The World in the Face of COVID-19: Research Analysis and Surveys
- Covid19. Crédits image: mattthewafflecat, pixabay
The contribution of social sciences is more than ever essential for citizens, communities and leaders facing the crisis caused by Covid-19. The issues it touches upon - economic, social and health policy, organisation of public authorities and companies, trust in governmental bodies, inequalities, globalisation ... - are familiar to the academic community of Sciences Po. Through their analyses and new research projects, our researchers are responding today to the fundamental need to grasp the political, economic and social impacts of this pandemic in the short and long term.
by Guillaume Plantin, Sciences Po Vice President for Research
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ANALYSIS
INTERNATIONAL
Transnational Issues - Comparative Analysis
2021
August
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Emanuele Ferragina, Ettore Recchi, Zachary Van Winkle - The Unexpected Decline in Feelings of Depression among Adults Ages 50 and Older in 11 European Countries amid the COVID-19 Pandemic, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
- Emanuele Ferragina & al. The End of Austerity as Common Sense?: An Experimental Analysis of Public Opinion Shifts and Class Dynamics During the Covid-19 Crisis, New Political Economy
June
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault Romain Lachat et al - Rally Round the Flag’: The COVID-19 Crisis and Trust in the National Government. West European Politics
- Henri Bergeron, Patrick Castel & al. -When the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic is done without health promotion. Global Health Promotion
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault et al. Pandemic politics: policy evaluations of government responses to COVID-19. West European Politics
April
- Olivier Rozenberg, Cyril Benoît& al. - Measuring Legislative Activity during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Introducing the ParlAct and ParlTech Indexes, International Journal of Parliamentary Studies
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault et al.- A guilt-free strategy increases self-reported non-compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures: Experimental evidence from 12 countries, PLOS
- Didier Bigo et al - Obedience in times of COVID-19 pandemics: a renewed governmentality of unease?, Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs
2020
- Martial Foucault & al. - Working during COVID-19. Cross-country evidence from real-time survey data, OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers
- Eugénie Mérieau - COVID-19, Authoritarianism Vs. Democracy: What the Epidemic Reveals about the Orientalism of our Categories of Thought - 21 July 2020
- Karoline Postel-Vinay - Return of the Crisis Group, The Global Governance Project - 19 June 2020, CERI website
- Jérôme Sgard - Basic Relationships Between Epidemic, Economy, and Inequalities - 16 June 2020, CERI website
- Bertrand Badie - The Difficulty of Learning Global Security - 25 May 2020, CERI website
- Martial Foucault (interview) - Citizens’ Responses to Covid-19: A Worldwide Comparison - 28 April, Sciences Po website
- Philipp Brandt & al. - Government crisis communication during the coronavirus crisis: Comparing France, Germany, and the United Kingdom - 21 April 2020, CSO website
- Ettore Recchi & al. - Mobilities, neo-nationalism and the lockdown of Europe: will the European Union survive?, - 14 April, Centre on Migration, Policy, and Society website
- Karoline Postel Vinay - Diverse Political Narratives, Fed by Scientific Uncertainties - 9 April 2020, CERI website
- Carola Kloeck - COVID-19 and Climate Change: What the Current Pandemic Means for Climate - 8 April 2020, CERI website
Regions and Countries
- Bayram Balci et al - Ideological Interventions in the Covid-19 Health Crisis in Turkey by Power, Politics, and Religion, Turkish Policy Quarterly
- Eberhard Kienle - Comments on Bahey eldin Hassan's ‘Defending Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19’, Rowaq Arabi, December 2020 (
- William Genieys & al. - Fact check US: Can Joe Biden ‘stop the virus’ in the US as he claims?, The Conversation, 9 December 2020
- Eberhard Kienle - Infection Rates in Arab Countries: A Tale of State Capacity - 21st September, CERI website
- Simon Reich (associate) & al. - The consequence of COVID-19: how the United States moved from security provider to security consumer, 1 September 2020, International Affairs
- Tatiana Coutto (PhD candidate) - The July European Council summit as seen by southern European newspapers, 25 August, LSE USAPP blog
- Andreas Eisl (PhD candidate) - European debt mutualisation. Finding a legitimate balance between solidarity and responsibility mechanisms, July 2020, Institut Jacques Delors
- Christian Lequesne - COVID-19: The Unquiet Debate on European Solidarity - 29 June, CERI website
- Christian Lequesne, Earl Wang - Covid-19: Lessons from China’s public diplomacy in the EU - 24 June, The Conversation
- Simon Reich (associate) - COVID-19 Chaos in America: Before, During and Beyond Trump - 3 June, CERI website
- Laurent Bonnefoy - The Pandemic and the State in the Arabian Peninsula: Groundwork for Thought - 26 May, CERI website
- Natasha Wunsch - How Covid-19 is deepening democratic backsliding and geopolitical competition in the Western Balkans - 20 May, EUROPP LSE Blog
