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“Citizen’s trust and societal polarization in times of transformation. Comparative Perspectives from different world regions”
The annual conference of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) will take place at Saarland University on 27 and 28 March 2025. The main aim of this conference is to analyse one of the most pressing problems of representative democracies from different perspectives: Citizens' trust or mistrust in “their” political system, institutions and politicians. In order to place the study of trust and mistrust in a broader context, contributions are also welcome that deal with the connection between citizens and the state in general - a connection that can be expressed in different ways (e.g. public opinion/attitudes of citizens, political behaviour such as political participation, civic engagement, protest behaviour, but also feelings or emotions).
Conclusion on the ActEU Mid-Term Conference
On 12 December, the ActEU Mid-Term Conference took place in Brussels to present the first results of the project and promote collaboration between researchers and various stakeholders. Dr Alex Hartland presented his and Prof Dr Daniela Braun's work in two presentations: “Engagement triggers in response to controversial policies” and “Polarisation among EU political parties”. After the conference, participants had the opportunity to socialise over dinner in a more informal setting.
ActEU Mid-Term Conference
The political chair at the University of Saarland are pleased to share with you the draft programme for the ActEU Mid-Term Conference, which will take place on Thursday, 12 December 2024 in Brussels. The event will showcase the project’s initial findings and foster collaboration between academics and diverse stakeholders. Following the conference, we will host a dinner to further engage with all participants in a more informal setting. We hope you will be able to join us for this evening gathering, as it would be a great opportunity to continue the conversations and strengthen our collaborative ties.
Additionally, a workshop with an interactive session (the programme will be available in the coming days) with our Civil Society Network will take place the day after, on Friday 13 December 2024 (9:00-13:30) . Please let us know if you are interested in participating, as your insights and expertise would be a valuable addition to the discussions.
“Securing Europe’s Future” Polish Pre-Presidency Conference, Warsaw, 21-22 November 2024
On 1 January 2025, Poland will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second time. Following a politically charged and controversial Hungarian Presidency, the Polish Presidency will face a number of challenges in the first half of the year. In order to tackle these successfully, a solid basis for decision-making is required. This highlights the importance of bridging the gap between policy makers, academics and citizens in Europe.
The Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and the Institute for European Studies at Jagiellonian University have therefore organised the conference “Securing Europe's Future” in Poland. The aim of the conference is to discuss which goals, priorities and policy areas in the EU require the most attention. TEPSA will also make recommendations to the future Council Presidency at the conference, which will serve as preparation for the Polish Council Presidency.
At the conference, Prof Dr Daniela Braun will present the EU-funded Horizon project “Activating Citizens Trust in Times of Crises and Polarisation (ActEU)” on 21 November in the panel “EU Democracy Renewal: Addressing the Pressures on Representative Democracy in Europe”, moderated by Petr Kratochvíl of the Institute of International Relations.
4th Saarbrücken Europe Conference at the UdS
Europe dreams? Between political ambition and social reality
The 4th Saarbrücken Europe Conference will open on 28 November with a panel discussion on the topic of “Visions of Europe. Franco-German perspectives” at Saarbrücken Town Hall. The next day, the programme of events will take place at Saarland University. This primarily includes panels on political and social topics. At 11:45, Prof. Dr Daniela Braun will give a lecture on the effects of consolidated Euroscepticism on European politics.
The chair at the Digital Democracy Workshop in Zürich
Prof Dr Daniela Braun, Dr Rosa Navarrete, Dr Alex Hartland and Dr Giuseppe Carteny, together with Prof Dr Ingmar Weber and Dr Jianlong Zhu from the Chair of Societal Computing, gave a presentation entitled “Chatbots at the Ballot Box: How do AI Chatbots Influence Political Attitudes and Behaviour?” at the Digital Democracy Workshop in Zurich. The talk focussed on how the rapid development of AI is increasingly influencing online information and people's interactions with it. This technology is also becoming a more important source of information for voters, with potential implications for political attitudes and behaviour. As little research has been conducted into these effects, the study draws on findings from election counselling tools and misinformation research. The results are intended to highlight the opportunities and risks of AI for democratic institutions.
Talk at the EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC)
The EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations (PEC) took place in Lille from 27 August to 31 August. Djamila Jabra, M.A. gave a presentation entitled "From Warnings to Wars - A Comprehensive Review of IPCC Reports on Climate and Conflicts". In her presentation, she analysed how the connection between climate change and violent conflicts is presented in the six IPCC reports from 1990 to 2023. Using a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, she analysed the terms conflict, violence, war, armed, threat and risk in order to identify the visibility of climate-related conflicts. Theoretically, she drew on the expanded security concept of international relations, which goes beyond state approaches to identify potential causes of future conflicts and their prevention.
The Chair at the DVPW Congress in Göttingen
From 24 to 27 September, the congress of the German Political Science Association on “Politics in the Polycrisis” took place at the Georg August University in Göttingen. The chair took part in the congress and gave three presentations. Prof Braun also took part in a panel and a podium discussion.
Aufruf zur Einreichung von Beiträgen für DVPW-Tagung an der Universität des Saarlandes
Im März 2025 wird an der Universität des Saarlandes eine Tagung der Deutschen Vereinigung für Politikwissenschaft abgehalten. Die Veranstaltung unter dem Titel „Citizen’s trust and societal polarization in times of transformation. Comparative Perspectives from different world regions“ untersucht eines der drängendsten Probleme repräsentativer Demokratien: Das Ver- bzw. Misstrauen der Bürger:innen in "ihr" politisches System, in Institutionen und Politiker:innen.
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UNTWIST at the European Conference on Politics and Gender
In July 2024, the UNTWIST teams participated in the European Conference on Politics and Gender in Cologne and presented a panel with research findings related to a better understanding of gender dynamics in voting for radical right-wing populist parties. Prof Dr Daniela Braun and Dr Giuseppe Carteny presented the following paper:
The salience of gender-related issues in European party manifestos
EPSA-Konferenz in Köln
Vom 4. bis 6. Juli 2024 hat die 14. jährliche Konferenz der European Political Science Association im MediaPark Köln stattfinden. Der Lehrstuhl Prof. Braun hat ebenfalls am Kongress teilgenommen und dort vier Vorträge halten. Außerdem hat Dr. Rosa Navarette an einer Panel-Diskussion zu Parteiprogrammen teilgenommen.
International Political Science Conference: Emotional Dynamics of (In)security and Politics
At the conference (11-13 June 2024) the relationship between feelings of (in)security and emotional protection needs as well as the political responses to them will be examined. Prof. Bethany Albertson (The University of Texas at Austin) has been secured as keynote speaker and will give her lecture entitled ‘What Counts as Protection in an Age of Insecurity?’ on 11 June 2024 at 6 pm. The final lecture on 13 June will be given by Prof. Iryna Hubeladze (Institute for Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine) with the title ‘Sense of Security and Civic Responsibility: The Identity of Ukrainians in the Conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian War’.
Prof Daniela Braun will host the second panel. The event is organised by the Chair of Political Science and Comparative European Studies at Saarland University. There is no conference fee. If you have any questions, please contact the organising team Dr Beatriz Carbone and Prof. Dr Georg Wenzelburger.
Djamila Jabra elected as ECIB spokesperson
From 20 to 22 March 2024, the 17th Early Career Conference on International Relations of the DVPW took place at the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing. Djamila Jabra, M.A. gave a presentation entitled "From Warnings to Wars - A Comprehensive Review of IPCC Reports on Climate and Conflicts" as part of her doctoral project. She was also elected to the team of speakers of the Early Career Group International Relations (ECIB).
Presentation of the "ProConEU" project at the Conference of European Affairs Ministers
On 20 March 2024, the project "ProConEU - Proponents and Opponents of the European Union: The Consequences of an Increasing Divide in Europe" of the BMBF funding line "Cohesion in Europe" will be presented at the meeting of the Standing Working Group of the Conference of European Affairs Ministers. The aim of the project, led by Prof Dr Daniela Braun, was to investigate the consequences of increasing division in and for Europe in the areas of party politics, the behaviour and attitudes of the electorate and the new social media.
Talk by Prof Braun at the practical day of the Master of Public Policy programme at the University of Duisburg-Essen
At the practical day of the Master of Public Policy at the University of Duisburg-Essen on 6 March 2024, Prof. Daniela Braun will give a talk entitled "Elections in the EU: European Institutions, Parties and Policies". This will be followed by a discussion with the audience. The practical day with the topic "Super election year 2024: Elections in Germany, the EU and worldwide" will take place at the NRW School of Governance.
Full programme of the practical day
BGA European Committee event with Prof. Daniela Braun
The European Committee of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA), which represents the interests of the German economy, is organising a digital exchange on 5 March 2024 with Prof. Daniela Braun as keynote speaker.
