This open access book offers a systematic survey of the attitudes and values of European political scientists. It builds a structural interpretation based on empirical data, as well as offering reflections on the future structure of the discipline. In the middle of a delicate phase of changes marked by the effects of pandemic and the war in Ukraine, we need to pay attention to the factors that are affecting not only the ‘objects’ of Political Science as a discipline but also its interactions with the world around it.
First, this book asks to what extent the work of European political scientists is impacted by the current change. Second, their attitudes and predisposition about the future goals of the discipline are analysed. In the final chapter, the authors seek to understand to what extent a diffuse but still not completely institutionalized academic discipline will be able to produce a comprehensive impact around the European society, in order to be more visible and effective in policy making and policy processes.
Author(s): Giliberto Capano, Luca Verzichelli
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 190
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: European Political Science: The Magnitude, Heterogeneity and Relevance of a Divided Discipline
1 Premise: Political Science—The Youngest Discipline for the Study of Politics in Europe
2 Political Science: Its Divisions and Weaknesses
2.1 The Epistemological Weakness of Political Science
2.2 The Weak Social Relevance of Political Science
2.3 The Problem of Identity: A Discipline that Still Does Not Know What It Is?
3 European Political Science: The Long March Towards Professionalization
3.1 A Discipline in Search of Scholars
3.2 The Never-Ending Saga of Disciplinary Borders
4 What Do European Political Scientists Actually Do?
5 A Point of (Re)departure? Crises and New Opportunities for European Political Science
Chapter 2: The Legacies: Explaining the Richness and Heterogeneity of European Political Science
1 Premise
2 Historical Patterns of European Political Science
2.1 A Short but Important Record
2.2 The Density of Political Science Within the European Higher Educational Area
2.3 What Institutionalization?
2.4 Classifying the National Trajectories of the Institutionalization of European Political Science
3 Three Generations of Political Scientist: Memories, Legacies and Visions
3.1 Three Generations: How Many Types of European Political Scientist Exist?
3.2 Difficult Legacies: Still Too Few Women; Still Too Little Inclusion
3.3 Memories of the Past and Visions for the Future
4 In Pursuit of a Model of Political Scientist
4.1 One Syndrome and Three Myths
Chapter 3: The Current Scenario: Mapping Fragmentation and Transformation in European Political Science
1 Premise
2 Winners, Losers, Strangers: Re-thinking the Shape of the European Political Science Community
2.1 The External and Internal Borders of European Political Science
2.2 The European Political Science “Tectonic Plate”: An Analysis of the Proseps Survey Data
2.3 The Perimeter of European Political Science According to the Experts
2.4 Increasing Methodological Complexity
2.5 No Winners, Inevitable Losers, Too Many “Strangers”?
3 Ivory Towers Versus the Public Sphere? Redefining the Public Mission(s) of Political Scientists
3.1 Different Aspects of Political Science’s Social Activism
3.2 Media Presence and the Problem of Visibility
3.3 Political Scientists’ Attitudes Towards Policy-Making and the Problem of Advocacy
3.4 Advisory Roles Among Contemporary European Political Scientists
4 Travellers, Commuters, Fixers: Re-defining the Business of Political Scientists
4.1 Tocqueville’s Children? European Political Scientists and Their Internationalization
4.2 Eclecticism and Flexibility: What Are the Drivers of a European Standard?
4.3 Extra-Academic Experience and University Management: Looking for “Political Science Fixers”
5 The Impact of the Pandemic on the Complexity of European Political Science
5.1 Crisis, Opportunity: Not Necessarily a Turning Point
5.2 New Attitudes: Fresher Energies
Chapter 4: The Future of European Political Science
1 The Near Future and the Post-Pandemic Scenario: The Risk of Missing the Boat
1.1 Doing Political Science in Turbulent Times
1.2 Lessons Learned from COVID-19, and the Need to Take the Structural Turbulence of Our Times Seriously
The Theoretical Challenge
Lack of Preparedness to Deal with What Is Urgent for Society
2 Changing the Historical Path and Making Political Science Socially Relevant
2.1 The Problem of Values, the Emphasis on Methods and the Forgotten Practical Dimension of Political Science
2.2 What Kind of Knowledge Is Required to Make Political Science More Relevant?
3 Engagement as a Problem of Recognizability: Towards a New Politics of Political Science Relevance
4 Engaged Eclecticism and Critical Thinking: Two Cornerstones of Political Science’s Future?
4.1 The New Aeneas-Type Political Scientist: Is it Time to Act?
4.2 Eclecticism and Critical Thinking: The Way Forward to Ensure a Solid, Promising Future for Europe’s Political Scientists
5 Conclusion: A European Political Science for the Future
5.1 Eclectic but Committed: Critical but Engaged
5.2 High, but Realistic, Expectations
Appendix 1: Questionnaires
Proseps 2018–2019 Survey
Proseps Flash Survey January 2020
Proseps COVID-19 Flash Survey 2020
Appendix 2: Qualitative Interviews
References
