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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270201T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270201T123000
DTSTAMP:20260724T121516Z
CREATED:20260724T121516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260724T121516Z
UID:4284-1801474200-1801485000@brias.be
SUMMARY:Junior Scholar Event: writing session
DESCRIPTION:More Details TBD soon. This event may be subject to modifications in schedule and content.
URL:https://brias.be/event/junior-scholar-event-writing-session-2/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270202T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270202T140000
DTSTAMP:20261015T090545Z
CREATED:20260724T121516Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261015T090545Z
UID:4285-1801569600-1801576800@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday seminar: BIFD Jolanda Jetten + BIFD Andrew Chadwick
DESCRIPTION:Living in an unequal world: Consequences for societies’ social and political vitality\nby Jolanda Jetten \nSocietal inequality has been found to have pernicious effects reducing mental and physical health and decreasing societal cohesion. However\, this work lacks compelling\, theory-driven explanations for why inequality has these effects and when and for whom these effects are likely to emerge. These are important gaps because to respond effectively to inequality we need a holistic understanding of its effect on individuals as well as the collectives within which they are embedded and that structure their interactions with one another. A social psychological analysis can help to fill the gaps in this picture in at least three ways: (1) by pointing to the processes that explain why inequality has negative effects for individuals and societies\, (2) by emphasising the relevance of subjective perceptions of inequality\, and (3) by identifying the group dynamics that underpin the negative effects of inequality. I will present a range of studies and contexts where we have examined the effect of objective measures of inequality as well as perceptions of inequality on outcomes such as well-being\, the desire for more\, the wish for a strong leader\, prosocial behaviour\, and the endorsement of conspiracy theories. The findings underscore the notion that inequality may have even more far-reaching consequences than believed until now. Investigating the effects of inequality on citizens’ socio-political behaviour may be increasingly relevant in the light of today’s turbulent political and social landscape. \nBio\nJolanda earned her PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1997 and has held academic positions at the University of Queensland and the University of Exeter. She returned to the University of Queensland in 2007 as a Research Fellow and has since held ARC Future and UQ Development Fellowships\, as well as the Belgian Francqui Fellowship (2018) and ARC Laureate Fellowship (2019–2024). Her research examines group processes\, social identity\, and intergroup relations\, particularly their effects on mental health and well-being. She also studies economic inequality\, collective responses to societal change\, and resilience following disasters.\nJolanda has served as co-Chief Editor of leading journals and held presidential roles in professional societies. Her honours include the Spearman Medal\, Kurt Lewin Medal\, and Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Association of Social Psychology. She is a Fellow of ASSA and has served on Australian and European research councils\, as well as the Australian Government’s BETA academic panel. \nAI and the New Politics of Protective Epistemic Sovereignty\nby Andrew Chadwick \nIn this talk\, I will introduce the concept of protective epistemic sovereignty (PES)\, an ‘umbrella’ concept for making sense of some key challenges AI poses and how polities might respond. PES concerns AI’s role in social and civic harms that have communicative\, informational\, and knowledge-based dimensions. It explicitly recognises that governance institutions can intervene either to regulate AI directly or to coordinate and cultivate regulatory PES norms among non-state actors operating at multiple levels. Public attitudes about AI’s future have entered a more balanced phase: the boosters and the refusers are joined by a growing group of the uncertain and the worried. Concerted activity to embed PES is therefore likely to be a necessary political response to AI in future. \nBio\nAndrew Chadwick (PhD\, London School of Economics and Political Science) is Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Communication and Media at Loughborough University and a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences. He studies how digital media are implicated in social and political power in four main areas: political mobilisation\, political engagement\, deception and dis/misinformation\, and news and journalism.\nHis work has won multiple international awards from the American Political Science Association\, the International Communication Association\, and the American Sociological Association. In addition\, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power (Oxford University Press\, 2013; 2nd Edition\, 2017) received the International Journal of Press/Politics Best Book Award\, which recognises an outstanding book over a ten year period. Earlier books include Internet Politics: States\, Citizens\, and New Communication Technologies (Oxford University Press\, 2006) and The Handbook of Internet Politics (Routledge\, 2009; co-edited with Philip N. Howard).\nAndrew has published more than 120 academic research articles\, book chapters\, public reports\, reviews\, and press articles and is series editor for Oxford Studies in Digital Politics\, which he launched in 2010. In recent years\, he has advised various policymaking bodies\, including for example the UK Department of Digital\, Media\, Culture and Sport (DCMS) Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum\, the Government Office for Science Rapid Project on AI-driven disinformation\, and the DCMS’s scoping for the BBC Royal Charter Review and its implementation phase.
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminar-bifd-jolanda-jetten-bifd-andrew-chadwick/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270204T090000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270205T180000
DTSTAMP:20261012T082227Z
CREATED:20260724T121531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261012T082227Z
UID:4286-1801731600-1801850400@brias.be
SUMMARY:Workshop CERIM-BrIAS: The end of affective polarization?