- Eberhard Kienle - The Corona Virus in the Middle East and North Africa: "Arab Exceptionalism," Once Again? - 20 May, CERI website
- Nazand Begikhani (Visiting Professor) - COVID-19, Gender and Cyber Violence in the Kurdistan Region - 19 May, CERI website
- David Camroux - COVID-19 and Strongman Rule in the Philippines - 15 May, CERI website
- Bayram Balci - Turkish Islam and COVID-19. Referring to History and Traditions - 6 May, CERI website
- Luis Martinez - COVID-19 in Algeria: For Whom Does the Bell Toll? - 27 April, CERI website
- Angeliki Konstantinidouet al. - Policy Measures for the Diaspora during the COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of Cyprus, HAPSc Policy Brief Series, April 2020
- Jean-Louis Rocca - Coronavirus, Neoconservatism and Totalitarianism: The Case of China - 9 April, CERI website
- Christophe Jaffrelot (interview) - The Situation in India - 6 April, CERI website
- Marc Lazar (interview) - The Situation in Italy - 6 April, CERI website
- Natasha Wunsch & al. - The Western Balkans in Times of the Global Pandemic- 1 April, Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group
SOCIETY - POLITICAL LIFE
Social Impacts - Inequalities
- Collective - The Covid Year in France: A Tale of Two Lockdowns, 21 December, Policy Brief of the Project "Coping with Covid-19"
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault & al. - Gender differences in COVID-19 attitudes and behavior: Panel evidence from eight countries”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Oct 2020
- Collective - The “Eye of the Hurricane” Paradox: An Unexpected and Unequal Rise of Well-Being During the Covid-19 Lockdown in France, August, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility
- Sylvain Brouard et Eric Kerrouche & al. - Comparative experimental evidence on compliance with social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, 14 July 2020, pre-print
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault & al - Gender Differences in COVID-19 Related Attitudes and Behavior: Evidence from a Panel Survey in Eight OECD Countries, NBER Working Paper, June 2020
- Collective - Life after lockdown: Getting back on track or charting a new course?, 16 June, Policy Brief of the Project "Coping with Covid-19"
- Collective - When life revolves around the home: Work and sociability during the lockdown - 22 May, Policy Brief of the Project "Coping with Covid-19"
- Tommaso Vitale & al. - Health Conditions, Food Deprivation and Solidarity Problems in the First Days of Lockdown in the Roma Villages of Rome - Metropolitics, 28 April
- Sylvain Brouard, Pavlos Vasilopoulos et al. - Demographic and psychological correlates of compliance with the Covid-19 public health measures in France - 23 April, Pre-print, Canadian Journal of Political Science
- Collective - Lockdown for All, Hardship for Some - 20 April, Policy Brief of the Project "Coping with Covid-19"
- Hazal Atay - Countries’ Covid-19 responses could debunk some myths around the ‘abortion pill’ - 16 April , The Conversation
Political Life
- Tommaso Vitale & al - Covid-19 and the Structural Crisis of Liberal Democracies. Determinants and Consequences of the Governance of Pandemic, in Partecipazione e Conflitto, Jan. 2021
- Olivier Rozenberg -.Post Pandemic Legislatures. Is Real Democracy Possible with Virtual Parliaments?.European Liberal Forum, Discussion Paper 2, July 2020
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Eric Kerrouche, Pavlos Vasilopoulos - Health crisis: public opinion in France shows opposition to using mobile phones. Results of an online experiment, April 7th, Research note of the Project "The Citizens’ Attitudes"
- Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Eric Kerrouche - Pandemic: attitudes towards the measures that limit civil liberties - 6 April, Research note of the Project "The Citizens’ Attitudes"
Covid Digital Life
- Félix Tréguer - The State and Digital Surveillance in Times of the Covid-19 Pandemic - 1 June , CERI web site
- Dominique Boullier - Virus, Memes, and Protocol in the Competition for Propagation - 9 April , Sciences Po web site
ECONOMY
2021
- Sarah Guillou et al . - Innovation and R&D in Covid-19 recovery plans: The case of France, Germany and Italy, Blog de l'OFCE
2020
- Christophe Blot - The COVID-19 crisis and the US labour market: Rising inequality and precariousness in perspective - 30 May 2020, OFCE Blog
- Martial Foucault and Vincenzo Galasso - Working After Covid-19: Cross-Country Evidence from Real-Time Survey Data - 25 May 2020, CEVIPOF
- Jérôme Creel, Xavier Ragot, and Francesco Saraceno - It seems like it’s raining billions - 15 May 2020, OFCE Blog
- Jérôme Creel - Fiscal space in the euro area before Covid-19 - May 2020, OFCE Working Paper
- Christophe Blot and Paul Hubert - Does the fall in the stock market risk amplifying the crisis?, 7 May 2020, OFCE Blog
- Gregory Verdugo - The Covid-19 passport and the risk of voluntary infection - 7 May 2020, OFCE Blog
- Jérôme Creel - Fiscal space in the euro area before Covid-19, May 2020, Working Paper OFCE
- Working After Covid-19: Cross-Country Evidence from Real-Time Survey Data by Martial Foucault & al - May 2020, Research note of the Project "The Citizens’ Attitudes"
- Extending loans and providing equity: the EIB and national development banks must act now, Matthias Thiemann & al - April 29th, Social Europe
