D-A-CH Congress 2023 | CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS

September 11-13, 2023

Johannes Kepler Universität (JKU) Linz: “Zeitenwende” – Politics in Uncertain Times

Politicians and the media currently frequently use the term “Zeitenwende” (turning point) to denote current worldwide political events. The 2023 Conference of the political science communities in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland (D-A-CH-Congress) takes up the concept of “Zeitenwende” and looks at related processes from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives.

The Covid-19 pandemic has required radical measures and restrictions of freedoms to contain it, restrictions formerly unimaginable in liberal democracies. The war in Ukraine calls further certainties into question. Here positions on the role of violence in conflict resolution are fundamentally changing. In addition, Western democracies increasingly reflect critically on pre-war decades when peace and prosperity were taken for granted – resulting, perhaps, in a lack of problem-solving foresight in many policy areas.Political scientists are qualified to both critically reflect on such crisis phenomena and the resulting shifts in political preferences, and offer advice on promising, legitimate, and politically feasible responses to the policy challenges.

Through its research traditions in theory and empiricism, the discipline of Political Science is particularly suited for exploring the institutional resources, political possibilities as well as limits of crisis management strategies.The D-A-CH Congress offers a forum for such critical reflection and the exchange of innovative ideas on the way to a new architecture of dealing with contemporary challenges.The title “Zeitenwende” – Politics in Uncertain Times serves as an overarching theme for the conference. Of course, political science papers more loosely related to this title are also welcome.

We invite innovative contributions that reflect the diversity of our research community in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, career stage, and substantive specialization.Call for Papers and PanelsAs a forum for the discussion of current research, the D-A-CH Congress aims at intensifying the networking of researchers from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

Thus, abstracts should introduce the puzzle and resulting research question, as well as roughly describe the theoretical and methodological approach. For a fruitful exchange within the panels, we kindly ask, to submit abstracts that go beyond a mere project description.Submissions will be organized thematically by a program committee. This committee is constituted by experts from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. We kindly ask you to include four keywords in your submission. A submission of pre-organized panels is also possible. Such panels should include four to five papers which all have to fulfill the criteria of individual submission – also including individual abstracts. In case of a panel submission, we recommend organizing the panel considering a fair gender ratio as well as papers form researchers at different career stages. Furthermore, a panel chair and discussant must be named in advance. Generally, each participant should not submit more than two papers (either as author, or co-author).

Paper-submissions need to include the following information:

1. Paper title
2. Abstract (max. 300 words)
3. 4 keywords describing the area of research (i.e., qualitative research, electoral studies, institutions, Austria…)
4. Co-authors
5. Submission within a panel (name of panel)Submission of abstracts is possible online: German and  English Submissions are accepted until February 28, 2023

Please find all details here.