The 4th quarterly newsletter of the ECPR Standing Group on Methods of Normative Political Theory
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On behalf of the Standing Group on Methods of Normative Political Theory, we are happy to announce that the quarterly newsletter of the Methods of Normative Political Theory will appear at the beginning of March, June, September, and December. The newsletters will remain accessible on the standing group’s website. We are happy to receive your updates regarding new publications, calls for proposals, events, Summer / Winter PhD Courses and job advertisements pertaining to methods of political theory by email to normativepolsmethods@gmail.com.
Our Best Wishes for 2024!
At this time of year I read a lot of newsletters. Our department goes from strength to strength! Our university has never been more relevant! The pupils at our school shine like never before! Or, alternatively: Wheelie-bin collection day might or might not change in your post-code from January – do check whether you’re in a yellow, orange, or purple area. Oh the excitement. In our case though it’s different. We’re still, amongst other things, very new. So, yes, going from strength to strength, but also still happily youthful. Full of clever minds, but happily pluralistic, open-facing, conversational, creative, curious, and constantly active. You’ll see some of that activity detailed below, past and future, but I encourage those who have not yet been part of our events, in person, to read between the lines. Our events – our joint-sessions, our conference sections, and our one-off workshops – are seriously busy, dynamic, and, dare I say it, often rather fun. Here then is your resolution for 2024: Don’t just read and write about methodology in political theory – come and talk about it, in person, with the rest of us. You won’t regret it.
Jonathan Floyd
Past Academic Events
ECPR Summer School in Research Methods and Techniques (online)
24 July-11 August 2023
Information and Registration: https://ecpr.eu/SummerSchool
PhD Course: “Discrimination – The Concept of Discrimination, Wrongness-Accounts, and Experimental Method.”
Aarhus University, 2-4 August 2023.
Summer School of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Parties
University of Duisburg-Essen, 21-26 August 2023.
Upcoming Academic Events
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops 2024
25-28 March 2024
Leuphana University, Lüneburg
This year, Standing Group endorsed the workshop proposal “Critical Methods in the Face of Crisis – Analytical and Critical Political Theory in Dialogue”, of Svenja Ahlhaus (University of Münster) and Janosch Prinz (Maastricht University). The workshop thematically focuses on the methods of critique in analytical and critical political theories in times of crises. Crises, such as of climate and democratic representation, have led to renewed interest in critique across different traditions of inquiry. However, political theorists have thus far failed to grapple sufficiently with these current crises. This failure points to the need to develop critical methods tailored to these particular circumstances. The goal of this Joint Sessions workshop is to develop critical methods suited to address the current crises by taking the exchange between analytical political theorists and critical theorists and their respective methods of critique to a new level. The workshop has received more than 30 paper proposals. To know more about the workshop program please click here.
ECPR General Conference
12-15 August 2024
University College Dublin, Ireland
Call for Paper Proposals for the ECPR General Conference Section
(Submission Deadline: 18 Jan. 2024—Before Midnight UK Time)
The 2024 ECPR general conference in Dublin, will take place this August. The section proposal “Methods on Normative Political Theory”, endorsed by the standing group, has successfully found its place in the program. Section chairs, Simon Stevens (De Montfort University) and Esma Baycan-Herzog (University of Geneva) proposed 7 different thematic panels exploring methodological topics on experimental methods, public political philosophy, political theory and other disciplines, fictional narratives and storytelling, general vs theme-specific methodologies and more. Simon and Esma are currently seeking to receive paper proposals. The submission period starts by 6 December. Paper proposals must be submitted online in English, before 18 January 2024, midnight UK time. To know more about how to submit your paper proposals please see the guidelines here. To submit your paper proposal please click here.
Recent publications
Dumitru. S. 2023. “The ethics of immigration: How biased is the field?”, Migration Studies, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 1–22, (Open access)
Kaminitz, S. C. 2023. “Political theory in social progress indices: the mutual benefits of theory and practice”. Political Research Exchange, 5(1), 2284759.
Perez, N. 2023. Worldly Politics and Divine Institutions: Contemporary Entanglements of Faith and Government. Oxford University Press.
von Negenborn. C. 2023. “Das Spiel Des Lebens: Zur Möglichkeit Einer Physiozentrischen Erweiterung Der Spieltheorie’. Studia Philosophica, pp. 66–79 (Open access)
Editorial Team
Ilkin Huseynli is a doctoral candidate in political philosophy at the University of Milan under the supervision of Ian Carter and Nicola Riva. His thesis focuses on social freedom and investigates if the concept of interpersonal freedom is normatively relevant. Ilkin responds positively and aims at articulating why this is so, as well as in what ways this relevance can be understood. His works have appeared in The Pluralist, Journal of Political Power, and edited volumes by Springer and Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles.
Esma Baycan-Herzog is a Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of Geneva and an affiliated member of the Swiss consortium of research NCCR—On the Move. In spring semester 2024, she will be visiting Chaire Hoover, Université Catholique de Louvain as an honorary fellow. Her research interests include ethics and politics of migration; political theory methodology; multiculturalism; ethics of digital societies; (sub-state) nationalism; legitimacy of international institutions and experimental political theory. Her current and future editorial experience includes special issues in journals such as Ethnicities and Ethics and Global Politics. Her extant and future publications found their home at venues in journals such as Ethnicities, Danish Yearbook of Philosophy, Ethical Perspectives, as well as contributions to edited volumes published by Brill, Nomos and ECPR Press.
Edmund Handby is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Political Science at Duke University. His research examines methodological questions in the history of political thought, empirically informed political theory, and politics, philosophy, and economics. His work has appeared in The Journal of Politics and The Journal of the Philosophy of History. He has also guest-edited a special issue on Jonathan Floyd’s ‘Is Political Philosophy Impossible’, out in Political Studies Review.
