PROIECTE DE CERCETARE IDC | IDC RESEARCH PROJECTS
Political Agendas in the Study of Political Science in Europe
2015-2016
Project contributing to the work of the Research Committee 33 (The Study of Political Science as a Discipline) of the International Political Science Association (IPSA)
This project aimed to identify to what extent significant moments for European politics or for the discipline as a profession in Europe are used for asking fundamental questions about the discipline and/or to push forward a consistent agenda for the study of political science.
For this purpose, it first investigated through both quantitative and qualitative methods the structure, themes and discursive features of English-language studies or articles that present the discipline of political science in a national or comparative context within Europe since the establishment of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in late 1940s. Next, it explored in these sources the potential argumentative patterns and trends over time and in relation with the establishment of other local (i.e. European or national) professional associations, as well as in relation with major political moments in the post-WWII history of Europe (ex. détente, end of the Cold War, EU enlargement etc.). This analysis made use of the recently created bibliographical database Global Study on the Development of Political Science (GSPS) of the IPSA RC33 to which it also contributed with a list of newly identified and historically relevant texts.
After completing this stage in mid-2016, the project further developed a methodology for periodic assessments of the political agenda in the study of political science, which could be replicated for other regional contexts and/or for a dynamic analysis of the evolution of the political agenda of the European political science.
A special attention was granted to the emergence within and around political science of sub-disciplines or interdisciplinary fields such as international relations (theory) and development studies, as well as to international cooperation initiatives in the area.
Research team
Luciana Alexandra GHICA (coord.)
Interns
Alexandra Francesca DUICĂ
Georgian Marius GHINCEA
Ionuț Mircea MARCU
The preliminary results of this project were presented in
Luciana Alexandra GHICA (2016) “Discursive Patterns and Political Agendas in the Representation of the Profession and Study of Political Science in Europe (1945-2015)”. 24th World Congress of Political Science of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Poznan (Poland), 23-28 July 2016.
