Tag Archives: Political Science

GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology (8-30 August, 2013)

The 2nd GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology will take place at GESIS Cologne from August 08 to 30, 2013.

Surveys are the main method of systematic data collection in the Social Sciences. Surveys provide empirical data for researchers to analyse, and are an important source of information for business, charities and policy makers. There are numerous types of surveys suited for different purposes. Given the variety and complexity of survey research, designing and conducting a survey that effectively and efficiently serves a specific purpose requires specialised expertise and skill (as well as a good team).

Objectives

The GESIS Summer School offers high quality training in state of the art techniques and methods of survey research. It aims to equip participants with essential skills in the design, planning, execution, documentation and quality assurance of surveys of households, individuals or organisations. This Summer School is unique in Europe with its focus on Survey Methodology and data collection.

The GESIS Summer School does not only give a broad overview of survey methods, but provides an opportunity to deeply engage with the different tasks of survey design and implementation (such as questionnaire design, sampling, nonresponse and fieldwork monitoring), different survey modes (such as personal interviews and web surveys), research designs involving surveys (such as mixed methods, factorial surveys, longitudinal surveys and cross-national surveys) as well as data management. The courses offer engaging instruction in state-of-the-art knowledge and application oriented skills, provided by an international team of survey specialists. Our instructors come from a diverse set of countries and fields, and we welcome applicants from all countries and fields.

Target audience

The Summer School is designed for advanced graduate and PhD students as well as post-docs and other researchers interested in improving their knowledge and skills in survey methodology from all relevant fields, such as Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Education Science, Communication Science, Epidemiology, Demography etc. Professionals from outside academic research who are working with surveys are welcome to apply. It is the right place to go for PhD students and researchers planning to run their own survey, but also for those who analyse secondary data, want to know more about how the data came about, how to assess their quality, and those who wish to engage in methodological research.

We are very thankful for the cooperation with the Center for Doctoral Studies in Social and Behavioral Sciences (CDSS) of the University of Mannheim. We also gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by our sponsors to a social and cultural program. It is greatly important to us that participants can meet outside the seminar rooms to have a good time and find new research collaborators and, indeed, friends. We aim to provide participants with a supportive social environment, a stimulating and academically rigorous program, and an exciting time in Cologne.

We hope you enjoy reading the program, and hope to see you in Cologne in August 2013!

Programm 2013

Registration and fees

Further information

GIGA Seminar: Disempowerment from Below: Informal Enterprise Networks and the Limits of Political Voice in Nigeria (24.05.2012)

The next GIGA Seminar in Socio-Economics will take place on

Thursday, 24th May 2012
at 1.30 p.m.
in room 465.

Dr Kate Meagher will give a talk about “Disempowerment from Below: Informal Enterprise Networks and the Limits of Political Voice in Nigeria”.

Kate Meagher is a researcher at The London School of Economics and Political Science at the Department of International Development. Kate Meagher has engaged in extensive empirical and theoretical research on the informal economy in rural and urban Africa, with a particular focus on Nigeria. Her current research interests include social networks and non-state governance in Africa, the politics of economic informality, enterprise clusters, vigilantism and organised crime, and new religious movements. (http://www2.lse.ac.uk/researchAndExpertise/Experts/k.meagher@lse.ac.uk)

A Borderless Europe?

