Business Meetings

Minutes of the Business Meeting

Lille, 4 November 2010

This short business meeting was the second one after Lisbon.

The ESA RN 32 Political Sociology should be more institutionalized, within ESA and in cooperation with the corresponding ECPR (Niilo Kauppi) and IPSA sections and standing groups working on topics concerning Political Sociology.

The following tasks have to be done:

1) We should think about the futur research areas that we have to choose in the next business meeting in Geneva.

2) Our website should be used more often as it offers many possibilities (call for papers, direct applications, list of members, newsletter, place for discussions, etc.)

3) A report of the midterm conference in Lille has to be written for the ESA (activities, funding, etc.).

4) We need a new newsletter. It should include, among other information, the report of the midterm conference in Lille and the call for papers for the next ESA Conference in Geneva. We should make this call as soon as possible.

5) It would be useful to have a member list with a proper list of addresses which we could put on the website.

6) We have to divide labour for the preparation of the sessions in Geneva (Who leads which sessions, etc.?).

7) We can keep the board as it is. But we should elaborate rules of the board. We should also have a status for the research network.

8) Which are the issues and proposals for the next midterm conference? Where will it take place (Milan, Copenhague, etc.)?

To prepare the sessions of Geneva, the existing topics should be maintained:

Citizenship; populism; migration; political levels of representation, participation and mobilization; online media, etc.

New research topics of the RN32 as

- elites studies / political leadership

- new media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

- gender and sexuality

could already be integrated into the sessions of Geneva.

Our first business meeting took place in Lisbon on 4 September 2009 at the general ESA conference. Here are the minutes:

European Sociological association (ESA) Ninth Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. 2- 5 September 2009

Minutes of the RN32 Political Sociology Research Network of ESA.

3 September 2009

The new ESA Political Sociology research network has been approved at the ESA Executive Committee meeting of 23- 24 October 2008. The first business of the newly founded research network (RN) is chaired by Carlo Ruzza (Department of Sociology, University of Leicester). He starts by explaining some of the background to the creation of the new RN before listing the agenda of the meeting and the tasks that lie ahead.

In his view, although there are some networks that cover themes of political sociology (e.g. social movements, migration, social policy), ESA did not have a home for political sociologists up to the point. The RN Political Sociology is thus the place where one’s work can be debated and recognized as such.

Carlo Ruzza then states that the board should perform the following tasks:

·         Organizing the panels of the biannual conference. The next one will take place in Geneva . Each board member will be expected to organize a panel/session.

·         Organizing mid-term conference on a specific theme (ESA pitches in ¤1500)

·         Setting up a web site with the space provided by ESA

·         Editing a newsletter which will be a way of debating political sociology but also of constituting a network.

They are several criteria to be on the board. The board should represent the variety of approaches and themes of research in the field as well as respect gender and geographical balance.

A doctoral student asks whether there could be a student member on the board to help socialize junior members into the profession. Carlo Ruzza answers that in fact someone has already brought up that issue before the meeting and volunteered.

The assembly then proceeds to vote for a convenor and co-convenor . Carlo Ruzza and Virginie Guiraudon (CNRS, University of Lille 2), who have volunteered are unanimously elected.

The floor is open for suggestions and people intervene, mainly to ask questions and to volunteer for the board.

Some points are clarified. Board members should be members of ESA. There will be exchanges with the newly founded Political Sociology section of the ECPR.

Issues that are brought include the issue of the perimeter of the RN. Carlo Ruzza states that this will be debated during a round-table discussion the next day and is right now an open question.

The following volunteers are elected to the board

Carlo Ruzza (University of Leicester) (Convenor)

Virginie Guiraudon (CNRS, University of Lille 2) (co-Convenor)

·         Mauro Barisione (Social and Political Studies Department, University of Milan)

·         Hans-Georg Trenz (ARENA, Oslo)

·         Monika Kwiecinska (Institute of Sociology, Torun University)

·          Dietmar Loch (Sociology Department, University of Grenoble)

·         Thomas Boje (Department of Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University)