List of the workshops 2026
Below, we provide a list of the workshops available at the Annual Political Science Workshops of the Low Countries 2026 in Ghent. You can submit your paper here.
| - #1 Electoral Behaviour in Times of Political Change: Theoretical Explanations and (Early) Empirical Evidence |
| - #2 Local Politics in the Netherlands and Flanders: What’s next? |
| - #3 Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps: Gender, Challenges and Transformations in Democratic Representation |
| - #4 Conflict and Peace in a Turbulent World Order |
| - #5 Geoeconomics and Economic Statecraft: Researching the Drivers, Consequences, and Institutional Implications |
| - #6 Rethinking democratic authority: citizens, experts, and the transformation of representative politics |
| - #7 Rethinking Lobbying: Who gets represented, when, and how |
| - #8 Across levels and borders: multilevel and transnational politics in Europe |
| - #9 Place and politics |
| - #10 The contested role of civil society in Western Europe |
| - #11 Political polarization |
| - #12 International Organisations in Turbulent Times: Politics, Reform, and Public Authority |
| - #13 Political economy of the green transition |
| - #14 Current Perspectives on Social Group Identities in Politics |
| - #15 Rethinking the international: Methodological and Theoretical Innovations in IPS |
| - #16 On ethnicized minorities: political engagement, gender and intersectionality |
| - #17 Public Support for Democracy, its Norms, and its Institutions: 50 years after Easton and the Trilateral Commission report |
A more detailed abstract describing each workshop is provided below.
#1 Electoral Behaviour in Times of Political Change: Theoretical Explanations and (Early) Empirical Evidence
Chairs:
Amber Voets, KU Leuven
Sarah de Lange, Leiden University
Chloé De Grauwe, KU Leuven
Abstract:
Across Europe, electoral landscapes are undergoing profound transformations. Established party loyalties have weakened, new political actors have entered the stage, and radical or populist parties have gained unprecedented momentum. These developments invite scholars to rethink the factors that determine citizens’ vote choices and the mechanisms behind them. Moreover, times of heightened volatility across Europe underscore the need to examine how specific factors, such as political (dis)trust, affective and factual belief polarisation, and orientations toward authority, influence changes in electoral preferences.
This panel seeks to bring together recent empirical and theoretical work on electoral behaviour. We invite contributions employing a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research are equally welcome. The panel provides a platform for discussing new empirical evidence, theoretical advances, and methodological innovation in the study of electoral behaviour. Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:
• Determinants of vote choice
• Dealignment and realignment
• Electoral volatility and consequences of changing voting patterns
• The appeal of challenger/niche/populist/radical parties.
• Empirical insights from the most recent Dutch and Belgian elections
By bringing together diverse approaches and timely evidence, this panel aims to advance our understanding of how and why voters respond to rapid political change. The goal is to foster dialogue across theoretical and methodological boundaries, linking early findings from ongoing elections to long-term patterns of electoral behaviour. In doing so, this panel contributes to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of democratic responsiveness and the forces reshaping political representation today.
Language:
English AND Dutch
#2 Local Politics in the Netherlands and Flanders: What’s next?
Chairs:
Dr. P.G. Castenmiller, Leiden University
Prof. dr. Herwig Reynaert, Ghent University
Abstract:
Local government in the Netherlands and Flanders will always have to deal with some turmoil. But there are also specific circumstances that can lead to unexpected upheavals. The ‘PoliticologenEtmaal 2026’ takes place shortly after the elections for the municipal councils in the Netherlands. The political landscape will have been shaken up, but whether this will lead to different local policies is not yet clear. In Flanders, the local elections took place two years ago. Perhaps there are already more signs of change there. So, there is always plenty to discuss during what is now the longest-running workshop at the PoliticologenEtmaal. This year, the workshop on local politics will once again provide a platform for exchanging ideas on many aspects of local government. Peter Castenmiller (PBLQ/Leiden University/VU) and Herwig Reynaert (Ghent University) will organize this workshop. The workshop is the meeting place for all political scientists in the Netherlands and Flanders who are involved in local government. Our approach implies that all kinds of contributions on local politics and governance are more than welcome. After all, the essential goal of our workshop is to offer every political scientist involved in local government a platform where knowledge, experiences, and insights can be exchanged. In addition, we are happy to offer the opportunity to foster personal relationships.
