Grenoble 2009! The Political Science Discipline’s Event

In the name of the Organizing Committee of the 10th Congress of the French Political Science Association (A.F.S.P.), we invite you to reserve now the 7th, 8th and 9th of September 2009 to participate in this event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the association’s creation. On this occasion, the A.F.S.P. is pleased to welcome the 3rd International Congress of Francophone Associations of the Discipline.

Grenoble is a city rich in history and bursting with cultural and sports activities, and will prove to be an exceptional host city for the A.F.S.P. Congress of 2009. Already, the Organizing Committee of Sciences Po Grenoble has been setting everything in place to allow you to have an extraordinary experience of academic fellowship, as we take stock of the state of the discipline in the light of 21st century academic and civic issues.

The Internet site that you will discover was built to assist us in collectively constructing the programme for this anniversary event. Over the coming months, you will find there a vast array of practical information designed to make your stay a great success (registration, reservation, etc.). As of next March, the first calls for proposals will be made public, thanks to the web site. We fervently hope that you will respond in very great numbers, to make this meeting a unique moment in the history of our association.

 

Nonna Mayer, President of the A.F.S.P.
Yves Déloye, Secretary General of the A.F.S.P.
& Olivier Ihl, Local Representative of the Grenoble 2009 Organizing Committee

Joint Congresses! 60th Anniversary Congress and 3rd C4P

In 2007 the Board of the A.F.S.P. decided, after particularly fruitful collective deliberation, to formulate a proposal to restructure our national congresses. Two reasons combined led us to place this reform on our agenda. The first is related to the fact that the 10th Congress of the A.F.S.P., organized in partnership with Sciences Po Grenoble for the 7th to the 9th of September 2009, will be the Congress of the 60th anniversary of the French Political Science Association whose statutes were, we will recall, published in the Journal Officiel in 1949. This anniversary congress will also provide the opportunity to organize the 3rd International Congress of Francophone Associations of the discipline. The decision was to combine these two events in a single meeting open to members of the four partner associations of this network created in Lausanne in November 2005, whose transnational activity continued with great success at the Congress of Québec last May (A.B.S.P. - C.F., A.F.S.P., A.S.S.P., S.Q.S.P.). From this springs the need to establish a congress structured differently from previous versions. This structure, approved by the Board of the A.F.S.P. at its meeting of last November 14, also takes account of internal evaluations of the last national congresses.

The new formula is designed to offer you an even more effective plan of action than before. It especially aims to provide greater flexibility to congress participants to pick and choose their participation in various activities proposed in the program of the congress.

New formula! Plenary sessions and thematic sections

We decided to structure our next congress around two series of modules.

The first series of modules consists of plenary sessions of the congress, open to all congress participants, treating the general theme chosen for the 10th Congress, a detailed systematic report on the current status of Francophone political science, in a transversal and multidisciplinary manner. This theme prefigures an ambitious editorial enterprise to publish the first State of the Discipline under the responsibility of the A.F.S.P. The series of lectures organized in Grenoble will prefigure this bilingual editorial enterprise (the French edition will also be published in the English language) and will aim to mobilize all the members and working groups of the association towards this goal.

The second series of modules consists of thematic sections that will replace the traditional workshops, modules and round table discussions. Open to members of the four associations referred to above, as well as their working groups or study groups, these thematic sections will be organized around two hour and twenty minute modules so as to allow each congress participant to attend six such modules during the congress. For each module, 4-5 interveners will be invited to present their papers (all first available on line). These will be discussed for at least 60% of the time available in each module (one or two discussants). As the table below indicates, six sessions will be available in the congress program. Depending on the proposed theme and the number of people interested in a particular line of inquiry, such a proposal (put forward by one or a number of members or a working group) will be reviewed by the Board of the A.F.S.P. who will decide on the possibility of offering one or a number of sessions on this topic. Therefore, we might imagine that certain themes would develop their program over all six sessions available while others will suggest a shorter period of time. This organization is, in fact, quite similar to that found in international conferences of the discipline (A.I.S.P., E.C.P.R., and A.P.S.A.) but the Board of the A.F.S.P. intends to ensure that this formula is much more flexible than that of these other international conferences, allowing us to enhance the general coherence of the academic program of our congress. So, there will be particular attention devoted to the academic guidance of this operation in partnership with the A.F.S.P. and other partner disciplinary associations.

Discover the program of the 2009 congress...

Calendar 2008! Collective academic program

Development of this collective project will take place throughout the year 2008, dedicated especially to preliminary work on the academic program of the 2009 Congress. The calendar of our program activities will be as follows: