Political Science Association Annual International Conference 2017

Monday 10th April 09:30 - 11:00

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Emiliana De Blasio (Centre for Media and Democratic Innovations - LUISS University)
• Dr Emiliana De Blasio (Centre for Media and Democratic Innovations - LUISS University)
• Professor Amany Ismail Khodair (The British University of Egypt)
• Professor Amany Ismail Khodair (The British University of Egypt)
• Mr Dario Quattromani (Roma Tre University - Rome - Italy)
• Mr Dario Quattromani (Roma Tre University - Rome - Italy)
• Dr Rosalynd Southern (University of Manchester)
• Dr Rosalynd Southern (University of Manchester)

Monday 10th April 14:15 - 15:45

Panel Chair: 

TBC

Panel Members: 

• Dr Romea Manojlovic (Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb)
• Dr Romea Manojlovic (Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb)
• Dr Jurga Bucaite-Vilke (Vytautas Magnus University)
• Professor Colin Copus (De Montfort University)
• Dr Koenraad De Ceuninck (Ghent University)

Without any doubt local governments have become key public sector actors. 'Local politics is moving at a fast pace and provides a challenge for those who study local politics.'

At the local political level we have seen a lot of activity in the last couple of decades. Local government is currently going through a period of significant change. Local politics face many challenges (lack of finance, housing, new partnerships, imbalances in the sharing of resources and responsibilities between local and national governments, decentralization, coping with an ageing population, engaging citizens, the use of social media, the role of the council, the direct election of mayors,...).

In this panel we cope with some of these challenges.

Monday 10th April 14:15 - 15:45

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Ruth Lightbody (Glasgow Caledonian University)
• Dr Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr Oliver Dowlen (Sciences Po)
• Dr Oliver Dowlen (Sciences Po)

Public Policy and Administration Panel 2: Citizen Participation and the Public Sector

Monday 10th April 14:15 - 15:45

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Sarah Cooper (University of Exeter)

Panel Members: 

• Ms Jingyan Zhu (University of Edinburgh)
• Professor Allan McConnell (UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY)
• Dr AHMED BADRAN (Department of International Affairs, Qatar University)
• Dr Alice Moseley (University of Exeter Department of Politics)

Maintaining trust in the public sector can assume a variety of forms, both formal and indirect, and the role of consultation and managing public perception are all addressed in the course of this panel across broad sectors such as healthcare and welfare services. Furthermore, the session looks towards the invited role of citizen participation and the benefits to be garnered from such participatory governance in strengthening such services.

Monday 10th April 14:15 - 15:45

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Richard Reid (Australian National University)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Carlos Shenga (Centre for Research on Governance and Development)
• Miss Molly Asher (Leeds Institute for Data Analytics)
• Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Leeds)
• Mr Alex Prior (The University of Leeds)
• Miss Isabele Mitozo (Federal University of Parana)

 

 

Tuesday 11th April 09:30 - 11:00

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Tom Bartlett (Cardiff University)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Tom Bartlett (Cardiff University)
• Dr Nicolina Montesano Montessori (HU Utrecht University of Applied Sciences)
• Marte Fjørtoft (NHH Norwegian School of Economics)
• Dr Robin Jervis (The University of York)
• Dr Robin Jervis (The University of York)

Exploring the concepts and mechanisms of participatory and radical democracy in the 21st Century.

The transition from late modernity to the digital era has brought to the public imagination not only the limits of the representative democracy but also the potential and examples of various movements to enhance popular participation globally. Problems have become so complex that it is not to be expected that they can be resolved by politicians alone, while the capacity of political parties to represent the people, both majorities and minorities, is increasingly called into question in the public arena. In this panel we will explore responses to this crisis of representation in both theory and action.  We include examples from our research to do with innovative forms of democratic, bottom up processes, such as the the Zapatista movement in Mexico and the local management of natural resources in the Western Isles of Scotland, as well as presenting a critical analysis of recent referenda as a relatively recent mechanism of citizen participation. The cases address the recent Brexit referendum (June, 2016) and the referendum concerning the Columbia peace agreements with the FARC.

The popularisation of democratic processes takes various forms: grassroots and bottom-up movements challenging the political status quo, often with an emphasis on economic reform, have appeared in the form of 15 M and the Cooperatives Integrales in Cataluña and popular protests in the Middle East; there are moves to decentralise decision-making power in the European Union, and the UK in particular. Examples with a longer tradition include townhall meetings in the US and referenda in Switzerland and elsewhere.

Such movements have been mirrored in political theory, where the concept of radical democracy, as developed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985) and further explored by Torfing (1990) and Hajer & Versteeg (2006), has been a topic of much debate.  Laclau and Mouffe spoke of the primacy of politics, while more recent global trends suggest we may now be living in an era of the primacy of the economy, where popular voice is increasingly marginalised, and in this panel we explore examples of radical or participatory democracy which run counter to this development and may help pave the way for civil emancipation as well as case studies to do with recent referenda as a recently new political intervention. While these referenda at first sight may seem an improvement of the participation of citizens in the political process, we critically discuss the underlying nuts and bolts of the recent referenda in the UK and in Colombia and their outcome.

    Tuesday 11th April 15:30 - 17:00
Panel Chair:

        Dr Felix Butzlaff (Institute for Social Change and Sustainability, Vienna University for Economics and Business)

Panel Members:

        Mr Wei Lee (Department of political science, National Chengchi University)
        Mr Peter Josse (University of Essex)
        Dr Paolo Cossarini (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
        Miss Indra Mangule (University of Sheffield)
 

Wednesday 12th April 09:00 - 10:30

Panel Chair: 

TBC

Panel Members: 

• Dr Marit Hammond (Keele University)
• Dr James Wong (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
• Mr Scott Leatham (De Montfort University)
• Professor Derek Bell (Newcastle University)

This panel explores different theoretical perspectives on environmental governance and citizen engagement. Hammond investigates the concept of sustainability as resilience of social-ecological systems, while also re-conceptualising the meaning of 'social resilience' by arguing that arguing that social resilience must build on sociological insights. This reveals a new conception of sustainability not as a substantive outcome, but rather as a set of developmental patterns of a society that allow it to undergo significant structural change, without thereby rupturing either the ethical or the ecological identities that constitute that society. Swaffield and Bell explore the debate around how people should respond to climate change, arguing that a better understanding of the everyday pressures (and opportunities) faced by ‘real’ individuals can inform a more philosophically rigorous theory and a more practical account of individual responsibility for human rights and climate change. Wong explores the environmental theory of democracy by examining four different models of democratic representation for future generations to assess whether, or to what extent, they can produce decisions in line with the interests of future generations. Finally, Leatham evaluates the discourse of 'green marketing' through a neo-Gramscian lens, arguing that neoliberal-capitalist modes of production and accumulation save themselves by simplifying and reducing complex problems into marketable narratives and products. Each of these papers offers a unique perspective on environmental politics by highlighting the importance of theory in furthering citizen engagement with the environment.

Wednesday 12th April 09:00 - 10:30

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Alfred Moore (University of Cambridge)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Katharine Dommett (University of Sheffield)
• Dr Stephen Elstub (Newcastle University)
• Dr Oliver Escobar (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr Mary Houston (University of Southampton)
• Mr Nikolai Gad (Newcastle University)

Amid the general decline in political engagement across advanced democracies, great hope has been vested in the potential of innovations - especially those using digitial technologies - to revive and reimagine mass participation. This panel features conceptual and empirical investigations at efforts towards innovation. The papers focus especially on the new social media tools and strategies of political parties (especially Corbyn's Labour) and innovations in governance and policymaking.

Wednesday 12th April 11:00 - 12:30

 

Panel Chair: 

• Dr John Boswell (University of Southampton)

Panel Members: 

• Mr Keith Sutherland (University of Exeter)
• Dr Brett Hennig (Sortition Foundation)
• Dr Peter Stone (Trinity College Dublin)
• Mr Dimitri Courant (University of Lausanne & University Paris 8)

We are witnessing something of a revival in support for sortition, with the idea popularised in particular in David Van Reybrouck's recent Against Elections: The Case for Democracy. Although the debate around the use of sortition has typically been tied to discussion of mini-publics, this panel seeks to look more broadly at its relationship to democratic theory and democratic practice more broadly conceived. It brings together proponents and sceptics, normative theorists and those whose work is more applied, for a contemporary, lively and varied debate on this age-old topic.

 

Wednesday 12th April 13:30 - 15:00

Panel Chair: 

• Dr Alfred Moore (University of Cambridge)
• Hans Asenbaum (University of Westminster)

Panel Members: 

• Dr Christopher Birchall (University of Leeds)

 

Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Roundtable: Does Post-fact Politics Render Deliberation Implausible?

Wednesday 12th April 15:30 - 17:00

Panel Chair: 

TBC

Panel Members: 

• Professor John Parkinson (Griffith University)
• Professor Andre Baechtiger (University of Lucerne)
• Dr Peter Kerr (University of Birmingham)
• Dr Ana Tanasoca (University of Canberra)