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The ESA
political
sociology research network was proposed by a multi-disciplinary promotion committee and was approved at the ESA Executive Committee meeting of 23-24 October 2008. It initially reflected the interests of its
founders and articulated the following set
of
topics with specific attention to the European dimension. They
corresponded to
the main research interests of the list of signatories of the promoting document. We seek to represent the concerns of a wider sociological
community based
in a variety of European countries and expressing a wide geographical
distribution.
Citizenship
and Governance
The relationship between citizens and the legitimacy of
political
institutions is at the core of how the workings of modern state systems
are
understood. The historically developed nexus of citizens and political
institutions has traditionally been held to entail membership in a
bounded,
territorial community. This paradigmatic understanding has been
challenged by
the idea and practice of transnational, multicultural, European,
cosmopolitan
or global citizenship. Within the political sociology section,
contributions
are welcome, which challenge the notion of congruence between nation,
state and
citizenship, e.g. through studies on European citizenship or
comparative studies of citizenship. Furthermore, scholars within the
section
will look at new forms of citizenship practices, often related to issues
of
gender, migration and poverty.
Political
Attitudes
Attitudinal
research has
been at the core of comparative political studies classifying political
behaviour and the ways ordinary people relate to politics. Attitudinal
research
is useful to establish how ideological or ethnic cleavages divide
populations
within and across European societies. The European comparative dimension
has
been opened by making new statistical data available for research and
conducting regular opinion polling through Eurobarometer at a European
scale. Over
the last years, this has opened a new comparative dimension in research
on political
culture, voting behaviour, value surveys and political identifications.
This
research cluster brings together the different efforts that have been
made by
scholars in this field. It encourages, in particular, comparative
surveys that
map convergences and divergences in value attachments, allegiances with
political parties, support of political regimes, welfare states, etc.
Political
Communication
More than
in any other research field, the framework for political communication
research
has been the national public sphere backed by national media
organisations and
nationally fragmented audiences. The integrity of
the national public sphere is however increasingly challenged by the
impact of
global communication flows and the embedding of local and national
cultures in
world culture, shaped by the global exchange of meaning. At the same
time, many
scholars have expressed concerns with the degradation of
mass political communication exemplified by the growing personalisation
of
politics, media advertisement and images, which replace rational debates
and
discourse, the lowering of news quality and the media staging of
politics as
show business. The political sociology section can respond to these
uncertainties by encouraging comparative research in the field of
political
communication. Contributions can be both theoretically and normatively
driven,
deal with the complex methodological problems of comparison in the field
and,
in empirical terms, deal with the many ways of how
political actors and institutions interact with the old
and the new
media.
States,
Communities,
Governance Structures and Political Institutions
The
institutional and
constitutional dimensions of the re-ordering of the political spaces in
Europe
and beyond merit particular research attention. In response to global
challenges and the transnationalisation of governance, many have
projected a
profound transformation of the state structure. Others have emphasized
the
resilience of the nation state, which continues to be the main locus for
the
allocation of political authority and legitimacy. Changes in the
structure and
in the modes of operation of the state and of political institutions are
also
not necessarily followed by the redefinition of the borders of the
political
community. This research cluster articulates the research interests of
scholars
working on the macro and micro dimensions of the transformation of
political
power. This includes a broad understanding of the constitutional basis
of
political order as well as case studies on the functioning of political
institutions at different levels of governance, their interactions and
their
modes of operation in specific public policy domains. This includes also
theoretical
and methodological issues concerning the mechanisms the policy process
and of
political change.
Forms of
Political
Participation
This
cluster of themes
articulates research on forms of participation and their change. The
main focus
is here on institutional forms of participation that develop within and
across
existing state structures. This includes work on political parties,
public
interest associations and more generally on party systems and their
change. It
also includes work on party families such as parties of the extreme
right and
related issues of racism and xenophobia. This cluster further relates to
more
informal and non-institutionalised structures of political
participation. It does
however not focus specifically on social movements and protest but
rather
embeds changing patterns of political participation within civil
society at
large. This opens a new comparative perspective on the consolidation of
organised civil society in relation to changing forms of
government/governance.
Democracy
and
democratisation
This
cluster invites for a theoretical interchange between normative
political theory, theories of democracy and
social
theory. Instead of dividing the world of norms from the world of
political facts,
political sociology needs to explore the normative foundations of
political
order and legitimacy under condition of modern or postmodern societies.
In
descriptive terms, democratic theory need to make sense of new ways of
how
citizens relate to political order, contest political legitimacy
and influence
political decision-making. In normative terms, it needs to be spelled
out how
these new forms are coded in procedural terms (e.g. direct democracy,
representative
democracy or deliberative democracy)and what kind of particular value is
attributed
to them. In this latter sense, political sociologists are invited to
deliver
not so much a normative assessment of the present transformation of
democracy
but an analytical account of the ongoing processes
of (de)democratisation within and beyond
the nation state framework. This includes an empirical perspective on
the practices of justification and legitimation of
democratic order and redesign.
After the first interim conference...
After our first interim conference held in Lille in November 2010, the list of interests has expanded. We would like to include in our conference sessions a set of new streams. These now include:
- Populism and the extreme right (our contact Dietmar Loch)
- Local politics/ urban studies (several board members are interested)
- Maarten Vink on citizenship (several board members are interested)
- elite/citizens perceptions and relations (several board members are interested)
- gender and politics stream (our contact Cristian Norocel)
- Active Citizenship, EU-level Civil Society, International Civil Society (our contact Carlo Ruzza)
- Political Representation (our contact Carlo Ruzza )
- The state and the political impact of the recent economic crisis (our contact Virginie Guraudon)
- New vs. old forms of public opinion and political participation in Europe (our contact Mauro Barisione)
- Emerging patterns of political leadership in Europe (our contact Mauro Barisione)
- New media and political communication (our contact Hans-Joerg Trenz) | 