- Covid-19 and the Mobilisation of Public Development Banks in the EU, Matthias Thiemann & al - April 20th, Policy Paper, Institut Jacques Delors
- Repair and reconstruct: A Recovery Initiative, Philippe Martin, Jean Pisani-Ferry et al., April 20th, VOX-EU
- Foreseeing in the dark. Macroeconomic Forecasting in a Health Crisis, Olivier Pilmis, 10 April, CSO website
- Lack of preparation for rare events and policy implications in the time of COVID-19, Bartosz Mackowiak, Mirko Wiederholt, March 19th, VOX-EU
POLITCS AND POLICY
- France's COVID-19 response: balancing conflicting public health traditions, Daniel Benamouzig & al., July 16, 2020, The Lancet
- The four worlds of the social-ecological state, Eloi Laurent, 30 April, Social Europe website
- Pricing Lives in the Time of COVID-19, Ariel Colonomos, 27 April , CERI website
- What's in a crisis?, Olivier Borraz, 23 April, CSO website
- COVID-19, A Natural Disaster?, Sandrine Revet, 20 April, CERI website
- Health crisis: public opinion in France shows opposition to using mobile phones. Results of an online experiment, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault, Eric Kerrouche and Pavlos Vasilopoulos - 13 April, CEVIPOF
- Pandemic: attitudes towards the measures that limit civil liberties, Sylvain Brouard, Martial Foucault and Eric Kerrouche - 12 April, CEVIPOF
- From Crisis Management Preparation… to the Time of Crisis, Olivier Borraz, 10 April, CSO website
HISTORY
- COVID-19: When history has no lessons. History Workshop - Guillaume Lachenal et al., 30 March, History Worshop
- Disposing of corpses during WWI by Romain Fathi (associate)
SURVEYS & DATA
DATA
- Coronavirus Country Comparator: a real-time visualisation tool for national and global health statistics, developed by Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, medialab
POLITICAL SCIENCE
- The Center for Political Research (CEVIPOF), in cooperation with multiple partners, is carrying out a national and comparative survey “Citizens’ attitudes towards COVID-19”. Its main objective is to survey citizens on their reactions to public policies undertaken and on the trust they place in politicians and experts, making it possible to measure the impacts that the crisis could have on social cohesion.
Project and results - Anne Muxel, CNRS research director at CEVIPOF launched the ARMY project in partnership with the Military School's Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM). Its purpose is to analyse the mobilisation and role of the armed forces in this health crisis and their perception among the population in three sequences: 1- an examination of decision-making within the State and the General Staff of armies; 2 - an opinion study aimed in particular at evaluating the reception of military interventions with a representative panel of young French citizens; 3 - a comparative approach to the mobilisation of armies in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
SOCIOLOGY
- As part of the project "Coping with Covid-19. Social distancing, cohesion and inequality in France in 2020", the Sociological Observatory of Change (OSC) and the Center for Socio-Political Data (CDSP) are mobilised to study the impact of social distancing and quarantine measures through the lens of social inequality. It is more precisely a question of studying the evolution of individual and family behaviours, but also of considering the reconfiguration of inequalities that could result in the longer term.
Project and results - Assessing the Individual and Societal Economic Consequences of Premature Widowhood following the Covid-19 Pandemic, Zachary Van Winkle (OSC)
- Where to land after the pandemic ?
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, the project “Where to land after the pandemic? project proposes to draw a political lesson from it, trying to emulate it contagion power by turning it over to the benefit of our society and its political life
More about the project
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More analysis on @ScPoResearch
Sciences Po ranks 2nd in the 2020 QS Rankings for Politics & International Studies
- 2nd Place in 2020 QS University Rankings.©Sciences Po
Sciences Po continues to progress in the 2020 QS World University Rankings by subject (PDF, 9.2Mo), moving from third to second place in the world in "Political Science & International Studies". In this world ranking released on March 4, 2020, Sciences Po is positioned just behind Harvard University, and tied with Princeton University. Sciences Po is for the first time the first university of Europe in this discipline, in front of the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Studies (LSE).
For the past seven years the QS World University Rankings by subject which compares more than 1,200 universities around the world, has confirmed Sciences Po as a leading university in the social sciences. In 2020, Sciences Po ranks in the top 50 worldwide in 5 disciplines, with significant leaps in several subjects:
- 2nd in the world in Political Science and International Studies, up one rank from 2019
- 28th in Sociology (as in 2019)
- 40th in Development Studies (top 100 in 2019)
- 50th in the world in Law (top 100 in 2019)
- Sciences Po also made significant progress in Economics and Econometrics, moving from the top 150 to the top 100 worldwide.
