RC06 - Political Sociology

• Citizenship: Dynamics of Choice, Duties and Participation (organizer: Jurate Imbrasaite)
• Futures and Pasts in the Future of Political Sociology (organizer: Robert M. Fishman) NOT OPEN FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
• How the Past Shapes Struggles for Equality: Contrasting Legacies of Reform and Revolution (organizer: Laurence Morel) NOT OPEN FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
• Is Political Inequality Rising, Falling or Staying the Same? (organizer: Joshua K. Dubrow)
• Parties as Membership Organizations: A Longitudinal Perspective (organizer: Giulia Sandri)
• Political Sociology and the War on Terror (organizer: Michael Blain)
• Regionalism Old and New: Between Economy and Geopolitics (organizer: Mikhail A. Molchanov)
• The Poli-tics/-tricks of Development and the Plight of Marginal Communities in 21st Century South Asia (organizers: Eswarappa Kasi and Julia Guenther)
• The Political Consequences of Precarious Employment (organizer: Giedo Jansen)
• The Regulation and Funding of Political Parties in Comparative Perspective (organizers: Piero Ignazi and Eugenio Pizzimenti)
• The Right in the Southern Cone: Power Dynamics within Political Parties in Brazil, Chile and Argentina (organizer: Stéphanie Alenda) NOT OPEN FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
• Transnational Social Movements and European Democratization (organizer: Paul Blokker and Ondrej Cisar)

• Economic Inequality, Distributive Preferences and Political Outcomes (with RC42 Social Psychology)
• Elites, the Poor and the Welfare State in Unequal Democracies (with RC07 Futeres Research)
• Expertise and Interests: For a Sociology of Think Tanks (with RC14 Sociology of Communication, Knowledge and Culture)

Further details on sections and organizers' contacts can be found here.

Announcement by CPS

The CPS is glad to transmit to its members the following announcement:

25th PhD Summer School on Political Parties and Democracy (September 13 -19, 2015)

Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University Lüneburg/Germany

We are pleased to announce that the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany, will host the 25th annual PhD Summer School on Political Parties and Democracy of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Standing Group of Political Parties. Participants of the Summer School will have the opportunity to critically discuss current research on political parties and to present their own research projects. Classes will be taught by an international team of leading academics under the direction of Professor Ferdinand Müller-Rommel (Leuphana University Lüneburg).

Thematically focusing on the role and the function of political parties in contemporary democracies, the program is unique among international summer schools. Its theme is high on the agenda of young researchers, with an enormous increase in the number of doctoral dissertations dealing with political parties being observable in recent years.

Event organized by CPS

The CPS will be present at the next ISA Forum of Sociology (10-14 July 2016) with 14 allocated sessions. Everyone wishing to propose a session under the auspices of the CPS should apply directly online by March 15th using the following link: http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/rc/rc.php?n=RC18. At this stage, the only requirement is a 250 words description of the proposed session with its submitter’s name.

The general theme of the Forum is: The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World

All relevant information, including the various deadlines and types of sessions which can be submitted, can be found on the Forum Homepage: http://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/

Laurence Morel (CPS chair, Vienna Forum Program coordinator)

Event sponsored by CPS

The IPSA RC06 on Political Sociology is one of the supporting committees of the next conference on research methods in political science organized by the IPSA Committee on Research and Training. The conference will take place at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Antwerp (Belgium) on September 17-18, 2015.

The deadline for abstracts (250 words) is March 1, 2015.

More details can be found here. For any further query, please contact the IPSA Liaison Representative of the Research Committees at the IPSA EC, Prof. Christ'l De Landtsheer (christl.delandtsheer@uantwerpen.be).

Letter of the past Chair

Dear members,

after eight years of chairmanship I leave the charge to Laurence Morel, elected by the new CPS board as chairperson. These years have been characterized by an intense activity of promotion and organization for increasing the CPS presence at the official conferences of IPSA and ISA. This aim has been met, in my opinion. As you can see below, the number of sessions we sponsored covered the maximum numbers of allotted sessions to CPS at each occasion. Moreover, as required by the statutes, we organized inter-congresses conferences. Some workgroups affiliated to CPS have also been particularly active, like the one on ‘Members and Activists of Political Parties’ now chaired by Emilie van Haute. This working group stands as a marvellous example of international cooperation and high quality scholar research. I hope Laurence Morel will stimulate and foster similar groups. CPS is in good health on both the financial and membership side. It has 110 members from ISA and 556 IPSA members interested in CPS activity. The Financial Balance at 31 July 2014 is 3,377 euro. I am totally confident that the new chairperson and the new board will increase the CPS activity on every aspect.

