The Centre for European and Comparative Politics (CEE) is looking to create a new position that will meet important teaching needs in the institutions, governance and politics of the EU and the democratic tensions with which they are (increasingly) associated.
We are looking for someone whose research interests lie at the intersection between the analysis of EU institutions and the transformation of the politics, policies and governance of the EU. The successful candidate will contribute to one of the four research clusters of the CEE: 1) capitalist transformations; 2) cities, borders and mobility ; 3) the state and public policy ; 4) tensions in representative democracy.
The successful candidate needs to demonstrate a strong level of international engagement, a significant level of publication and a solid grasp of comparative methodologies (qualitative, quantitative and/or mixed). They will need to demonstrate a capacity to conduct empirical and theoretically informed research.
The successful candidate will be required to teach courses on the institutions, governance and associated democratic tensions of the EU. They will be expected to teach 2 lecture courses of 24 hours each year for six years. One of the lecture courses will be delivered in Paris (whether for the Collège universitaire or one of Sciences Po’s schools at Masters level). The other will be delivered at one of Sciences Po’s regional campuses (at Collège universitaire level in Reims, Le Havre, Dijon, Nancy, Poitiers or Menton). A preference will be given to candidates with the ability to teach in English. The requirements of the post are reviewed annually by the Director of Sciences Po. The semester workload is determined by the Head of the Political Science department in agreement with the Learning and Teaching Directorate of Sciences Po.
SPECIFICS
This position is a Junior Professor Chair as described by Decree no. 2021-1710 from December 17, 2021. It corresponds to a tenure track employment, consisting of an initial 6-year contract, which, after assessment of the appointee’s scientific merit and professional aptitude by a tenure commission, can lead to permanent employment.
Since the objective of the Junior Chairs is to encourage research, the holder of the Chair will benefit from financial support for, in particular: the recruitment of a doctoral researcher on a 3-year contract; the recruitment of a research assistant; funds covering expenses for the organization of conferences or for field research.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Incomplete applications will not be considered. Candidates must hold a doctorate. They must enter their application file on the "Galaxie" portal of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research before May 22, 2023, 4 pm (Paris time):
Galaxie des personnels du supérieur (enseignementsup-recherche. gouv.fr) - N. 4145
In addition to the documents required for recruitment via “Galaxie”, applicants should send the following documents to recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr (in electronic format):
• An application letter with a presentation of the research projects that the candidate intends to carry out at the CEE;
• A CV and a complete list of publications;
• 3 outstanding publications;
• 2 course syllabi: one on the European Union for the undergraduate programme and the other one on democratic tensions in the European Union for the common curriculum of the masters.
The selection committee will produce a short list of eligible applications. Those selected will be invited to present their research during a Job Talk at Sciences Po in front of the academic community and will be interviewed by the Selection Committee (September 22, 2023).
The start date is December 1, 2023.
Further information
The successful applicant will work at the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics. The CEE (UMR 8239) is a multidisciplinary laboratory dedicated to the comparative analysis of politics.
Sciences Po is an institution of higher education and research in the humanities and social sciences. Its permanent scientific community of 270 professors and researchers is structured into 11 internationally recognized entities (including 6 joint units with the CNRS and 3 host teams) and divided into 5 disciplinary departments.
Sciences Po is an employer that respects equal opportunities and is committed to ensuring a balanced representation of gender, geographic areas, and minorities. Applications from women are particularly welcome.
Contacts
Director of the CEE: Florence Faucher florence.faucher@sciencespo.fr
President of the selection committee: Bruno Palier bruno.palier@sciencespo.fr
Administration: recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr
Congratulations to Natasha Wunsch
- Natasha Wunsch © Alexis Lecomte / Sciences Po
Natasha Wunsch, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po, CEE and Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, earned her accreditation to supervise research in political science on April 4th, 2023. She defended her habilitation thesis entitled “Democratic Commitment: Explaining Citizens’ Tolerance for Democratic Backsliding” at ETH Zurich.
The jury was composed of:
- Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor of European Politics, ETH Zurich,
- Jennifer McCoy, Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University,
- Dan Kelemen, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University,
- Daniel Kübler, Professor for Democracy and Public Governance, University of Zurich.
Abstract
Why do citizens often fail to act as effective bulwarks against democratic backsliding? My habilitation claims that political culture is key to explaining the electoral success and enduring public support for authoritarian-leaning leaders despite their open violations of democratic standards. It posits that a lack of attitudinal consolidation around liberal democratic norms leaves important parts of the electorate vulnerable to buy-outs and illiberal appeals by political elites. The habilitation builds on extensive empirical material including focus groups and original survey data including two conjoint experiments in Poland and Hungary. Leveraging a mixed-methods design, it shows how, despite widespread generic support for democracy as a regime form, divergent understandings of the core principles of democracy persist among citizens in both countries. Political elites capitalize on the weakness of liberal democratic commitment by justifying their democratic violations in majoritarian or explicitly illiberal terms. Establishing the linkages between political culture and political behaviour, the habilitation demonstrates the crucial role citizens’ democratic attitudes play in enabling the deepening and entrenchment of democratic backsliding.
“Mafias as a form of State”
- Actualité Sciences Po
Federico Varese joined the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) as a Professor in Sociology in February 2023, following a career at Oxford University, where he has been the Director of the Department of Sociology. His research focuses on organised crime and mafias, especially in the former Soviet Union and Russia. He is currently leading a major comparative project, CrimGov, funded by an ERC Advanced Grant, to study criminal organisations through their production, trade and governance activities. In this video, he talks about his background, his research and the reasons that motivated him to join the CEE and Sciences Po.
Replay - Dawn Teele, "Flipping the Gender Gap: Compulsory Voting and Inequality in Turnout"
- Actualité Sciences Po
"Flipping the Gender Gap: Compulsory Voting and Inequality in Turnout"
CEE General Seminar, 28 March 2023
Speaker: Dawn Teele, SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University
Chair: Cyril Benoit, CNRS Research Fellow, CEE
Discussant: Emilien Houard-Vial, PhD candidate at the CEE.
Abstract
Compulsory voting has long been hailed as an equalizer: by requiring that eligible citizens show up at the polls, compulsory regimes have higher turnout overall and are linked to better representation of all social groups among their electorates. Dawn Teele, with coauthors Anna Callis (UC Berkeley) and Guadalupe Tuñón (Princeton University) studied the gendered impacts of compulsory voting in Chile, which moved from voluntary to mandatory registration under a compulsory regime in 1962. If compulsory rules jumpstart women's political participation, strengthening compulsory rules should enhance equality in turnout across the sexes. Using comprehensive municipal-level data of electoral returns, in which men's and women's turnout was tallied separately, and newly unearthed records of Chile's historical electoral registers, they show that mandating registration dramatically changed women's enrollment, and, remarkably, pushed women's turnout above men's. This finding challenges our understanding of the historical gender gap, showing that electoral institutions with strong participatory mandates can help women flip the gender gap in their favor.
Speaker
Dawn Langan Teele is the SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. She is co-founder of EGEN: The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network. Her research, which has been published in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Daedalus, and other outlets, has focused on the ethics of field experiments, gender and publication in the social sciences, bias against women in politics, and the historical political economy of gender. Her 2018 book, Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women's Vote won the Luebbert Prize for the best book in Comparative Politics at the American Political Science Association.
Recordings of the CEE General Seminar
Find all the seminar recordings on this SoundCloud page.
PCC, Secret Power: When a Work of Sociology Becomes an HBO Series
- Actualité Sciences Po
“How do you become the largest crime organisation in South America in the space of three decades?” That could be the subtitle of the docuseries PCC, Secret Power, which was adapted from the book Irmãos by Gabriel Feltran, a CNRS Research Professor at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE). Broadcast on HBO in 2022, the series pairs the conventions of a blockbuster with rigorous sociological research to recount the rise of the crime organisation Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), formed 30 years ago in the prisons of São Paulo, Brazil. We heard more about the genesis of the project during a film screening and roundtable discussion at Sciences Po.
Listen to a replay of the film introduction and post-screening discussion, hosted by the CEE and the Sciences Po Urban School:
The PCC, which now operates in all continents, is becoming a source of concern for Europe. This was a point raised during the discussion by Ivana Obradovic, deputy director of the Observatoire Français des Drogues et des Tendances Addictives: “Most of the cocaine seized in European ports comes from Brazil. That is a new phenomenon. (...) So we have to reflect upon how the influence of PCC in Brazil is related to what's happening in Europe."
Meanwhile, Federico Varese, a professor of sociology at the CEE, pointed to the emergence of other organised crime groups in prisons elsewhere in the world. Varese drew parallels with his own research: “I study Russia, and Russia has a very similar prison system, with large prisons and prisoners that are moved around. (...) The criminal organisation that I study, the vory-v-zakone, does precisely the same [as the PCC]. They have rituals, with very strong religious undertones, and a commandment, and they have a language of their own, and the idea is precisely the same: to protect themselves within the prison."
Deborah Alimi, who directs the research programme “Drugs, Social Sciences and Societies” at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, also drew parallels with the situation in Mexico and Colombia, where crime groups provide public services in some local communities. Alimi stressed the need for governments to take this into account when designing intersectoral public policies.
We interviewed Gabriel Feltran about the origins of PCC, Secret Power, which is a piece of explanatory social science research in its own right. As both Tommaso Vitale, the Dean of the Sciences Po Urban School and a researcher at the CEE, and the CEE’s Director, Florence Faucher, pointed out in their introduction, the documentary’s contribution lies in revealing how crime rings form their own institutions.
Where did the idea for the docuseries come from?
It all came from the series producer, Gustavo Mello. He rang me on the day of the launch of Irmãos, before even having read the book. He was interested in the approach the book takes to the issue, particularly its non-sensationalist view of the PCC. It’s relatively rare to meet a producer who really understands your research, so I immediately got on board with the project. One week later, we began looking for a director. We were hoping to find someone who knew the situation personally. Since we couldn’t find anyone with that specific experience, we approached Joel Zito Araújo, who wasn’t familiar with the PCC, but who had experienced racism and segregation. He read the book and, within a week, we had a roadmap for the documentary, which took us up to its release four years later. We were joined by another producer, Adriana Gaspar, and all four of us were involved in the making of the series: working on the script, negotiating with streaming platforms, filming etc. For my part, I commented on all drafts of the script, liaised with the person in charge of researching witnesses and archived material, and was able to attend some interviews. During production, which ran for about a year, I spent almost half of my time on the shoot. It was a fascinating experience for me as a researcher, particularly in terms of thinking about the formal differences between the book and the docuseries.
On that last point, how did you go about turning an academic text into a series for the general public? What were the challenges?
The book tells the story of the PCC from a sociological perspective, which means the narrative is interspersed with academic insights. The first thing Araújo, the series director, told me was that we wouldn’t be able to replicate that structure if we wanted to appeal to platforms like HBO or Netflix. Sociology would provide a framework, but the characters and script would have to carry the narrative. That meant no sociologists on screen and no journalists or police officers either. We had to detach ourselves from the police narratives, which already saturated the public discourse, whereas my work was unique in presenting other points of view: those of favela residents, PCC leaders and rappers. Araújo was keen to add a fourth perspective into the narrative: that of government officials. This confrontation of accounts from anonymous people and from the state (for whom there’s a clear dichotomy: good guys versus bad guys) brought out a paradox: despite being a criminal organisation, the PCC actually works to reduce the number of homicides on the ground and protects favela residents.
Some of the documentary’s protagonists are people I’ve been communicating with for several years, while others we met while preparing the documentary. In academic research, whenever you interview, observe or communicate with people involved in criminal activity, you always guarantee them anonymity. For the documentary, meanwhile, we only wanted to interview people who were willing to speak on camera. To a certain extent, that made finding interviewees more difficult. On the other hand, when we explained that this was an HBO series, people understood that their interviews would be made into a high-profile production, and that their friends and family would be able to watch.
How was the series received?
It was the most watched series on HBO Max Brazil across all genres for two weeks (and the second most popular in all Latin America, and it stayed in the top ten for a long time after that. Beyond this commercial success, it also generated a genuine public debate. Previously, the PCC had always been portrayed as a very violent, covert and fringe organisation. The documentary provoked strong reactions, both online and during post-screening discussions. For the first time, people living in favelas were able to see their experience on screen. Meanwhile, viewers unaware of that reality were moved by the impact of the narrative. I was invited to participate in debates by the Brazilian police, and also in the favelas. My research had already opened doors for me with the authorities, and the series opened new ones. For example, it helped to bring the federal police into contact with academics, even leading to the introduction of a master's programme for the federal police on organised crime and illegal markets.
Sciences Po recently organised a talk by Roberto Saviano, a journalist specialising in organised crime and the author of the international bestseller Gommora. What similarities and differences do you see between the work of an investigative journalist like Saviano and an ethnographic study like your own?
Journalists are generally interested in facts and events. My work as a sociologist, by contrast, is essentially focused on social processes: the first episode of the series examines a situation of “war” and how this was resolved; the second and third explore the process of legitimising the PCC, first within the prisons and then outside, and the fourth addresses the group’s international expansion. This structure allowed us to connect events, characters and different narrative lines, which together offer a picture of the PCC’s organisation and social function. We could have told the story chronologically based on news headlines. But, once again, that would have involved spotlighting the sensational side of the phenomenon. We wanted to do something different, and show that, paradoxically, the PCC actually helps to reduce violence in the neighbourhoods where it operates by instating an informal, but very legitimate, justice system among prisoners and favela residents. Every conflict gives rise to a debate mediated by brothers of the PCC, which aims to resolve the situation in the fairest way possible. If you only show instances of violence, you miss that aspect.
So while Saviano and I may share a similar understanding of the subject, our roles, objectives and methods differ. In terms of methods, academic researchers don’t go undercover or use hidden cameras. It’s a much longer process: you have to convince people you’re trustworthy, and then come back multiple times. I could work with a hidden recorder and get information more quickly, but that doesn’t interest me. What I want is to develop long-term relationships, to avoid being threatened and to have people recognise themselves in the work that I do. I want to lay out as many viewpoints as possible, particularly the different stakeholders’ justifications of their actions. In terms of roles and objectives, Saviano and I share the goal of contributing to public debate, but go about it in a different way. Journalists denounce a situation in the hope of spurring governments to act. As sociologists, we try to understand how society arrived at that point: our work is complementary and it also informs government decision-making.
Interview by Véronique Etienne, Knowledge Exchange Officer at the CEE
Find out more
Lauch of the european project ActEU
- Actualité Sciences Po
THE PROJECT
The ActEU project investigates the decline of political trust and legitimacy in Europe. It focuses on the interactions between citizens’ political attitudes, their political participation and the representation of their policy preferences.
This 3 year project (March 2023-February 2026) is funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon Europe programme (Research and Innovation Actions).
project Objectives
The ActEU project first aims at mapping and investigating persistent problems of declining trust, legitimacy and representation in Europe with a particular attention to the polarization of societies on key policy issues of our times –immigration, climate change, and gender inequality– and the EU’s multi-level system of governance.
The research methods range from descriptive analyses of publicly available data sets (all EU member states + additional countries wherever necessary), qualitative focus group discussions (Czechia, France, Germany and Greece), to quantitative survey experiments and web-scraping techniques (Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain).
Based on those empirical findings, the other major aim of ActEU is to develop a toolbox of context-sensitive remedial actions to enhance political trust in and legitimacy of European representative democracies. In cooperation with a newly created civil society network, Youth Democracy Labs across 13 European cities, and in exchange with political cartoonists “Cartooning for democracy”, two toolkits will be developed for (1) European, national, regional and local policymakers, and (2) civil society and the educational sector.
Sciences Po team
● Laura Morales, Professor, Sciences Po, CEE (Principal Investigator)
● Yuma Ando, Statistician, CNRS, CEE
● Nicholas Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sciences Po, CEE
● Jens Cartens, PhD Candidate, Sciences Po, CEE
● Chiao Li, PhD Candidate, Sciences Po, CEE
● Anja Durovic, Associate Researcher, CEE & Post-doctoral Researcher, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Centre Emile Durkheim
● Luis Ramiro, Associate Researcher, CEE & Associate Professor, UNED, Spain
● Sylvain Brouard, FNSP Research Professor, CEVIPOF
● Olivier Costa, CNRS Research Professor, CEVIPOF
● Samuel Hayat, CNRS Research Fellow, CEVIPOF
● Patrick Le Bihan, Assistant Professor, Sciences Po, CEVIPOF
Partners
Eleven institutions from across Europe form the consortium led by the the universities of Duisburg-Essen and of Saarland (Germany): Trans European Policy Studies Association, Sciences Po (France), Åbo Akademi University (Finland), Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (Austria), Université Catholique de Lille (France), University of Oviedo (Spain), Institute of International Relations Prague (Czechia), SWPS University (Poland), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Universitá Degli Studi di Trento (Italy).
Pension reform, 49.3... CEE's members contribute to the debate
- HJBC
The bill on pension reform has reached the end of an eventful legislative process. Between a blocked vote, the use of article 49.3 of the French Constitution, motions of censure, and a citizen and union mobilisation that remains strong even after the vote, this future reform continues to fuel the French public and media debate.
The members of the CEE, through their various expertises, provide a scientific perspective on this current situation, through the study of the recent past and of other European countries.
Isabelle Guinaudeau, CNRS research fellow, has established with Michael Becher and Sylvain Brouard the high political and electoral cost of the use of the "49.3" by studying the period 1979-2008, in West European Politics .
In our @WEPsocial paper, Michael Becher, Sylvain Brouard and I have shown that there is a substantial political/electoral cost for using the 49.3 procedure. Executive approval declines after confidence votes: https://t.co/bLat7Ko4CV pic.twitter.com/mO7UCWzkD5
— Isabelle Guinaudeau (@iguinaudeau) March 18, 2023
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Before the use of the '49.3' article for the adoption of this law, Olivier Rozenberg , Associate Professor at Sciences Po, CEE, questioned in an article published by Le Monde the decision-making capacity of the assemblies and the fragility of French parliamentarism.
- The note published in La Grande Conversation by Bruno Palier , CNRS Research Director at the CEE, and Paulus Wagner , PhD student at the CEE, shows that the “Rassemblement National” and Marine Le Pen could come out on top in this political episode. According to the two researchers, the government's forced passage and the unpopularity of this reform among certain social classes, those who suffer the most degraded working conditions, can only strengthen the position of the far-right party.
Les lendemains politiques d’une réforme contestée
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The book Réformer les retraites by Bruno Palier, (Presses de Sciences Po, June 2021) provides an insight into the content and scope of the major pension reforms in France since 1993, based on the German, British, Italian, Dutch and Swedish examples.
La longue histoire des retraites (et de leurs réformes) en Europe (Read this interview in CNRS le Journal)
Les femmes et l'Etat providence français (podcast Genre, etc.)
CEE Support Campaign
- Wimbdi
We invite expressions of interest from researchers interested in submitting a Marie SkłodowskaCurie Individual Fellowship (MSCA IF) application with Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics. We will provide support and guidance to applicants that successfully go through the internal selection process.
Submit your Expression of Interest: The call for applications closes on September 2023. Expressions of Interest are required by 5th May 2023 (to Florence Faucher, Director of the CEE, contact.cee@sciencespo.fr ).
Please sent:
- Letter of intention (with the name of supervisor requested)
- CV and list of publications
- draft project (1-2 pages) with the objectives We will send this for review to the Board to confirm the support for your proposal (in June).
Call for communication: Google, a major stakeholder in local governance?
- achinthamb
Sciences Po’s Digital Cities Chair
International Conference
Google, a major stakeholder in local governance?
Paris, July 10, 2023
The Digital Cities Chair of the Urban School of Sciences Po, in partnership with the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, is organizing an international conference on July 10, 2023, on the theme of "Google and Territories".
As an essential part of the daily lives of city dwellers and in the discourse on digital cities, the relationship between Google and local governance raises several issues that have surprisingly been relatively unexplored in the scientific literature. This conference, organized in three areas of reflection, aims to question the presence of Google in the territories and its effects on local policies and urban governance. Based on empirical investigations, the proposals may come from several social science disciplines (political science, sociology, geography, economics, urban planning, law, etc.) and may fall within the following three axes.
1. Alphabet's territorial implementation and strategy with respect to cities and territories
The first line of thought examines Alphabet's strategy towards cities and territories. Although it cannot be categorized as an urban firm, the company has gradually developed a range of products and services that target territories, their inhabitants, and local authorities. While with the creation of Sidewalk Labs in 2015, the Alphabet group openly positioned itself on the urban market, the company, through Waze and Google Maps in particular, has been a key player in territorial activities for many years. Through the various acquisitions and offers deployed, can we detect a strategy of the Alphabet group towards cities and territories?
Other papers may also focus on the Alphabet company's relationship towards territories. Although the products offered by the company are largely immaterial, the company is established in the territories in several ways. On the one hand, the products and services offered by Google are based on material infrastructures (cables, data centers), which are deployed in the territories according to a specific geography that the communications could question. On the other hand, the location of the company's headquarters has social and spatial effects, which have been the object of contestation. While some cities are trying to attract them to their territory, social movements in San Francisco and Berlin have blamed Google and other digital companies for rising rents, gentrification, and privatization of public infrastructure ("Google Bus").
2. Digitalizing and calculating the territory
The second axis questions the process of production, use and valorization of spatial data by Google. The papers will first focus on the construction of its infrastructure of spatial data to question the processes of production of territorial data by Google. What information do they collect and how? How and by whom is this data work carried out? What are the partnerships and collaborations with local actors (public authorities, companies, citizens, etc.) in the production of this data?