International Conference SDU Sønderborg 2010, Sept. 30. – Oct. 2. 2010
Call for papers
On the threshold of a ‘borderless Europe’, research on every day life experiences with borders and border issues has become more relevant than ever. The mobility of everyday life reflected in increasing migration rates and cross-border commuting implies movements and activities crossing national, administrative, cultural and mental borders challenging dividing lines between European states, East and West, center and periphery, rich and poor within as well as conceptions of internal and external Europe.
Since the late 1990s, the European Union has had a new focus on the peripheries and borderlands of Europe. From considering them enclaves of stagnation and as more or less passive recipients of subsidies, the new profile in EU regional policies is that border regions are motors in the European integration process and encouraged to act as entrepreneurs of their own and the European developments. This shift marks new possibilities for cross-border and inter- regional cooperation.
However, even in today’s Europe, where we conceive the European state borders as more permeable than before, particularly within the ‘Schengenland’, the unambiguous absence of borders can prove hard to find. Historical conflicts, as well as politically discursive and mental barriers between the European populations seem to be more persistent than EU attempts to demolish border and integrate Europe. As for the European integration process, this point can be taken further, that integration is not a matter of overcoming the borders in Europe; rather it is a question of acknowledging the co-existence of many different versions of the European borders.
In contrast to considering borders to be mere physical dividing lines or easily dissolvable, this conference takes a cross-disciplinary perspective on borders and borderlands, discussing them as socially constructed, multiple practices and complex psychological patterns. Borders may thus represent boundaries as well as thresholds of passages, they can be symbolic or material, soft or hard, and they can appear permeable or extremely solid. This ambivalent character makes it crucial to investigate how the people of Europe practice and experience borders in everyday life.
This conference invites contributions that empirically as well as theoretically reflect on the challenges associated with living on, by, with and across the European borders. Contributions can have both contemporary and historical outlook. The conference committee welcomes contributions from all disciplines related to border issues (such as Ethnology, Anthropology, Sociology, European Studies, History, Political Science, Law, Economics, Geography, Business Studies, etc.)
The question of a ‘borderless Europe’ will be addressed from theoretical and empirical as well as practical perspectives:
1. How can we theoretically as well as methodologically conceive and conceptualise the complex character of European borders? 2. How are borders experienced in European every day life – not least among those living outside or at the external EU-borders? 3. Which kinds of challenges are connected to the governance of regions and cross-border cooperation? 4. How persistent are historical memory, discourse and imaginings in maintaining European borders?
5. What effect does EU’s regional policies have on cross-border mobility and the economic landscape of regional disparities in Europe? 6. How does new external EU-borders (Schengen) influence everyday life in border-regions?
The conference will be grouped into following themes:
I. II. III.
Borders and regionalisation. Cross-border cooperation. Borders and mobility. Migration and commuting. Borders and Europeanisation/globalisation. Tracing links.
Abstracts should be between 300 – 500 words and send to the organising committee no later than April 15. 2010.
We intend to publish an anthology based on revised versions of selected conference papers. If you are interested in contributing to the anthology, please send full papers to the organising committee no later than September 1. 2010.

International Conference SDU Sønderborg 2010, Sept. 30. – Oct. 2. 2010

Call for papers

On the threshold of a ‘borderless Europe’, research on every day life experiences with borders and border issues has become more relevant than ever. The mobility of everyday life reflected in increasing migration rates and cross-border commuting implies movements and activities crossing national, administrative, cultural and mental borders challenging dividing lines between European states, East and West, center and periphery, rich and poor within as well as conceptions of internal and external Europe.

Since the late 1990s, the European Union has had a new focus on the peripheries and borderlands of Europe. From considering them enclaves of stagnation and as more or less passive recipients of subsidies, the new profile in EU regional policies is that border regions are motors in the European integration process and encouraged to act as entrepreneurs of their own and the European developments. This shift marks new possibilities for cross-border and inter- regional cooperation.

However, even in today’s Europe, where we conceive the European state borders as more permeable than before, particularly within the ‘Schengenland’, the unambiguous absence of borders can prove hard to find. Historical conflicts, as well as politically discursive and mental barriers between the European populations seem to be more persistent than EU attempts to demolish border and integrate Europe. As for the European integration process, this point can be taken further, that integration is not a matter of overcoming the borders in Europe; rather it is a question of acknowledging the co-existence of many different versions of the European borders.

In contrast to considering borders to be mere physical dividing lines or easily dissolvable, this conference takes a cross-disciplinary perspective on borders and borderlands, discussing them as socially constructed, multiple practices and complex psychological patterns. Borders may thus represent boundaries as well as thresholds of passages, they can be symbolic or material, soft or hard, and they can appear permeable or extremely solid. This ambivalent character makes it crucial to investigate how the people of Europe practice and experience borders in everyday life.

This conference invites contributions that empirically as well as theoretically reflect on the challenges associated with living on, by, with and across the European borders. Contributions can have both contemporary and historical outlook. The conference committee welcomes contributions from all disciplines related to border issues (such as Ethnology, Anthropology, Sociology, European Studies, History, Political Science, Law, Economics, Geography, Business Studies, etc.)

The question of a ‘borderless Europe’ will be addressed from theoretical and empirical as well as practical perspectives:

  1. How can we theoretically as well as methodologically conceive and conceptualise the complex character of European borders?
  2. How are borders experienced in European every day life – not least among those living outside or at the external EU-borders?
  3. Which kinds of challenges are connected to the governance of regions and cross-border cooperation?
  4. How persistent are historical memory, discourse and imaginings in maintaining European borders?
  5. What effect does EU’s regional policies have on cross-border mobility and the economic landscape of regional disparities in Europe?
  6. How does new external EU-borders (Schengen) influence everyday life in border-regions?

The conference will be grouped into following themes:

I. Borders and regionalisation. Cross-border cooperation.
II. Borders and mobility. Migration and commuting.
III. Borders and Europeanisation/globalisation. Tracing links.

Abstracts should be between 300 – 500 words and send to the organising committee no later than April 15. 2010.

We intend to publish an anthology based on revised versions of selected conference papers. If you are interested in contributing to the anthology, please send full papers to the organising committee no later than September 1. 2010.

Further information about the conference