Past Conferences

Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict. 

Farewell conference for Jennifer Welsh

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Five years have passed since Prof. Jennifer Welsh became a faculty member of the SPS department… a sufficient amount of time to launch a little revolution! Now that she is leaving Europe and return to her native Canada, her former and current supervisees and colleagues within the ERC project and the department, wish to thank her for her dedication and passion by joining together in lively discussion on some of the issues we know she holds dear around two roundtables on “The protection of civilians in armed conflict: an interdisciplinary dialogue” and on “Plurality and diversity in academia”. This event is meant to celebrate her time at the EUI and to wish her the best for all the adventures lying ahead, both professionally and personally.

Date: 26 April 2019, Emeroteca

Register with [email protected] 

Think Causally! Experiments in Social Sciences. 

Farewell conference for Diego Gambetta

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The event will bring together the collaborators and students with whom Professor Gambetta has worked during his time at the EUI. The event will comprise several talks under the broad theme of "Experiments in Social Sciences", and will be followed by an aperitivo.

We hope to see many of you there!

Date: 1 February 2019

Programme and further information

The Political Consequences of the Great Recession

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This conference marks the concluding phase of the ERC project POLCON, which has been devoted to the study of the political consequences of the Great Recession in the electoral and the protest arena. The goal of the conference is twofold. It provides an opportunity for an exchange between the project members with experts working in the field, and it is an opportunity to take stock of major developments in the field of research on politics in times of crises. In five sessions, members of the POLCON team will introduce key results of the project, which will then be discussed by two experts based on their own work. Three roundtables will be organized to take stock.

Date: 11-12 October 2018

Programme

New Frontiers of Citizenship and Democracy.

A conference in honour of Rainer Bauböck

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Citizenship and democracy are core concepts in the study and theory of politics, yet the understanding of both is as unsettled as ever. In an age characterised by migration and globalisation as well as a nationalist backlash against these phenomena, how should we understand the status of citizenship as membership in a polity? And who should be given a say in the democratic procedures that govern them?

These questions have been at the centre of Rainer Bauböck’s academic endeavours for almost three decades. This conference will bring together former and current colleagues, supervisees and mentees of Rainer to mark the end of his professorship at the EUI’s SPS Department and to reflect upon the contributions he has made in this field. The focus will specifically be on current and future challenges to established conceptions of citizenship and democratic inclusion, with an eye towards how to take Rainer’s work forward. 

The farewell event is organised by a group of Rainer’s doctoral students and collaborators. It is generously supported by the EUI’s Department of Political and Social Sciences, the EUI President, Prof. Renaud Dehousse and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.

Date: 16 March 2018

Programme

The Ethics of Migration Beyond the Immigrant-Host State Nexus

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Organised by: 

Rutger Birnie (EUI), Bouke de Vries (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen) and Rainer Bauböck (EUI). Supported by the Department of Political and Social Sciences (EUI), the Migration Policy Center (RSCAS) and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen

Over the last three decades, normative political theorists have devoted much attention to the issue of migration. However, most of this literature has singularly focused on the relationship between individual migrants and their state of destination. The debate centres on two sets of questions. The first is whether states have a right to keep would-be immigrants out or whether, conversely, migrants have a right to cross international borders. The second is whether states have a duty to extend citizenship or more limited packages of rights to migrants living in their territory and whether those migrants have a duty to integrate into their host society. 

Dates: 11-12 January 2018

Programme

Conference Pictures (Day 1)   (Day 2)

Photo exhibition "The Game" by Mario Badagliacca

The Austrian Elections and their Consequences

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On 15 October, Austrian voters elected a new parliament. Early elections had been called after the breakup of a centrist coalition between Social Democrats and the conservative People's Party that has governed Austria for 44 of the 72 years since the end of World War II. The clear winner is the conservative People's Party under its new leader Sebastian Kurz; he is expected to form a government with the right-wing populist Freedom Party. Both parties’ election campaigns had strongly focused on immigration and asylum, with the People's Party adopting many of the Freedom Party’s anti-immigrant positions. The shift to the right in Austrian politics could also affect political alliances within the EU.

Date: 23 October 2017

Organised by the SPS Department and the RSCAS

Watch video

Event's details 

Roundtable on the Catalan Referendum Crisis

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On 1 October 2017 the Catalan government staged a referendum on independence that had been declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court and government. The violent intervention of the Guardia Civil and National Police to prevent voters from casting ballots will make it harder to deescalate this crisis. We have invited several members of the EUI community to a roundtable that will discuss the background and reasons for this crisis, its possible outcomes and whether there is a need for a European response. We want to conduct this debate in a spirit of frank exchange without taking a partisan stance. Our goal is to understand the motivations of political actors, to consider the reasons they have been offering and to reflect on future scenarios and possible solutions. 