The papers will also analyze the effects of this territorial data on markets, public policies, and socio-spatial hierarchies. Inserted in algorithmic calculation devices, these data participate in establishing alternative categorizations of space that can challenge the traditional stratifications established by public authorities or economic markets. Indeed, following the example of the Waze app, which leads to traffic shifts in residential areas, this calculation of space by these applications is likely to modify individual and collective practices, transform modes of appropriation of space and challenge public policies. In the same way, ranking systems, and in particular the company's search engines, are likely to modify the hierarchies of goods and services markets. To what extent does a service such as Google Maps transform relations between actors and restructure competition on markets embedded in territories?
Finally, while the company is often presented as the symbol of surveillance capitalism, the papers may question the precise modalities of data valuation by Google. Although it does not sell them directly, Google values its data on the advertising market, but also through their distribution via APIs. Who are the users of these data? How do they use it? How has Google gradually built these territorial data markets? What is the ecosystem of actors that has emerged around Google's territorial data? Does Google mark a transformation of urban capitalism around the accumulation and valorization of data?
3. Mobilization, contestation, regulation, collaboration: Google in local governance
The third axis aims to better understand the place of Google in the urban field and in local policies. The rise of Google's services has indeed provoked mistrust and fears on the part of traditional urban actors, whether public, private or citizens, as illustrated by the mobilization that led to the withdrawal of Sidewalk Labs in Toronto. How were these mobilizations formed? Did they succeed in putting their demands on the political agenda? What were the strategies implemented by private actors to maintain their position and contain Google's arrival on their markets? Conversely, what are the influence and lobbying strategies implemented by the Alphabet group with local actors to obtain regulations that are favorable to it?
Beyond visible mobilizations, Google's services have also quietly imposed themselves on public policies. Waze and Google Maps, for example, have become key players in mobility policies. What conflicts have emerged through the development of these services? How do public authorities integrate them into their governing strategies? Are we seeing the emergence of new modes of local governance through which public or private actors work with Google to implement public policies?
Calendar:
Submission deadline: April 20, 2023
Assessment of the proposals and choice: April 30, 2023
Conference: July 10, 2023, in Paris
The one-page proposals, either in French or English, should be sent to Antoine Courmont (antoine.courmont@sciencespo.fr) before April 20, 2023. They should set out the topic of the paper, the research question, the methodology and the data used.
Interview with Arnault Barichella
- Arnault Barichella © Aurore Papegay
Arnault Barichella defended his PhD thesis in political science, "The UN Climate Change regime and the articulation of multi-level governance. A case study of the global cities of Paris, Boston and New York" in December 2022. He just started a post-doctoral researcher position and reflects in this interview on his experience as a PhD candidate at the CEE and Sciences Po.
What is your current position?
I have just started a contract as a post-doctoral researcher in the social sciences for the New Energy Sustainable Mobilities (NESMO) project at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Université Paris-Saclay. This is an interdisciplinary project which combines the social sciences and engineering to research new technologies in the field of transportation, focusing on hydrogen motors more specifically. My role, as a political scientist, involves studying possibilities and prospects for deploying these new technologies across the Ile-de-France region, in particular plug-in hydrogen hybrid electric vehicles.
What did you write your thesis on?
My thesis, which was defended in December 2022, tackles two primary research questions. The first one relates to international politics, and focuses on the role of cities, territories, and non-state actors more generally, within the mechanisms of global climate governance as part of the COP process and the UNFCCC. Even though they cannot sign the Paris Accord in the same way as national governments, cities and sub-national entities have an increasingly important role to play in international climate negotiations.
The other part of my thesis, which relates to comparative politics, examines climate initiatives enacted by the cities and states/regions in the thesis sample for the United States (New York/NY and Boston/Massachusetts), and in France (Paris and Ile-de-France). More specifically, my PhD compares the mechanisms involved in the articulation of multilevel climate governance, contrasting the US federal system with the more centralised French paradigm. This part of my work will be published as a book by Palgrave Macmillan towards the Fall 2023 in the Energy, Climate and the Environment book series.
What did the CEE and Sciences Po bring to your doctoral experience?
I have received wonderful sponsorship from the CEE, and I take this opportunity to warmly thank all of its members and staff, who supported me throughout my five years of doctoral studies. My PhD supervisor, Pr. Colin Hay, gave me a wide margin of maneuver to study the themes that interested me most, whilst providing me with very detailed and precise feedback. He was also always available to meet and advise me upon request. Moreover, I was inspired by the seminars organized at the CEE and at Sciences Po, since many focused on issues relating to my thesis such as the role of cities and territories in the ecological transition. In addition to these scientific seminars, I was also lucky to be able to work at a research center with a very warm and convivial atmosphere, where tenured researchers gladly accept to meet with and advise doctoral students.
Thanks to Sciences Po’s international partnerships, I had the opportunity to spend one year at Harvard University in the US as a Visiting Fellow (2018-19), which was a very enriching and useful experience since it enabled me to conduct a large part of my field research. Finally, I have also been able to teach my own class since Spring 2020 entitled ‘Global Climate Politics: Comparative EU-US Perspectives’ for the undergraduate level at Sciences Po’s Paris campus. Each semester, this seminar welcomes around thirty students coming from all around the world, and addresses several of my PhD topics such as global climate governance processes established by the Paris Agreement, as well as a comparative analysis of climate policies in Europe and the United States, including the role of sub-national and non-state actors. The last class of each semester is organised around a simulation of the COP negotiations, where students choose their roles in advance. These classes have led to very rich, lively and quality exchanges with my students over the last few years, allowing me to discover a passion for teaching, which I hope to be able to pursue for the rest of my career.
Interview by Véronique Etienne, Knowledge Exchange Officer, CEE, February 2023.
Congratulations to Nathalie Morel
- Nathalie Morel © Aurore Papegay / Sciences Po
Nathalie Morel, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po, member of the CEE and LIEPP, earned her accreditation to supervise research in political sciences on January 31st, 2023. She defended her habilitation thesis entitled “The politics of fiscal welfare: towards a social division of welfare and labour in France and Sweden”.
The jury was composed of:
- Philippe Bezes, CNRS Research Professor, Sciences Po, CEE
- Nicolas Duvoux, Professor, Université Paris 8
- Olivier Giraud, CNRS Research Professor, CNAM, Lise
- Kimberly Morgan, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
- Marta Szebehely, Professor Emerita, Stockholm University
Abstract
The privatisation or marketisation of welfare, the polarisation and dualisation of labour markets and the increase in social inequalities are three themes that have featured prominently in recent welfare state research, although most often as separate research endeavours. ‘Neo-liberalism’, as a kind of catch-all concept, has often been put forward as the analytical lens through which to understand these trends. While these trends have manifested themselves earlier and with greater force in the Liberal welfare states, labour market polarisation and dualisation, along with elements of transformation and privatisation of the welfare state have, however, come to the fore in the other welfare regimes also. This work proposes to cast a new light on these processes in two non-Liberal welfare states by tracing the role of a specific instrument, that of fiscal welfare - an approach which has remained a blind spot in the welfare state literature.
Fiscal welfare refers to a specific type of state intervention through the use of the tax system for social protection or employment purposes. As a policy instrument, it has traditionally been associated to Liberal welfare regimes. The more recent introduction of fiscal welfare policies in other types of welfare regimes raises the issue of the uses and effects of such an instrument in these other settings: How is it mobilised? By whom? For what purpose? How does it interact with the traditional public policy repertoire of non-Liberal welfare regimes? With what consequences? This work addresses these questions by focusing on two contrasted welfare states, namely France and Sweden, where the use of fiscal welfare has been growing.
The particular example of the introduction of a similar tax deduction on domiciliary care and household services in both countries is used to bring to light and illustrate the issues raised by the use of fiscal welfare, understood as a specific policy instrument, and to highlight the ways in which fiscal welfare can be used as an analytical lens to observe and understand the interrelated mechanisms behind the polarization of social structures that is taking place in these two countries with respect to both the labour market and welfare provision. The cross-country comparison further helps address the question of the specific properties of the fiscal welfare instrument and its policy feedback effects.
Replay - Simon Hix, "The Dance of European Integration: How Ideology and Policy Shape Support for the EU"
- Simon Hix / Alexandros Michailidis
"The Dance of European Integration: How Ideology and Policy Shape Support for the EU"
CEE General Seminar, 7 February 2023
Speaker: Simon Hix, Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute;
Chair: Jan Rovny, Sciences Po Associate Professor at the CEE and LIEPP;
Discussant: Chiao Li, PhD candidate at the CEE.
Abstract
Analysing 50 years of public opinion data and EU policy outputs, Simon Hix and Bjørn Høyland show how the relationship between political ideology and support for European integration has changed dramatically. In the 1970s and 1980s, people on the Right were more supportive of European integration than people on the Left. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Centrists were more supportive then Extremists. Today, the Left likes the EU while the Right opposes it. Simon and Bjørn argue that this pattern can be explained by the fact that attitudes towards the EU are endogenous to policy preferences. They develop a novel method for identifying the left-right position of EU policy outcomes, and show how citizens’ ideological “distance” from these outputs predicts their support for European integration. This has implications for the design of EU policies going forward.
Speaker
Simon Hix is the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute (EUI), in Florence. Prior to the EUI, Simon spent many years at the London School of Economics, where he was the Vice President for Research and the Harold Laski Professor of Political Science. Simon’s research and teaching focus on comparative political behaviour and institutions, in particular parties and party systems, electoral systems, legislative behaviour, and European Union politics. He has held visiting positions at, among other places, Stanford, Berkeley, Sciences Po, UC San Diego, the Hertie School, and the Korean Institute for International Economic Policy. Simon is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Recordings of the CEE General Seminar
Find all the seminar recordings on this SoundCloud page.
Congratulations to Andreas Eisl and Weiting Chao
- Actualité Sciences Po
On January 30th, 2023, Weiting Chao and Andreas Eisl both made a brilliant end to their PhD by defending their thesis in political science.
Andreas Eisl defended his thesis "The politics of budgetary constraints: an ideational explanation for the variation in national fiscal frameworks in the eurozone", jointly supervised by Emiliano Grossman (Sciences Po, CEE) and Martin Hopner (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies). The jury also include André Kaiser, Vivien Schmidt, Matthias Thiemann and Cornelia Woll. This PhD work aimed at understanding the variation in national fiscal frameworks that have been negotiated and implemented during the European public debt crisis. Dr. Andreas Eisl now makes use of these research findings to propose concrete policy recommendations for European fiscal policy-making and institutions as a member of the Jacques Delors Institute.
Weiting Chao defended her thesis entitled "Trade or cheat? The politically embedded opportunity structure for offenders in the commodification of carbon permits", supervised by Colin Hay, before a jury also including Jean-Yves Caneill, Christian de Perthuis, Christian Egenhofer, Andy Smith, Matthias Thiemann and Cornelia Woll. In her thesis, Dr. Weiting Chao examined how criminal activities accompany the creation of markets, by studying the European emissions trading scheme.
Congratulations to our two new PhDs! We wish them continued success in their subsequent careers.
Why ethnic politics can act as a check on democratic backsliding
- © Cinematographer
The presence of politically organised minority groups is often viewed as a source of instability or conflict within a democracy. Yet in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, democratic backsliding is more common in states that lack meaningful ethnic mobilisation, such as Poland and Hungary. Drawing on new research he just published in the American Political Science Review, Jan Rovny explains that far from undermining democracy, the presence of mobilised minority groups can act as a bulwark against backsliding because these groups have a stake in pursuing liberal political arrangements that limit the power of the majority.
Read Jan Rovny's blog post on LSE's "European Politics and Policy" blog.
Read the full paper (open access) published in the American Political Science Review.
Recruitment · Postdoctoral position
- Actualité Sciences Po
Postdoctoral position: ANR-funded research project on central banking
The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po invites applications from postdoctoral researchers in Social Science for the project Central banking in hard times: Knowledge, legitimacy, and politics (KNOWLEGPO). The French-German research project is led by Prof. Matthias Thiemann at Sciences Po Paris in collaboration with Dr. Benjamin Braun at the MPIfG
Research project description: Central banks have been drawn into debates over how to address the challenges of the 21st century, namely inequality and climate change. In the process, they have become increasingly contested, both among experts and in the broader public sphere. How do these technocratic organizations navigate this newly politicized landscape? How do monetary theory and practice evolve under these new pressures? To answer these questions, KNOWLEGPO will use a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative text analysis with qualitative process tracing, covering the three-decade period since the consolidation of the inflation targeting paradigm in the early 1990s. Through a focus on central banks, KNOWLEGPO will study broader political conflicts over the future macro-financial order.
Tasks: The successful candidate will work closely with the two principal investigators and with a second postdoctoral researcher hired at Max Planck to carry out the research project. This includes all steps of the research process, from data collection, to data analysis, to drafting. The team will produce a small number of high-quality research articles for academic journals.
Requirements: A PhD in social science, with research experience on central banking, macroeconomic policy, financial policy, or a related topic.
Desirable skills: Qualitative methods, with a particular emphasis on process tracing
Successful candidates are chosen on the basis of scholarly excellence and a job interview in person or via video conference. Sciences Po advocates diversity and equality. In particular we welcome applications from women and applicants with disabilities.
Contract details
Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract three-year, preferably starting on June 1, 2023.
Gross salary: Salary of between €2,700 and €3,000 per month (depending on qualifications and experience) for a full-time position (bruts mensuels).
Other contributions: partial contribution for transportation card within Paris (Pass Navigo) and restaurant tickets.
Application procedure
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV and (3) a sample of single-authored written piece of work in English to audrey.ferreira@sciencespo.fr by 5 pm on March 5th.
Applicants will be notified whether or not they will be invited for an interview by mid March
ABOUT US: Sciences Po is a leading international university in the social sciences. It welcomes and supports employees irrespective of gender, nationality, religion, disability, age, cultural background, or sexual identity. In their diversity lies the basis for the cutting-edge research conducted at Sciences Po.
Louis Baktash, CamPo visiting PhD candidate: Comparing public policies... and academic cultures
- Actualité Sciences Po
Louis Baktash, a 3rd year PhD student at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, University of Cambridge, just finished a four-month visiting stay at the CEE as part of the CamPo exchange scheme. He reflects on his experience in this interview.
What is your PhD thesis about?
I am working on regional policy in France and in England. I am trying to show to what extent the political events of the last few years (Brexit, the “Gilets jaunes” or “yellow vests” protests, government changes) have led to changes in public policies. And if there have been changes, to what extent have the aims, methods and instruments of these policies evolved? Has there been a policy convergence between the two countries? To answer these questions, I use electoral geography and public policy analysis.
What is your initial academic background?
After high school, I studied at Sciences Po Undergraduate College in a double major with a history degree at the Sorbonne, including a third year at the University of Oxford. I then followed the double Master programme between HEC Paris [business school] and the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po. In the final year, in addition to an internship, we had to conduct a research project. Instead of focusing on corporate issues or economic policies, I decided to study the Brexit vote in English and Welsh coastal areas. My mother comes from a coastal town in South-East England. Despite its proximity to London, almost 60% of voters there chose to leave the European Union, more than in its hinterland. I studied this difference in voting between coastal and inland areas, which I was able to explain by the impact of public policy, both British and European. This made me want to continue studying this topic. Starting from the electoral politics of coastal areas, the topic of my PhD project shifted towards the question of place within French and British regional policy-making.
Why did you apply for the CamPo programme and why did you choose the CEE as your host laboratory for this stay? What did you expect from this exchange programme?
I heard about CamPo by accident when I received an email from the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS), to which the Bennett Institute is affiliated. I thought that spending some time in France would be useful to conduct interviews and discuss with French researchers. My supervisor, Michael Kenny, saw this as a good opportunity and advised me to contact Colin Hay, a full professor here at the CEE, with whom he had worked before. Colin Hay was interested in my project and supported my application.
What did you get out of this experience?
I was able to meet in person civil servants and politicians who had worked on regional policy in France. Here, at the CEE, I also exchanged with researchers: Philippe Bezes and Patrick Le Lidec, both CNRS researchers who provided me with some useful insights, as well as my advisor Colin Hay who gave me valuable inputs on the theoretical side. I came out of this exchange with a better understanding of the French case, which was one of the objectives.
I also found it rewarding to discover a different research environment, a different academic culture, which I discovered by observing PhD students. rWhat is interesting at the CEE is that there is a lot of exchange between the senior researchers and the PhD candidates, especially thanks to the weekly seminars. This gives the impression that we are really among colleagues and I did not hesitate to ask for advice.
Overall, I think that the CamPo programme helps to build academic links. For example, with a few PhD students from the CEE, we set up an informal group to share scientific articles and other information related to the topic of place in policy and politics. And we will pursue it even after I am back in Cambridge.
Thank you to the CEE!
Thank you Louis and good luck with your PhD work!
In 2022, seven new PhD subjects with a focus on Europe and comparative studies
- © Aurore Papegay - DR
In 2022, seven new PhD candidates have started working at the CEE. This new, international class is focusing on comparative policy issues with a European backdrop.
Three doctoral students have started a thesis funded by a Cifre contract (PhD theses carried out jointly in a university laboratory and a company, non profit or public administration):
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Marta Tramezzani joined the CEE in January 2022 for a thesis on "the movement of energy communities in urban areas", under the supervision of Richard Balme. Under contract with the City of Paris (Direction de la transition écologique et du climat), she is investigating the way in which citizens and public actors interact in the co-construction of public energy transition policies, by comparing the cases of Paris, Milan and Barcelona.
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Since September, Arno Lizet has been working with the association "1000 cafés", which aims to revitalise rural areas in France through the provision of multi-service cafés. In his thesis under the supervision of Florence Faucher and Laurie Boussaguet, he is evaluating the social impact and the consequences in terms of political participation of this programme.
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Théodore Tallent is a PhD student under the supervision of Florence Faucher since September, in co-supervision with the University of Cambridge. His thesis on the acceptability of the low-carbon transition through territories, especially rural areas, in France and the UK, is being carried out in partnership with Elabe, a public opinion expert. Through this work, he hopes to contribute to the debate around a "just transition" in Europe.
A thesis started in September as part of the Franco-German project UnequalMand, which focuses on how social groups are targeted by election pledges. Under the supervision of Isabelle Guinaudeau and Emiliano Grossman, Selma Sarenkapa is interested in how the media in France and Germany construct (or not) a deserving image of these target groups, influencing their legitimacy to claim favourable public policies.
The other three theses are funded by Sciences Po doctoral contracts:
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Under the title "A conflicting climate? A comparative study of national elected officials' responses to climate change in Western Europe', Malo Jan studies how elected officials in different national parliaments in Europe deal with the climate issue and the conflicts that this generates between and within political parties. His thesis is supervised by Emiliano Grossman.
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Chiao Li is preparing a thesis on the transformation of electoral participation and political preferences across generations in Europe, under the supervision of Laura Morales. His work attempts to understand changing electoral dynamics between national and European Parliament elections, as well as evolving long-term determinants of voters' preferences.
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Supervised by Jan Rovny, Luis Sattelmayer studies how mainstream parties in France, Germany and the UK compete and position themselves with regard to the salient issues of populist radical right parties, such as immigration.
2022 was also marked by five PhD defences: congratulations to our new PhDs, Clément Claret, Roberto Rodriguez, Aifang Ma, Denys Gorbach and Arnault Barichella!
"Studying the governance of transnational illegal markets”
- Gabriel Feltran - © Aurore Papegay / Sciences Po
Gabriel Feltran joined the CEE as a CNRS Research Professor in November 2022, from the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil.
Through a long ethnography in urban outskirts, Gabriel Feltran focuses on governance, power, violence and normative regimes, particularly among illegal and criminal market chains.
In this video, he talks about his past and current research and tells his reasons for choosing to join the CEE.
Download the interview transcript (PDF, 48 ko)
Video: Jean Reibel, Sciences Po - Interview: Véronique Etienne, knowledge exchange officer, CEE
From Dictatorships to Terrorism, How to End the Violence?
- Actualité Sciences Po
South Africa, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, post-communist Eastern Europe, post-dictatorship Latin America, etc. Since the 1990s, many countries have sought to negotiate a transition to peace after mass violence. In her latest book, Sandrine Lefranc examines the parameters for success.
What is transitional justice? What concrete measures have been put in place? What place does the voice of the victims hold? What do the trials of the 2015-2016 terrorist attacks and transitional justice have in common? Find out in an interview with Sandrine Lefranc, to be read in issue #19 of Cogito, the research magazine of Sciences Po.
Recruitment · Junior researcher
- Actualité Sciences Po
General Information
We are seeking to appoint a junior researcher to work with Prof Laura Morales (the PI) in the Horizon Europe project “ActEU: Towards a new era of representative democracy - Activating European Citizens’ Trust in Times of Crises and Polarization”. Sciences Po is a partner in this project led by the Universities of Duisburg-Essen and of Saarland (Germany), and the Sciences Po team is led by Prof Morales at CEE, who is joined in the project by researchers at both CEE and CEVIPOF.
The ActEU project studies political trust and legitimacy in Europe using a new conceptual framework – the ActEU conceptual triangle. The project focuses on the interactions between citizens’ political attitudes, their political participation and the representation of their policy preferences with the aim of mapping and investigating the sources of the decline of political trust and legitimacy in Europe.
In addition to the overall conceptual triangle, ActEU considers the specific challenges posed by new controversies that are polarizing European societies as well as by the multi-level structure of the EU multi-level system of governance. Therefore, we place specific emphasis on the different levels of the polity that are pertinent in the EU multi-level system as well as on major policy fields – migration, the environment, gender inequalities – around which European societies are highly polarized.