Piero Ignazi

Summary of Activities 2006 – 2014

Panels and conferences: International conference on "Political Parties: the challenge of organization and representation in a period of social and political malaise", University of Bologna, Italy, 10-11 June 2014 14 sessions at the World Congress of ISA in Yokohama, Japan, 13-19 July 2014; International workshop on “Religiosity, ideology and voting in Europe” Milan, 10-12 January 2013; 20 sessions at the World Congress in Madrid, 8-12 July 2012; 16 sessions at the Second ISA Forum of Buenos Aires, 1-4 August 2012; 16 sessions at the World Congress of ISA in Gothenburg, 11-17 July 2010; 5 sessions at the World Congress of IPSA in Santiago of Chile, 12-16 July 2009; 9 sessions at the First ISA Forum of Barcelona, 5-8 September 2008; International conference on “Class and religion in contemporary party politics”, University of Bologna, Department of Politics, Institutions, History, Bologna, 1-2 December 2006; 4 panels at the World Congress of IPSA in Fukuoka, 9-13 July 2006; 4 panels at the World Congress of ISA in Durban, 23-29 July 2006.

Newsletters: CPS has periodically sent official Newsletters to its members: usually twice per year plus a few extra Newsletters per year depending on the intensity of activities.

Letter of the new Chair

Dear CPS members*,

It’s a great pleasure and honor to take over from Piero Ignazi at the head of the Committee of Political Sociology, and let me first thank you all for having me elected in the new Executive Board, which in turn elected me to the Chair. With the help of Ferdinand Mueller-Rommel, who has kindly accepted to be the co-Chair of the Committee, I will do my best in this four years term to fulfill the main tasks assigned by IPSA and ISA to Research Committees, that is: running panels at the various Congresses and Forums of the two Associations, being present as well at other disciplinary meetings, possibly by means of institutionalized links (like we already have with APSA), organizing academic conferences and research activities through working groups, and disseminating information to members via our Website and periodic Newsletter. In this latter respect, I want to encourage all of you to send regularly to me and to the co-editor Michelangelo Vercesi news or relevant informations about the academic/research activities that you are conducing and wish to bring to the attention of CPS members, or other news you know about and could profitably be posted on our website (just published books, events like conferences, summer schools, Masters or Ph.D courses, vacant positions...). Regarding the CPS activities, the first announcement I want to make is the launching by Ferdinand of a new working group on “Personnalization and Politics”, which will start soon with a broad interdisciplinary call to everybody interested to participate. Beside the other CPS working groups on “Members and Activists of Political Parties”, “Social Movements and Contentious Politics”, and “Political Inequality”, this new working group will form the backbone of the scientific activity of the CPS in the next few years. I myself plan to create a fifth group on “The Transformations of Democracy”, at the crossroad of political theory and political sociology, which could be another pillar of our activity. The CPS is a “big” committee (more than 600 members), with a “big” history, since its foundation by Lipset and Rokkan in 1960, and the involvement of other giants of the discipline like Raymond Aron, Simon Eisenstadt, Mattei Dogan, Juan Linz or Giovanni Sartori, so we should prove worthy of our masters…on the shoulders of which we are now standing…In the meantime, let me wish a Happy New Year to everybody!

Laurence Morel

ISA 2014

2014 CPS POLITICAL PARTIES

RELIGIOSITY 2013

ISA 2012

ISA FORUM 2008

ISA 2006

Event organized by CPS

The COMMITTEE on POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY (CPS),

organizes the conference "POLITICAL PARTIES: THE CHALLENGE OF ORGANIZATION AND REPRESENTATION IN A PERIOD OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MALAISE", that will be hold in Bologna (Italy) on 10-11 JUNE, 2014

CPS_Conference_june.pdfHere the programme in PDF

Event organized by CPS

The Committee on Political Sociology has organised several sessions to the next ISA World Congress (Yokohama, 13-19 July) and IPSA Conference (Montréal, 19-24 July).

The CPS also contributes to the Joint session of RC18 Political Sociology, RC47 Social Classes and Social Movements and RC48 Social Movements, Collective Action and Social Change on Rethinking Democracies: Social Movements and Democratic Processes

Here you can find more info and details about the panels at the IPSA Wolrd Congress

Here you can find more info and details about the panels at the ISA Wolrd Congress

Full Professor of Social Sustainability

WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) is currently inviting applications for the position of a Full Professor of Social Sustainability at the Department of Socioeconomics. Applicants should have an outstanding international reputation in high quality scholarship and conduct research on sustainability transitions/transformations including intragenerational and intergenerational aspects. Applicants should have a background in socioeconomics and a proven ability to work in an interdisciplinary environment and are expected to cultivate an environment of interdisciplinary collaboration. Their work relates to core research and teaching areas of the Department, sustainable social, environmental and economic systems in particular. They have an interest in contributing to the policy debate on social sustainability and actively support the science-society interface. Applicants should have a proven track record of excellent teaching and are expected to take an active role in the University’s self-governance. For details of the position, please see www.wu.ac.at/jobs. Applications must be submitted by April 23, 2014.

Event organized by CPS

Dear colleagues,

CPS has organized 18 panels at next 2014 ISA World Congress (Yokohama, 13-19 July, 2014).

Those who present a paper are kindly invited to submit their own abstract by September 30 (here the link)

CPS - Staff