More over, Sciences Po ranks 23rd in Social Policy and Administration (22nd in 2019)
More information
Cogito: The new issue!
- COGITO, the Research Magazine
The analysis of democracy, its advances, its new forms, as well as threats to it, are the focus of this new Cogito. This issue also examines a series of public policies: higher education, social policies, the environment, and ethics. It also looks at the reception of fake news on social networks and of decision-making. Finally, historical perspectives are provided on colonial cultures and the birth of medical emergencies. Enjoy the read!
In Folio
Public Deontology:From Principles to Practices by Guillaume Tusseau
Informational Autocrats by Sergei Guriev
Investigating Street Art in Latin America by Olivier Dabène
The Dark Matter of Democracy by Luc Rouban
No environmental economics without social justice by Éloi Laurent
Transforming universities: Proposals from a researcher by Christine Musselin
Colonial Transactions by Florence Bernault
The Paradox of Family Policy by Emanuele Ferragina
Governing the Digital City by Antoine Courmont et Patrick Le Galès
Research project
When the Truth is Inconvenient or “Motivated” Reading of Information par Jeanne Hagenbach
Data
Fake News: From URLs to their Reception #InRealLife by Manon Berriche
Rising stars
The Birth of Medical Emergencies by Charles-Antoine Wanecq
Access to Social Housing by Marine Bourgeois
Thinking Multilateralism
- Actualité Sciences Po
Jeanne Hagenbach presents her ERC project
- Crédits image : Jeanne Hagenbach
Jeanne Hagenbach, a CNRS researcher at the Department of Economics, won, in the framework of a very selective competition, funding from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant) to conduct her research project "Motivated Reading of Evidence ". Presentation.
“Motivating” Reading of Information Or When the Truth is Inconvenient
In most economic and social contexts, agents base their decisions (to purchase, to invest, to accept a job offer, etc.) on available information. This information can take various forms: it can be verifiable or not, it can provide hard evidence of a fact or simply be a friend’s advice or recommendation. But whatever form information takes, one assumption guides its use in most economic models: agents, who initially lack information, seek to obtain the most accurate depiction of the context in which they are evolving. In other words, agents’ main objective is to discover the true “state of the world” (a microeconomics concept that summarizes the uncertainty of the environment). For example, it is assumed that consumers wish to learn about the nutritional content of their food in order to adapt their diet, that workers want to better understand their work environment as well as the risks they may be taking in order to adapt their efforts, or that applicants like to evaluate precisely their chances of getting a job or a promotion in order to improve their application. .
Another goal than learning the truth
In a new research project, recently financed by the European Commission (ERC Starting Grant), I propose to challenge this assumption: what if economic agents actually do not always want to know the truth about their environment? In other words, the idea is to consider that agents can form “motivated beliefs”, that is, beliefs that serve a personal objective which is potentially more complex than the one of holding accurate beliefs. In this way, an agent may prefer not to know how slaughterhouses work and continue to consume meat, may want to go on smoking by willfully ignoring the health damage of this habit, or prefer wrongly believing that he/she just got a good deal at the supermarket.
The complex role of beliefs
Research in psychology has shown for a long time that beliefs can affect an agent’s well-being directly and not only because they allow him/her to make better choices. For instance, the psychologist Melvin Lerner (1980) argues that individuals give an intrinsic value to the belief that the world is a fair place, that people get what they deserve. The field of psychology has also established that, independently of his actions, an agent can suffer merely due to the fact that, once updated with new information, his beliefs contradict those he has held up until now.
Elaborate strategies to reach particular beliefs
Like behavioural economics in general, the topic of motivated beliefs has been receiving increasing interest in economics for the past few years now. This interest was initially motivated by the observation that individuals always view themselves as better than the average population (in better health, with a smaller chance to divorce, as a more careful driver etc.), a belief which is necessarily wrong. Jean Tirole, who received the Nobel prize in economics in 2014, and Roland Benabou, professor at Princeton University, have gone so far as to propose a model in which an agent uses elaborate strategies to reach and maintain pleasant beliefs about himself (his intelligence, his altruism etc.). In this model, several versions (or “selves”) of the same individual interact strategically: one “self” manipulates another one! Moreover, recent lab experiments have demonstrated that agents memorize positive feedback about themselves better than negative, most probably in order to preserve a motivating or reassuring self-image. In this type of experiment, voluntary human subjects are usually assigned randomly to various experimental treatments. Researchers then measure how the treatments affect, for example, beliefs that agents form about their own IQ level. As is commonly done in experimental economics, subjects are paid as a function of the accuracy of their stated beliefs, so as to give them real incentives to reveal their true beliefs.