Our research methods range from descriptive large-N analyses of publicly available data sets (all EU member states + additional countries wherever necessary), qualitative focus group discussions, to quantitative survey experiments and web-scraping techniques for selected countries:
- We provide deep insights for the following ten EU countries: Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland and Spain (i.e., quantitative survey experiments and web scraped data).
- For the focus groups, we opt for a smaller country selection (Czechia, France, Germany and Greece)
Based on the empirical findings, one of the major aims of ActEU is to develop a toolbox of remedial actions including two toolkits for (1) European, national, regional and local policymakers, and (2) civil society and the educational sector to (re-)activate citizens and to enhance trust in and legitimacy of representative democracy.
The project starts in March 2023 and will run for 36 months until February 2026. The junior researcher will join a team at Sciences Po formed by 7 senior researchers and a research engineer, and an international team formed by senior and junior researchers in 11 other universities and research organizations.
Contract details
Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract (CDD d’usage) for 24 months.
Gross salary: Salary of between €2,500 and €2,900 per month (depending on qualifications and experience) for a full-time position (bruts mensuels).
Other contributions: partial contribution for transportation card within Paris (Passe Navigo) and restaurant tickets.
The appointment is for a start date of 15th March 2023 (or 1 st April 2023 at the latest) and the contract duration is for 24 months (any extensions will be subject to funding availability).
Application procedure
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV and (3) a sample of single-authored written piece of work in English that includes quantitative empirical analysis to linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr by 5 pm on Tuesday 31th January.
Tasks
We are seeking to appoint a junior researcher who will undertake the following range of tasks:
- Coordinating all deliverables and data collection/analysis for the project;
- Contributing to the identification of relevant political actors, groups and websites for the web-scraping data harvesting for France;
- Contributing intellectual input to the design and documentation of the experimental survey;
- Analyzing cross-national survey data on the dynamics and patterns of political trust and political action, as well as on the role of ethnic diversity and the politicization of immigration on such dynamics and patterns, and contributing as necessary to the reports and deliverables relating to such analyses;
- Contributing to the leadership of WP2 on citizens’ attitudes;
- Contributing to the design of toolkits and policy briefs for policymakers and other stakeholders on the results of the project produced by the Sciences Po team;
- Contributing to the preparation and delivery of all dissemination, communication and exploitation activities of the project;
- Being responsible for the maintenance and version control of the data collected, including the preparation of Data Management Plans and any other formal Personal Data Protection requirements established by Sciences Po, the ActEU coordinators or the European Commission. This will also include inputting of data and its safe storage using the agreed protocols, as defined by the research team and Sciences Po’s research data protection policy;
- Prepare and undertake data analysis and tests using quantitative and qualitative techniques and approaches agreed with the Principal Investigator and the rest of the team;
- Attending all meetings of the international consortium;
- Actively contributing to (and where necessary, leading) academic publications stemming from the project, also including the preparation of any replication data submission for journals, as required;
- Supporting the PI in all administrative and project management tasks as required;
- Identifying and understanding work requirements prioritising tasks and responsibilities within an agreed timeframe agreed with the PI;
- The post holder will be required to effectively manage their time to deliver on the priorities of the project. The post holder will need to plan ahead to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines. This may include defining tasks and schedules, organising meetings, preparing intermediate reports on data and findings, and contributing to the preparation of the project final report.
Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Essential:
- A PhD in Politics or Political Sociology with a substantive or methodological focus relevant to the project, completed or close to completion (e.g., in final stages of the writing-up period);*
- Demonstrable training and experience using quantitative research methods and techniques;*
- An expertise, backed up by research experience, in the subfields of political behaviour and political attitudes in France and Europe, and in one or several of the following fields:, political representation, political institutions or political parties;*
- Research experience in subjects or projects relevant to the research project;*
- Proficiency in English (oral and for academic writing) and French;*
- Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Stata or R;*
- Advanced-level quantitative analysis skills (e.g., including pooled cross-sectional time series analysis, multilevel regression analysis, etc.);*
- Proven ability to write up research findings;*
- Ability to take initiative, self-manage and contribute intellectually to the overall project;
- Expertise with relevant office packages;
- Ability to work as part of a team;
- Good oral and written communication skills;*
- Attention to detail.*
Desirable, but not essential:
- Experience in primary survey data collection;
- Reading proficiency in at least one more of the following languages would be an advantage: German, Italian or Spanish;
- Some experience with Bayesian statistics, the analysis of social media data and/or the design of experiments in surveys would be an advantage;
- Prior research experience in externally funded projects;*
- A track record of international collaboration in social science research or consultancy experience;
- Experience in writing reports for funders;
(*Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
Replay - The Effect of Children's Economic Hardship on Future Voting
- Actualité Sciences Po
"Material Deprivation in Childhood and Unequal Political Socialization: The Effect of Children's Economic Hardship on Future Voting"
CEE General Seminar, 6 December 2022.
Long-term socialisation patterns are considered a key explanation for socio-economic inequalities in political participation. Material conditions in youth and childhood are assumed to contribute to rather stable trajectories of political apathy or involvement and lay the foundations for political inequality from before voting age and far into adulthood. However, our understanding of when such inequalities begin to become noticeable, the importance of parental as opposed to personal socio-economic status, and potential long-term consequences is still limited. Paul Marx and his co-author Sebastian Jungkunz address these issues using the youth questionnaire of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. They show that material deprivation in childhood still has a substantial negative effect on turnout when young adults reach the first election in which they are eligible to vote. This result holds when they control for an unusually exhaustive list of potential confounders, such as psychological childhood characteristics, parental political interest and education, present material conditions, mental health, and future educational degrees. They, hence, demonstrate that—while personal socio-economic experiences in early adulthood are not irrelevant — socio-economic family background has an independent, strong, and (probably) lasting effect on political participation.
Paul Marx is a Professor of Political Science and Socio-Economics at University of Duisburg-Essen. In addition, he is affiliated to the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies as a part-time professor and to the IZA Institute of Labor Economics as a research fellow. In the current academic year, he is visiting professor at Sciences Po (Alfred Grosser Chair) and he conducts research at the CEE on unequal political participation and representation. Further research interests include comparative labour market analysis and the politics of taxation. His work has been published in journals such as British Journal of Sociology, European Journal of Political Research, European Sociological Review, and the Journal of Politics.
6 December 2022 session of the CEE general seminar, chaired by Isabelle Guinaudeau, CNRS Research Fellow at the CEE. Presentation discussed by Théodore Tallent, PhD candidate at the CEE, and Nonna Mayer, CNRS Research Professor (emeritus) at the CEE.
Interview with Charlotte Halpern, back from the COP27
- Actualité Sciences Po
Last month, Charlotte Halpern, FNSP tenured researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po, attended the climate change conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. Charlotte specialises in comparative public policy processes. In this interview, she reflects on her experience at the COP27 and how she show-cased the work of the SUMP-PLUS project.
Interview by Charlène Lavoir, Communications Department, Sciences Po
What was your role at COP27?
Accreditation opportunities for the COP are few and far between, so my presence at COP27 is the result of a wonderful combination of circumstances.
Let me first explain how COP27 works: there is the ‘on’ and the ‘off’. The ‘on’ is the official programme — the negotiations between the parties, and the ‘off’ part allows all the observers to host side events on the subjects of their choice — agriculture, health, mobility, development, etc. This gives expert observers the opportunity to speak on their areas of expertise and to exchange views with peers and a highly mobilised audience.
I was invited to present my research results at a side event organised by Anneliese Depoux, Director of the Virchow-Villermé Centre for Public Health Paris-Berlin of the Université Paris Cité. Anneliese is in charge of health issues within the Earth Politics Centre, of which we are both board members, and this round table organised in partnership with the University of California was about the decarbonisation of health systems.
What was the focus of your presentation?
I focused my presentation on SUMP-PLUS, a project within which I coordinate the governance and political capacities of cities to drive a sustainable and decarbonised urban mobility trajectory, and where a large part of the work is dedicated to the decarbonisation of local health systems.
For the most experienced cities in sustainable urban mobility, it is becoming essential to identify additional reservoirs for reducing their carbon emissions to intensify and accelerate decarbonisation. They do this by forging strategic partnerships with sectors of activity that generate mobility, for example health, education, tourism or logistics, etc. For the health system, this concerns the transport and delivery of medicines, home care and emergency services, journeys by health workers and patients to hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' surgeries, the transport of health care waste, etc. Other aspects include for example energy efficiency in buildings, public procurement and waste management. Reducing carbon emissions requires integrated, cross-sectoral approaches: their design and, above all, their implementation is a major challenge for actors who do not speak the same ‘language’ and rarely cross paths.
The SUMP-PLUS project gave me the opportunity to understand this challenge from a British case, based in the Manchester City Lab and led by our SUMP PLUS partner, Stuart Blackadder from Transport for Greater Manchester: following the adoption in 2020 of a decarbonisation plan by the National Health Service (NHS), Transport for Greater Manchester launched a pilot project to decarbonise health-related travel within its territory. Thanks to SUMP-PLUS, it has been possible to bring together all the stakeholders in this cross-sectoral project: health care staff, hospital management, municipal and regional health authorities, economic stakeholders and patient representatives. The city lab has laid the foundations for a joint action plan and drawn lessons from pre-existing pilot projects. The city lab has also worked across sectors with all the city's departments and the Mayor's office to propose a governance system dedicated to steering this decarbonisation process by 2038.
My role, in collaboration with Prof. Peter Jones from University College London and other SUMP-PLUS partners was to accompany the city in this process. I relied on two competences: as a researcher specialised in public action, to identify the issues specific to cross-sectoral public action; and as the scientific manager of an executive Master's degree at Sciences Po on urban governance, to train professionals from the public and private sectors in the management of highly complex territorial projects.
During this side event, I presented the research results of the Manchester City Lab, which are the culmination of three years of work. Five other cities are partners in this European project, each having developed its City Lab on an issue identified as a priority - tourism for Lucca (Italy) and Platanias (Crete), logistics for Lucca and Antwerp (Belgium), education for Klaipeda (Lithuania) and for Alba Iulia (Romania). This project is very much grounded in reality, and shows the many implications of a decarbonisation of the transport system on a local scale with practical consequences. This includes the limits of an all-electric strategy, the challenge of deploying alternatives to the car in small and medium-sized cities, and the way in which the rise of the zero-carbon objective requires the overhaul of governance structures and processes on the scale of the whole city.
I was also able to meet other researchers interested in decarbonising the healthcare system. This may lead to new research opportunities in the future. So this side event was very useful!
How was Sciences Po represented at COP27?
Sciences Po was present in various ways. Carola Klöck, Assistant Professor at CERI, participated with PhD students whose research focuses on international negotiations. Carola's research focuses on climate change adaptation and climate change policy more generally, and she also studies the role of developing island states in international climate negotiations. COP27 is an object of study in itself!
Thanks to the support of the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate Change (GAUC), of which Sciences Po is a member, Sciences Po's International Affairs Department was able to obtain additional accreditations for three students who took part last summer in a "Climate x" Leadership training pilot initiative co-sponsored by Sciences Po and Tsinghua University. Sciences Po is one of the founding members of the GAUC, an international alliance of 15 world-class universities, including many close partners of Sciences Po, which have been uniting around climate change issues since 2019. The "Climate x" leadership training pilot aims to train a student community from all parts of the world on climate change issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. More than 150 students from 15 member universities around the world, including 30 from Sciences Po, participated in this first edition, with interventions from permanent faculty members from the different partner institutions, among which Carola and myself, to address issues related to energy, finance, nature, biodiversity and food, adaptation and resilience, and finally, international negotiations and public policies on climate. Students also worked in groups on their own projects, and two Sciences Po students were able to present their work at COP27, in a side event organised on Youth Day, November 9th.
Another important alliance for Sciences Po was present at COP27: the U7+ Alliance, founded by our university in 2019, hosted a side event. In a more informal capacity, several exchanges took place between representatives of the U7+ member universities present at the COP in a process of pooling knowledge and resources that are spread across the 50 members of the U7+ Alliance, for the benefit of university action on environmental transformations.
What is the role of research in addressing the challenges of environmental transformations?
The IPCC and, in France, the Haut Conseil pour le Climat (High Council for Climate), to name but two bodies, have constantly alerted public authorities about the need to inform policy making of the results of research on environmental transformations i There has never been so much data on the urgency of climate and ecological issues, across multiple disciplines. Beyond this effort to conceptualise, produce data and analytical work, the academic world is bubbling with proposals and avenues to explore new solutions.
Henceforth, for those of us who are interested in public policy processes, there is nothing mechanical about transposing this knowledge into public action, an endeavor facing many obstacles. Taking climate change into account at all levels implies such a profound upheaval of our economic, political, social and legal systems that many governments are hesitant. How can we reconcile these long-term objectives with short-term contingencies? How do we move from incentives to restrictions on activities bearing the most detrimental environmental impact? How can scientific models, such as that of planetary limits, currently in vogue among practitioners, be translated into operational terms? What accompanying measures should be planned, and in what timeframe, to support the conversion of jobs and professions directly affected, and to support the most vulnerable social groups and territories?
Faced with the magnitude of the task, there is unfortunately a strong temptation to limit oneself to small short-term measures, to "quick wins", to serve one's own clientele or to favour routine solutions, a shortcoming that has been highlighted many times by public policy research.
Environmental issues are now featured in the media and in the public debate on a regular basis: has this changed your work?
When I arrived at Sciences Po in 2012, there were not many of us working on the subject, all disciplines combined. Today, there are more than forty permanent faculty members. The attention paid to environmental issues has continued to grow, particularly thanks to the commitment of students, and has opened many doors for us: we have more spaces for exchange and dialogue. There is also more funding available for research.
Sciences Po is a good example of this ever-growing interest in environmental issues over the last ten years: the permanent faculty has grown in numbers, an interdisciplinary research group, AIRE, has been created to complement what is already being done in the research centres, and interdisciplinary programmes, open to other scientific disciplines, have been created in partnership with Université Paris Cité. Thanks to the launch of the Bruno Latour Fund, ten post-doctoral researchers will strengthen this collective dynamic. On the teaching side too, courses have grown significantly, as have dedicated programmes. This also entails a great deal of commitment, particularly in terms of monitoring the academic production of students at all levels — university college, masters, doctorate — and supporting their initiatives.
Podcast - Parliamentary Stayers in Western Democracies: Mind the Gender-Gap in Political Endurance
- Actualité Sciences Po
Earlier this year Ragnhild Louise Muriaas started a project funded by The European Research Council (ERC Consolidator grant) with the title “Gender-Gap in Political Endurance: a novel political inclusion theory” (SUCCESS). The paper presented in this seminar, based on research conducted by Ragnhild Louise Muriaas and Torill Stavenes, discusses the novelty of the concept of political endurance and aims to establish how the size of a gender gap in political endurance varies over time and countries in western democracies. The scholars study how gender shapes political endurance in parliaments, building on the research documenting how newcomers are disadvantaged their first term in office, while senior members enjoy certain privileges. Thus, if there are gender gaps in political endurance women could face more barriers than men in getting their job done as representatives. They put forward three different measures to study gender gaps in political endurance to find out if, how and when men are more likely than women to be a parliamentary stayer. Studying the endurance of all parliamentarians in 10 western democracies from 1965 to 2021 they show that there are gender gaps in political endurance across the different measurements, but that gender gaps are particularly apparent if they concentrate on those that have served as parliamentarians for three or more terms.
Ragnhild Louise Muriaas is a professor of Political Science at the Department of Government, University of Bergen. She is a visiting scholar at LIEPP this semester and will join the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics in the spring. She obtained her PhD in comparative politics at the University of Bergen in 2008. Her research concerns questions of politics and gender with a focus on representation, political careers, and political financing. She was the PI of a large FRIPRO project financed by the Research Council of Norway called “Money Talks: Gendered Electoral Financing in Democratic and Democratizing States” (2016-2021) and she is currently also a research partner in a project on gender aspects of political violence. She has published four books—one monography, two edited volumes and a text book, and she has published articles in such journals as the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, African Affairs, Political Studies and International Political Science Review. From 2017 to 2021 she served as the Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Social Sciences and the leader of the board at the Centre for Women's and Gender Research (SKOK) at the University of Bergen.
This session of the CEE general seminar was held on 22 November 2022 and chaired by Laura Morales, Full Professor at Sciences Po, CEE. The presentation was discussed by Elisa Bellè, Marie Curie Fellow at the CEE.
Find all the recordings of the CEE General Seminar on Soundcloud.
Job Application
La chaire “Villes et numérique” est une chaire de recherche et d’enseignements lancée en mars 2017 au sein de l’École urbaine, en partenariat avec le Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée de Sciences Po (UMR 8239). Consacrée aux effets de la transition numérique sur la gouvernance des villes et des territoires, cette chaire a pour objet le développement d’enseignements et de recherche sur ces questions en associant des entreprises et des organisations à l’École urbaine de Sciences Po, ses étudiantes et étudiants, ses chercheures et chercheurs et ses partenaires.
La Chaire, pilotée par Antoine Courmont, chercheur en science politique et directeur scientifique de la chaire, recrute une ou un assistant de recherche pour une période de 6 mois à temps plein.
En collaboration avec le directeur scientifique de la chaire, l’assistant ou assistante de recherche aura pour mission de mener une recherche comparative sur les stratégies de partenariats entre les plateformes de l’économie numérique et les collectivités locales. L’objectif de ce projet de recherche est d’analyser les restructurations du capitalisme et les recompositions de la gouvernance urbaine liées à l’émergence d’une couche informationnelle de la ville. Il vise à décrire précisément les modalités de constitution et de valorisation du patrimoine en données de l’entreprise, et, d’analyser dans quelle mesure ce capital informationnel met à l’épreuve les institutions publiques et leur souveraineté.
MISSIONS
Le travail de l’assistant ou assistante de recherche sera décomposé en trois phases :
A partir d’une revue de presse et d’une analyse documentaire, réalisation de portraits d’entreprise visant à cartographier leurs offres, présenter leurs stratégies de développement et identifier les territoires dans lesquels elles se déploient et leurs partenariats avec les acteurs publics
Réalisation d’entretiens semi-directifs (auprès des élus, des agents de collectivités, des salariés de l’entreprise et d’autres acteurs tiers) pour comprendre la genèse et la conduite de ces partenariats
Analyse comparée, rédaction d’un compte-rendu et présentation de la recherche lors d’un séminaire interne
Les résultats de la recherche seront valorisés sous la forme d’un texte scientifique, écrit en collaboration avec les chercheurs de la chaire Villes et numérique.
L’assistante ou assistant de recherche sera pleinement intégré à l’équipe de la Chaire Villes et numérique et de l’École urbaine ainsi qu’au CEE et participera à leurs différentes activités.
Il ou elle travaillera au sein de l’École urbaine de Sciences Po, participera aux activités du programme de recherche, i.e., séminaires, conférences et développera son programme de travail en lien avec l’équipe de la chaire Villes et numérique et en association avec le Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée (CEE) de Sciences Po.
Des déplacements dans les territoires étudiés sont à prévoir. Les frais de déplacement seront intégralement pris en charge par la chaire.
QUALIFICATIONS
Master en science politique, sociologie, ou urbanisme ou autres sciences sociales
Une première expérience de recherche empirique et des compétences à la conduite de l’enquête qualitative par entretiens sont requis
La connaissance du secteur du numérique et des politiques territoriales est un plus.
Autonomie dans le travail quotidien, rigueur, capacités de synthèse, d’analyse et de rédaction
La langue de travail est le français. Une maîtrise orale et écrite (niveau académique) de cette langue est indispensable.
STATUT
Contrat à durée déterminée à temps plein pour 6 mois (démarrage au 1er janvier 2023)
Rémunération 2100 à 2300 euros bruts selon l’expérience
50% du financement des transports en commun (pass navigo)
Tickets-restaurant
PROCEDURE DE RECRUTEMENT
Envoyez un CV et une lettre de motivation détaillant vos expériences et compétences pertinentes pour le poste.
Les candidatures sont à envoyer avant le 23 novembre. Les entretiens des candidates et candidats pré-sélectionnés auront lieu le 28 novembre (après-midi).
Interview: Rad Zubek, visiting professor
- Actualité Sciences Po
Rad Zubek is a visiting professor at the CEE for one month (October - November 2022). He obtained a scholarship through the OxPo programme for this stay.
Rad, can you tell us about your academic background and research?
Sure, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University. I joined Oxford after my PhD and a post-doc at the LSE. My current research focuses on the evolution of legislative institutions in European parliamentary democracies.
What are the main questions you are concerned with in your research?
Let me give you an example. In some parliaments, the institutional set-up is such that there is very little legislative scrutiny of governmental legislation. In other parliaments, however, the rules give members and party groups extensive powers to scrutinise legislation. Why? Is this a historical accident, or rather a result of strategic institutional choice by parties and members? These are the kind of questions I ask in my research. They are about legislative rules, but they also speak to a more general question in social sciences: why and how do humans create rules and institutions?
You applied to the OxPo exchange programme and chose to come to the CEE: can you tell us the reasons?
The reason why I applied to OxPo is that there are people here in the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics that work on legislative institutions in France and I thought it would be great to expand my research project to cover the French context.
