Past Conferences

SAFEResearch Handbook Athens Workshop Past

1/24/2018 10:52:02 AM - 1/28/2018 10:52:43 AM

Athens, Greece

Conducting field research has become an increasingly risky endeavour in recent years, particularly in regions characterized by violent conflict, repressive political regimes, or state failure. Working under such conditions is challenging. Researchers need to think of ways to assure the physical safety of their respondents, they need to protect themselves, and they must consider whether and how the confidentiality of information can be maintained. Despite these conditions, and despite the fact that journalists, NGO workers, and scholars across a range of disciplines face similar challenges, guidance on how to prepare and conduct safe field research is not readily available. SAFEResearch aims at addressing these shortcomings. We want to sensitize the academic community to the risks faced by many researchers and to draw on the experience of practitioners. Safe fieldwork comprises several interrelated dimensions. In addition to the physical safety of research participants and researchers, research in politically sensitive settings may require additional measures to ensure the confidentiality of data. Contact details, field notes, interview transcripts and other forms of research-related information needs to be stored, transmitted, and handled in a responsible way, balancing concerns about safety and confidentiality with transparency norms in the discipline.

The SAFEResearch Handbook: Athens Writers’ Workshop aims to produce the draft handbook on research safety. The workshop will bring together 24 participants drawn from diverse professions (e.g., academia, human rights, journalism) and with broad regional expertise. The workshop will be held at the Swedish Research Institute (SRI) in Athens, from January 24-28, 2018.

Workshop on Islamists and Local Politics Past

6/13/2017 3:00:00 PM - 5/15/2017 2:00:00 PM

Brastad, Sweden

Political science, media, and policy analysis of Islamist movements and the Middle East more broadly, often concentrate on national politics and major urban areas. A growing body of political science research is now drawing attention to the significance of political organization, mobilization and contestation taking place outside major cities. Though this research is broad, the following questions have been of particular interest: How do local/community conditions relate to the emergence and strengthening of Islamist movements, and what is the nature of these movements? Do we see the strengthening of Islamist movements in conditions with unresponsive local-level state actors, poor service delivery, and/or little political participation? Or do such movements actually help to mobilize support, participation and engagement in local level politics?  Do the political and ideological orientations of Islamist movements in the provinces differ systematically from those in the urban core?  How do different strands of Islamism, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafist movements or Sufi orders, perform at the local level? In “mixed” communities (e.g., Muslim/Christian as found in much of SubSaharan Africa), when do we find cooperative community relations and where do we find segregated practices?  When do local Islamist movements tend to inflame or to suppress radicalization towards violent extremism?

In an effort to explore these questions related to Islamist politics at the local level, POMEPS and the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) at the University of Gothenburg are hosting a two-day workshop featuring practitioners, policy-makers and academics from around the world.

GLD Annual Conference 2017: Seeking Solutions Past

5/11/2017 8:30:00 AM - 5/12/2017 5:30:00 PM

Hindås, Sweden

The Program on Governance and Local Development at the University of Gothenburg will hold its first annual conference on May 11-12, 2017 with the theme, "Seeking Solutions." We will showcase research that examines the ways in which ordinary citizens seek solutions to the challenges they face in their daily lives. These include but are not limited to challenges related to service delivery, safety and security, land tenure, employment, and health. We seek to understand when and why citizens pursue different strategies for seeking solutions -- from both state and non-state actors. How do people's strategies differ in times of peace vs. periods of conflict? What coping mechanisms do the world's growing population of refugees employ? What are the promises and pitfalls of solutions offered by new technologies? How do different aspects of identity (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) affect the different strategies people pursue? We seek not to answer these and related questions definitively but rather raise them to encourage dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and other members of the development community.

GLD Annual Conference 2017: Layered Authority Past

5/11/2017 8:30:00 AM - 5/12/2017 5:30:00 PM

Hindås, Sweden

The Program on Governance and Local Development at the University of Gothenburg will hold its first annual conference on May 11-12, 2017 with the theme, "Seeking Solutions." We will showcase research that examines the ways in which ordinary citizens seek solutions to the challenges they face in their daily lives. These include but are not limited to challenges related to service delivery, safety and security, land tenure, employment, and health. We seek to understand when and why citizens pursue different strategies for seeking solutions -- from both state and non-state actors. How do people's strategies differ in times of peace vs. periods of conflict? What coping mechanisms do the world's growing population of refugees employ? What are the promises and pitfalls of solutions offered by new technologies? How do different aspects of identity (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) affect the different strategies people pursue? We seek not to answer these and related questions definitively but rather raise them to encourage dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and other members of the development community.

Policy Dialogue Day Past

5/10/2017 10:00:00 AM - 5/10/2017 5:00:00 PM

Gothenburg, Sweden

This year’s Policy Dialogue Day is organized jointly by the V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute, the QoG (Quality of Government) Institute, GLD-Gothenburg (Program for Governance and Local Development) and UCDP (Uppsala Conflict Data Program). The Policy Dialogue Day seeks to bridge the gap between analysis and practice. It will cover topics related to the most recent findings in the areas of democracy, conflicts, corruption, and local governance. This annual Policy Day continues to serve as a dialogue platform for practitioners and policy-makers, and academics.

What are most important global changes in democracy, conflict and governance today, and what are their implications for promoting human development? Is democracy in decline? If so, as we believe, in which areas are the most common declines? What do the latest findings say about current trends in armed conflicts? How has the nature and scope of conflict changed, and can we still expect that democratic institutions can help prevent it? Is corruption a source of “bad democracy” or the other way around, an outcome? Can you have “good government” without democracy? And how important is the state to human development outcomes? Has the state and democracy lost its meaning for citizens today? How do we best promote democracy, human rights, quality of government, and peace in today's changing en