news
Published: 16 December 2024

CALL FOR PAPER: Challenges to Europe – European Challenges

Conference | 28 - 29 May 2025

In collaboration with the University of Surrey and the Centre for Britain and Europe (CBE), the Italian Politics Specialist Group, German Politics Specialist Group, and Greek Politics Specialist Group of the UK’s Political Studies Association (PSA) invite abstract submissions for a two-day, in-person conference on the topic “Challenges to Europe – European Challenges”. The conference will be hosted by the CBE at the University of Surrey on 28 and 29 May 2025. It is open to all and there is no registration fee.

While Europe can be difficult to define (e.g. geographically, politically, culturally), there has been a growing consensus in recent years that it has been severely challenged in multiple ways. Those challenges relate, but are not limited, to the following themes: 

(1) Populism, securitization, and migration: Populist parties, in particular those on the radical right, have established themselves as major players in European party systems and have gained executive power in several countries. Often tapping into people’s perceptions of, and feelings about, economic and cultural change, they have developed narratives around security that challenge long-standing interpretations of countries’ territorial divisions and historical past. 

(2) Threats to democracy, human rights, and liberty: Europe is challenged by external threats stemming from, among others, the rise of China, Russia’s war against Ukraine and ‘the West’, and attempts at interference in democratic processes at a time when the outcome of the US presidential election raises questions over the stability of international alliances long taken for granted. These ‘hard’ challenges, alongside ideational challenges to ‘Western’ and European self-understandings, have, more broadly and in a sense ‘culturally’, shaken Europe’s (self-)perception as a key actor of ‘the West’ and a safe harbour for human rights, democracy, and liberty.

(3) The Eurozone crisis, Brexit, and the future of European integration: With ‘Europe’ as a political project under threat, economic challenges further gain in urgency. The continuing legacies of the Eurozone crisis and the consequences of Brexit are putting transformative pressure onto European economies when other countries like the US and China have been developing faster and in more future-oriented sectors.   

For this conference, papers are invited which speak to these three themes and further ‘challenges to Europe’. We welcome analyses of these issues and of the effectiveness of (potential) responses to tackling them. The conference aims to encourage discussion across disciplinary and (sub)field boundaries, and papers are welcome to approach the conference theme through many perspectives, including political science, international relations, public policy, or political theory. Comparative papers are as welcome as are single-country papers and theoretical papers.

Please send your abstract of no more than 250 words to Maya Chew (m.r.chew@surrey.ac.ukby 20 January 2025. A limited amount of travel grants of up to £150 will be available for early career researchers (PhD students and post-docs within three years of completion) whose abstracts are accepted for presentation at the conference. Recipients of any support must be members of the PSA. For ECRs, the PSA currently offers very low membership rates. Travel grant recipients will receive their bursary following submission of receipts after the conference. 

Share what you've read?