Together with a colleague at UCL, Tom Fleming, I have an ongoing data project on parliamentary rules. On the ParlRulesData.org website we make available machine-readable texts of parliamentary rules for different national parliaments. We have created a dataset of all the rules that existed in the House of Commons since 1811. We have just finished similar work on the Irish Dáil since 1922 (the research I presented on at the seminar, on how coalition governments can use rules to achieve their goals, was based on this dataset) and I am in the process of researching the Tweede Kamer in the Netherlands since 1815 and the Polish Sejm since 1919.
With Olivier Rozenberg [Associate Professor at the CEE], we have decided to examine the National Assembly, starting in 1814. With a research assistant working with us at the CEE, Julie Squercioni, we are undertaking some preliminary data collection in October-November this year and hopefully this will provide a good basis for a bigger project. The French case is interesting because France has had a lot of constitutional breaks since the early 19th century, unlike the UK for example.
So we are very lucky to have you here as a visiting guest to expand on this open data project! What are your plans during your stay?
Another aspect of the project with Olivier [Rozenberg] is to explore ways in which we can engage with the services of the French National Assembly. Tom [Fleming] and I were very fortunate to have been able to collaborate with the House of Commons (HC) Library and the Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) in the UK. The HC Library and PDS have used our data and method to build a publicly available API on the parliament’s website which makes UK procedural data available to MPs and the public. It would be exciting to see if we could collaborate on similar or other projects with the National Assembly.
Interview: Véronique Etienne, Knowledge Exchange Officer, CEE
Requests for proposal
- Actualité Sciences Po
Founded in 2015, the Urban School deals with ll the challenges of contemporary societies intersect in the city: growing inequality, economic development, conflict, cultural hybridisation, relations between government and the governed, democracy and collective choices, accumulation of data and technologies, pollution, police, mobility, financialisation, etc…The purpose is to educate those who will transform the world through the city, using a structured, professionally-focused, critical and comparative approach.
The aim of the “Cities, Housing and Real Estate Chair” is to contribute to analysis of changes within the real estate sector, from the unique perspective of an approach rooted in the theoretical and methodological tools of the social sciences.
Many of the major developments affecting members of the real estate sector today fall within this scope of analysis: examples include changes to public housing policies (national and local), the dynamics of metropolisation, the impact of climate change on cities, or socio-demographic shifts within cities and regions.
The health crisis (Covid-19) reinforces a number of questions and opens up research perspectives on the nature of real estate production, its financing, and its geography for years to come.
Finally, at a time when French property developers are increasingly involved in the production of urban spaces and when large-scale metropolitan projects (such as France’s Grand Paris Express rail network or consultations like the “Inventons la Métropole du Grand Paris” initiative) are redefining our ways of thinking about real estate projects and public/private sector interaction, a more systematic analysis of property challenges through the prism of contemporary urban dynamics seems more essential than ever.
Four sponsors have agreed to support the chair over the course of a three-year partnership: CDC Habitat, FPI France, Gecina and Eiffage Aménagement.
All the requests for proposal:
Study on the contribution of digital actors to the financialisation of real estate,
in a comparative perspective (PDF, 242 Ko)
Deadline - 20th November
Study on the contribution of institutional investors to affordable housing policies,
in a comparative perspective (PDF, 149 Ko)
Deadline - 20th November
Study on the relationship between environmental policy instruments and the buildings sector in a comparative perspective (PDF, 147 Ko)
Deadline - 20th November
Podcast - Coalition Bargaining and Legislative Institutions
- Actualité Sciences Po
Previous work shows that robust legislative oversight institutions strengthen the ability of multi-party governments to enforce policy agreements. This raises the question of whether coalitions choose such institutions strategically. In a joint article, Tom Fleming (UCL) and Radoslaw Zubek introduce a formal bargaining model in which parties negotiate over legislative procedures as well as policy compromises and the allocation of ministerial posts. This model suggests that coalition partners' incentives for creating strong oversight institutions are shaped by the relative priority they place on policy and office benefits, their relative bargaining power, and the existence of outside options during coalition formation. We provide initial evidence of the model's empirical plausibility by analyzing the evolution of committee oversight procedures in the Irish parliament (Dail Eireann) over more than 100 years. These findings open interesting avenues for future work on how parties shape legislative institutions in parliamentary democracies.
Radoslaw Zubek is an Associate Professor of European Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford. His current research focuses on coalition politics, legislative committees, and institutional change in European parliamentary democracies. He has published his work among others in American Political Science Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, West European Politics, and the European Journal of Political Research. His is a co-leader of the ParlRulesData.org project: parlrulesdata.org/
Call for proposals
- Actualité Sciences Po
The PhD candidates of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics organize on 8th December 2022 their fourth doctoral workshop, on the theme Cities and migration: perspectives on interdependencies. The workshop will be composed of panel sessions, each based on a specific issue and a set of papers discussed by a senior researcher and a PhD candidate of the Centre. The goal of this workshop is to nurture academic debates with the work of PhD students in social sciences while disclosing them to a larger audience.
Only doctoral students can propose a paper for discussion in the workshop. Proposals should be no longer than 2000 characters and must be sent by 24 October, along with a paragraph presenting the candidates, their research interests, and their research center or department. The proposals will be selected before 28 October. The authors of the selected proposals will be asked to send a conference paper by 28 November.
The proposals can be either in French or in English. If the proposal is in French, the candidates must indicate whether they are able to present and the subsequent discussion in English (and vice-versa, for proposals in English). The language of each panel will be decided considering candidates' restrictions.
No restriction of discipline, geographical area, or approach applies as long as the proposals are articulated to the issues described below.
https://forms.gle/xCMU7bEqG4MmzFkEA
Job Application
- Actualité Sciences Po
Research assistant position (4 months, full time), CIVITAS SUMP-PLUS project (EU-funded, under Horizon 2020)
The Centre for European studies and comparative politics at Sciences Po seeks to appoint a Research Assistant in comparative urban governance or public policies to support Dr Charlotte HALPERN with research exploitation and dissemination in the SUMP PLUS project (Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning: Pathways and Links to Urban Systems) led by Antwerp City (M. De Roeck), Grant n°814881.
CONTEXT
The project is entering its final stage. During those months, the team led by Dr. Halpern at Sciences Po, CEE will contribute to the work achieved at project level by:
- Providing research input (original dataset and analysis) on transition pathways and implementation strategies to achieve zero carbon by 2030/2050 in European cities.
- Supporting other partners with the delivery of policy and operational objectives, with specific focus on governance arrangements and policy capacities.
- Leveraging the lessons learned from partner cities to scale up in other EU countries as part of exploitation & dissemination activities.
- Work package leading, including contributing to project activities and meetings
JOB DESCRIPTION
The appointed Research Assistant will focus more specifically on exploitation activities.
This includes the development of high-level policy documents (e.g., policy briefs, project summary, etc.) and training material (e.g., follower cities). He/she will draw on the rich empirical material that was gathered during the project to leverage the lessons learned from partner cities and to scale up across other EU countries.
He/she will join a large team of experts from across Europe on planning and implementing sustainable urban mobility transitions and will have the chance to work on a project that will break new ground in this field.
More precisely, the person appointed will perform the following tasks under the supervision and/or jointly with the PI, involving:
- Contributing to the dissemination of research findings inside and outside academia, mainly through expert notes or policy briefings.
- Contributing to any dissemination or public engagement activities deemed of interest to the project;
- Completing the existing dataset with desk analysis and a selected number of group and /or face-to-face interviews.
- Contributing to any scientific management and administration tasks arising from the research project, incl. reports.
We welcome applications from excellent candidates with a Master degree and some research experience in one or more of following areas: public policy and governance, comparative politics and transition studies. Previous experience in research dissemination is needed.
Work environment – The person employed will be:
- Based at Sciences Po, CEE, in Paris, and fully integrated in the SUMP-PLUS consortium.
- Willing to work in a European environment and under the supervision of the PI.
- Willing to travel – provided the sanitary conditions allow it.
Qualifications, knowledge, and experience – essential:
- An excellent master’s degree in political science or sociology, or close discipline, with a major in public policy and governance, comparative politics or transition studies.
- Excellent writing skills and proficiency in English (written and spoken).
- Excellent skills in developing efficient visuals.
Applications should be sent by October 15, 2022 to Linda Amrani, General Secretary of the CEE Sciences Po: linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr
You will be asked to provide a CV, a covering letter (no longer than 2 pages) and the names and contact information of two reference persons.
Candidates short-listed for interview (online) will be contacted during the week of October 17. Interviewees will be asked to take a practical test, which is intended to replicate in a somewhat realistic (but shorter fashion) some of the real tasks that she or he will need to complete if appointed to the position.
They will be informed of the results no later than October 22, 2022.
Florence Faucher, New Director of the CEE
- Actualité Sciences Po
On September 1st, 2022, Florence Faucher, Professor of political science at Sciences Po, became Director of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), taking over from Florence Haegel. In this video, she presents her academic background, her research, how she views her new role and the CEE.
Shooting and editing: Dimitri Borit / Sciences Po.
Interview by Sébastien Wony and Véronique Etienne
Job Application
- Actualité Sciences Po
Background:
We are seeking to appoint a Researcher to work with Profs. Jean-Philippe Cointet, Caterina Froio, Romain Lachat and Jan Rovny in the project “Neo-authoritarianisms in Europe and the liberal democratic response” (AUTHLIB) of the Horizon Europe funded by the European Commission.
The AUTHLIB project’s basic premise is that liberal democracy faces not one challenge but many challenges and that therefore we must comprehensively consider the challenges that have emerged across and within countries in Europe in recent years. To do the AUTHLIB project carefully and systematically explores the varieties of illiberalism. Illiberalism has diverse ways of appealing to elites and to highly varied citizens, through narratives, programs and policies, emotional appeals, and institutional innovations, and it has developed methods of diffusion, each of which needs to be understood and mapped. In line with the varieties of illiberalism and their diverse diffusion channels the policies to mitigate and combat them need to be appropriate to the nature of the challenge in a given context.
The Sciences Po team will be responsible for the most extensive empirical data-collection work package in the project. The Postdoctoral Research Fellow will be expected to contribute mainly to the data collection and empirical analyses which maps ideological configurations and dimensions by analyzing party documents, speeches of public figures and social media activity of engaged citizens and by the conducting expert-surveys on the orientation of political actors. The research work will be aimed at the preparation of high-quality publications, drafting and submission of research reports to the European Commission, , and organization of social impact activities in co-creation with civil society and institutions in Hungary and at the European level.
Skills and qualification:
- PhD in Political Science, Sociology, Data Science or related disciplines (completed or to be defended within max 6 months after the application).
- Excellent knowledge of R or Python programming
- Very good skills in text and (optionally) network analysis methods
- Experience in text-as-data methods (e.g., dictionary analyses, supervised machine learning, topic modeling, word embedding).
- Interest in or some background knowledge in the study of democracy would be an asset, but is not required.
- Excellent written and spoken language skills in English.
- Strong interest in academic research, ideally proven through international publications and/or collaboration in research projects.
- Ability to work effectively, both independently and collaboratively, in an international team.
What we offer
- The appointment is full-time and available from February 1, 2023 with a contract duration of 24 months.
- Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract (CDD)
- Gross salary (salaire brut): between €2,500 and € 3,000 per month depending on qualifications and experience
- Partial contribution for Paris transportation card
- Restaurant tickets
How to apply
Please send:
- a cover letter outlining precisely the qualifications and skills that match the requirements for the position, and previous work experience carrying out similar tasks to those required here.
- a CV
- a writing sample (an article or PhD thesis)
to linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr by 5pm on December 4, 2022 .
Interviews will be planned in mid December.
Job Application
- Actualité Sciences Po
Research Assistant Repchance project
Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée (UMR 8239)
Sciences Po
Contract details
We are seeking to appoint a postgraduate Research Assistant specialised in Spain (and a native or near-native speaker of Spanish) to work with Prof Laura Morales (the PI) in the project “REPCHANCE – Spain and the United Kingdom”
REPCHANCE – Spain and the United Kingdom is funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation and will focus on the processes that place barriers to the inclusion of migrants and their descendants in social and political positions of leadership. This project forms part of a cross-national collaboration including researchers in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The project led from Sciences Po will study these topics for Spain and the United Kingdom, drawing also on some elements of comparison for France and Italy stemming from a previous project led by Prof Morales (INCLUSIVEPARL).
Type of contract: Fixed-duration contract (CDD d’usage or Subcontracting agreement) for 11 months.
Gross salary: Salary of between €1,000 and €1,250 per month (depending on qualifications and experience) for a 50% part-time position (bruts mensuels).
Other contributions: partial contribution for transportation card within Paris (Passe Navigo) if residing in the Île-de-France region, and restaurant tickets for full-time days worked if CDD.
Part-time work arrangements: As this is a 50% part-time contract (18 hours 15 minutes per week), the exact working days and hours will be agreed at the time of appointment.
The appointment is for a start date of 1st October 2022) and the contract duration is for 11 months (currently, no extension of this contract is envisaged).
Application procedure
Please send (1) a cover letter outlining your experience and qualifications for the role, and how you feel you meet the requirements for the position, (2) a CV and (3) a sample of single-authored written piece of work in English that includes, ideally, both qualitative or quantitative empirical analysis (e.g. coursework paper or BA/MA thesis) to linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr on Friday 22th July by 12 pm.(noon)
Interviews are planned for the weeks of 22 and 29th August.
Tasks
We are seeking to appoint a postgraduate research assistant that will undertake the following range of tasks:
-
Undertaking the collection of biographical data for Congreso de los Diputados Members of Parliament in Spain;
- Contributing to the drafting of two reports (one intermediate and one final report) on the Spanish case, in English;
- Contributing to the preparation of qualitative fieldwork, as well as interview transcription and analysis for the Spanish case;
- Prepare and undertake data analysis and tests using quantitative and qualitative techniques and approaches agreed with the Principal Investigator and the rest of the team;
- Attending virtually (e.g. through Zoom/Teams) the meetings of the international consortium during the 11 months contract duration;
- Contributing to the preparation of dissemination activities of the project, where applicable;
- Identifying and understanding work requirements prioritising tasks and responsibilities within an agreed timeframe agreed with the PI;
- The post holder will be required to effectively manage their time to deliver on the priorities of the project and to plan ahead to ensure the research is delivered in accordance with the overall research objectives and deadlines.
Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Essential:
- An MA degree in Politics or Sociology with a substantive or methodological focus relevant to the project;*
- Demonstrable training and experience using quantitative and qualitative research methods and techniques at least at MA level;*
- An expertise, backed up by some research experience at MA level, in Spanish politics relating to one or several of the following fields: political representation, legislatures, political institutions or political parties;*
- Some minimal research experience in subjects or projects relevant to the research project;*
- Some experience in primary qualitative and quantitative data collection in the context of MA-level studies;
- Proficiency in English (oral and for academic writing) and Spanish (native or near-native);*
- Proven ability of social science data input, management and analysis with Excel;*
- Proven ability to write up research findings (e.g. at MA-thesis level);*
- Ability to take initiative and self-manage working time;
- Expertise with relevant office packages;
- Ability to work as part of a team;
- Good oral and written communication skills;*
- Attention to detail.*
Desirable, but not essential:
- Prior research experience in externally funded projects;*
- Experience in writing reports for funders;
- Experience in undertaking qualitative interviews in the context of short-term projects;*
- Evidence of research activity coherent with the project focus (such as involvement in previous projects and/or publications related to the subject matter).
(*Criteria to be used to shortlist candidates for interview)
Présidentielle 2022 : l’abstention est-elle la grande gagnante de l’élection ?
- Actualité Sciences Po
Conférence Politeia#59
À chaque scrutin, qu’il soit local, régional ou national, l’abstention semble toujours plus importante. Si l’élection présidentielle est celle qui enregistre le plus haut taux de participation, il n’en reste pas moins que plus d’un quart des électeurs et électrices (et encore plus chez les jeunes) ne s’est pas déplacé pour aller voter au second tour, dans un régime français pourtant hyper-présidentiel. Cela met évidemment en question la légitimité de ces élections : comment considérer comme légitime un président qui n’a été choisi que par 38,5% des électeurs et électrices ? Comment enrayer le phénomène de l’abstention, qui est, aujourd’hui, le premier « parti » de France ? Faut-il prendre en compte le vote blanc, ou rendre le vote obligatoire ? Ou bien, faut-il totalement refondre notre système politique, par exemple vers un scrutin proportionnel, afin de mieux prendre en compte la pluralité des opinions exprimées ?
Intervenante
Céline Braconnier, Professeure des universités, Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en -Laye
Immigration and border control as trail: Intractable policy problem or symbolic politics
- ©Kehl, Germany
Immigration and border control are prominent issues in the 2022 campaigns of the declared candidates of the Right and radical right (V. Pécresse, M. Le Pen and E. Zemmour) that use their strong stances as ideological markers. Issues linked to migrants’ integration also polarize debates within the Left. The Macron Presidency and Interior ministers have from the start vowed to be “firm” on immigration, with a law passed on 10 September 2018, the 28th such law since 1980. The government has also implemented very strict borders’ policies, with a continuance of internal Schengen checks at the borders between France, Italy and Spain, or cooperation with the UK in the Calais region to disperse potential migrants’ crossings. The current French presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has pledged to “reform Schengen.” How can we assess French policy during the last five years and the role of immigration in election time compared to other countries, in Europe or beyond? Is immigration an “intractable policy problem” or a matter of symbolic politics for incumbents and candidates? Do we overstate the importance of immigration in voters’ decisions? While the invasion of Ukraine and the millions of persons fleeing war has changed some public stances on refugees, does it affect voters' opinions, priorities and partisan positions?
Speakers
James Hollifield, Ora Nixon Arnold Professor in International Political Economy and Director of the Tower Center at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas and Visiting Professor at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study (IAS).
Nonna Mayer , CNRS Research Director Emerita at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) of Sciences Po, specialist in electoral sociology and in particular the extreme right, racism and anti-Semitism.
Chair
Virginie Guiraudon, CNRS Research Director at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) of Sciences Po, Specialist in migration and European policies.
PhD Candidate in comparative politics and representation
- Actualité Sciences Po
PhD Candidate in comparative politics and representation (ANR-DFG programme UNEQUALMAND)
The Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) at Sciences Po invites applications for a PhD fellowship on political inequalities in mandate representation, as part of the ANR-DFG project "Unequal mandate responsiveness? How electoral promises and their realizations target groups in France and Germany" (UNEQUALMAND).
The position is announced for a period of 3 years. There are no teaching obligations. Yet, a daily involvement in the project’s and research center’s activities is expected. The starting date for the fellowship is 1 September 2022.
Environment: The Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics
The CEE is a joint research unit of CNRS (UMR8239) and Sciences Po. It was founded in 2005 to pursue three main missions: to develop research on European questions and comparative politics at Sciences Po; to facilitate Sciences Po’s insertion in European research networks; to foster the European debate on the future of Europe. The quality of the CEE was acknowledged by the CNRS, granting a full integration of the CEE.
It is currently bringing together 34 full-time researchers and professors, 26 PhD students, and a large number of research associates and guest researchers. They form a strong team through their shared approach to research and participatory governance. The Centre’s researchers are affiliated with four departments (political science, sociology, law and history), with the School of Research as well as with the Paris School for International Affairs (PSIA), Urban School and School of Public Affairs.
Most of the research projects carried out at the CEE adopt an international and/or comparative approach, and the results are published in international peer-reviewed journals. About 90 scientific events take place every year, gathering scholars, media and civil society. The CEE contributes to the structuration of the European Research Space in social and political sciences, especially through the design and management of various programs and partnerships supported by EU institutions like the European Research Council ( http://www.sciencespo.fr/centre-etudes-europeennes/fr ).
With international research as its main purpose, the CEE sets major emphasis on PhD students’ training and supervision.
The PhD will benefit from all the facilities at Sciences Po, including a workplace, an extended access to the library and the electronic resources and a scientific support within the research center. This includes opportunities to develop scientific exchange as part of the teams working on the center’s various key themes, in particular on “strains on democratic representation” and “the state as producer of public policies”.
Project
Led by Isabelle Guinaudeau, Elisa Deiss-Helbig and Theres Matthiess, UNEQUALMAND examines political (in-)equality in France and Germany through the lens of group representation, with a focus on mandates and their realization in the form of policies. The project looks at the supply as well as the demand-side of political competition. How do pledges and fulfilled policy appeal to groups with different characteristics? How and under what conditions do citizens respond to group targeting in electoral manifestos (prospective) and pledge fulfillment (retrospective)? These questions will be addressed using an innovative research design that combines data on electoral promises, surveys, experimental designs, and case-studies. The project is based at Sciences Po, the University of Trier, and University of Stuttgart.
Job description
The tasks include:
• Own scientific qualification (PhD)
• Involvement in collecting the data relevant to own PhD research
• Case studies on group-targeting in electoral pledges and effective policy
• Supporting the organization of team meetings and workshops
• Assistance with project reports and publications
Supervision and PhD programme
• The PhD will be co-supervised by Isabelle Guinaudeau and Emiliano Grossman at Sciences Po, CEE, with additional opportunities to exchange with the UNEQUALMAND international research team.
• The successful candidate will be enrolled in the PhD programme of Sciences Po (School of Research) and the work will result in a doctorate in political science.