The event, chaired by BGA Vice President and Committee Chairman Till Blässinger, will focus on the European elections on 9 June and questions about the future of the European Union: How must the EU be shaped so that trust in it grows again? How can we achieve long-term stability, less bureaucracy and a competitive economic area? The aim of the event is for as many companies as possible that are members of the BGA to enter into a constructive dialogue with the European level in order to increase interest in the elections and exchange views on current forecasts.
Further information (in German)
Policy webinar "Europe has the choice - programmes and economic perspectives for the future of Europe" with Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun
On Tuesday, 05.12.2023 from 10:00-16:00 there will be a policy webinar organised by ISWA on the above lecture.
The webinar, organised by the Institute for Social and Economic Policy Education (ISWA), will focus on the upcoming European elections and the fundamental question: What are the priorities that European policy should focus on? Various topics will be discussed with experts from politics, business, science and the media. Prof. Dr Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science with a focus on European Integration and International Relations at Saarland University, together with Dr Manuel Müller, Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) and founder of the blog The (European) Federalist, Helsinki (Finland), will discuss the topic of forecasts for majorities in the European Parliament - significance for decision-making, economic policy and Europe as a business location.
Further information and registration
CEUS Conference "Border Regions as Laboratories for European Research"
On 9 and 10 October 2023, the interdisciplinary conference of the CEUS (Cluster for European Research) took place at the Villa Europa in Saarbrücken with the theme "Border Regions as Laboratories of European Research". The starting point was the assumption that Europe's political, social, legal, historical, cultural and linguistic fault lines become more prominent in inner-European border regions, as became clear, for example, during the so-called "refugee crisis" and the Corona pandemic, when border regions were particularly affected by controls or even border closures. However, quite independently of these crisis phases, it can be assumed that in such inner-European border regions certain developments that are given within Europe or the multi-level system of the EU are more prominent (e.g. support for politics in Europe; identification with the EU; European party politics).
Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun was the moderator of the conference and Dr. Rosa Navarrete, Dr. Giuseppe Carteny, Dr. Alex Hartland and Djamila Jabra, M.A. also participated from the chair team.
Conference Società Italiana di Scienza Politica (SISP) 2023
The Italian Political Science Association is a non-profit cultural association that aims to promote the development of political science in Italy, the exchange and collaboration of scholars of the discipline in Italy and abroad as well as the coordination of institutional structures for teaching and research.
Dr. Giuseppe Carteny participated at the 2023 edition of the SISP Conference that took place in Genoa from 14-16 September 2023. He talked about “Parties’ fluctuation on the transitional divide: Structural change or Strategic Competition? Evidence from Euromanifestos (1979-2019)”.
16th Pan-European Conference on International Relations
Djamila Jabra, M.A. attended the sixteenth Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Potsdam from 5-9 September 2023.
As part of her PhD, she gave a presentation entitled: "The Securitization of Climate Change - The German Case".
General Conference European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
The European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) conference offers scholars across regional and national borders the opportunity to come together, present their research findings, exchange ideas with like-minded researchers and benefit from fascinating discussions and intense debates.
Dr Giuseppe Carteny attended the conference, which took place in Prague from 4-8 September 2023, and spoke on "Illiberal, authoritarian and 'inconsistent' democrats: A Cross-National Analysis of EU Citizens' Understanding of Democracy".
Annual Conference of the DVPW Working Group on European and Regional Studies (AKER)
On 25 and 26 May 2023, the annual conference of the DVPW Working Group on European and Regional Studies (AKER) took place at Saarland University. The conference was entitled "Regional Integration Projects: Current Developments and Limits of Integration".
As part of the conference, a panel discussion on "Current developments and limits of (European) Integration" took place on 25 May from 17:30-19h.
EPSA XIII 2023 Glasgow
Dr. Alex Hartland attended EPSA’s 13th annual conference which took place in Glasgow, Scotland from 22-24 June 2023. The conference consisted of a mix of world-leading political science research, engagement through professional events, roundtables, and networking functions, and a wide social programme.
ActEU Kick Off Meeting
The first meeting of all ACTEU partners took place on 28 March 2023 on the premises of the Fondation Universitaire in Brussels. TEPSA organised the internal meeting, at which both organisational and initial content-related topics were discussed. The kick-off was opened by Prof Dr Michael Kaeding (University of Duisburg-Essen/coordinator) and Prof Dr Daniela Braun (Saarland University, scientific director). Dr Alex Hartland from the chair team also took part.
Lecture on „Eurosceptic parties and their political implications"
On 1 and 2 March 2023, the conference Castle Talks on Narratives on Borders in Europe took place, organised by the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence and the Jean Monnet Chair.
Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun gave a lecture here on "Eurosceptic parties and their political implications".