Language:
English AND Dutch
#3 Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps: Gender, Challenges and Transformations in Democratic Representation
Chairs:
Lisa Miller, Ghent University
Merel Fieremans, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Lisa Miller, Ghent University
Elise Storme, Ghent University
Anne Van Bavel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Abstract:
Now in its third edition, the Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps workshop continues to examine the dynamics of gender and political representation in democratic processes. Building on the insights of the previous two editions, this workshop seeks to deepen empirical and theoretical understanding of both the persistence of inequalities and the drivers of progress toward inclusion.
While gender equality has gained prominence in democratic discourse, recent years have also witnessed growing pushbacks against inclusive reforms. This workshop aims to critically explore both dimensions: the persistence of structural and cultural obstacles to women’s political empowerment, and the strategies, innovations, and movements that successfully challenge them. We invite contributions that interrogate institutional, societal, and transnational factors shaping gendered political participation and representation.
Particular attention will be devoted to the interplay between gender and other axes of inequality such as ethnicity, class, sexuality, and migration background. By embracing an intersectional lens, we aim to capture the complexity of representation and highlight the diverse pathways through which women enter, navigate, and transform political spaces.
As with previous editions, methodological pluralism remains central to our approach. We welcome quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research, as well as comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives that connect empirical evidence with theoretical innovation. Contributions focusing on policy interventions, advocacy, and the translation of academic insights into practice are especially encouraged.
Our workshop remains grounded in collaboration and inclusivity. We invite scholars at all career stages, as well as practitioners and policymakers, to engage in a vibrant exchange of ideas aimed at bridging research and real-world impact. Through these discussions, Breaking Barriers, Bridging Gaps seeks to consolidate emerging research on gender and political representation, enhance cross-national and interdisciplinary collaboration, and identify concrete strategies for strengthening equality within democratic institutions.
Language:
English
#4 Conflict and Peace in a Turbulent World Order
Chairs:
Niels Terpstra, Radboud University Nijmegen
Merel Selleslach, Vlaams Vredesinstituut Brussel
Abstract:
Conflict and peace remain deeply contested concepts. Negative peace typically refers to the absence of direct physical violence, while positive peace encompasses the absence of structural and cultural violence. Yet as the global order undergoes profound transformation, these familiar categories increasingly lack conceptual, theoretical, and practical clarity. In a world of emerging multipolarity, where the rule-based international system faces growing strain and the post-World War II United Nations framework shows signs of erosion, the drivers of both negative and positive peace may be shifting in new and uneven ways. While these changes affect the whole world, the security implications significantly vary across regions, countries, and societies. This workshop explores how the current turbulent world order shapes the dynamics of armed conflict, conflict resolution, (international) security and peace, in Europe but also beyond. We invite contributions that investigate these relationships conceptually or empirically, using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods, and welcome contributions with different geographical foci. The workshop aims to foster dialogue across theoretical traditions and methodological approaches to better understand patterns of violence and examine shifting drivers of peace in a rapidly changing world order.
Language:
English
#5 Geoeconomics and Economic Statecraft: Researching the Drivers, Consequences, and Institutional Implications
Chairs:
Dawid Walentek, Ghent University
Sjorre Couvreur, Royal Military Academy
Nick Houttekier, Royal Military Academy
Yuleng Zeng, University of Groningen
Thomas Conzelmann, Maastricht University
Adam Tyler, VU Amsterdam
Abstract:
Economic instruments such as trade and industrial policy are increasingly used as tools of power in international relations. Economic statecraft through sanctions, export controls and tariffs has become a routine feature of global politics, employed not only against strategic rivals but also against allies. One of the actors at the centre of this shift is the European Union. Deeply embedded in global markets and long associated with economic openness, the EU is said to have undergone a geoeconomic turn by emphasizing strategic autonomy and resilience, and creating a new geoeconomic toolbox.
Economic interactions are no longer treated primarily as sources of efficiency and welfare gains, but increasingly as geopolitical instruments. As a result, the rise of geoeconomics and economic statecraft reshapes international relations and market dynamics. Yet, while the expanding literature has generated valuable insights, important gaps remain. Specifically for the EU, it is unclear whether the geoeconomic turn truly represents a historical rupture, and how the turn would affect internal cohesion and external relations with the Global South. In addition, while the causes of the recent surge in economic statecraft have increasingly been studied, there is no consensus on its consequences for individuals and firms.
Therefore, the workshop invites contributions that address three broad sets of questions. First, what drives the unprecedented rise in the use of economic statecraft and geoeconomic instruments and what are its consequences? Submissions may examine systemic, domestic or institutional drivers and consequences. Second, how does the growing reliance on economic statecraft reshape relations between states, firms and individuals? We welcome research on how the increase in economic statecraft reshapes state-firm relations, and how firms and individuals are affected by, respond to, or shape geoeconomic policies. Third, how does economic statecraft transform the internal and external relations of the European Union? Contributions may analyse how geoeconomic policies alter relations among member states and the functioning of the internal market, as well as with partner countries with growing agency, for example in the Global South. We also welcome critical approaches that place contemporary development in a historical perspective.
Language:
English
#6 Rethinking democratic authority: citizens, experts, and the transformation of representative politics
Chairs:
Stefanie Beyens, Utrecht University
Janne Ingelbeen, Ghent University
Emilien Paulis, University of Luxembourg
David Talukder, VUB
Take Sipma, Tilburg University
Abstract:
Across contemporary democracies, traditional models of political representation are increasingly complemented, challenged, and reshaped by two parallel developments: the rise of democratic innovations involving citizens directly in decision-making (e.g. citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting, digital participation) and the growing prominence of experts and scientific knowledge in policymaking (ranging from evidence-based policy-making to technocratic ministers). While these dynamics are often studied separately, both raise fundamentally similar questions about democratic authority, legitimacy, accountability, and trust.
This workshop brings together scholarship on democratic innovations and technocratic or expert-informed governance to explore how citizens, politicians, and experts jointly shape contemporary democratic practice. Recent experiences—from deliberative mini-publics and institutionalised participation to crisis governance during the Covid-19 pandemic and climate policymaking—illustrate how political systems increasingly rely on hybrid configurations of participation and expertise. These evolutions invite renewed reflection on who should participate in decision-making, on what grounds, and with what consequences for democratic legitimacy.
We invite contributions that examine these issues from political science, public administration, sociology, communication studies, and related fields. Submissions may be theoretical or empirical and may focus on any governance level (local, national, supranational). We of course also welcome research on Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
· Democratic innovations and their interaction with expert knowledge
· Citizens’ perceptions of expert authority and participatory processes
· The legitimacy of expert-informed and citizen-inclusive policymaking
· Politicisation of science and scientification of politics
· Actors’ (politicians, civil servants, experts) perceptions of and experience with hybrid governance arrangements
· Implications for trust, representation, accountability, and democratic quality
By connecting research on participation and expertise, the workshop aims to foster dialogue across subfields and contribute to a more integrated understanding of evolving democratic governance.
Language:
English
#7 Rethinking Lobbying: Who gets represented, when, and how
Chairs:
Susanna Eiselt, Maastricht University
Sandra Martinez-Böhme, Maastricht University
Evelien Willems, University of Antwerp
Abstract:
Interest groups and their lobbyists play a vital role in political decision-making. Unlike political parties, they do not compete in elections. However, they consistently claim to represent a wide range of societal interests, from narrowly defined constituencies to broad public causes.
Interest groups vary in their organizational capacities, internal democratic structures, and accountability mechanisms. Simultaneously, the individuals within these organizations—professional lobbyists, volunteers, activists—bring their own motivations, identities, values, and career paths into lobby work. Together, these organizational and individual dynamics shape who interest groups and lobbyists (claim to) represent, who feels represented by them, and how access to policymakers and policy influence are achieved.
This workshop welcomes contributions that advance theories of interest groups and lobbying, especially those engaging with the field’s emerging view of lobbying as more than just a rational, expertise-driven exchange of information, but also as a practice rooted in organizational and individual social dynamics. We particularly encourage submissions that address (one of) the following themes:
1.Representation, accountability, and legitimacy
We invite research on how interest groups and lobbyists define their constituencies and claim to speak on their behalf. This theme also covers the organizational conditions that shape representative capacity and accountability, and how citizens, policymakers, and organizational members evaluate the legitimacy of lobbying.
2.Individual and organizational dynamics of access and influence
This theme focuses on how lobbyists’ backgrounds, identities, and career paths shape their advocacy and ties to policymakers. It also includes work examining how organizational resources, strategies, and structures condition political access and influence across the policy process.
3.Representation of disadvantaged groups
We welcome contributions analyzing how interest groups and lobbyists (fail to) represent women, LGBT+ people, ethnic minorities, low-income, and other disadvantaged constituencies. This theme also addresses barriers to access and influence, and strategies to reduce intersectional inequalities in political representation.