Requirements are:
• a master's degree in political science or a related discipline,
• excellent academic track record
• interest in research on representation, party competition, voting, and/or political inequality,
• ability to work both in a team and independently
• excellent French and English language skills
Desirable, but not required:
• Knowledge of German
• Knowledge of social science methods, text analysis, statistical software (e.g. R, Stata) and/or mixed methods
• Knowledge of LaTeX
• Knowledge of Git
We offer
In addition to the benefits of taking a team PhD as part of UNEQUALMAND, Sciences Po offers:
• Competitive salary
• Academically stimulating working environment
• Vibrant, integrated and international research community
Application procedure
Applications must be submitted by 18 May 2022:
Online Admission: The application must be submitted exclusively online, according to the Admissions calendar.
https://www.sciencespo.fr/ecole-doctorale/en/content/admission-phd.html
The application must include the following documents:
• Copy of ID
• Letter of motivation
• Outline of ideas for the doctoral project (2,000-3,000 words) and a summary
• Copy of BA and MA (if already available) degree diplomas
• CV with full summary of education, practice, academic and non-academic work experience, language proficiency, positions of trust, and other qualifying/extra-curricular activities. The period of enrolment (admission-completion) in the Master’s study programme must be specified
• If applicable: up to two academic publications (i.e. MA thesis or published articles)
• Optional: up to two references
As the application is completed, please send an email to Linda Amrani, General Secretary of the CEE ( linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr ) to confirm that you have applied for the UNEQUALMAND PhD position.
Equally well qualified disabled persons will be given priority. Women and people with an immigration background are expressly invited to apply.
If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to Isabelle Guinaudeau (iguinaudeau@gmail.com)
Job interviews are planned for 31 May, 2022.
Poor housing of the Roma community in five European cities
- Actualité Sciences Po
Discrimination and poor housing of Roma communities have, unfortunately, become commonplace in many European cities (Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Gyöngyös, Miskolc); these phenomena of misery require new public and human investments. Through his investigation, Piégés dans un taudis ? Discrimination et privation des Roms en matière de logement dans les villes européennes published in March 2022, Tommaso Vitale (a research professor at Sciences Po's Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics) traces the unique trajectories of individuals experiencing more than just housing difficulties.
A SOCIALLY ADMITTED POVERTY
By giving voice to more than a hundred Roma, the research directed by Tommaso Vitale makes it possible to understand that "housing conditions depend on many urban socio-geographic factors, including residential, ethnic and social segregation, lack of infrastructure and public services.
The 128 qualitative interviews conducted highlighted similarities in the housing conditions of interviewees across cities and countries. Some situations, such as living in one common room in the home, but also having limited access to running water and energy (electricity and gas) are very common.
Social assistance measures exist to combat this high level of insecurity. However, they are not well received by the people interviewed. Some solutions manage to meet immediate housing needs, but at what cost? They have many failings, and sometimes do not guarantee access to the rudimentary elements of decent housing.
Tommaso Vitale links the deteriorating housing and living conditions of Europe's largest ethnic minority to public policies based on the principle "that you must first integrate and then eventually get a house. The wills and behaviors of public decision-makers must thus be observed in order to understand the concrete implementation of housing policies for Roma in the cities analyzed.
INAPPROPRIATE URBAN POLICIES
The public wills and policies to fight against the poor housing of Roma populations exist and are regularly mobilized in the framework of urban policies. This report highlights the importance of the formation and development of the skills of staff and social workers. The approaches of the administrative and social services to the target groups appear to be decisive elements in the allocation of housing and the social future of its inhabitants. This is why the research also included 10 focus groups, two in each country, with activists, social workers, local administrators and representatives of government agencies.
"Too many demagogic attempts have not produced sustainable solutions: we need to change our perspective. Family housing can be a fundamental starting point for any integration journey: it provides the stability needed for schooling, training and work. Traditionally, however, it is considered the point of arrival, which is reached when other preconditions have been met. To put housing at the top of the priority list is to emphasize a right that is not protected for many categories of the population. In particular for the Roma". Luciano Gualzetti, (Director of Caritas Ambrosiana)
The lack of transparency regarding the rules for the allocation of housing, the ethnic and racial discrimination, the failure to listen to the real needs of the population do not allow the application of equitable measures and thus testify to public policies not thought out for a complete social inclusion of the Roma in Europe.
After reaffirming politically the primacy of the right to housing, the research insists on the reinforcement of social work towards Roma populations. This support must be provided over a long period of time and be oriented towards a preventive approach to the financial difficulties that families encounter.
Read the investigation Piégés dans un taudis ? Discrimination et privation des Roms en matière de logement dans les villes européennes
A PROJECT AND DEDICATED SEMINARS
The R-Home project led by the CEE intends to disrupt these mechanisms of exclusion by placing at the center individuals and families showing "a very strong commitment to go beyond their own condition". A research project on housing and Roma, it studies the housing conditions of Roma minorities in most EU member states. The mechanisms and processes of discrimination and exclusion are studied in a systematic and comprehensive way.
TEPSA Recommendations to the incoming French Presidency
- TEPSA Recommendations to the incoming French Presidency
TEPSA Recommendations to the French
Presidency of the Council of the European Union
On 9 December 2021, the TEPSA Recommendations to the incoming French Presidency of the Council of the EU were presented to David Cvach.
On the occasion of TEPSA’s French Pre-Presidency Conference, the TEPSA Recommendations to the upcoming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union were formally presented to David Cvach from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Dr. Nicoletta Pirozzi (IAI, Italy), Dr. Funda Tekin (IEP, Germany), and Dr. Ilke Toygür (Elcano, Spain).
The main message of the TEPSA Recommendations is that one of the key issues for the upcoming leadership of the Union is how to Europeanize the French Presidency – meaning, how to make sure that European priorities and solutions put forth by the French Presidency respond to wider European, and not merely French, interests and views. In the meantime, reinforcing the Franco-German alliance will also be on the table since Germany is getting ready to send its new leader to the European Council. Three areas are going to be extremely important. Defining what “strategic autonomy” should entail; the execution of the recovery fund; and converting the results of the Conference on the Future of Europe into something tangible.
Further recommendations were discussed with researchers from the TEPSA Network. Francesco Saraceno (Sciences Po OFCE) calls on the French Presidency to create a central fiscal capacity to build a Europe better equipped to deal with future challenges; Héctor Sánchez Margalef (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs & TEPSA) urges the French Presidency to enhance the EU’s influence in the Southern neighbourhood and adjacent regions (Sahel, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula) as well as bringing the Mediterranean higher on the EU agenda. Finally, Roderick Parkes (German Council on Foreign Policy & TEPSA) calls on the French Presidency to focus on transforming the EU into a military-strategic actor, since the Strategic Compass is due to be endorsed by the European Council in March Next year.
Upon reading the Recommendations, Mr Cvach commented: We don't want to use our Presidency to push our agenda down the throats of the other Member States. But Europe is about cooperation, about taking a higher view than the national interest […] your TEPSA Recommendations may actually prove to be followed by the French Presidency. Jim Cloos, Secretary-General of TEPSA encouraged the French Presidency to face challenges head-on: "You have to hope for the best, and then take what comes".
Download the Recommendations TEPSA Network French Presidency (PDF 499 Ko)
Joost de Moor, Assistant Professor in Political Science, presents his background and shares his current research
- Joost de Moor - picture @Alexis Lecomte
Joost de Moor
Retranscription de la vidéo
Joost de Moor presents his background and shares his current research.
He is an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE).
Joost de Moor’s research and teaching cover environmental politics, social movements, and political participation, using quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods as well as comparative and case-study designs.
Question 1: Can you present your background?
My name is Joost de Moor, an interdisciplinary social scientist, combining backgrounds in cultural sciences, anthropology, political science, sociology, and applying that in both fields of urban studies and environmental studies.
So, I combined quite a few disciplines, but there is a clear line running through those fields where I combine an interest in how citizens engaged in politics very broadly speaking, both individually, through individual acts like signing petitions, joining demonstrations, and political consumerism. As well as how citizens engage in politics, more in collectives, which we tend to call social movements.
I did my PhD at the University of Antwerp, where I focused in particular on how this kind of engagement of citizens in politics takes place in the context of political globalization.
So, there's two main ways to understand political globalization.
On the one hand, it means it speaks to the fact that many of our most important problems have become global in nature and the best example to give here is probably climate change, which requires us to address at the global level. No single country can address this problem.
At the same time, our political decision-making processes themselves have become more politically more globalized. So, we're probably a few decades ago, the nation state was still the obvious center of power that citizens would then also turn towards.
State is still important, but alongside the state many other things have become important. Corporations have become more powerful. International organizations have become more powerful and so one of the things that I was particularly interested in is how citizens navigate that more complicated political field when they want to get something done.
Who did it turn to? One of the main changes in political participation and social movement activism that I've focused on in my PhD in response to this changing context, is the emergence of DIY activism or do-it-yourself activism.
One form of that is that citizens start doing politics in their everyday life. So, they start changing their lifestyles, their consumption, either individually or collectively, to directly make an impact on the thing that they worry about, such as the environment.
And the other form of do-it-yourself activism is to take matters into your own hands in terms of stopping things.
So, that is how I turned my attention to environmental politics, which is the topic that I still work on today.
Question 2: Can you present your current research?
In my second postdoc at Stockholm University, I turned my attention to the question or the observation that in our society today people are becoming increasingly doubtful about whether we can still do something about the most important problems facing us, especially climate change.
So, I compared five European cities and looked at how climate activists in those cities deal with this kind of doubt and fear. And in particular, I looked at how this influences their strategizing.
So, what I found was that across all these five cities, many climate activists indeed shared his doubt. It changes from one moment to the next. Someday they might be more hopeful than the next, but there is definitely this fear as a central element of climate activism today.
The thing that I wanted to understand is how it is possible that at the same time this doesn't seem to have such a big influence on our strategizing.
What I found was that climate activists are actually very good at continuing their activism, continuing campaigning to stop climate change, or at least making sure that dangerous climate change doesn't happen, even though they were very doubtful about the potential success of this campaign.
This fits within a broader research agenda that I'm still pursuing today, namely an agenda that tries to understand how climate activists think about the future.
We are, I think, all facing quite uncertain futures and climate activists have to imagine what futures they are trying to avoid as well as what kind of futures they are trying to achieve.
And what we want to understand in a research project that I'm conducting together with several Swedish research colleagues is: how climate activists make sense of this uncertain future and how the way in which they make sense of this future shapes their activism?
So, how does it shape their strategies? How does it shape their goals and ultimately what we want to understand is how they shape their strategies in response to these doubts as an influence on wider society?
So, on public opinion and ultimately on political decision making and taking this research into the future, what I really want to understand is how in the context of the Anthropocene, where the impact of humans on the planet has taken such a geological proportion.
That it actually undermines some of the original foundations of our modern state and our modern democracies.
In that context, how might democracy and the state be evolving?
I think that looking at climate activism today gives us a window into that future and an opportunity to try and understand what might be coming towards us in terms of how we organize society politically.
Question 3: Why did you choose Sciences Po and more specifically the CEE as your laboratory?
I chose to come to Sciences Po because I think it is one of the most vibrant Centers for social science in Europe. One of the things that I like in particular about Sciences Po is its interdisciplinary nature, which fits very well with my profile. Political scientists, sociologists, economists talking to each other around shared problems like the environment.
And with regards to the Center for European Studies in particular, I think each of these qualities are represented very strongly that the CEE has a very strong environmental profile. It's focused on political science, but at the same time also has a clear interdisciplinary dimension and its research organized along four axes for topical folky that really fit with my own interest and it clearly overlaps with my interest in how we organize environmental challenges as a society.
So, there is the axis to democracy addresses which fits well with my focus on how citizens participate in politics. There is the axis of the city which matches well with my focus on how environmental and climate politics are organized in the city. And there is the axis on how the state is organized and continuously being reimagined and reinvented in our society, which perfectly fits with my future research agenda to understand how this state and democracy will develop going into the Anthropocene.
It’s, I think, the perfect place for me to develop my career and to develop this image of a distributor and how we can organize environmental politics in the future.
Interview Myriam Sefraoui, scientific mediation, (CEE)
Feedback on the 2022 French Presidency of the Council of the European Union Conference
- @patrice6000_shutterstock
Opening Remarks from the members of the TEPSA network in the coming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union
The conference on the 2022 French Presidency of the Council of the European Union TEPSA French Pre-Presidency Conference’ was co-organised with the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) on 9-10 December 2021. This initiative is co-funded by the Europe for Citizens programme of the European Union. The conference has offered a unique opportunity of dialogue between academics and decision-makers from different Member States.
Recommendations from the members of the TEPSA network in the coming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union
The main message of the TEPSA Recommendations is that one of the key issues for the upcoming leadership of the Union is how to Europeanize the French Presidency – meaning, how to make sure that European priorities and solutions put forth by the French Presidency respond to wider European, and not merely French, interests and views. In the meantime, reinforcing the Franco-German alliance will also be on the table since Germany is getting ready to send its new leader to the European Council. Three areas are going to be extremely important. Defining what “strategic autonomy” should entail; the execution of the recovery fund; and converting the results of the Conference on the Future of Europe into something tangible.
EU Green Deal
The recovery plan for Europe is supposed to contribute partly to the climate transition of the EU. A few months after its implementation this panel offers an assessment of the green dimension of Next Generation EU asking a simple question: does the Recovery and Resilience Facility genuinely tackle the environmental issue?
The Macroeconomic Capacity Of The EU
The recovery plan for Europe has provided an unprecedented endeavor at the EU level to support European economies. This panel questions the very nature of the plan through an analysis of the content of the Recovery and Resilience plans implemented within Members state. Are they boosting economic growth? Do they participate in the structural transformation of national economies? How does the EU deal with the risk that the new facilities focus on short term expenditures?
Rule of law and democratic backsliding
The EU has been struggling to develop an effective response to democratic backsliding and rule of law violations among its member states. Can the new rule of law conditionality for EU funding help overcome the current deadlock? Which other existing tools can the EU draw on, and which remain to be developed? And how can the EU tackle democratic backsliding among candidate countries?
The Future of European Integration
The reflection on the future of Europe sees an important development in 2021with the Conference on the Future of Europe which aims at fostering a participatory democracy and inclusive reform, giving a voice to the European Citizens. The panel will offer a first opportunity to assess the results and functioning of the Conference. It will also consider the issue of differentiated integration as a possible path for the future developments of the European political project.
The EU as a Global Actor
The EU is facing a multitude of challenges in its external relations: the need to rebuild a strained transatlantic partnership with the new Biden Administration, Russia’s presence in the neighborhood and its active support for the Lukaschenko regime in Belarus, and an increasingly assertive China that is expanding its economic presence in Europe. Is the current institutional set-up sufficient to allow the EU to play a strong role internationally? How to ensure European unity when individual member states are reluctant to join common initiatives or positions? Which tools for an effective European foreign policy?
Strategic Autonomy of EU
European sovereignty, strategic autonomy and a ‘geopolitical Europe have become buzzwords in the debates on Europe’s position in the world. How to fill these words to life? Which concrete actions does the EU need to take to ensure its voice is heard both in Europe and beyond? And how can member states rally around a common vision for Europe’s strategic positioning?
Concluding Remarks at TEPSA’S
PPC Paris covered an impressive range of key issues, from the green and digital revolutions to the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Fund and economic governance. It also discussed a number of more horizontal and rather formidable challenges the EU faces. Some are internal and generate heated debates within the Conference on the future of Europe; there are divergences of views on the functioning of democracy and rule of law and different readings of what European solidarity means. Others are external, hence the importance of working on strategic autonomy, i.e. the capacity to act and to actively shape the world. While speakers recognized the difficulty of the tasks ahead, they mostly expressed cautious optimism on the capacity of the EU to live up to the challenges
To know more
- Contributions to the recommendations from members of the TEPSA Network to the French Presidency: The introduction to these recommendations have been summarised by the TEPSA Recommendations team and published as an opinion article in EUObserver. You can read the op-ed here.
- Meet the speakers (PDF 49 Ko)
- Jim Cloos' conclusions on the conference
- In French: A Sciences Po article on the panel « L'UE en tant qu'acteur mondial »
Supported by
Picture: patrice6000_shutterstock
Video of the conference Environmental and climate change in the French presidential elections: ambiguities and contradiction
- Marche pour le climat - @Hadrian
Conference Co-organized by Sciences Po, CEE (UMR 8239) & School of Public Affairs
Environmental and climate change have sparked continued attention, support and opposition during the last presidential tenure. What are the chances for this issue to become a central component of the presidential campaign? Will this be an issue that will be taken seriously at all beyond official statements? What are the main fault lines dividing both the opinion and political parties' positions in regard to the climate crisis?
Speakers
Nicolas Sauger, Director at the Centre de données socio-politiques, Sciences Po
Hélène Soubelet, Director at The French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB)
Xavier Timbeau, Sciences Po, OFCE
Chair
Charlotte Halpern, Researcher at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po
Collective Discussion
For more information: contact.cee@sciencespo.fr
Picture: Hadrian_Shutterstock
L' altra rivoluzione. Dal Sessantotto al femminismo
- BELLÉ, Elisa. L’ altra rivoluzione. Dal Sessantotto al femminismo.
BELLÉ, Elisa. L’ altra rivoluzione. Dal Sessantotto al femminismo. Questioni di genere. Rosenberg & Sellier, 2021.
Gli studi sul movimento femminista italiano presentano ancora molte lacune, e questo volume ne colma una fondamentale: quella della comparsa del femminismo della cosiddetta “seconda ondata” (quello degli anni Settanta) da uno dei luoghi simbolo del Sessantotto studentesco (la facoltà di Sociologia di Trento).
È la storia di un’altra rivoluzione e, al contempo, di una rivoluzione altra, quella delle donne. Un lavoro di ricerca che mette in dialogo la storia delle donne e la sociologia dei movimenti sociali, in cui la vicenda locale viene costantemente posta in relazione al più ampio quadro italiano, con un ricco e inedito corpus di documenti e le interviste condotte con le protagoniste. E al contempo un racconto di grande vivacità, che restituisce pienamente l’atmosfera di quegli anni attraversati da grandi passioni.
Podcast: Nel podcast di oggi Annalisa Dordoni (Università di Milano-Bicocca) intervista Elisa Bellè (Sciences Po, Centre d’études europénnes et de politique comparée) sul suo libro L’altra rivoluzione. Dal Sessantotto al femminismo, pubblicato nel 2021 da Rosenberg & Sellier.
CEE Digests-Why research matters
- @MagicBones-shutterstock - Books in a library
The CEE is pleased to announce the CEE interviews Digests-Why research matters by presenting researchers' publications:
Emiliano Grossman (CEE) and The Comparative Agendas Project
Emiliano Grossman, Associate Professor at Sciences Po and member of the CEE, presents his book "Comparative Policy Agendas". Theory, Tools, Data (OUP Oxford, 2019)
This book brings data on government activities in twenty countries, and establishes a categorizing system to understand when a given institution of government in a particular country took action on any issue of public policy.
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Transcript of the video
Question 1: Can you introduce your book?
The book was initially thought of as an essay companion to the comparative agendas Project website. The website basically presents the data and makes the data accessible for all the national projects that have adopted the Comparative Agendas Project.
So, what this book does is basically explaining first of all what this Comparative Agendas Project is. This project has now and almost 20 years history and it goes back to the initial US policy agenda project which started collecting data on policy-making and coding, theme coding that data for long periods of time.
In the US case it goes back to 1945, for most of the European projects we limited that to 1980.
Second, we started collecting data on some parliamentary indicators, usually parliamentary questions or parliamentary debates where we also theme code what has been said in Parliament.
Third, the judiciary usually takes the Supreme Court or the Constitutional Court for most European countries. We theme code again the major decisions but not all decisions since 1980 that is some kind of part that has picked up speed in the recent years only where we are doing new coding of the party manifestos that have been done by the Party manifesto project. However, we coded with the same coding scheme that we have used for all others for those countries that had the resources to do that.
Finally, we also coded some kind of media agenda, usually the first page of some major national daily newspaper.
So basically the history of this project is presented in this first part of the book with information and also the advice about how to code and how to use machine learning.
The second section presents the national chapters.
So, there are more than 20 national chapters presenting the data that has been collected in each country. Those differ a little bit to the extent that the projects are often of different forms, for different reasons of different inspirations and different goals, but also different levels of resources. So, as a consequence of that, those chapters highlight the specificities of international projects to facilitate the usage of the data for those people who were interested in going to the website afterwards to download.
The third section, which is I think the most important one, illustrates possible comparative uses of those datas. So there is a chapter on parliamentary questions, another one on the link between parliamentary attention and media attention, another one on party competition.
The goal here is basically just to show more than to actually provide an analysis to show how this data could be used for future analysis.
So from that one point of view the whole book is Reading textbook for introducing the Comparative Agendas Project and to introduce national teams or to encourage national teams to use a particular method, and a bit of a protocol to make sure that data is comparable with other countries one to stop finished collecting the data in a specific country.
Question 2: Why did you decide to release it on Open Acces?
The main reason for this is the Oxford University Press which is a great publishing house which makes more expensive books. I think the list price of the book is about 80 euros, that isn’t easily accessible to the individual reader but even to some universities that might be really expensive.
We were, while sharing, rather happily some of the chapters for copyright reasons for a long time to chat time book manuscripts, so we contacted Oxford University Press to see whether this was possible.
Actually they were open-minded about it. After the payment of an open access fee, they accepted to put the book in access.
The goal of this is basically to make the book much more accessible and also two teams and in not so rich countries as we try to encourage the enlargement of the Comparative Agendas Project also to countries where University simply don't have the means to have libraries with books of that kind of prize by Oxford University press or other expensive University Press.