Holding beliefs about oneself but also about the world
In all works previously mentioned, motivated beliefs are about personal characteristics of the individual: his intelligence, his generosity, his health status. In her project, Jeanne Hagenbach wishes to study how economic agents form beliefs about other individuals and about their economic environment more generally. Do we perceive others in the same way when we are about to compete against them or about to work with them? Which dimensions of a person’s identity do we have in mind in different strategic settings? Which avoidance strategies do consumers use not to learn that some products are polluting the planet? Do they avoid reading the labels, avoid reasoning about these labels or deliberately forget what they learnt? To try to answer these questions, Jeanne Hagenbach uses experimental methods as well as theoretical models. In terms of experiments, we can, for instance, measure how subjects perceive another subject’s CV in different strategic settings that are announced prior to the reading of the CV. Regarding the development of theoretical models, an objective is to show that bounds on rationality may come from purposeful choices from an agent who prefers not to know the whole truth. In particular, it may be that an agent is cognitively able to make all inferences required to learn the truth in some contexts, but that this agent refuses to make these inferences if that truth is disturbing.
The question of information avoidance
According to “classical” economic theory, a decision-maker should never avoid information because it helps him make better choices. It is therefore particularly surprising that in forming motivated beliefs, individuals sometimes avoid available information. It follows that public policies which rely on the mandatory disclosure of information – on the risks of some products for health or for the environment, on the methods of data protection etc. – may not be as efficient as one may think. When agents do not want to know, how should they be informed ? And should we be informing them?
Governing Finance - Dossier
- Cogito 8 – Governing Finance. Copyrights: Sciences Po
In an issue devoted to the challenging governance of finance, our researchers might have dwelled on reviewing and analyzing the financial crises in recent memory, or even looked into the future with a lot of frightening forecasts. But since the interest of research lies in going off the beaten track, here they present their most recent research, focused on overlooked or forgotten subjects, and shed light on the obscurities of an often misunderstood world.
Happy reading!
Sommaire
- Introduction - Finance: a Political and Social Challenge by Cornelia Woll
- Are Finance and Democracy Irreconcilable? by Nicolas Delalande
- Legislating to Make Money: Returning to the Gold Standard in Great Britain After the Napoleonic Wars by Quoc-Anh Do & Pamfili Antipa
- The 1980s Debt Crisis: the Players and the Archives by Jérôme Sgard
- Entrepreneurial Finance: Beyond People by Martin Giraudeau
- Regulating Insurance in Europe: a Frustrated Ambition by Pierre François
- Household Money, a Policy Issue by Jeanne Lazarus
- Less Finance, Less Inequality? Ten Years After the Crisis by Olivier Godechot
Et aussi...
Stiglitz and Zelizer, Doctors Honoris Causa
- Actualité Sciences Po
During a moving ceremony on 13 November 2019, Sciences Po awarded the sociologist Viviana Zelizer and the economist Joseph Stiglitz the titles of Docteur honoris causa. This distinction was given to Dr. Zelizer for her work as the founder of a new school of economic sociology, and to Dr. Stiglitz as the figure of the new Keynesian economy.
See the SPEECHES
Frédéric Mion, President of Sciences Po and administrator of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (fr/en)
Speech of Jeanne Lazarus in praise of Viviana Zelizer (fr)
Download the speech (in english)
Speech of Viviana Zelizer (en)
Speech of Jean-Paul Fitoussi in praise of Joseph Stiglitz (en)
Speech of Joseph Stiglitiz (en)
Welcome to the 16 researchers who joined Sciences Po in 2018-2019
- Porte d'entree du 27 rue Saint Guillaume. Crédit Sandrine Gaudin /Sciences Po
This year, 16 permanent faculty members have joined Sciences Po. They are all characterised by a great diversity, be it through their Alma mater, their careers, disciplines or specialisations. Beyond the quality of their scientific activities, they have another thing in common: the desire to share the results of their research, first and foremost with our students.
Discover their profiles!
In case of display problem view the slideshow or download the pdf.
Sciences Po ranks 2nd nationally
- Times Higher Education - World University Rankings 2020
Research ranking
In the 2020 Times Higher Education World University Rankings for social science subjects, published in November 2019, Sciences Po ranks 69th globally and 2nd nationally.
Our strengths lie in our internationalization and the citations of our researchers' publications, two indicators in which we have progressed from last year.
More information:
Institution ranking
Times Higher Education has just published its ranking of higher education institutions.
Of the 38 French institutions ranked - taking into account all the dimensions assessed, Sciences Po ranks 14th, one better place than in the 2019 ranking.
Sciences Po is also 14th in terms of research and 9th in terms of internationalisation of its students and its scientific community.
More information:
Jeanne Hagenbach awarded an ERC Starting Grant
- Jeanne HAGENBACH, chercheuse CNRS. Crédits : Caroline Maufroid / Sciences Po
7 september 2019
The European Research Council (ERC) officially published the list of projects it has retained for its 2019 “Starting Grants” Call.
As a reminder, ERC grants aim to encourage the highest quality research in Europe through competitive funding and to support investigator-driven frontier research across all fields, on the basis of scientific excellence, “Starting Grants” being dedicated to early-career researchers with a scientific track record showing great promise.