We invite conceptual and empirical submissions from scholars at all career stages (students, PhDs, and senior researchers) who use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods and theoretical approaches.
Language:
English
#8 Across levels and borders: multilevel and transnational politics in Europe
Chairs:
Gilles Pittoors, KU Leuven
Ward Maréchal, Ghent University
Alexander Verdoes, Universitetet i Bergen
Abstract:
This workshop explores how political processes and democratic governance in Europe unfold across multiple levels of government - from subnational arenas to national and supranational settings - and how these levels interact in shaping political behaviour, institutions, and policy outcomes. The growing complexity of multilevel governance, driven by decentralisation, federalisation, European integration and transnational interdependence, raises fundamental questions about authority, representation, accountability, and coordination. Ongoing transboundary crises and geopolitical challenges have further exposed the importance of understanding how political conflicts and policy ideas diffuse across levels, and how processes, institutions and actors at different levels influence one another.
We invite contributions that analyse the functioning of multilevel democracy in Europe from any theoretical or methodological perspective. Relevant topics include political participation, attitudes toward different levels of government, electoral behaviour across tiers, party competition and organisation in multilevel systems, government formation and executive-legislative dynamics, policy development and implementation, and cross-border or transnational political linkages. We particularly welcome research that bridges subnational, national, and EU perspectives; compares dynamics across territorial levels; or offers new conceptual or methodological tools for understanding Europe as a multilevel political system.
Language:
English AND Dutch
#9 Place and politics
Chairs:
Eline Westbeek, Wageningen University & Research
Lien Smets, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Abstract:
Place has become of renewed relevance as a political fault line. Across the world, we see a rejuvenation of the urban-rural divide in politics with support for radical right parties centred in non-urban areas. Politicising the urban-rural divide seems to have been a successful strategy for the Farmer-Citizen Movement in the Netherlands, and in Belgium, the federal state structure harbours tensions between regions, language groups, and people’s identities. Researchers have explained the success of populist parties as a revenge from ‘places that don’t matter’: areas where inhabitants feel economically deprived (McCann, 2020) and neglected by their governments (Rodríguez-Pose, 2018). Place of living also correlates with political attitudes, such as political (dis)trust (Kenny & Luca, 2021), anti-immigrant sentiments (Czaika & Di Lillo, 2018), and anti-EU attitudes (Dijkstra et al., 2020).
Next to the geographical perspective, scholars have made efforts to understand the link between place and politics from a psychological and sociocultural perspective. A strong place-based identity in general correlates with opposition to globalisation (Teney, 2014), the likelihood of experiencing regional resentment (De Lange et al., 2023), and with voting for the populist radical right (Fitzgerald, 2018). The strength of place identities was employed to explain the victory of Trump in 2016 (Cramer, 2016). Bolet (2023) poses that it is the perceived threat to citizen’s local identity that drives the connection between economic deprivation and voting for the radical right.
All in all, place is an influential factor for political attitudes and behaviour across democracies. At the same time, the exact connection between place and politics remains ambiguous. How exactly does place shape social identities? Through which mechanisms does one’s place-based identity relate to political attitudes and voting behaviour? And what role do (political) actors play in politicising place? To understand contemporary politics and in specific the success of the populist radical right, we need to investigate these and related questions. That is the aim of this workshop. We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions from various perspectives, including party politics, economics, political and social geography, and political psychology, with both qualitative and quantitative methodology.
Language:
English
#10 The contested role of civil society in Western Europe
Chairs:
Niko Vandebos, Ghent University
Janneke Drent, University of Antwerp
Lucas Remue, Ghent University
Abstract:
Civil society actors have long been recognized as intermediaries between citizens and governments. On the one hand, they may serve as “school of democracy”, fostering processes of community-building and social cohesion, and promoting advocacy and public participation. On the other hand, civil society can also crucially serve as a “democratic watchdog” that can monitors government decision-making, advocates for the interests of marginalized or otherwise underrepresented social groups, and promotes transparency and accountability. The growing importance of online and transnational networks, too, has created space for new innovations.
At the same time, however, civil society is both under constant pressure to reinvent itself and is increasingly contested. Even in (supposedly) democratic societies, civil society actors have become subject to scrutinization or even delegitimization. Examples of this shrinking (or contested) space for civil society include funding cuts, right-wing political targeting, criminalization of civil society organizations (CSOs) and social movements, restrictions on the right to protest, and so on.
In turn, these processes pose new challenges and research avenues for those working on the role of civil society as a fundamental pillar of healthy democracies. Asking questions, such as: How do various civil society actors deal with and adapt to this evolving context? How can we understand the ever vital yet progressively more restrained role of civil society as a sphere of democratization? What happens when these actors are increasingly scrutinized and delegitimized? And which innovative strategies can civil society develop to withstand these external pressures (cf. alternative funding, coalition building, ...)?
We welcome theoretical, conceptual and empirical contributions studying civil society in the broadest sense, including submissions from various disciplines (e.g. political science, sociology, public administration, etc.). We invite scholars at all stages of their career, from early career to senior academics, to take part!
Accepting papers in both Dutch and English, this panel aims to cover a broad range of topics, such as:
· Civil society strategies in a changing world (e.g. coalition building, innovative or changing action forms, funding...)
· The right to protest and the (potential) chilling effect on civil society action
· The depoliticization and political governance of civil society
· The criminalization of social movements and growing police intervention
· The evolving relationship between civil society and public institutions and/or political parties
Language:
English AND Dutch
#11 Political polarization
Chairs:
Eelco Harteveld, University of Amsterdam
Jochem Vanagt, KU Leuven
Abstract:
In the past decade, political polarization has become a central concern in contemporary democratic politics. Commonly understood as deepening divides between citizens, groups, or elites over ideology, identity, or facts, polarization takes many forms and has consequences that extend well beyond electoral competition. It has the potential to profoundly impact the functioning of democratic norms and institutions and the social cohesion of societies. While conflict is intrinsic to democracy, political science and related disciplines are increasingly obtaining a better understanding of when and how particular forms of polarization may become corrosive. Recently, the field has also started to appreciate the way in which (forms of) polarization can play a constructive role in democracies.
This workshop invites scholars studying political polarization and related phenomena, both from a mass and elite perspective. We welcome research on affective, ideological, and factual belief polarization, but also encourage contributions that challenge conventional conceptualizations, methods, or case selections. This includes innovative measurement strategies, mixed or qualitative methods, experimental and computational approaches, and research situated outside the frequently studied US and Western European contexts. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.
Language:
English AND Dutch
#12 International Organisations in Turbulent Times: Politics, Reform, and Public Authority
Chairs:
Saliha Metinsoy, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Valerie de Koeijer, Leiden University
Abstract:
International organisations (IOs) are central to global governance, yet they increasingly operate under conditions of contestation and uncertainty. This workshop examines the political dynamics that shape how IOs exercise authority, make decisions, and respond to external demands from states, civil society, and other global actors. As geopolitical rivalries intensify, democratic norms erode in some member states, and global challenges become more complex, IOs face rising expectations alongside heightened scrutiny.
We invite contributions that explore both the internal and external politics of IOs. Externally, states use IOs to pursue strategic goals, negotiate power, and promote or resist institutional change. Internally, bureaucratic behaviour, leadership choices, organisational cultures, and professional norms influence how IOs interpret their mandates and implement policies. These dynamics affect the legitimacy, effectiveness, and resilience of international institutions.
The workshop welcomes theoretical, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. Relevant themes include:
- Power asymmetries, influence, and state strategies in IOs
- Legitimacy, accountability, and public attitudes toward IOs
- Contestation by member states, civil society, or private actors
- IO adaptation, reform processes, and organisational learning
- Gender, diversity, and inclusion in global governance
- Conditionality, policy advice, and the political economy of IO interventions
- Crisis response and IO behaviour under external shocks
- Cooperation, coordination, and competition across multiple IOs
We particularly encourage research that links institutional design with real-world political behaviour, or that employs innovative empirical approaches such as experiments, text analysis, or novel datasets.
The workshop aims to foster dialogue among scholars at all career stages, providing a supportive space for feedback and collaboration. Papers at any stage of development are welcome. By bringing together diverse perspectives and cases, the workshop seeks to deepen our understanding of how international organisations govern—and are governed—in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Language:
English
#13 Political economy of the green transition
Chairs:
Mattias Vermeiren, Ghent University
Ferdi De Ville, Ghent University
Mathieu Blondeel, VU Amsterdam
Abstract:
This workshop invites research papers by political scientists and political economists that interrogate how the green transition reconfigures interests, ideas, institutions and power within and across advanced and emerging economies. Far from a purely technocratic shift, the green transition redistributes welfare and power, reshapes coalitions, and tests legitimacy and resilience of domestic and international economic governance. We invite papers that theorize and empirically assess these processes through comparative and international political economy lenses.
The workshop foregrounds three analytic axes: (1) distributional conflict and coalition formation: who wins and who loses from green transition policy choices, and how compensation, side‑payments, or just‑transition schemes are developed to construct winning coalitions; (2) institutional complementarities and varieties of capitalism: how production regimes, finance, labor relations, and party systems determine policy mixes; and (3) international and transnational political economy: the interaction of domestic strategies with international finance, trade and climate regimes. Contributors may explore topics such as the role of central banks, development banks, and private finance; variation in green industrial policy choices; state capacity and strategic investment; and the politics of ideas and expertise.
We seek submissions that offer theoretical innovation, strong empirical leverage, or novel data sources. By situating the green transition within the core concerns of political economy - power, (re)distribution, and institutional change - this workshop advances a research agenda that explains not only to what extent economies decarbonize, but how and for whom the transition proceeds.
Language:
English
#14 Current Perspectives on Social Group Identities in Politics
Chairs:
Jasmien Luypaert, UGent
Ruth Dassonneville, KULeuven
Joshua Robison, Leiden University
Abstract:
The role of social groups in politics has regained prominence in scholarly debates, reflecting growing interest in identity politics and its implications for democratic representation. This workshop brings together researchers interested in the intersection of group identities and political behavior, offering a platform to discuss cutting-edge work from two complementary perspectives: supply and demand.
On the supply side, this workshop invites scholars examining how and why political actors strategically incorporate group appeals into various types of communication, such manifestos, speeches, parliamentary activity, and/or social media platforms. This approach can be either inductive where there is a constructivist role for parties in the construction of social groups, or deductive, where parties focus on existing social groups. On the demand side, we explore how voters’ different identities shape political preferences, political behavior and evaluations of different forms of representation.
The workshop also addresses the interplay between supply and demand. Themes that can be discussed here are, amongst others: What are the consequences of parties’ use of group appeals for these social groups? How do group appeals interact with other political strategies, such as policy blurring or issue framing? What outcomes do they produce in terms of representation, polarization, and patterns of political behavior? By bridging these perspectives, we aim to advance understanding of the dynamic relationship between political actors and citizens in increasingly diverse societies.
We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions, and qualitative and quantitative research.
Language:
English
#15 Rethinking the international: Methodological and Theoretical Innovations in IPS
Chairs:
Laura Luciani, Ghent University
Zeger Verleye, Utrecht University
Marie Kwon, Université de Liège
Nicolas Gäckle, University of Groningen
Abstract:
As a transdisciplinary approach to the study of International Relations (IR), International Political Sociology (IPS) offers alternative lenses to understand global politics and transnational relations through a wide range of analytical perspectives and research strategies. By unsettling conventional IR categories such as the domestic/international divide, high/low politics, or rationalist/constructivist approaches, IPS foregrounds the power dynamics that shape entangled political spaces and their outcomes.
This workshop invites scholars, specifically those based in Belgium and the Netherlands, to rethink the international by exploring methodological and theoretical innovations that expand, challenge or reconfigure IPS. IPS has long drawn on insights from sociology, anthropology, geography, history and related disciplines, as well as on conceptual traditions including deconstruction, Foucauldian and Bourdieusian approaches, postcolonial and decolonial thought, queer and feminist theory, assemblage and materiality theory, Deleuzian perspectives and critical race theory.
Building on this diversity, we encourage contributions that critically interrogate IPS’ own assumptions and categories by bringing in alternative frameworks or boundary-pushing work in other disciplines. We particularly welcome papers that experiment with methods (ethnography, visual and digital methods, participatory approaches….) and that expand empirical horizons by engaging with unconventional sites, actors and practices of the international. The workshop seeks to create a space for researchers in this transdisciplinary field to explore new avenues for what IPS can study, how it can study it, and how the international itself may be rethought.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
• Migration, mobilities and borders
• Postcolonial and decolonial thought
• (In-)Security and surveillance practices
• Technologies of governance
• Science and Technology Studies, data practices
• Socio-legal, critical legal studies approaches
• Queer, trans, and feminist theory
• Politics of emotions
• Citizenship and sovereignty
• Social mobilizations
• Environmental challenges and planetary politics
• Expertise circulation and knowledge production
• Fieldwork methodologies
The workshop is supported by the Belgian and Dutch teams of the Doing IPS international hub.
