Annual Report 2008
We convened a panel at the PSA Annual Conference in Swansea in April 2008 on ‘German Democracy and Security in the 21st Century’. Prof. Joyce Mushaben from the University of Missouri-St.Louis was our overseas guest speaker at this event.
We held our annual workshop at the Akademie fuer Politische Bildung, Tutzing, Germany, in September 2008; ‘Conflict and Consensus: German Politics and Society in Transition’.
We submitted a bid for a joint specialist group conference to the PSA special activities competition in order to hold a conference on ‘The Changing Constellation of the Enlarging EU’. The bid was successful and this event took place in January 2009 at the University of Durham.
We regularly publicise and report on our activities in the PSA Newsletter.
We have recruited more members.
Annual Report 2007
Report of Activities and Events
- We convened one panel at the PSA Annual Conference in Bath in April 2007; ‘German Politics under the Grand Coalition’.
- We held our annual workshop at Durham University in September 2007; ‘Germany in a Changing Europe’.
- We were invited by the Italian SG to participate in a joint bid (to include also the French SG) to the PSA special activities competition. The bid was successful and the conference entitled ‘The Lisbon Treaty and the Future of the European Union took place in Glasgow in December 2007.
- We also successfully participated in the PSA’s Guest Speaker competition and have invited Prof. Joyce Mushaben from the University of Missouri-St. Louis to present a paper on our panel ‘German Democracy and Security in the 21st Century’ at the PSA conference in Swansea in April 2008.
- We regularly publicise and report on our activities in the PSA Newsletter.
- We have recruited more members.
2007 News from the Group (published in the PSA Newsletter)
The German Politics Specialist Group has had an active year so far and this trend is likely to continue. At the annual conference in Bath, 11-13 April, the Group convened a panel on ‘German Politics under the Grand Coalition’. Speakers included Thomas Saalfeld, Christian Schweiger and Lothar Funk. The panel was chaired by Hartwig Pautz.
The German Politics Specialist Group has also recently been involved in PSA
funding bids, two of which – we are pleased to announce – have been
successful. Thanks to an initiative by the Italian and the French Specialist
Groups, a successful joint bid will ensure that we can collectively commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome with a joint conference
at the University of Glasgow!
‘Germany in a Changing Europe’ was also the focus of our annual
German Politics Specialist Group workshop which took place at the School of Government and International Affairs, University
of Durham, 19-20 September.
We are delighted to report that our submission to the PSA guest speaker competition for PSA2008 at Swansea has been successful. This will enable Prof. Joyce Mushaben from the University of Missouri-St.Louis to attend the annual conference next year and enrich the consideration of the academic theme of the conference Democracy, Governance and Conflict: Dilemmas of Theory and Practice as a whole, as well as to give a focus to panel(s) organised by our group.
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Professor Joyce Mushaben |
The title of Prof. Mushaben’s paper is From (Schein)Heiligendamm to Democracy Doomed? The Globalization of Protest and the Return of ‘Ungovernability’. Joyce is a full professor of Comparative Politics and has pursued nearly 30 years of active field research, supported by well established national and international research foundations (Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, Ford Foundation, DAAD, Fulbright, German Marshall Fund etc.). She has frequently been described as a ‘passionate, dynamic speaker’. The keynote address for the International Association of Human Caring (May 2007) which she delivered recently was subsequently labelled ‘the most inspiring event of the entire conference’. Joyce has a distinguished research/publication record regarding new social movements, youth protests, migration/minority/diversity issues, and other ‘democratic deficits’. We are very much looking forward to welcoming her at Swansea!
Annual Report 2006
Report of Activities and Events
- Two panels at the PSA Annual Conference in Reading in April 2006. More info
- One workshop at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder in September 2006. More info
- A number of members of the group have jointly published their workshop and conference contributions in a Special Issue of DEBATTE entitled Germany in the Twenty-First Century: In Search of a New Consensus (Vol. 14 No. 3, December 2006).
- We regularly publicise and report on our activities in the PSA Newsletter.
- Claire Sutherland has designed a brand new website and is acting as its webmaster.
Annual Report 2005
By Ruth Wittlinger (convenor), School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University
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| The participants at our Workshop in Dublin in September. Top row: Peter Stirk, Lone Jeppesen, Martin Larose, Derek Hutcheson, Thomas Speckmann, Christian Schweiger, Ruth Wittlinger Botton Row: Hartwig Pautz, Vera Simon, Thomas Henne, Claire Sutherland |
The German Politics Specialist Group was launched in summer 2003 to close an obvious gap in the Political Studies Association’s Specialist Group provision and to complement the work of other organisations dedicated to the study of German politics and society in the UK such as the Association for the Study of German Politics.
Since then, it has been steadily increasing its membership (50 at the last count!) and now includes members not only from the UK but also from Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Canada, Italy and the US. A particularly welcome feature of its membership base is that it also includes a number of postgraduate students.
Our treasurer is Peter Stirk from the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University and our Marketing and External Relations Officer is Christian Schweiger from Trinity College Dublin.
At the Political Studies Association Annual Conferences in Lincoln (2004) and Leeds (2005) the German Politics Specialist Group convened two panels each. In addition to this, we have held two most enjoyable workshops in the last two years. The first workshop took place in December 2004 and was hosted and financially supported by the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University.
Our second workshop was held in Dublin in September 2005 and was kindly and very efficiently organised by Christian Schweiger at Trinity College Dublin. It was both intellectually stimulating as well as a very pleasant social event. Speakers at Dublin included Thomas Henne, Derek Hutcheson, Lone Jeppesen, Martin Larose, Hartwig Pautz, Vera Simon, Thomas Speckmann, Peter Stirk, Claire Sutherland, our host, Christian Schweiger, and myself.
In 2006, we are planning to run three panels at the Association’s Annual Conference at the University of Reading. Panel proposals have been submitted by Claire Sutherland (‘Constructing German Identity’), Martin Larose (‘Challenges for German Foreign Policy’) and Christian Schweiger (‘Modell Deutschland’).
Our annual workshop will take place at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder in September 2006 with Jörg Jacobs having kindly agreed to be the local co-ordinator. The exact date and a call for papers will follow shortly.
Some members of the group who are working on European issues have also recently submitted a proposal to UACES to hold a sponsored workshop entitled ‘Where East meets West: Germany in the new Europe’ in 2006. We are also planning to make more use of the group's website.
We are currently exploring the possibility of the homepage of the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University hosting a new and more extensive website of the German Politics Specialist Group.
If you would like to become a member please send an email to Ruth.Wittlinger@durham.ac.uk and/or simply come along to our Business Group meeting at the Annual Association Conference in Reading.