Interview: Myriam Sefraoui, Scientific Mediation Officer (CEE)
Emiliano Grossman, Associate Professor at Sciences Po, Member of the CEE, presents his book co-written with Isabelle Guinaudeau "Do Elections (Still) Matter?" (Oxford University Press, December 2021)
It’s an ambitious study of democratic mandates through the lens of political agenda setting since the 1980s in five countries: Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The research results contribute to a renewal of theories of representation and lead to a questioning of much of the comparative politics literature according to which majoritarian systems are more responsive than consensual systems.
Transcript of the video
Question 1: Why did you choose an analysis from the 1980’s?
We started in the 1980’s because we have excess datas starting in 1970 and 1980.
So that’s a purely circumstantial argument, but the real motivation to adopt such a long term view of democracy is to ensure understanding how democracy has evolved overtime.
The idea basically was to make a study on the importance of elections over a long period of time because there is an argument, also in such academic literature, that says there was a decline. We want to question the decline, we want to see if the elections still matter.
Question 2: Why did you study Germany, Denmark, France, Italy and the United Kingdom in your book?
We want to study the evolution of democracy in the advanced industrial democracies.
We picked five European countries because they are the countries we know, in particular, the countries which we have datas, but we could have had the chance to include countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.
We picked those five because we thought they represented a very nice diversity of political settings, of parties systems and political history.
We have on one hand, Denmark with a highly proportional democracy or consensual democracy, where decision making is highly consensual, but the government often has minority support but still manages the decisions.
At the other extreme, we have the UK with the Westminster system, a majoritarian system, the institutions give enormous power to the Prime minister.
And the three other countries, we have Italy, which has asymmetrical parliamentarism.They used to have a very strong parliament, but the parliament has become more powerful, the government even though has become more stable.
Germany is a very complicated, mixed system. The proportional element dominates the system. He has a very complex institution set up where the chancellor spends most of his time managing this balance.
And finally, we have France, which is the more majoritarian with a very strong president, the effective head of executive except in”cohabitation”.
In the end we have five different countries. It was a nice choice of cases to study the long term evolution of the effective election on policy making in the advanced industrial democracies.
Question 3: Do elections still matter in our contemporary democracies?
This is the heart of the book.
We tried to answer the discussion from at least three different angles.
The first questions we asked: to which extent parties actually opposed each other during political campaigns?
So, we wanted to know, to which extent the parties respond to public opinion, or economic, or political context?
The parties in the short run, don't have the idea what the voters actually think.
The classic theory of democracy is the voters voted and gave mandate to parties, and parties implemented the mandate.
It’s not really the way it happens.
First, actually the parties present the program to the voters,then the voters choose.
The voters don't have an input in the first level.
What we say, in the short run, the only effective indicated are the other parties: its’ to win against the competitors. The parties first of all respond to other parties before responding to voters.
The voters are confronted with limited choices.
What we says, it’s note bad news for democracy, because basically there is a “tunnel of attention”, the concentration of attention on limited issues.
Other parties mobilised on the same issues, paid a lot of attention to the parties in government, made good on his promises, and forced parties to effectively take actions in this area.
This actually works, precisely because there is a kind of independence between those parties, they look at each other. There is also some kind of power that they have to force the government to go back to issues that the government promised to deal with.
Interview: Myriam Sefraoui, Scientific mediation officer (CEE)
Florence Haegel, Professor at Sciences Po, Director of the CEE., presents her article "Political socialization: Out of Purgatory?" published on 9 February 2021 in the European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie, Cambridge University Press.
Florence Haegel puts contemporary political socialization research in perspective.
She presents the reasons for the crisis in this field of research in 1970 and then turns her attention to post-crisis studies, beginning with the political socialization of children.
She explores lifelong political socialization and how it has developed around four research dynamics: the study of the civic and political socialization of school-age adolescents and young adults; generational renewal; the socialising effects of political mobilisation; the processes and agents of secondary political socialization of adults.
The final part of the article asks what is political in political socialization.
Transcript of the video
Question 1: Why do you use the term «Purgatory» in your title?
Well, I have to come back to the story of political socialization.
It’s a very interesting sub-field. And why? Because first it flourished during the 70’s and it was a very promising topic within the field of american politics and it collapsed in the 70’s.
My paper addressed the question of the exit of purgatory.
I offer state of the art of recent research dynamics on political socialization
Question 2: What are the reasons for the crisis in this field of research?
It’s quite complex, but I will try to simplify the answer.
I think my answer is both epistemological and political.
At this age, in american politics, political socialization was both predictive and normative. And the work on children in order to understand what type of adults they would become.
They portrait, very legitimist child, very respectful of the president and the policeman. Few years later, at the end of the 60’s, this very legitimist child became young men and women protesting against presidents, clashing with policy man in the streets.
So, finally political socialization runs the risk to be contradicted by social and political realities.
Question 3: Why is it useful to work on political socialization today?
I think it is useful because there are a lot of social and political changes in contemporary societies. I will give you some examples.
There are more and more social and spatial mobilities including immigrants.
There are also changes in family structure, as the sociology of family is shown.
There is, for instance, a big generational gap on matters of politics.
All these changes make the question of political socialization very interesting, very challenging because working in political socialization is the way to understand how political change is transmitted and is integrated by individuals and groups.
Question 4: What research avenues have been recently explored?
I think there is a first big shift in new research dynamics because early research where working on children and family and now more and more works are focusing on what we call life-long political socialization.
But, I need to be more precise.
They are still working on children and family ,by using new methods in order to better gras the world of children , and they also address new questions.
For instance, they addressed the question of social, racial and gender inequalities within the process of political socialization.
They also addressed the question of the mechanism inside the family, for instance they have revaluted the role of mother inside the family.
They have also shown that political socialization is not always vertical from the adults to children. In some cases, we have a reversed process, the children do socialise with their parents. It depends on the type of family and the type of issues. For instance, in the immigrant family you have the reverse political socialization but also for instance on ecological matters the children influence their parents both in attitude and environnement practices.
So we have new questions in research dynamics.
And finally, I think that the current research is not focused on children as I said, and it's really interested by life-long political socialization.
We know for instance, the university is very important as political socialization as concerned, couple formation is very crucial, but for instance we don't know a lot of things about the workplace and how political socialization occurs in the workplace.
As we see, there are many questions to be explored if you are interested in this question.
Interview: Myriam Sefraoui, Scientific Mediation Officer (CEE)
Florence Faucher and Gérôme Truc present their collective book Face aux attentats published by PUF (Presses Universitaires de France) in November 2020.
Through a multidisciplinary approach in the social sciences, this book offers keys to understand the effects and reactions of French society (from the street to social medias, and from victims to political leaders) in the face of the attacks of November 2015 and July 2016.
They answer the following questions:
- How can the social sciences and humanities help us to understand the collective and individual impact of the attacks, and to better cope with them?
- What was special about the attacks of January and November 2015?
- What are the interactions between the state and public opinion in response to the attacks of January and November 2015 ?
- What impact do the attacks have on our society?
Transcript of the podcast
Question 1: How can the social sciences and humanities help us to understand the collective and individual impact of the attacks, and to better cope with them?
When a society is faced with terrorist attacks, human and social sciences are sometimes criticized for being useless in preventing them, or complacent or indulgent with terrorists.
One remembers for instance that the Prime Minister of the time Manuel Valls complained that the explanations provided by social sciences to make sense of the situations were providing excuses to the perpetrators of senseless acts. Another example would be the recent polemic about islamo-leftism in French universities.
But what we are demonstrating in this book, which brings together the works of social scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds, is that academic research is the source of knowledge that allow society to make sense of what is happening to individuals and collectives in times of crisis, to engage with the difficult emotions and thus to find ways to respond to the challenges that arise with resilience and reflexivity. So the objective of the book is to contribute to the learning and healing processes that will take society, here French society, beyond the shock and horror of the events themselves and help renew the collective bonds.
The expertise that we bring together here for instance helps us understand that terrorist attacks are moments of social effervescence that create the conditions for a certain degree of “hysteria” in social life: in other words, every single one of us is challenged into taking sides. Again, a symptom can be found in the accusations directed at social scientists. This is all the more striking as these academic disciplines are precisely useful to develop approaches that are reflective and self reflective. Social sciences draw lessons from empirical studies and their conclusions sometimes challenge taken-for granted notions or prejudices. One example would be the idea that individuals who are confronted with a situation of imminent lethal risk, such as a terrorist attack, are struck with panic and are driven to act irrationally and selfishly. Another example would be that Islamic terrorism automatically reinforces ethnic and social prejudice and therefore benefits the extreme-right. Many people think so but it is in fact much more complex than this.
Question 2: What was special about the attacks of January and November 2015?
The 2015 attacks were specific in many ways and in particular in terms of the targets, the number of victims and the repetition of attacks.
The targets are important first of all. As is often the case for terrorist attacks, they were selected for the symbolic message the attack would be able to convey. In January, the targets were famous journalists working for a satirical weekly magazine. Over the past 50 years, it has attracted a lot of attention for its many provocations, including the republication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed, originally published in Denmark. The other targets were members of the police force and shoppers in a Kosher supermarket. The interpretative framework that was immediately articulated by the public authorities and relayed by the media was that it was an attack on the Republic, on the State and of the French Nation.
In November the targets were random people in Paris and the suburbs and places they could recognize and imagine going to: a concert hall, a football stadium, restaurants and bars. The frame of interpretation that was promoted was one of an attack on French society in its diverse and multifaceted dimensions.
The second shock is linked to the very high number of victims and who they were: 17 dead in January and 130 in November with many more people wounded, caused by simultaneous attacks in Paris and around.
Thirdly, even if the January and November attacks are those that people remember most, they turned out to be part of a series: repetitions hit other parts of France, aiming at ordinary citizens, places of everyday activities including churches, private homes and streets. Families and children were also victims in the attack against Nice on 14 July 2016. The repetition created a climate of fear and concernment, which itself impacted French people.
This triple singularity of the Paris attacks led to a highly unusual academic research project, and the results of some of them are gathered in this book.
Question 3: What impact do the attacks have on our society?
Attacks such as those of 2015 are total social facts that have far reaching implications through all domains of social life.
The strength of a collective book such as this one is that it brings together in a concise yet detailed fashion the results of the diverse research projects conducted since 2015 in different social scientific disciplines and with a great diversity of approaches. What the book does is that it seeks to understand and to explain the effects of these attacks on French society and the responses that they triggered, at different levels of society.
The book published by the French University Press (the PUF), in November 2020 contains six chapters but a new updated and expanded version will be published in 2021 by Palgrave with two more contributions.
The book thus includes a chapter looking at how people at the Bataclan reacted to the attack and one analyzing the multiplication of street memorials set up by citizens on city squares across Paris and around the country. Two chapters explore the world of media and communication through the angle of the adaptation and regulation of TV coverage of terrorism and through the emergence of counterpublics created by social media.
Question 4: What are the interactions between the state and public opinion in response to the attacks of January and November 2015 ?
First they challenge the idea that Islamic terrorist attacks may have an automatic impact on public support for the executive. Second, they undermine the idea that racial prejudice and intolerance between communities are necessarily increased by terrorist attacks because political capital can be made from amalgamating terrorists with the general Muslim population.
In the months that followed January 2015, and to a lesser extent after November, the French executive benefited from a rise in public support, which was documented in opinion surveys, in the press and in the political arena. The political science literature talks about a rally around the flag and of a patriotic reflex. However, in the chapter I co-authored with Laurie Boussaguet, who is an Associate member of the CEE, we highlight the symbolic work that was developed by the President, the Prime Minister, the Interior Minister and their teams to build the country’s resilience and to prevent centrifugal tendencies. We also demonstrate that symbolic public action was prepared carefully and consciously and intended to prevent potential outbursts of violence.
Indeed one could think that Islamic terrorism contributes to increase support for the extreme-right and that it contributes to feed xenophobic and authoritarians sentiments in the population. What Vincent Tiberj argues is that the survey data collected over several years on attitudes towards minorities shows a decidedly more complex picture. In fact, tolerance has increased regularly over several years and the period 2015-2016 is no different. One possible explanation for such an evolution in public attitudes towards ethnic and religious minorities lies in the performative dimension of political discourse. The framing of the events that was proposed by the State, particularly after January may well have contributed to such an evolution.
Interview: Myriam Sefraoui, Scientific mediation officer, Sciences Po, CEE
Cyril Benoît, Researcher fellow CNRS & Olivier Rozenberg, Associate professor at Sciences Po, CEE (eds.) present: The Handbook of Parliamentary Studies Interdisciplinary Approaches to Legislatures(Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020).
This comprehensive Handbook takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of parliaments, offering novel insights into the key aspects of legislatures, legislative institutions and legislative politics.
Dominique Boullier, Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po & member of the CEE is interviewed about his book: Comment sortir de l’emprise des réseaux sociaux (Le Passeur, 2020).
Thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, the author fundamentally renews our design of these platforms and offers innovative solutions to use them without suffering them.
Patrick Le Galès, CNRS Research Professor of Sociology and Politics at the CEE & Dean of Urban School of Sciences Po is interviewed about the book (ed) : Gouverner la métropole parisienne. État, conflits, institutions, réseaux (Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2020).
Informed by original research, this documented analysis accurately illuminates the political and institutional dynamics of an unfinished metropolisation.
This interview with Bruno Palier, CNRS Research Director at Sciences Po, is devoted to his latest book: "Growth and Welfare in Advanced Capitalist Economies. How have Growth Regimes evolved", co-edited with Anke Hassel.
- Bruno Palier discusses the innovative nature of a reflection that brings together two fields of research: one dedicated to the analysis of growth regimes and the other specialized on the welfare state and welfare reforms.>
Matthias Thiemann, Associate Professor at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po is interviewed about the book : The Reinvention of Development Banking in the European Union: Industrial Policy in the Single Market and the Emergence of a Field (Daniel Mertens, Matthias Thiemann and Peter Volberding (eds.), OUP, 2021).
The book Offers a new account of how national development banks are specifically impacted by EU regulations and constraint.
Podcasts-Séminaire Général du CEE
- Actualité Sciences Po
Le cycle du Séminaire Général du CEE invite des chercheuses et chercheurs extérieurs à Sciences Po, français et/ou étrangers, à présenter leurs recherches et articles en cours ou dernière publication. Le format de discussion consiste à associer systématiquement chercheuses et chercheurs seniors et juniors.
Retrouvez les podcasts de ce cycle sur cette page.
Vous pouvez également vous inscrire à notre lettre d’information sur l'ensemble de nos séminaires, tous cycles confondus, pour recevoir les invitations à nos futurs évènements.
Jane Green is a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and Professor of Political Science and British Politics at the University of Oxford (Nuffield College) -
Family Matters: How Concerns about the Financial Wellbeing of Younger Relatives Shape the Political Preferences of Older Adults
We derive a family-centred theory of electoral behaviour wherein older adults are willing to forego benefits to their own generation if they perceive younger family members to be struggling financially. Employing a large novel survey, multiple new family-centred survey items, analysis across policy domains and a survey experiment, we demonstrate support for our theory. Negative evaluations of the financial wellbeing of younger family members – which are closely linked to objective economic circumstances – are associated with older adults being more likely to support ‘pro-youth’ policies, to forego spending on their own generation, and to vote against the incumbent. These effects are not reducible to explicit self-interest motivations on behalf of older relatives themselves. We argue that conventional self-interest assumptions require modification: people vote for the well-being of their close family members. The implications are important for understanding voter behaviour and the electoral incentives of politicians in an era of aging populations.
Dawn Langan Teele is the SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. She is co-founder of EGEN: The Empirical Study of Gender Research Network - Flipping the Gender Gap: Compulsory Voting and Inequality in Turnout
"Compulsory voting has long been hailed as an equalizer: by requiring that eligible citizens show up at the polls, compulsory regimes have higher turnout overall and are linked to better representation of all social groups among their electorates. We study the gendered impacts of compulsory voting in Chile, which moved from voluntary to mandatory registration under a compulsory regime in 1962. If compulsory rules jumpstart women's political participation, strengthening compulsory rules should enhance equality in turnout across the sexes. Using comprehensive municipal-level data of electoral returns, in which men's and women's turnout was tallied separately, and newly unearthed records of Chile's historical electoral registers, we show that mandating registration dramatically changed women's enrollment, and, remarkably, pushed women's turnout above men's. This finding challenges our understanding of the historical gender gap, showing that electoral institutions with strong participatory mandates can help women flip the gender gap in their favor."
Marlène Benquet est chargée de recherche HDR au CNRS, membre de l’Irisso - Ce que la finance fait à la démocratie : Présentation de l'ouvrage Alt-Finance. Comment la City de Londres a acheté la démocratie
Depuis les années 2010, s’accélère en Europe le développement de partis, gouvernements et idéologies dits autoritaires qui défendent le droit d’accumuler du capital tout en réduisant les libertés, sociales et politiques. Ce programme de recherche vise à étudier le rôle des acteurs financiers dans le développement des organisations et gouvernements dits autoritaires. La finance européenne n’est en effet pas étrangère au développement de cette nouvelle offre politique.
Au carrefour de la sociologie politique et de la science politique, cette recherche décrit l’ampleur et la nature de ces liens entre certains secteurs financiers européens et les organisations politiques dites autoritaires. Elle montre comment une part des acteurs financiers participent à structurer l’offre politique en Europe et les mécanismes via lesquels la puissance économique de ces acteurs se convertit en capacité d’influence de la vie politique et des modes de gouvernement.
L’ouvrage Alt-Finance. How the City of London Bought Democracy est une première étude de cas. À travers le cas du Royaume-Uni, le livre montre que, loin d’être une insurrection électorale des classes populaires, le développement d’une orientation anti-Europe au Royaume-Uni a été largement soutenue et financée par la finance dite alternative qui voit l’Union européenne comme un obstacle à l’accumulation de capital. Elle promeut une orientation politique que l’on peut qualifier de libertarienne autoritaire par opposition à l’axe politique néolibéral défendu par la finance mainstream.
Simon Hix is the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute, in Florence - The Dance of European Integration: How Ideology and Policy Shape Support for the EU
Analysing 50 years of public opinion data and EU policy outputs, Simon Hix and Bjørn Høyland show how the relationship between political ideology and support for European integration has changed dramatically. In the 1970s and 1980s, people on the Right were more supportive of European integration than people on the Left. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Centrists were more supportive then Extremists. Today, the Left likes the EU while the Right opposes it. Simon and Bjørn argue that this pattern can be explained by the fact that attitudes towards the EU are endogenous to policy preferences. They develop a novel method for identifying the left-right position of EU policy outcomes, and show how citizens’ ideological “distance” from these outputs predicts their support for European integration. This has implications for the design of EU policies going forward.
Paul Marx is a Professor of Political Science and Socio-Economics at University of Duisburg-Essen - The Effect of Children's Economic Hardship on Future Voting
Long-term socialisation patterns are considered a key explanation for socio-economic inequalities in political participation. Material conditions in youth and childhood are assumed to contribute to rather stable trajectories of political apathy or involvement and lay the foundations for political inequality from before voting age and far into adulthood. However, our understanding of when such inequalities begin to become noticeable, the importance of parental as opposed to personal socio-economic status, and potential long-term consequences is still limited. Paul Marx and his co-author Sebastian Jungkunz address these issues using the youth questionnaire of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. They show that material deprivation in childhood still has a substantial negative effect on turnout when young adults reach the first election in which they are eligible to vote. This result holds when they control for an unusually exhaustive list of potential confounders, such as psychological childhood characteristics, parental political interest and education, present material conditions, mental health, and future educational degrees. They, hence, demonstrate that—while personal socio-economic experiences in early adulthood are not irrelevant — socio-economic family background has an independent, strong, and (probably) lasting effect on political participation.
Ragnhild Louise Muriaas is a professor of Political Science at the Department of Government, University of Bergen - Parliamentary Stayers in Western Democracies: Mind the Gender-Gap in Political Endurance
Earlier this year Ragnhild Louise Muriaas started a project funded by The European Research Council (ERC Consolidator grant) with the title “Gender-Gap in Political Endurance: a novel political inclusion theory” (SUCCESS). The paper presented in this seminar, based on research conducted by Ragnhild Louise Muriaas and Torill Stavenes, discusses the novelty of the concept of political endurance and aims to establish how the size of a gender gap in political endurance varies over time and countries in western democracies. The scholars study how gender shapes political endurance in parliaments, building on the research documenting how newcomers are disadvantaged their first term in office, while senior members enjoy certain privileges. Thus, if there are gender gaps in political endurance women could face more barriers than men in getting their job done as representatives. They put forward three different measures to study gender gaps in political endurance to find out if, how and when men are more likely than women to be a parliamentary stayer. Studying the endurance of all parliamentarians in 10 western democracies from 1965 to 2021 they show that there are gender gaps in political endurance across the different measurements, but that gender gaps are particularly apparent if they concentrate on those that have served as parliamentarians for three or more terms.
Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, directrice de recherche au CNRS et directrice adjointe du Centre de sociologie des organisations à Sciences Po - Pourquoi nous consommons tant. Pour une économie politique de l'abondance
Dans le contexte des appels à la sobriété portés par les experts du climat, la consommation est un levier majeur de la transition écologique. A la suite de nombreuses études en sciences sociales, Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier suggère que la croyance selon laquelle une telle transition écologique pourrait reposer sur les seules épaules des consommateurs est illusoire. Elle met en évidence les fortes interdépendances, au sein d'une économie politique de la consommation d'abondance, entre les politiques publiques, les modèles économiques des entreprises et les pratiques des consommateurs. En adoptant une perspective sociologique économique et foucaldienne, elle développe un agenda de recherche pour explorer comment la consommation d'abondance devient une norme légitimée et institutionnalisée. La consommation d'abondance, qui est hautement intensive en ressources, est structurelle à la fois dans les politiques économiques des gouvernements et dans les modèles d'affaires des entreprises et est donc constamment organisée et gouvernée. Cependant, elle n'est pas imposée aux individus par la force. Le gouvernement de la consommation repose sur des technologies de pouvoir qui façonnent et orientent la conduite des consommateurs, les amenant à adopter les normes de la consommation d'abondance en activant et en jouant sur leurs dispositions acquises par la socialisation marchande.