The project “Motivated Reading of Evidence” submitted by Jeanne Hagenbach, CNRS Researcher and Professor at the Sciences Po Departement of Economics, is one of the 41 projects hosted by French Institutions which have been selected.
This success is added to an already impressive list of distinctions for Jeanne Hagenbach. In 2009 she was awarded two prizes for her doctoral dissertation «Communication stratégique et réseaux »: the Richelieu Thesis Prize of the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris and the Thesis Prize of the French Economic Association. In 2012 the Fondation Banque de France awarded her the « Young Researcher in Economics Prize». Last, but not least, she was distinguished by the CNRS which awarded her the Bronze Medal in 2016.
Jeanne Hagenbach’s work within the field of microeconomics draws on game theory and experimental economics. Unabashedly theoretical, Professor Hagenbach’s research revolves around models of communication in game theory. Her objective is to understand in which strategic situations information held by economic agents is passed on the most effectively.
The project is perfectly aligned with this research: Jeanne Hagenbach wishes to study how individuals interpret hard information in ways that serve their own purposes. She seeks to identify the goals that nudge the reading of evidence in systematic ways. She also wants to study how agents manage to distort this reading, for example by choosing not to read or reason about available evidence.
Cutting-edge and accessible research
- Guillaume Plantin, Directeur scientifique Crédits @Alexis Lecomte/Sciences Po
Guillaume Plantin, the Vice President for research at Sciences Po and professor in the Department of economics, worked abroad for many years before joining Sciences Po. This experience was conducive to his understanding of research in a global context: global in terms of the issues to explore – environment, digital technology, populism – and global in terms of the global competition in which science is evolving. He believes that research at Sciences Po has a solid record and has demonstrated the necessary creativity to meet these challenges – in its own way. He explains below.
What are the particularities of research at Sciences Po?
I would say that Sciences Po’s research has four key features. First, our research is dominated by political science. It’s a hallmark since this discipline was born within our walls in France, over a century ago. Law, economics, history, and sociology then gradually developed. This focus on a limited number of disciplines is a second feature. It is one of our strengths because it allows us to work collegially by adopting multidisciplinary approaches, i.e. when a “subject” is separately studied by several disciplines, and interdisciplinary research, i.e. when disciplines jointly approach a same subject. This is the third pillar. The fourth dimension, which is just as important, is our faculty’s involvement in public debate. Since its creation, Sciences Po has assigned itself the mission of using the products of its research to engage with society beyond academia. Finally, our research faithfully reflects Sciences Po’s pedagogical goal, for which it is also a resource.
What are current areas of focus?
We are already tackling increasingly pressing issues: the environment, digital technology, territories, gender, populism, and economic and financial instabilities. We are now launching new interdisciplinary groups, like the one seeking to bring together law and economics to address common themes. There is much to do in this area. For example, what economic tools are used in the legal process and the development of its rulings? We also make our researchers communicate about their methods. It is necessary and conducive to new ideas and practices. The medialab is a major asset in this regard, and is unique in the French academic landscape. It has fostered the development of cutting-edge methods, such as ones to harvest and analyze big data. Many researchers use these new tools. The medialab and participating researchers from all backgrounds also created a working group on digital transitions. Finally, we will start exploring subjects that are usually confined to the so-called “hard” sciences. An example is biotechnology, which is raising ethical, political, and social questions that the social sciences must consider.
Aren’t there older and more persistent subjects like inequalities that are and will always be worth studying?
Of course, but these issues are evolving. Inequalities are a case in point: the transformation of economic, financial, and technological systems are deeply changing them. It behooves us to understand why, how, and the attendant social and political effects. We must also help imagine public policies and societal changes to stem inequalities deemed out of control in many countries. One of our laboratories – MaxPo, the product of an alliance with the prestigious Max Planck Institute – focuses on this. Another example is research pursued within the Laboratory for interdisciplinary study of public policies (the LIEPP). Its research addresses the longstanding need to measure the effectiveness of public policy. But by combining an interdisciplinary approach, scientific rigor, and a desire to make proposals understandable to a broad audience, it reinvents this type of study.
What challenges should the institution and its researchers address?
It is essential that we continue to pair disciplines and be open to society. This objective may seem self-evident but it is not easy to reach. We were able, in several years, to lift ourselves to the rank of a world-class research university, and we must now continue growing in an extremely competitive global environment. It is therefore key that our faculty members conduct advanced research in their disciplines and publish in the best international journals. Besides the pursuit of this classical academic excellence, we ask that they dialog with other disciplines and reach out to the general public. The vast majority of our researchers appreciates the need for this multi-pronged effort, and it is our duty to help them by allowing them, among other things, to manage their time, and by providing them with solid administrative support.
What are the major institutional developments?
