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EASP Meeting: New Directions in the Conceptualization and Measurement of Political Ideologies: Current Practices and Recent Developments

July 6-9th, 2022
Submission deadline: March 20th, 2022
Mannheim, Germany

Political ideology is an important construct in Social and Political Psychology as well as in neighboring disciplines such as Political Science, Sociology, and Economics. The study of the psychological antecedents, concomitants, and consequences of political ideologies has a long tradition and remains a vibrant source of contemporary scholarship. Factors making this area of research dynamic and prolific are the fertile ground for theories on the psychological roots of ideological proclivities, the constructive rivalry between the multiple theoretical perspectives, and the myriad of interdisciplinary synergies.

However, controversies concerning the relevance of ideologies for political behavior, the appropriate dimensionality for parsimoniously characterizing ideological orientations, the operationalization of the symbolic and operational components of ideology, and the role of regional differences in the structure and content of political ideologies abound and are far from settled. At the same time, scientific progress is contingent on incremental shared consensus on both theory and measurement.

Aim:

To help bridge existing gaps, this meeting aims to convene experts in an effort to build consensus focusing specifically on conceptualizations and measurement of political ideologies, and its bi-directional implications: theory informing the measurement of political ideologies and measurement practices aiding theory development.

Contributions:

We invite contributions that refer to political ideologies in a broad conceptual sense as well as contributions that refer to types or dimensions of ideology within specific countries or societal contexts.

We are strongly committed to facilitating applications from diverse backgrounds. We invite scholars across social scientific discipline and career levels, as well as from regions where political ideologies might not fit well into extant theoretical models. Interested scholars are encouraged to also apply with in-progress works where research ideas or preliminary analyses can be discussed.

We allocated a significant share of the budget provided by EASP to offer financial support to scholars who receive no (or insufficient) financial support from their institutions to participate in the meeting. If this applies to you, please indicate so in the submission form along with an estimate of your accommodation and travel expenses.

There are no participation fees. Abstract submissions (max. 300 words) for one of the following formats should be sent through the following web-formular by March 20, 2022https://forms.gle/5S5a7Y31T6T6KRhU6.

  1. Short talk (5 minutes talk + poster session): Short presentation or conversation starter that will be followed up by a corresponding poster session.
  2. Full talk (20 minutes): Presentation of full papers or work in progress.

Location:

GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

Mannheim is located not far from the Frankfurt Airport (32 minutes by train) and has a very well-connected main train station. The organizers will provide a list of options for accommodation at different price levels. 

The meeting is structured with single sessions prioritizing discussion. It is scheduled to start on Wednesday July 6 around noon and end on Saturday July 9 around the same time. For Friday afternoon, we have planned a picturesque excursion to beautiful Heidelberg where we will explore the charms of Germany’s oldest student city.

Sponsors:

European Association of Social Psychology

In addition to EASP, the organizers are grateful to GESIS and the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) for supporting this meeting.

Axel Burger (axel.burger(at)gesis(dot)org), Flavio Azevedo (flavio.azevedo(at)uni-jena(dot)de), Deliah Bolesta (deliah.bolesta(at)zkfs(dot)de) and Alexander Jedinger (alexander.jedinger(at)gesis(dot)org) are happy to answer any inquiries related to this meeting.