Luc Boltanski, sociologue, est directeur d'études à l'EHESS et Arnaud Esquerre, sociologue, est directeur de recherche au CNRS - "Qu'est ce que l'actualité politique ?"
Dans l'ouvrage "Qu'est-ce que l'actualité politique ? Événements et opinions au XXIe siècle", Luc Boltanski et Arnaud Esquerre s’intéressent à deux processus constitutifs de l’espace public en démocratie. D’une part, les processus de mise en actualité : se saisissant de ce qui se passe maintenant, ces processus font connaître à nombre de personnes l’existence de faits que ces dernières n’ont pas, pour la plupart, directement vécus et les accompagnent généralement d’une description et d’une interprétation. Et, d’autre part les processus de politisation : se saisissant de faits mis en actualité, ces processus les problématisent, en sorte que l’actualité concerne chacun et par conséquent aussi l’État, tout en donnant lieu à des interprétations dont les divergences suscitent des commentaires, des polémiques et des divisions.
Luc Boltanski et Arnaud Esquerre fondent leurs analyses sur les milliers de commentaires mis en ligne par des lecteurs du quotidien Le Monde en septembre et octobre 2019 ; et les milliers de commentaires postés sur deux chaînes de vidéos d’actualités passées mises en ligne en janvier 2021 par l’Institut national de l’audiovisuel. Chemin faisant, ils reconstituent la norme du dicible en comparant les commentaires publiés et les commentaires rejetés par les instances de modération. Ils cartographient les processus de politisation à notre époque, tels le féminisme, l’écologie, l’immigration, les religions, le nationalisme, l’Europe, etc. Et, à partir de ces matériaux, ils réfléchissent à la formation de l’opinion politique et à la manière dont en sont affectées nos vies quotidiennes dans la démocratie d'aujourd’hui.
Radoslaw Zubek, Associate Professor of European Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford - "Coalition bargaining and legislative instutions"
Previous work shows that robust legislative oversight institutions strengthen the ability of multi-party governments to enforce policy agreements. This raises the question of whether coalitions choose such institutions strategically. In a joint article, Tom Fleming (UCL) and Radoslaw Zubek introduce a formal bargaining model in which parties negotiate over legislative procedures as well as policy compromises and the allocation of ministerial posts. This model suggests that coalition partners' incentives for creating strong oversight institutions are shaped by the relative priority they place on policy and office benefits, their relative bargaining power, and the existence of outside options during coalition formation. We provide initial evidence of the model's empirical plausibility by analyzing the evolution of committee oversight procedures in the Irish parliament (Dail Eireann) over more than 100 years. These findings open interesting avenues for future work on how parties shape legislative institutions in parliamentary democracies
Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law at Columbia Law School - "The Laws of Capitalism"
Why is capitalism, a system that is made in law, so resilient to legal governance aimed at taming its worst excesses? The puzzle is not just a riddle on the nature of law or its (in-)ability to solve social issues. Its purpose is to explain why capitalism remains inequitable even after repeated attempts to tame it, is oblivious to climate change, and structurally incapable of correcting itself. To solve this puzzle, I offer three laws of capitalist law: (1) Subjective rights that are freed from corresponding legal obligations; (2) Decentralized access to the centralized means of coercion; and (3) Legal arbitrage that is not only condoned but inherent to capitalist law.
Her work spans comparative law and corporate governance, law and finance, and law and development. She is the co-recipient of the Max Planck Research Award (2012), a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg and the European Academies of Science and a Fellow at the European Corporate Governance Institute. Her most recent book is The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality (Princeton UP, 2019).
Elizabeth Popp Berman is Associate Professor of Organizational Studies and (by courtesy) Sociology at the University of Michigan "Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy"
Her new book, Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy, has just been published by Princeton University Press; her previous book, Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine, won several awards from the American Sociological Association and the Social Science History Association. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has broad interests in the sociology of science, economic sociology, and higher education.
ERIK JONES, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute
"Two Models for the Politicization of European Integration: Postfunctionalism, Anti-Establishment Politics, and the Italian Case"
He uses Italy’s relationship with the European Union over the past three decades to explore the difference between two models for the politicization of European integration. The paper draws the causal mechanism for one model from the postfunctionalist argument made by Hooghe and Marks (2009, 2018). It draws the causal mechanism for the other (anti-establishment) model from the writings of Stefano Bartolini (2005) and Peter Mair (2007, 2013). Although the two models can exist simultaneously, it is possible to test for predominance using the strategy for ‘fair causal comparison’ set out by Miller (1988). The evidence suggests that both mechanisms are present in Italy, but the anti-establishment mechanism is more important. This finding contributes both to our theoretical understanding of the politicization of Europe and to our empirical understanding of the Italian case
ANN MORNING, Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University "an ugly word: rethinking race in Italy and the USA"
Ann Morning is an Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University as well as the Academic Director at 19 Washington Square North, the home of NYU Abu Dhabi in New York. Trained in economics, political science, and international affairs as well as sociology, her research interests include race, demography, and the sociology of science, especially as they pertain to census classification worldwide and to individuals’ concepts of difference. She is the author of The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference (University of California Press 2011), and co-author of An Ugly Word: Rethinking Race in Italy and the United States (Russell Sage Foundation 2022, with Marcello Maneri). Morning was a 2008-09 Fulbright research fellow at the University of Milan-Bicocca and a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po in 2019. She was a member of the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations from 2013 to 2019 and has consulted on racial statistics for the European Commission and the United Nations. Morning holds her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale University, a Master’s of International Affairs from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University.
She presented her research during the General Seminar of the CEE "an ugly word: rethinking race in Italy and the USA".
Chloe Alexandre, Florent Gougou, Simon Persico (Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte) "What unites and divides the environmental movement? Ideological consensus and conflict amongst French climate activists"
Le mouvement écologiste a franchi une étape supplémentaire ces dernières années, avec la naissance de nouvelles organisations utilisant de nouveaux répertoires et rassemblant un nombre sans précédent de partisans et d'activistes à travers le monde. Pourtant, plusieurs enjeux continuent de diviser ce mouvement. Comment les militants contemporains du climat se positionnent-ils face à ces débats ? Quelles valeurs définissent le mouvement écologiste et quels conflits idéologiques divisent les militants du climat qui y participent ? Afin de répondre à ces questions, cet article commence par rappeler sept grands débats idéologiques qui divisent le mouvement écologiste depuis ses origines : 1. Décroissance vs Productivisme ; 2. Écocentrisme vs Anthropocentrisme ; 3. Démocratie contre Autoritarisme ; 4. Néo-malthusianisme contre égalitarisme ; 5. Responsabilité individuelle contre action gouvernementale ; 6. Collapsologie vs Eco-optimisme ; 7. Technophobie vs. Techno-modernisme 8. Écoféminisme post-colonial vs. Valeurs occidentales traditionnelles vs. enquête ponctuelle auprès de plus de 10 000 répondants proches du mouvement climatique. Nous montrons que, dans un contexte de consensus élevé entre les répondants sur la plupart des questions environnementales, deux principales dimensions conflictuelles façonnent l'espace idéologique de l'activisme climatique français. Le premier et le plus puissant oppose les militants « verts clairs » aux plus radicaux. La deuxième dimension du conflit concerne la place laissée à la liberté individuelle par rapport au contrôle étatique.
Chloe Alexandre, Florent Gougou, Simon Persico (Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte) présentent les résultats de leurs recherches qui confirment également l'alignement croissant du conflit environnemental sur le clivage gauche-droite.
Isabelle Guinaudeau, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Centre Emile Durkheim, CNRS: Unequal mandate representation? Group targeting and citizens’ responses to electoral pledges and their realisations
Isabelle Guinaudeau is a political scientist, CNRS researcher working on party competition and comparative politics.
She presents under the SGCEE her current research.
Shamus Khan, Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton University "Sexual Citizens: A study of sexual assault on campus"
Shamus Khan presents at the CEE's General seminar the book "Sexual Citizens" co-written with Jennifer S. Hirsch. They draws upon their book an intimate portraits of life and sex among today’s college students.
It's an entirely new way to understand sexual assault. The result of their reflexion transforms the understanding of sexual assault and provides a new roadmap for how to address it.
Natascha Zaun, Assistant Professor in Migration Studies at the European Institute at LSEWhen populist governments become assertive: The role of politicisation in explaining deadlock of EU asylum policymaking
Natascha Zaun specialises in EU and international migration governance and EU policymaking.
She presents during the general seminar of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics her paper about the case of the deadlocked Dublin IV negotiations.
Brenda Van Coppenolle, Department of Government, University of Essex: Deliberating Constitutions: Lotteries in Constituent Assemblies, Denmark in 1848
Brenda Van Coppenolle, lecturer in the Department of Government, University of Essex, answered during the general seminar of the Center of european studies to the following questions:
How are constitutions drafted, and how does the structure of deliberation affect the final document?
Indeed, Brenda Van Coppenolle, Jens Carstens (Sciences Po, CEE) and Jan Rovny(Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP) highlight the need to better understand the tools of deliberative democracy. Caterina Froio (Sciences Po, CEE) was the chair.
Bernhard Ebbinghaus, University of Oxford: Europe’s Social Model facing the Covid-19 Employment Crisis: Innovating Job Retention Policies to Avoid Mass Unemployment.
The Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus, a visiting professor from the University of Oxford (Department of Social Policy & Intervention)analyzed during the general seminar of the Center of european studies an Europe facing multiple challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the problem of securing jobs and income.
Cécile Laborde, Université d’Oxford, Nuffield Chair en Théorie Politique Laïcité, séparation et progressisme: l’Inde et la théorie politique comparée
La laïcité, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord, est comprise comme un principe de séparation entre l’Etat et les religions. Cette définition toutefois ne rend pas pleinement compte de la logique constitutionnelle et politique à l’œuvre dans bon nombre d’Etats laïques non-occidentaux. En Inde, l’Etat intervient activement dans la sphère religieuse et reconnait officiellement les groupes religieux. Ces tendances interventionnistes condamnent-elles l’Inde à n’être qu’un Etat imparfaitement laïque, comme le jugeait Donald Smith dans India as a Secular State?
Dans cette conférence, l’auteure montre que la laïcité indienne ne saurait être mesurée à l’aune d’un simple principe de séparation. La laïcité à l’indienne aspire à des idéaux progressistes plus généraux : la liberté personnelle (pour les femmes et les dalits) et l’égalité de statut (pour les minorités religieuses). Elle est compatible, en principe, avec une intervention ciblée de l’Etat dans la sphère religieuse, au nom de ces idéaux. La compréhension de cette laïcité est utile à la fois dans une perspective de théorie politique comparée (le global secularism) et pour saisir l’originalité profonde du constitutionalisme indien.
Mais elle éclaire aussi des enjeux contemporains cruciaux, autour du déploiement de la rhétorique de la laïcité par les nationalistes hindous au pouvoir. C’est parce que le BJP adhère à une vision séparationniste plutôt que progressiste qu’il réussit à présenter son idéologie nationaliste comme le rétablissement d’une laïcité authentique. C’est ce que l’auteure entend démontrer en analysant le discours nationaliste hindou sur les droits des minorités, les droits des femmes, et sa défense de l’hindouisme comme culture plutôt que comme religion.
Chris Bickerton, University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies & Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, City College of New York "Technopopulism The New Logic of Democratic Politics"
Technocratic appeals to expertise and populist invocations of 'the people' have become mainstays of political competition in established democracies. This development is best understood as the emergence of technopopulism—a new political logic that is being superimposed on the traditional struggle between left and right. Political movements and actors—such as Italy's Five Star Movement and France's La République En Marche—combine technocratic and populist appeals in a variety of ways, as do more established parties that are adapting to the particular set of incentives and constraints implicit in this new, unmediated form of politics. In the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, we combine theoretical and historical approaches, offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism, while also exploring a number of salient contemporary examples. This book* provides a detailed account of the emergence of this new political logic, as well as a discussion of its troubling consequences for existing democratic regimes. It ends by considering some possible remedies that go beyond the simplistic idea that in the right 'dose' populism and technocracy can counter-balance one another.
Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, University of Bergen & Paul Sniderman, Stanford University "The Struggle for Inclusion: Muslim Minorities and the Democratic Ethos"
The politics of inclusion is about more than hate, exclusion, and discrimination. It is a window into the moral character of contemporary liberal democracies. The Struggle for Inclusion* introduces a new method to the study of public opinion: to probe, step by step, how far non-Muslim majorities are willing to be inclusive, where they draw the line, and why they draw it there and not elsewhere. Those committed to liberal democratic values and their concerns are the focus, not those advocating exclusion and intolerance.
Notwithstanding the turbulence and violence of the last decade over issues of immigration and of Muslims in the West, the results of this study demonstrate that the largest number of citizens in contemporary liberal democracies are more open to inclusion of Muslims than has been recognized. Not less important, the book reveals limits on inclusion that follow from the friction between liberal democratic values. This pioneering work thus brings to light both pathways to progress and polarization traps.
Frédéric Mérand, Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM) "Un sociologue à la Commission européenne"
Proposant une sociologie du travail politique, ce livre rend compte de quatre années d’observation au sein du cabinet d'un commissaire européen. De 2015 à 2019, Pierre Moscovici et son équipe ont été confrontés à la crise grecque, aux faiblesses de l’Union économique et monétaire, aux scandales d'évasion fiscale et à la menace populiste italienne. Entre les luttes partisanes et les jeux diplomatiques, entre les tenants de la rigueur et les architectes d’un gouvernement économique, ils ont mené la politique de la zone euro. Frédéric Mérand a accompagné « les Moscovici » dans leurs réunions, de Bruxelles à Strasbourg, de Washington à Athènes. À la cantine ou dans les couloirs du Berlaymont, le siège de la Commission,l'auteur les a interrogés sur leurs stratégies et leurs espoirs. Frédéric Merand a aussirecueilli leurs peurs et leurs déceptions. Les observations qui en découlent permettent de comprendre comment on « fait de la politique » dans l'Union européenne. Au cours de ce récit ethnographique, la France n'est jamais loin. Décodant la trajectoire européenne d'un commissaire socialiste français, d'abord sous François Hollande puis Emmanuel Macron, Un sociologue à la Commission européenne explore les dynamiques qui parfois rapprochent Bruxelles et Paris, mais souvent les éloignent.
Paul Pierson, University of California, Berkeley "Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality"
Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality situates Donald Trump’s ascendance in the broader currents of American political development. Unlike many variants of "right-wing populism" the American version represents a curious hybrid of populism and plutocracy. Although American right-wing populism has real social roots, it has long been nurtured by powerful elites seeking to undercut support for modern structures of economic regulation and the welfare state. Steeply rising inequality in the United States generated an acute form of what Daniel Ziblatt has termed "the conservative dilemma." Over the past few decades, the Republican Party rejected a path of economic moderation. Instead, it chose to construct an apparatus for stoking political outrage, particularly in forms that accentuate and intensify racial divisions. American political institutions offered a distinctive opportunity for a populist figure to draw on this fury to first capture the nomination of the GOP, and from that position to ascend to the White House. Yet the administration’s substantive agenda constituted a full-throated endorsement of the GOP economic elite’s long-standing demands for cuts in social spending, sharp tax reductions for the wealthy, and the gutting of consumer, worker and environmental protections. The chasm between Trump’s rhetoric and his actions justifies a more skeptical assessment of the breadth and depth of American populism, one that acknowledges how its contours were shaped by the nation’s unusual political institutions, its intensifying political polarization and the out-sized influence of the wealthy. While Trump lost the 2020 election, these structural conditions remain. So do the distressing incentives these conditions create for one of the nation's two major political parties.
Podcasts
- @Mingirov Yuriy_shutterstock
The Centre’s general seminar invites colleagues from France and/or overseas to present their research, books, articles in progress. The seminar format consists in partnering senior and junior researchers.
Here you will find recordings from our previous seminars.
You can also subscribe to our newsletter on all our seminars, all cycles combined, to receive invitations to our future events.
Chloe Alexandre, Florent Gougou, Simon Persico (Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte) "What unites and divides the environmental movement? Ideological consensus and conflict amongst French climate activists"
Le mouvement écologiste a franchi une étape supplémentaire ces dernières années, avec la naissance de nouvelles organisations utilisant de nouveaux répertoires et rassemblant un nombre sans précédent de partisans et d'activistes à travers le monde. Pourtant, plusieurs enjeux continuent de diviser ce mouvement. Comment les militants contemporains du climat se positionnent-ils face à ces débats ? Quelles valeurs définissent le mouvement écologiste et quels conflits idéologiques divisent les militants du climat qui y participent ? Afin de répondre à ces questions, cet article commence par rappeler sept grands débats idéologiques qui divisent le mouvement écologiste depuis ses origines : 1. Décroissance vs Productivisme ; 2. Écocentrisme vs Anthropocentrisme ; 3. Démocratie contre Autoritarisme ; 4. Néo-malthusianisme contre égalitarisme ; 5. Responsabilité individuelle contre action gouvernementale ; 6. Collapsologie vs Eco-optimisme ; 7. Technophobie vs. Techno-modernisme 8. Écoféminisme post-colonial vs. Valeurs occidentales traditionnelles vs. enquête ponctuelle auprès de plus de 10 000 répondants proches du mouvement climatique. Nous montrons que, dans un contexte de consensus élevé entre les répondants sur la plupart des questions environnementales, deux principales dimensions conflictuelles façonnent l'espace idéologique de l'activisme climatique français. Le premier et le plus puissant oppose les militants « verts clairs » aux plus radicaux. La deuxième dimension du conflit concerne la place laissée à la liberté individuelle par rapport au contrôle étatique.
Chloe Alexandre, Florent Gougou, Simon Persico (Sciences Po Grenoble, Pacte) présentent les résultats de leurs recherches qui confirment également l'alignement croissant du conflit environnemental sur le clivage gauche-droite.
Isabelle Guinaudeau, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Centre Emile Durkheim, CNRS: Unequal mandate representation? Group targeting and citizens’ responses to electoral pledges and their realisations
Isabelle Guinaudeau is a political scientist, CNRS researcher working on party competition and comparative politics.
She presents under the SGCEE her current research.
Shamus Khan, Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton University "Sexual Citizens: A study of sexual assault on campus"
Shamus Khan presents at the CEE's General seminar the book "Sexual Citizens" co-written with Jennifer S. Hirsch. They draws upon their book an intimate portraits of life and sex among today’s college students.
It's an entirely new way to understand sexual assault. The result of their reflexion transforms the understanding of sexual assault and provides a new roadmap for how to address it.
Natascha Zaun, Assistant Professor in Migration Studies at the European Institute at LSE: When populist governments become assertive: The role of politicisation in explaining deadlock of EU asylum policymaking
Natascha Zaun specialises in EU and international migration governance and EU policymaking.
She presents during the general seminar of the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics her paper about the case of the deadlocked Dublin IV negotiations.
Brenda Van Coppenolle, Department of Government, University of Essex: Deliberating Constitutions: Lotteries in Constituent Assemblies, Denmark in 1848
Brenda Van Coppenolle, lecturer in the Department of Government, University of Essex, answered during the general seminar of the Center of european studies to the following questions:
How are constitutions drafted, and how does the structure of deliberation affect the final document?
Indeed, Brenda Van Coppenolle, Jens Carstens (Sciences Po, CEE) and Jan Rovny(Sciences Po, CEE & LIEPP) highlight the need to better understand the tools of deliberative democracy. Caterina Froio (Sciences Po, CEE) was the chair.
Bernhard Ebbinghaus, University of Oxford: Europe’s Social Model facing the Covid-19 Employment Crisis: Innovating Job Retention Policies to Avoid Mass Unemployment.
The Professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus, a visiting professor from the University of Oxford (Department of Social Policy & Intervention)analyzed during the general seminar of the Center of european studies an Europe facing multiple challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the problem of securing jobs and income.
Cécile Laborde, Université d’Oxford, Nuffield Chair en Théorie Politique Laïcité, séparation et progressisme: l’Inde et la théorie politique comparée
La laïcité, en Europe et en Amérique du Nord, est comprise comme un principe de séparation entre l’Etat et les religions. Cette définition toutefois ne rend pas pleinement compte de la logique constitutionnelle et politique à l’œuvre dans bon nombre d’Etats laïques non-occidentaux. En Inde, l’Etat intervient activement dans la sphère religieuse et reconnait officiellement les groupes religieux. Ces tendances interventionnistes condamnent-elles l’Inde à n’être qu’un Etat imparfaitement laïque, comme le jugeait Donald Smith dans India as a Secular State?
Dans cette conférence, l’auteure montre que la laïcité indienne ne saurait être mesurée à l’aune d’un simple principe de séparation. La laïcité à l’indienne aspire à des idéaux progressistes plus généraux : la liberté personnelle (pour les femmes et les dalits) et l’égalité de statut (pour les minorités religieuses). Elle est compatible, en principe, avec une intervention ciblée de l’Etat dans la sphère religieuse, au nom de ces idéaux. La compréhension de cette laïcité est utile à la fois dans une perspective de théorie politique comparée (le global secularism) et pour saisir l’originalité profonde du constitutionalisme indien.