Language:
English
#16 On ethnicized minorities: political engagement, gender and intersectionality
Chairs:
Samira Azabar, Radboud University
Niels Spierings, Radboud University
Floris Vermeulen, University of Amsterdam/University Twente
Abstract:
One cannot understand current politics without a proper understanding of the roles played by ethnicized minority political actors, as well as their anti-migrant counterparts. Despite an expanding knowledge base on ethnicized minority participation and voting behavior, an ever-changing context continues to raise new questions. This workshop aims to explore research linked to debates on Islamophobia, the rise of radical right parties, intersectionality and/or minorities’ resistance, all while foregrounding the complex and situated agency of ethnicized minorities in shaping political narratives. What explains ethnicized minorities’ political choices (for instance religiosity, Islamophobia, gender)? Do minority candidates play a distinct role in the political arena? What are the prevailing threats in anti-migration politics? And, how do intersecting power dynamics, i.e., ethnicity/race, religion, class and/or gender shape minorities’ mobilization?
Second, not only has ethnicized minorities’ political participation been scrutinized, but also the complex divergent and dynamic views on gender and sexuality that challenge the Orientalist constructions of a homogenous patriarchal Muslim community. What explains Muslims’ attitudes towards gender and sexuality? How are topics related to gender and sexuality mobilized in constructing ‘the Muslim Other’, and how do these framings reproduce inequality structures?
This workshop focuses on the contemporary role of ethnicized minorities in the political arena in relation to public anxieties about a supposedly threatened national identity. This workshop aims to foster a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities that shape the political landscape for minoritized communities in the Low Countries.
Among others, we welcome (theoretical, overview, qualitative, quantitative or mixed method) papers focusing on:
• the political participation and representation of ethnicized minorities
• the political belonging of minorities
• the influence of racist, anti-migration and anti-Islam politics on the mobilization of ethnicized minorities, and vice versa;
• ethnicized minorities’ views on gender equality or sexuality, and explanations hereof;
• the ways in which the intersections of ethnicity, religion and gender shape the political behavior and gender attitudes of ethno-religious minorities;
• the impact of radical right discourses on minorities’ belonging in western countries
Language:
English AND Dutch
#17 Public Support for Democracy, its Norms, and its Institutions: 50 years after Easton and the Trilateral Commission report
Chairs:
Tom van der Meer, University of Amsterdam
Silke Goubin, KU Leuven
Linde Stals, KU Leuven
Abstract:
1975 saw the publication of two seminal works on public support for democracy. Easton elaborated on his conceptual framework of diffuse and specific support. Crozier, Huntington & Watanuki argued that the global West was facing a deep crisis of democratic support.
Since the 1970s the field of political support has made major progress. Yet, although it largely follows the 50 year old framework, specialization led to distinct lines of research for, a.o., support for democratic norms and trust in its institutions. This workshop brings together conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions from each stream that help reintegrate the literature.
This workshop has multiple aims. First, to bring about a dialogue between research on support for democracy, democratic norms, and trust in democratic institutions. Second, to integrate increasingly divergent lines of inquiry. And third, to offer a reassessment of the influential works of 1975 and where we stand as a field (and as a world) 50 years later.
The most recent systematic reassessment of these works took place in the mid to late 1990s (Klingemann & Fuchs 1995; Kaase & Newton 1995; Norris 1999). Their conclusion was that democracy had not broken down under the stress of moderate public support induced theoretical innovations. Now, after more than a decade of democratic erosion even in former bulwarks of democracy (Nord 2025), it is time to take stock again.
Therefore, this workshop invites conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions on support for democracy, its norms, and its institutions. We are particularly interested in papers that actively build on the seminal works from 1975 (on any of the aspects of political support in isolation), as well as papers that attempt to link distinct literatures. To what extent does the distinction between diffuse and specific modes of political support contribute to our understanding, conceptually or empirically? To what extent can we speak of a crisis of support for democracy or its institutions, and how best to understand it? And to what extent do traditional measures of public support suffice to understand the state of democracy?
This workshop explicitly invites conceptual papers on public support for democracy, its norms, and its institutions (and especially their interactions); methodological papers on conventional and new ways to measure public support; as well survey-based or experimental contributions that offer novel thick descriptions and/or explanatory models.
Language:
English