Date: 10 October 2017

Organised by the SPS Department and the RSCAS

Watch video 1 and video 2

Event's details

Responsive vs Responsible? Party Democracy in Times of Crisis

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Scientific Coordinators: Dorothee Bohle (EUI), Johannes Karremans (EUI) and Zoe Lefkofridi (University of Salzburg)

This conference takes issue with one of the main challenges to contemporary representative democracy, namely the increasing bifurcation between on the one hand the growing complexity of governing in a world of powerful international institutions and, on the other, the need to respond to -often polarizing- electoral demands. 

Thursday, 18 May 2017 (9:30-19:00), Seminar room 4, Badia Fiesolana

Programme and further information

Trump’s Victory: How could it happen and what might be its consequences?

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The roundtable is organised by the Department of Political and Social Science and will gather EUI faculty and fellows. The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Rainer Bauböck and Prof. Dorothee Bohle. 

Thursday, 10 November 2016 (17:00-19:00), Theatre, Badia Fiesolana 

Please register with [email protected] 

Watch live streaming

From Referendums to Electronic Democracy

A farewell event for Alexander H. Trechsel

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It has been more than 10 years since Prof. Alexander H. Trechsel's arrival at the EUI. 

We honour Prof Trechsel's work with three roundtables: the first one will focus on "Parties, elections and the democratic process", with presentations by his mentors and colleagues; the second one will discuss issues related to the designing and studying of Voting Advice Applications; finally, present and past supervisees of Professor Trechsel will outline his heritage from a student's point of view.

Date/Location: 6 June 2016 (14:15 - 18:00), Emeroteca

Please register with [email protected]

Programme and further information

Structural Power and the Reciprocal Influences Between Business and Politics

A roundtable to celebrate Pepper Culpepper

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It has already been six years since Pepper Culpepper joined the SPS department here at the EUI, where he has been teaching a band of supervisees to become ambitious scholars in political science. As the time has now come for him to move on to new adventures, we – the faculty and his supervisees – would like to show our gratitude for his most valuable work here at the Department, with a Roundtable in which we’ll discuss one of his favorite themes. 

The Roundtable shall feature different presentations on the relationship between capitalism and democracy and will offer extensive room for discussion. 

Date/Location: 24 May 2016 (14:00 - 18:30), Emeroteca 

Please register with [email protected] 

Programme and further information

Revisiting social learning and collective action in the context of illiberal democracies 

A roundtable in honour of László Bruszt

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The roundtable will focus on the current political dynamics of the Central Eastern European Countries (CEEC) and will be organised as a farewell event for Professor Laszlo Bruszt who will be leaving the EUI after more than 10 years of teaching and supervision. 

Date/Location: 11 March 2016 (14:00-18:00), Seminar Room 2

Please register with [email protected]

Programme and more information

7th Graduate Network Conference

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Every year, the European Graduate Network organizes a conference where doctoral researchers, at all stages in their career, are given the opportunity to present their work to peers from the partner universities. In addition to being a platform for academic discussion the European Graduate Network Conference aims to provide network opportunities, something that hopefully can lead to productive future cooperation among the participants.

The European Graduate Network Conference was first held in Florence (2007), and has since traveled to several of the major cities in Europe: Budapest (2008), Barcelona (2010), Berlin (2012), London (2013), and Paris (2014).

This year the conference has returned to Florence and is organized by the European University Institute (EUI) together with Scuola Normale Superiore - Istituto di
 Scienze Umane e Sociali (SNS). 

Date/Location: 4-6 March 2015, Scuola Normale Superiore and Badia Fiesolana, Florence

More information

The Future of the EU

SPS-EUDO Dissemination Joint Conference in honor of Adrienne Héritier

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Abstract: The Conference will take place in Florence at the European University Institute and will be in honor of Professor Adrienne Héritier, who has just retired. There will be three panels: ‘ ‘Politics and Policies’, Institutions’, ‘Economic Integration’, and a Roundtable on ‘Beyond Europe’. The Conference will bring together high-level academics in order to: stimulate interdisciplinary dialogue; foster the exchange of ideas and good practices; translate scientific results into policy deliverables; and develop practical suggestions on the future of the EU.

Programme 

Date/Location: 20-21 November 2014, Theatre Room, Badia Fiesolana

If you are interested in attending the event, please fill in the online registration form by 17 November.

For inquiries  concerning the Conference ( programme, registration, submission of papers  etc) please contact Valentina Bettin and Maureen Lechleitner.   

For inquiries concerning the logistics of the event (Conference venue, hotel, reimbursement of travel tickets etc) please contact Monique Cavallari. 

Agon and Agorá: Politics and Political Community in the City

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Abstract: Theories of the state have always been spell-bound by various abstractions, be it the state’s monopoly of violence, the monolithic claims of sovereignty, the political homogeneity of the nation, or the unifying will of the sovereign. Hobbes raised these flags, and various permutations of those statist concepts and ideas still abound today

The purpose of this conference is to refocus on the city. The conference will explore the development of theories of the city as a political space in early modern times, following the rise of the modern nation state and in contemporary contexts of globalization and supranational governance. The conference will bring together scholars working in the fields of intellectual history, political theory, urban studies, sociology, law, and political economy in a dialogue across disciplinary boundaries. This conference will focus on three topics corresponding to three historical periods: (1) The fraught politics regarding the status of the city in the early-modern period at the moment of the emergent sovereign state; (2) the city as a political space in the era of state- and nation-building; (3) the role of the contemporary city as the political space where political membership and civil society are rearticulated through migration and social protest movements. 

Date/Location: 12 June 2014, Theatre Room, Badia Fiesolana

Organisers: Rainer Bauböck (SPS), Fran Meissner (MWF), Matthew Hoye (MWF)

Programme

The conference will be followed by the keylecture by prof. Saskia Sassen (Columbia University).

Please register with [email protected]

10 Years of the New Europe

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Abstract: The Conference aims, firstly, to understand and assess the impact of the European Union on the new Member States, i.e. to take a closer look at the process of Europeanization. On the other hand, it proposes to examine the influence of the new member states on the EU as a whole, on its policies (including foreign and security policies), governance and institutions. 

Two further aspects of the conference will be of special importance: first, the reflection on geopolitics, as the Enlargement profoundly impacted the geopolitical situation of the continent. Secondly, the economic integration and the enlargement of the single market, as well as the relationship between new member states and the Eurozone, as some new member states are already in, and some others are now debating the accession. 

Date/location: 29-30 May 2014, Teatro (Badia Fiesolana)

Organisers: Michal Matlak, Tomasz Wozniakowski

Sponsor: Ulrich Krotz

Event's details

Please register with Mariana Spratley

The 28th Star. Challenges of the Croatian Accession to the EU and the European Future of Western Balkans

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Abstract: On July 1st, 2013 Croatia became the 28th member state of the European Union and the second ex-Yugoslav state to join the EU after Slovenia. This Roundtable aims at discussing the challenges and opportunities that the European integration offers to Croatia, as well as the latter's role in the reinforcement of the EU's strategic influence on the wider Balkan region. The discussion will be widened to include the perspective of other Western Balkan states, currently in different stages of the EU integration process (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia). Academics, EUI alumni and practitioners from different disciplinary fields and areas of expertise will provide a multi-level analysis of the Balkan road towards European integration and will shed light on alternative aspects of the process, offering insights from a political, economic and legal point of view.

Date/Location: 9 December 2013, Theatre Room, Badia Fiesolana

Programme

Please register with [email protected] 

Roundtable: Debating the Hungarian Constitution

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Abstract: The new Hungarian Constitution, the Fundamental Law of Hungary that entered into force on 1 January 2012 has attracted a great deal of criticism and debate worldwide. Hailed by its proponents as the act that completed the transition to democracy, it was criticized by others as an undertaking that ends constitutional democracy in Hungary by removing checks on the power of the government and putting virtually all power into the hands of the current governing party for the foreseeable future.

The Roundtable Discussion will discuss fundamental issues linked to the Hungarian Constitution inviting key participants and observers of the Hungarian constitution making process.

Organiser: Laszlo Bruszt

Date: 2 March 2012, 15:30 - 17:30, Theatre, Badia Fiesolana

Programme and more details

Please register with [email protected]

Baltic Days

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Abstract: The conference shall commemorate the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia with the participation of political and social scientists.

Date: 13-14 October 2011, Theatre Room, Badia Fiesolana

Programme

Please register with [email protected]

Transnational Democracy: mobilization, organisation and communication. ESA RN 25 Mid-Term Conference

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Abstract: The ESA & ECPR conference "Transnational Democracy: mobilization, organisation and communication" aims at bringing together scholars with different disciplinary perspectives who are interested in the theme of democracy and organizational innovation in movements in transnational publics and pluralist societies. The conference addresses the transnational condition of participation in globalized societies and Europe's multilevel polity to explore the cultural and political context for democracy and organization in social movements.

Organisers: Donatella Della Porta, Nicole Dörr, Emanuela Bozzini

Date: January 20-21, 2011 Theatre, Badia Fiesolana

Programme

For info please contact ESA RN25 Social Movements Coordinators Emanuela Bozzini and Nicole Doerr, using [email protected].