Mais elle éclaire aussi des enjeux contemporains cruciaux, autour du déploiement de la rhétorique de la laïcité par les nationalistes hindous au pouvoir. C’est parce que le BJP adhère à une vision séparationniste plutôt que progressiste qu’il réussit à présenter son idéologie nationaliste comme le rétablissement d’une laïcité authentique. C’est ce que l’auteure entend démontrer en analysant le discours nationaliste hindou sur les droits des minorités, les droits des femmes, et sa défense de l’hindouisme comme culture plutôt que comme religion.
Chris Bickerton, University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies & Carlo Invernizzi Accetti, City College of New York "Technopopulism The New Logic of Democratic Politics"
Technocratic appeals to expertise and populist invocations of 'the people' have become mainstays of political competition in established democracies. This development is best understood as the emergence of technopopulism—a new political logic that is being superimposed on the traditional struggle between left and right. Political movements and actors—such as Italy's Five Star Movement and France's La République En Marche—combine technocratic and populist appeals in a variety of ways, as do more established parties that are adapting to the particular set of incentives and constraints implicit in this new, unmediated form of politics. In the first book-length treatment of the phenomenon of technopopulism, we combine theoretical and historical approaches, offering a systematic definition of the concept of technopopulism, while also exploring a number of salient contemporary examples. This book* provides a detailed account of the emergence of this new political logic, as well as a discussion of its troubling consequences for existing democratic regimes. It ends by considering some possible remedies that go beyond the simplistic idea that in the right 'dose' populism and technocracy can counter-balance one another.
Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, University of Bergen & Paul Sniderman, Stanford University "The Struggle for Inclusion: Muslim Minorities and the Democratic Ethos"
The politics of inclusion is about more than hate, exclusion, and discrimination. It is a window into the moral character of contemporary liberal democracies. The Struggle for Inclusion* introduces a new method to the study of public opinion: to probe, step by step, how far non-Muslim majorities are willing to be inclusive, where they draw the line, and why they draw it there and not elsewhere. Those committed to liberal democratic values and their concerns are the focus, not those advocating exclusion and intolerance.
Notwithstanding the turbulence and violence of the last decade over issues of immigration and of Muslims in the West, the results of this study demonstrate that the largest number of citizens in contemporary liberal democracies are more open to inclusion of Muslims than has been recognized. Not less important, the book reveals limits on inclusion that follow from the friction between liberal democratic values. This pioneering work thus brings to light both pathways to progress and polarization traps.
Frédéric Mérand, Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM) "Un sociologue à la Commission européenne"
Proposant une sociologie du travail politique, ce livre rend compte de quatre années d’observation au sein du cabinet d'un commissaire européen. De 2015 à 2019, Pierre Moscovici et son équipe ont été confrontés à la crise grecque, aux faiblesses de l’Union économique et monétaire, aux scandales d'évasion fiscale et à la menace populiste italienne. Entre les luttes partisanes et les jeux diplomatiques, entre les tenants de la rigueur et les architectes d’un gouvernement économique, ils ont mené la politique de la zone euro. Frédéric Mérand a accompagné « les Moscovici » dans leurs réunions, de Bruxelles à Strasbourg, de Washington à Athènes. À la cantine ou dans les couloirs du Berlaymont, le siège de la Commission,l'auteur les a interrogés sur leurs stratégies et leurs espoirs. Frédéric Merand a aussirecueilli leurs peurs et leurs déceptions. Les observations qui en découlent permettent de comprendre comment on « fait de la politique » dans l'Union européenne. Au cours de ce récit ethnographique, la France n'est jamais loin. Décodant la trajectoire européenne d'un commissaire socialiste français, d'abord sous François Hollande puis Emmanuel Macron, Un sociologue à la Commission européenne explore les dynamiques qui parfois rapprochent Bruxelles et Paris, mais souvent les éloignent.
Paul Pierson, University of California, Berkeley "Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality"
Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality situates Donald Trump’s ascendance in the broader currents of American political development. Unlike many variants of "right-wing populism" the American version represents a curious hybrid of populism and plutocracy. Although American right-wing populism has real social roots, it has long been nurtured by powerful elites seeking to undercut support for modern structures of economic regulation and the welfare state. Steeply rising inequality in the United States generated an acute form of what Daniel Ziblatt has termed "the conservative dilemma." Over the past few decades, the Republican Party rejected a path of economic moderation. Instead, it chose to construct an apparatus for stoking political outrage, particularly in forms that accentuate and intensify racial divisions. American political institutions offered a distinctive opportunity for a populist figure to draw on this fury to first capture the nomination of the GOP, and from that position to ascend to the White House. Yet the administration’s substantive agenda constituted a full-throated endorsement of the GOP economic elite’s long-standing demands for cuts in social spending, sharp tax reductions for the wealthy, and the gutting of consumer, worker and environmental protections. The chasm between Trump’s rhetoric and his actions justifies a more skeptical assessment of the breadth and depth of American populism, one that acknowledges how its contours were shaped by the nation’s unusual political institutions, its intensifying political polarization and the out-sized influence of the wealthy. While Trump lost the 2020 election, these structural conditions remain. So do the distressing incentives these conditions create for one of the nation's two major political parties.
CEE Support Campaign
- @Morphart Creation_shutterstock _ M. et Mme Curie in their Laboratory
We invite expressions of interest from researchers interested in submitting a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (MSCA IF) application with Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics.
We will provide support and guidance to applicants that successfully go through the internal selection process.
Submit your Expression of Interest : The call for applications closes on September 2019. Expressions of Interest are required by 31 May 2022 (to Linda Amrani, General Secretary of the CEE, linda.amani@sciencespo.fr).
Please sent:
- letter of intention (with the name of supervisor requested)
- CV and list of publications
- draft project (1-2 pages) with the objectives
We will send this for review to the Board to confirm the support for your proposal (in June).
Recruitment
- Join our Team - @penguiin_shutterstock
JOB DESCRIPTION
Position: The Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE) is recruiting a Full Professor in the field of sociology with affiliation to the Department of Sociology.
Discipline: Sociology
Profile: Sociology of crime, deviance and corruption
DUTIES
Research
The successful candidate should share research interest in one or several of the following: crime, deviance, corruption – as well as the policies to fight or prevent these phenomena. Candidates should be experts in criminal behaviour in contexts of multilevel governance and transnational circulations of goods, money, services and people.
The position is open to established sociologists from a wide range of backgrounds, theoretical approaches and methodological skills (qualitative, quantitative or mixed approaches). Demonstrable expertise in one or several social science methods (and the ability to teach about such methods) will be particularly valued, as well as an interest for transnational circulation perspectives and comparative research.
We are expecting to receive applications from scholars with an excellent record of publications in criminology and sociology journals and international book series, a strong integration in international networks, and substantial teaching experience.
Teaching
Annual teaching duties are 128 lecture-theatre class-equivalent (CM) hours that can generally be divided into three 24-hour lecture or seminar courses and 56 CM hours of complementary pedagogical services (e.g., student admissions, MA and PhD dissertation supervision, university administration roles, etc.).
The appointed professor will be expected to teach at the three levels of instruction offered by Sciences Po: its Undergraduate programme (College - on one of the seven Sciences Po regional campuses), its Graduate (Master) programme and its School of research.
The successful candidate will be required to teach Introduction to sociology at the undergraduate level in English and deliver master’s and doctoral level training in analysing mobilities, crime, and social problems.
Courses may be taught in English or French.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Application
Applicants must complete their application on the “Galaxie” portal of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research between the 28st March and the 2nd May 2022:
In addition to the documents required by the online application form of the “Galaxie” portal, this application must include the following additional documents:
- A cover letter presenting the research projects that the applicant intends to pursue,
- A CV and a complete list of publications,
- five prominent publications,
- A synopsis of 3 courses taught and, if possible, courses evaluations,
- A copy of your passport.
Applications must also be electronically submitted before the 2nd May 2022 to the president of the selection committee: recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr, as well as to Sciences Po’s academic centre: drh.poleacademique@sciencespo.fr .
The selection committee will examine applications and proceed to a shortlist of candidates to be interviewed at Sciences Po in June 2022.
Start date: January 2023
Eligibility
Eligible candidates are expected to meet the criteria for the French Professeur des Universités status. This includes candidates who have an Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) and who have been qualified by the French National Council of University (CNU).
Applicants who teach at a higher education institution outside of France must already hold a full or associate professor position or an equivalent position at a foreign university at the time of recruitment. They must apply on the Galaxie portal as well. Sciences Po ‘s Research Council will consider their eligibility based on their current position and career advancement.
Sciences Po is an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to balanced gender, geographical, and minority representation. We particularly welcome applications from women.
UNIT OF AFFILIATION
The CEE (UMR 8239) is a multidisciplinary research unit specialising in comparative political focusing on Europe. The CEE is member of the Departments of Political Science and Sociology. The key research domains are grouped around four research axes:
- Cities, borders and (im)mobilities,
- Strains on democratic representation,
- the state as a producer or public policies,
- the transformations of capitalism.
The CEE is now home to more than 30 senior researchers and a professional support team of 7 staff.
CONTACTS
President of the selection committee
Philippe Bezes, CNRS Research Director, Professor at Sciences Po: recruitment.cee@sciencespo.fr
Administrative contacts
Linda Amrani, General Secretary: linda.amrani@sciencespo.fr
Silvia Duerich-Morandi, Executive Assistant: silvia.duerichmorandi@sciencespo.fr
Sciences Po is an institution of higher education and research in the humanities and social sciences. Its permanent research community – 250 professors and researchers – is built around 12 established and internationally recognized entities (including 5 units jointly run with the National Center for Scientific Research - CNRS), and is divided into 5 academic departments (Sociology, Political Science, History, Economics, and Law).
Closed recruitment campaigns
- Chargé ou Chargée de communication H/F
- Chargé (e) de médiation scientifique (FSEP, CNRS Délégation Ile-de-France Villejuif)
- Postdoc Researcher H2020 - Project BRIDGES
- Une ou un chercheur postdoctorant pour la chaire « Villes, Logement, Immobilier »
- Une ou un assistant de recherche pour le programme “Transitions énergétiques en France”
- Assistant Professor (tenure track) in Political Science, Comparative Politics of Ecological Transitions.
Call for papers
- Megaphone - @Haali_shutterstock
L'appel à communication est disponible ici
Previous calls for papers
- Quand les politiques publiques font de la politique. Apports et actualités des policy feedback, Sciences Po, CEE, 17 juin 2022.
- The many hands of the State: Spaces, Actors and Instrument of the Recomposing of Public Action. 2021 CEE’s doctoral study day
- 6th Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments, 1-2 July 2021 Sciences Po, Paris, Via Zoom
- Public investment policies in Europe (PDF, 172 Ko) - Workshop organized by Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (Axis Transformations of Capitalism), to be held September 6th and 7th 2021 at the CEE, Sciences Po, Paris. The deadline ended on 19 of March 2021.
- "Reading Economics as Political Theory" (PDDF, 99 Ko), Workshop 17-18 of June 2021 - Sciences Po, Paris: The deadline ended on 4th of December 2020.The deadline ended on 4th of December 2020.
Soutenance de thèse
- Roberto Rodriguez - @Céline Bansard, PM studio
Roberto Rodríguez defended his thesis on Wednesday, February 23 at Sciences Po.
The jury comprised:
- Daniel KÜBLER, Professor, Universität Zürich
- Patrick LE GALÈS, directeur de recherche, CNRS-CEE
- Vicente UGALDE SALDAÑA, Profesor-Investigador, Centro de Estudios Demográficos, Urbanos y Ambientales (CEDUA), El Colegio de México, A.C. (reviewer)
- Chloé Anne VLASSOPOULOU, maître de conférences, Université de Picardie Jules-Verne
- Philippe ZITTOUN, directeur de recherche en science politique, Université de Lyon (reviewer)
Abstract
The thesis analyzes environmental policy coordination processes in cities. Based on a comparative case study of air quality and climate change policies in Mexico City and Paris, the research demonstrates that policy coordination in cities is a dynamic, sequential process where actors from the four governance dimensions – urban, vertical, horizontal, and international – with different competences and perceptions on how their actions affect each other, interact strategically under particular institutional configurations and cognitive references. To do so, the thesis develops a theoretical framework based on two approaches: historical institutionalism that addresses institutions as changing, power distributional elements, and cognitive theories of public policy that explain the organization of policy processes around ideational paradigms or frames of reference. The main argument is divided into two parts. First, policy coordination results from the interplay between (1) institutions that shape governance arrangements by distributing competences and establishing frameworks for action, (2) cognitive frameworks and ideational processes that define references, paradigms, and problems, and (3) the strategic interactions taking place within. The three elements combine, leading to positive coordination, negative coordination, or conflict. Second, those arrays remain steady until changes in the institutional context, either abrupt or incremental, rearrange the interactions by altering the frameworks of action, leading to different coordination sequences. Hence, I argue that due to the changing nature of the institutional context, coordination processes are sequential, rather than one-shot interactions due to the interplay between the abovementioned factors.
Résumé
Cette thèse analyse les processus de coordination des politiques environnementales dans les villes en menant une étude de cas comparé des politiques publiques de la qualité de l'air et de changement climatique à Mexico et à Paris. La recherche démontre que la coordination des politiques publiques dans les villes est un processus dynamique et séquentiel, où les acteurs provenant des quatre dimensions de la gouvernance – urbaine, verticale, horizontale et internationale – et qu’ont des compétences et perceptions différentes sur la façon dont leurs actions s'affectent mutuellement, interagissent stratégiquement sous des configurations institutionnelles et des références cognitives particulières. La thèse développe un cadre théorique basé sur deux approches : l'institutionnalisme historique qui aborde les institutions en tant qu'éléments changeants et distributives du pouvoir ; et les théories cognitives des politiques publiques qui expliquent l'organisation des processus politiques autour de cadres de référence et paradigmes idéationnels. L'argument principal est divisé en deux parties. Premièrement, la coordination des politiques résulte de l'interaction entre (1) des institutions qui façonnent les arrangements de gouvernance en distribuant des compétences et en établissant des cadres d'action, (2) des cadres cognitifs et des processus idéationnels qui définissent les références, les paradigmes et les problèmes, et (3) les interactions stratégiques qui s'y déroulent. Ces trois éléments se combinent, entraînant soit une coordination positive, soit une coordination négative, soit des conflits. Ensuite, ces réseaux restent stables jusqu'à ce que des changements dans le contexte institutionnel, qu'ils soient abrupts ou graduels, réorganisent les interactions en modifiant les cadres d'action, ce qui entraîne des séquences de coordination différentes. Par conséquent, je soutiens qu'en raison de la nature changeante du contexte institutionnel, les processus de coordination sont séquentiels, plutôt que des interactions ponctuelles dues à l'interaction entre les facteurs susmentionnés.
28/1 : Clément Claret "Intra-party pluralism at work: the manifestations of ideological diversity in local Labour Party activism"
Clément Claret a souteu sa thèse en science politique intitulée "Intra-party pluralism at work: the manifestations of ideological diversity in local Labour Party activism" le 28 janvier 2021 à 14 heures.
Le jury est composé de Emmanuel Avril, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 ; Katherine Dommett, University of Sheffield ; Colin Hay, Sciences Po, CEE ; Émilie van Haute, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Abstract
This dissertation explores how ideological pluralism manifests itself in the local activities of the Labour Party, from the point of view of its members. It seeks to address the broader question of the interplay between agreement and dissent, cooperation and competition in voluntary political sociations. To which extent do Labour members manage to work towards shared objectives while expressing differing views? The party under scrutiny has been experiencing a polarisation of internal divergences and an accentuation of organised factionalism since 2015, making ideology-fuelled centrifugal dynamics particularly salient.
This thesis considers ideologies as cultural systems oriented towards political action, that not only provide a template for understanding the social world but also promote specific participatory practices and norms. It examines the competition between rival interpretations of how the organisation should operate and its members behave, and conversely how Labour handles its internal pluralism to function at the grassroot level. This is reflected by the methods used, the bulk of the evidence being provided by participant observation and interviewing of members from four local parties.
Résumé (Le pluralisme intra-partisan en action: les manifestations de la diversité idéologique au sein du Parti Travailliste britannique)
Cette thèse propose d’explorer comment le pluralisme idéologique se manifeste dans le Parti Travailliste contemporain, du point de vue de ses militants « de base » et dans le cadre des activités de ses sections. De manière générale, il s’agit d’interroger les interactions entre désaccords, compétition et coopération au sein de sociations politiques dont les membres se mobilisent le plus souvent bénévolement au nom d’une cause présumée partagée. Il s’agit d’évaluer dans quelle mesure des activistes parviennent à œuvrer ensemble à des objectifs communs tout en exprimant des visions parfois contradictoires. L’enquête porte sur un parti en proie à de fortes divergences internes depuis 2015, autrement dit un terrain où les effets centrifuges du désaccord s’avèrent particulièrement saillants.
La thèse se saisit des idéologies comme systèmes culturels tournés vers l’action politique, relayant à la fois des schèmes d’appréhension du monde social et des méthodes pour agir dessus. Ces moyens d’action recouvrent la doctrine, face labile et réflexive de l’idéologie servant notamment à la rédaction de programmes de gouvernement, mais aussi des préceptes normatifs contraignant les conduites militantes. Il en découle que les divergences idéologiques se traduisent entre autres par des interprétations différentes quant à la façon dont le parti doit opérer et ses membres se comporter. L’attention portée à l’activisme et à son interprétation justifie une démarche ethnographique s’appuyant sur l’observation participante de quatre sections locales du Labour et la réalisation d’entretiens approfondis avec leurs militants.
Governing Capitalism, CEE’s Doctoral Study
- Governing Capitalism, CEE’s Doctoral Study
Deadline : 9 October 2020
The PhD students of the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics will organize on December 16 their first doctoral study day, on the theme “Governing Capitalism” (PDF, 174 Ko). The study day will be a series of three round tables, each focused on a specific theme and moderated by a CEE senior researcher and a CEE PhD candidate.
Each round table, two hours long, will begin with three communications of 20 minutes each, followed by a discussion by the moderators, and will be concluded by a questions-answers session. The goal is then to show how PhD candidates in social sciences can contribute to academical debates, while being understood by the widest audience.
Only PhD students can propose a communication for one or more round tables*. The proposals must be 1000 words long and be sent before October 9, 2020, along with a presentation paragraph indicating the research themes and the attachment unit of the candidate. The communications of the study day will be selected before October 31.
The proposals can be either in French or in English. If the proposal is in English (respectively in French), the candidate must declare whether he or she would be able to do its presentation and the follow-up discussion in French (respectively in English). The language of each round table will be decided following the preferences of the candidates.
The candidates are prompted, as far as possible, to present comparative works on European democracies. However, there is no restriction of discipline, geographical area or approach as far as the proposals fits with the angle of the round tables.
The proposals are to be sent to doctorants.ceesp@gmail.com
Study day’s theme: Governing Capitalism
This doctoral study day fits in the axis “The transformations of capitalism” of the Center for European Studies, whose premise is that global capitalism has entered a new phase: tertiarization and internationalization of economies, weakening of the state’s regulatory role, deregulation and privatization, increased role of financial actors, corporate concentration, intensified competition, acceleration of technical progress, growing importance of information and knowledge as factors of production, upheavals associated with the development of the digital economy, increased separation between labor and capital ownership, between execution and design. Thus, this study day deals with the political implications of these global transformations, through the problematic of the modes of governance and regulation of contemporary political economy.
Round table n°1: “Changing political economy: governing ecological transitions”
The challenges imposed by climate change are lobbying to get a transition to another society model leading to the emergence of new economic structures, more respectful of the environment and compliant to the objectives of sustainable development. Which role the State and the international and supranational institutions will be able to play to support this new economic model? Which powers of constraint do they have? Are they doomed to incentive actions, and with which efficiency? Above all, are they really determined to govern ecological transitions?
Discussion moderated by Richard Balme, University Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs, member of the CEE, coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Workshop of Environmental Researches (AIRE), and Weiting Chao, PhD candidate at the CEE.
Round table n°2: “Regulations, sectors and politics of real economy”
Either it’s about digital, health or energy, there are numerous sectors where business is entangled with ethical, social and geopolitical questions. As many regulation issues for public action who is struggling to tackle the rapid transformations of capitalism. To which levels can economy be controlled and with which instruments? Can political actors pretend to govern sectors in which they sometimes themselves have interests? How to regulate economic actors who seem sometimes more powerful than States themselves?
Discussion moderated by Cyril Benoît, CNRS research fellow at the CEE and member of the ANR project “Health Risk Market (MaRiSa)”, and Zoé Evrard, PhD candidate at the CEE and the MaxPo
Round table n°3: “Challenges of financial system’s governance”
The 2008 financial crisis revealed the political and social issues raised by the financialization of the economy and the lack of regulation of financial markets. Is it still possible, for political authorities, to keep the control of a system of private interests to serve the largest interest? Which measures have been set to avoid a new collapse which would reverberate onto the other economical sectors and onto the citizens in general? How to make the insurance market responsible for the collective risks of the ecological and health crises which will affect all the countries?
Discussion moderated by Cornelia Woll, Full Professor at Sciences Po, codirector of the MaxPo, member of the CEE and of the LIEPP, and Mattia Lupi, PhD candidate at the CEE and the MaxPo
* No financial support can be provided by the organization of the study day. If the health situation allows it, the study day will take place at Sciences Po Paris, or if necessary, by Zoom.
MEZZEDITION
- Actualité Sciences Po
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