First, we are mindful of applying to ourselves our research findings on gender equality, for example. While much progress remains to be made, we are on the right path. Another challenge is to continue to internationalize. We have very satisfactorily succeeded in combining these objectives. Over the past years we have recruited many researchers from abroad who are studying key issues. The idea is to strengthen cooperation, like the Alliance program connecting us to Columbia, our joint PhDs, and our partnerships with universities located in countries that are crucibles of globalization, such as China and Brazil. Finally, we would like to emphasize our efforts to integrate foreign academics visiting Sciences Po. Over a hundred of them come every year. It is a wonderful means for us to open ourselves to other ways of thinking and to different perspectives on questions that affect all societies. Another objective is to not rest on our laurels. Hence, our faculty’s activities are regularly assessed internally and externally. There are obviously quantitative indicators, but we are especially committed to a qualitative analysis of the research and its long-term impact.
All this requires significant resources…
Indeed! Sciences Po devotes around a third of its own resources to research. A significant part of this effort focuses on the next generation – our PhDs students – who must be able to pursue their research in the best conditions. We also secure public funding on the basis of highly competitive calls for proposals, especially those of the European Research Council, and of the National Agency for Research. Finally, we deploy private funding, without ever compromising out most precious good: academic independence and freedom.
First Ten Years of the Sciences Po Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics
- Actualité Sciences Po
On June 18th, your are invited to attend a Special Anniversary Conference to celebrate the First Ten Years of the Sciences Po Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics.
Four roundtables :
- The European Policy State in question
- New Divides in European Politics The Aftermath of the 2019 European Elections
- Challenges to Democratic Capitalism: Transitioning to the knowledge Economy
- Territorial Cleavages, Politics of Place, and Contention.
With Torben Iversen (Harvard University), Sarah de Lange (Amsterdam University), Philipp Genschel (European University Institute), Lydie Launay (Institut National Universitaire Champollion, LISST-Cers), Gilles Ivaldi (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, CNRS)… and researchers Senior and Junior of the Sciences Po Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics.
Research at Sciences Po in 2018
- Annual report of research at Sciences Po 2018
2018 Report: Presenting a detailed picture of scientific activity at Sciences Po in 2018, this report focuses on the development of research on issues affecting our societies so more and more pressing: environment and digital.
It also presents numerous research projects funded by major organizations such as the European H2020 program or the French National Research Agency.
One can also follow the development of our publications, the permanent faculty and doctoral studies.
New Cogito
- Can digital technology reinvent democracy? Copyrights Sciences Po
To shed light on an issue as complex, multidimensional and often discussed in a Manichean way, researchers and Sciences Po research engineers make us share the results of their investigations: facts, analysis … and new questions!
Content
- Introduction : What democracy is doing with digitail technology
by Dominique Cardon - Creative Commons and Open Source licenses – Do digital freedoms conflict with property rights?
by Séverine Dusollier - Strong links between social inequalities and political activism
par Jen Schradie - What the European far rights share on social networks
by Caterina Froio - The political consequences of technological change
by Bruno Palier - Digital public space to the test of fake news: a Franco-American comparison
by Dominique Cardon, Jean-Philippe Cointet, Benjamin Ooghe-Tabanou, Guillaume Plique (médialab) avec Bruno Patino, Jean-François Fogel (School of Journalism) - Fact-checking: between beliefs and knowledge, a tough fight to win
by Emeric Henry - Analyzing democracies and societies with digital technology
by the médialab team
More information
Sciences Po, 3rd in “Politics and International Studies” in QS Rankings 2019
- QS ranking. Copyright Sciences Po
Sciences Po improves once again its global position in "Politics and International Studies", moving up, after three successive years in 4th place, to 3rd position globally in the 2019 QS World Univeristy Rankings by subject, released on 27 February, 2019. Just behind Harvard University and the University of Oxford, Sciences Po is the first university of continental Europe and this discipline.
For the sixth year in a row, the QS rankings by subject, comparing over 1,200 universities, continue to illustrate that Sciences Po is at the heart of leading social science universities. This trend can also be observed in sociology; after being ranked 44th and then 37th in the past two years, Sciences Po has now leaped ahead to the 28th place.
Further progress has also been made in the “Social Policy and Administration” subject, as Sciences Po jumped from 48th to 22nd place in the world rankings.
In law, Sciences Po maintains its place within the 51st and 100th positions. Sciences Po also upholds its rank in economics and history, between the 101st and 150th positions.
Discover the latest books
- Les publications de la recherche à Sciences Po. Crédits : Shutterstock
Questioning the Arab Revolutions in light of the “revolutionary moment"
- Proteste in Sanaa am 27. Januar 2011. CC BY-SA 3.0
Must read!
- Climate change, The man on wood boat at large drought land by Piyaset, Shutterst
We cannot wait until tomorrow to reduce our blows to the environment. Their effects are worsening by the day and have been doing so for too long. This is the crucial challenge addressed in the 5th issue of Cogito, devoted to the research and initiatives of a group of Sciences Po researchers thinking together about this question. This issue also presents research on economic and political democracy, public action, international trade, the political dimensions of the law, and the devastation in Yemen. You will also meet two recent PhD graduates awarded for their theses. Finally, you will learn how an innovative research project is formed.
