PIDOP Conference 2012
- When?
- Monday 16 April 2012 to Tuesday 17 April 2012
- Where?
- University of Surrey
- Open to:
- Public, Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Professor Judith Torney-Purta, University of Maryland, USA Professor Bert Klandermans, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
POLITICAL AND CIVIC PARTICIPATION
2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference organised by the PIDOP Consortium in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Nationalism, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism (CRONEM), University of Surrey, UK
University of Surrey
16 -17 April, 2012
Call for Papers is now closed.
In many countries, conventional forms of political participation have declined in recent years, with growing levels of political apathy, disengagement from formal democratic processes and increasing distrust of, and lack of confidence in, political institutions. At the same time, however, research suggests that a shift is currently taking place among younger generations, with civic participation coming to be prioritised over more traditional forms of political participation. As a result, issues that might have mobilised individuals into taking political action in the past are now being tackled instead by many young people either via voluntary, community or charitable activities, or via consumer activism. Thus, it is possible that while traditional forms of political participation such as voting are currently in decline in many European countries, this trend may not be indicative of public disengagement per se but of a shift to a qualitatively different kind of public activism.
Existing research has established that macro-level historical, political and institutional factors are related to citizens’ political and civic participation within any given country (e.g., type of electoral system, historical longevity of democracy within the country, etc.), as are demographic factors (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, etc.) and social and psychological factors (e.g., social capital, levels of trust, neighbourhood attachment, political attentiveness, internal and external efficacy, etc.). However, at the present time, the processes through which these various factors inter-relate, and how macro-level and sociological factors interact and impact on the psychological factors are poorly understood.
This conference aims to take stock of the numerous factors which can impact on the different forms of citizen participation, will explore how political, sociological and psychological factors inter-relate, and will draw out implications for policies which have as their goal the enhancement of levels of political and civic participation.
The conference also aims to examine the factors and processes which impact on levels of participation among marginalised groups that are at risk of political disengagement due to age, gender, ethnicity or migration. For this reason, papers focusing on either young people, women, ethnic minorities or migrants are especially encouraged.
Hence, this conference seeks to provide an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussion and debate on:
- the different forms of political and civic participation which exist
- the factors and processes which enhance and/or hinder the different forms of participation
- forms and levels of participation within different national, ethnic and migrant groups
- forms and levels of political and civic participation among women
- forms and levels of political and civic participation by youth
- policy interventions which can be used to increase levels of political and civic participation within particular societal settings
This is the second international multidisciplinary conference organised by the PIDOP Consortium. For details of the first PIDOP conference held in Bologna, Italy, in May 2011, please see http://www.pidop.unibo.it/.
Important dates:
Notification of abstract acceptance: 27 January, 2012 Registration deadline: 29 February, 2012 Presentation submission: 16 March, 2012 Presentations may consist of either a summary (approximately 2000 words), a full written paper or Powerpoint slides (Pdf format). Presentations will be made available to conference delegates through a password protected web page in advance of the conference. We have allocated 20 minutes for each paper (15 minutes presentation and 5 minutes discussion). |
Registration page
Conference enquiries:
Ms Mirela Dumic
Confirmed keynote speakers
Professor Judith Torney-Purta
European Young People’s Civic Engagement in Cross National Perspective: Developmental Roots and Futures
Developmental psychology has a lot to offer to the study of civic or political attitudes and engagement among today’s young adults. Results from the IEA CIVED study, collected when this cohort was in adolescence, will be examined using the concept of the developmental niche for participatory citizenship. I will present average attitudes for about a dozen countries (including 7 from PIDOP); a person-centered analysis identifying clusters of adolescents; and differences by gender and by immigrant status in selected countries. I will also consider scenarios reducing civic exclusion.
Judith Torney-Purta is Professor of Human Development at the University of Maryland at College Park, USA. She has worked for many years on youth political socialization and civic engagement, and she led the highly influential IEA Civic Education Study in which data were collected from 90,000 14-year-old students in 28 countries, and 50,000 17- to 19-year-old students in 16 countries. She is the recipient of numerous honours and awards
Professor Bert Klandermans
Contextualizing Contestation: Movements, Organizers, and the Internet
Social psychology has a lot to offer to the study of protest. The presentation will first give an overview of past contributions. It will then continue to develop a social psychology of protest elaborating on motivation and emotion, and the process of mobilization. I will present new directions we are taking. I will illustrate my argument with examples of research I and my team has conducted.
Bert Klandermans is Professor in Applied Social Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The emphasis in his work is on the social psychological consequences of social, economic and political change. He has published extensively on the social psychology of participation in political protest, social movements and labor unions.
Conference Co-Chairs:
Prof Martyn Barrett, University of Surrey, UK
Prof Bruna Zani, University of Bologna, Italy
Organising Committee:
Prof Martyn Barrett, Prof Nick Emler, Dr Roberta Guerrina, Prof Rachel Brooks, Dr Tereza Capelos, Dr Ian Brunton-Smith, Rev Nicholas Walters, Dr Dimitra Pachi, Dr Christiano Bee, Dr David Garbin and Ms Mirela Dumic.
Scientific Committee:
Prof Erik Amnå (Örebro, Sweden); Prof Martyn Barrett (Surrey, UK); Prof Michel Born (Liège, Belgium); Prof Rachel Brooks (Brunel, UK); Dr Tereza Capelos (Surrey, UK); Prof Yvonne Galligan (Belfast, UK); Dr Roberta Guerrina (Surrey, UK); Prof Evanthia Lyons (Belfast, UK); Prof Petr Macek (Brno, Czech Republic); Prof Isabel Menezes (Porto, Portugal); Prof Peter Noack (Jena, Germany); Dr Tulin Sener (Ankara, Turkey); Prof Bruna Zani (Bologna, Italy).