Summary
Focus: Thinking together the environment
- Introduction: A collective to rethink the environment
- Environmental policymaking: the case of China by Richard Balme, CEE
- Consume less, consume better:what can consumers do? by Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, CSO
- Conservative cities: a 3rd way between “business as usual” and decline? by Charlotte Halpern, CEE
- Fault lines: earthquakes and historical change by Giacomo Parrinello, Center for History
- Pesticides and human health: between toxicology and epidemiology by Jean-Noël Jouzel, CSO
- Thinking together to make our planet great again by Bernard Reber, CEVIPOF
In Folio: Recent publications
- When the study of individual behaviors shapes public decision-making by a team of six researchers at CSO
- Making Parliament the beating heart of democracy Olivier Rozenberg’s (CEE) interview
- When Pierre Mauroy rigorously resisted ‘neo-liberalism’ (1981-1984) by Mathieu Fulla, Center for History
- Yemen, terra incognita , Laurent Bonnefoy’s (CERI) interview
- The politics of symbols: the French government’s response to the 2015 terrorist attacks, by Laurie Boussaguet and Florence Faucher, CEE
- You better move on! The expatriation of young Italians by Carlo Barone, Ettore Recchi & al, OSC
- Distributing trade maps:the gravity equation by Thomas Chaney, Department of Economics
- What civil and administrative law have in common, Conversation with Christophe Jamin and Fabrice Melleray, Law of School
- Digital readings of the Bible by Jean-Philippe Cointet, médialab & alii
Kick-off: new contracts
- Labor regulations under stress:What are the conflicts in professional relationships in France? by Jérôme Pélisse, CSO
- Citizen representations of regional democracy by Sylvain Brouard, CEVIPOF
Rising stars: young researchers
- Michel Rocard: from attraction to criticism of the media by Pierre-Emmanuel Guigo, Doctoral School, Center for History
- Arming France: national independence or international cooperation? by par Samuel B.H. Faure, Doctoral School, CERI
Data
- The history of international trade in data, Conversation with Béatrice Dédinger, Center for history and Paul Girard, médialab
18 new academics
- © Christophe Meireis / Sciences Po
That Sciences Po continues to be attractive as a global centre for research was proved this year with the arrival of 18 new academics. As well as contributing to the university’s network and research output, these new additions to the team will play a vital role in teaching, introducing their students to the latest developments in humanities and the social sciences. Find out more about their research interests and backgrounds, watching the slideshow (or downloading the pdf, 4.4Mo)
In Memoriam James Gardner March
- James Gardner March. Crédits Erhard Friedberg
Read the researchers' analyzes
- Actualité de Sciences Po
EU studies at Sciences Po
- Florence Haegel, head of Sciences Po’s CEE
Interview of Florence Haegel, head of Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics which organises together with the Sciences Po's Laboratory for the Interdisciplinary Evaluation of Public Policies the 9th European Consortium for Political Research - The Standing Group on the European Union Conference (13-15 june 2018) dedicated to "Contradictions – Whither the Political, Economic and Social Integration of Europe?".
How would you assess the place of EU studies at Sciences Po?
The story begins in the late 1980s when a group of scholars including Yves Mény, who was at this time full professor at Sciences Po before joining the EUI, Vincent Wright and Jack Hayward launched this new research dynamic, and later Jean-Louis Quermonne. At the beginning EU research at Sciences Po focused on European public policies and contributed to the academic debate on Europeanisation. These pioneers had to struggle with a state-centred approach that ignored how the EU challenged the French state and more broadly social science paradigms. Things have changed. Nowadays, the five departments at Sciences Po (history, law, economics, sociology and political science) deal with EU issues. For EU studies at Sciences Po, the new challenge might now be to convince that Europe still matters as the institution did take a global turn. I think we have now a lot of evidence to support this claim!
Is there a specific approach to studying the EU at the CEE and Sciences Po?
The CEE was founded in 2005 as a horizontal programme to coordinate and strengthen EU research all over Sciences Po. Renaud Dehousse, its first director is a famous scholar, well-known for his work on EU institutions. Thanks to him the CEE became a genuine and solid research center with permanent academic staff as iof 2009. Our approach of the EU is based on inter-disciplinarity, comparison, and methodological pluralism. We consider that research on the EU implies studying the transformation of European political societies...
A year of Research at Sciences Po
- Research at Sciences Po 2017
What were the main research findings at Sciences Po in 2017? What projects, publications, and recruitments marked the year 2017? What happened in terms of knowledge dissemination, doctoral training, national and european fundings, and open access?
The third edition of “Research at Sciences Po” emphasizes the growing internationalization of the academic community, the publications, the research projects and the institutional partners.
This report also highlits the most recent contributions on such burning questions as the state transformations in Europe, the « transnationalism », the borders and the migrations, the reception of disability policies, the cities and the digital technology, the public actions taken in favour of environmental information for products.
Download the report
We wish you good reading !
Tribute to Pierre Hassner
- Pierre Hassner, directeur de recherche emerite au CERI