DESCRIPTION:Affective polarisation has received enormous scholarly attention in the last decade. First introduced by the seminal article by Iyengar and colleagues in 2012\, the concept of affective polarisation captures the affective distance between political in- and out-groups. While originally applied to the context of the United States\, it has long spread across the world\, including to European political science (Reiljan\, 2020; Wagner\, 2021). In the meantime\, however\, the initial scholarly excitement about affective polarisation seems to have given way to growing scepticism about the accuracy\, conceptual depth and explanatory value of the concept. \nWhile originally assumed to contribute to the study of the deteriorating state of Western liberal democracies\, more recent findings cast doubt on this causal relationship (Broockman et al.\, 2023; Voelkel et al.\, 2023). Furthermore\, despite repeated criticism of the measurement of AP as the spread between like-dislike scores towards political parties (see Röllicke\, 2023; Maes et al.\, 2024; Bernaerts\, 2025)\, it remains the gold standard of the field with new measurement suggestions (e.g. Campos & Federico\, 2025; Finkel et al.\, 2021; McMurtrie et al.\, 2024) struggling to systematically replace it. At the same time\, political theorists increasingly question the current use of the concept of affective polarisation and problematise the sometimes overly simplistic ways in which it has been related to democracy (Schedler\, 2023; Rostbøll\, 2024). \nAll of this begs the question: Has affective polarisation been used as a catch-all term to grasp broader divisions and conflict in society which fails to grasp the underlying phenomena of interest – such as democratic demise\, interpersonal friction or intergroup conflict? Or have we arrived at a pivotal moment in the study of affective polarisation where the concept grows into adulthood\, requiring new ways to approach the concept and its broader study? \nIn this multidisciplinary workshop\, we want to pay attention to both the conceptual questions (what exactly is it we are trying to grasp with the concept of AP?)\, the measurement problems (are we actually measuring what we claim to be measuring?) but also the broader question of relevance (should we re-shift our attention to other concepts for studying the broader questions we are tackling?). \nWe specifically aim to bring together different theoretical and empirical perspectives from different disciplines to generate new insights into the role of affective polarisation in the decline and erosion of democracy worldwide. \nProgramme\nThursday\, 4 February 2027\n\n\n\n12:00–13:00\nArrival and Lunch\n\n\n13:00–13:30\nIntroduction by Kamil Bernaerts & Lena Röllicke\n\n\n13:30–15:00\nPanel 1: What exactly is Affective Polarisation and what do we measure?\nManuel Almagro\nAlexa Bankert & Leonie Huddy\nFelix Grundwald\, Arndt Leininger & Nelly Buntfuß\nLarissa Knöchelmann et al.\n\n\n15:00–15:15\nCoffee Break\n\n\n15:15–16:45\nPanel 2: How “bad” is it really?\nJoe Phillips et al.\nJoseph Noonan\nManuel Kogel\n\n\n16:45–18:00\nBreak and transfer to roundtable location (tbc)\n\n\n18:00–19:30\nRoundtable: The end of Affective Polarisation? by Jérémy Dodeigne\, University of Namur\nEelco Harteveld\, University of Amsterdam\nAndres Reiljan\, University of Tartu\nLuana Russo\, Maastricht University\n\n\nAround 19:30\nWorkshop Dinner\nPlace tbc\n\n\n\nFriday\, 5 February 2027\n\n\n\n9:00–10:30\nPanel 3: Differences between (legitimate) policy disagreement and affective polarisation\nHenry Maes\nGreta Gross & Swen Hutter\nSvend-Erik Skaaning & Cem Mert Dalli\n\n\n10:30–10:45\nCoffee Break\n\n\n10:45–12:15\nPanel 4: Rethinking depolarisation?\nJasper Neerdaels & Artemis Tsoulou-Malakoudi\nSam Fuller & Gal Bitton\nMark Brandt & Abigail Cassario\nAmalía Nestoris\n\n\n12:15–13:00\nLunch\n\n\n13:00–14:30\nPanel 5: Should we study something else – or study affective polarisation differently?\nJoão Areal & Anna Petherick\nRuben Scheunders\nMelanie Schiller\, Valerie Knöpker & Romy Mennen\n\n\n14:30–15:00\nWrapping Up\n\n\n\n \n\n\n     
URL:https://brias.be/event/workshop-cerim-brias-the-end-of-affective-polarization/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270208T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270208T123000
DTSTAMP:20260724T121531Z
CREATED:20260724T121531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260724T121531Z
UID:4287-1802079000-1802089800@brias.be
SUMMARY:Junior Scholar Event: writing session
DESCRIPTION:More Details TBD soon. This event may be subject to modifications in schedule and content.
URL:https://brias.be/event/junior-scholar-event-writing-session-3/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270211T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270211T140000
DTSTAMP:20261021T093709Z
CREATED:20260724T121531Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261021T093709Z
UID:4288-1802347200-1802354400@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday seminar: BIFD Stathis Kalyvas + BIFD Frank Mols
DESCRIPTION:Violent Political Conflict\nby Stathis Kalyvas \nWe study and speak of different forms of political violence\, from torture to ethnic conflict\, from war to genocide\, from crimes against humanity to terrorism\, using a profusion of “natural categories” that have emerged organically\, are politically charged\, and ultimately impede our understanding of this deplorable yet universal form of collective human behavior. I propose\, present\, and discuss a new way to rationalize this field of political activity and to minimize our categories. I argue that this conceptual move allows us to analyze\, but importantly also to describe\, the complex landscape of political violence more effectively. \nBio\nStathis N. Kalyvas is Gladstone Professor of Government and fellow of All Souls College at Oxford. He was\, until 2018\, the Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale University\, where he founded and directed the Program on Order\, Conflict\, and Violence and co-directed the Hellenic Studies Program. In 2019 he founded the T. E. Lawrence Program on Conflict and Violence at All Souls College. He is the author\, among others\, of The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (Cornell University Press\, 1996) and The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Cambridge University Press\, 2006). His work has received multiple awards and he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and the British Academy in 2020. Since December 2023 he also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center. \nCollective Amnesia in Political Science Research\nby Frank Mols\nAs Thomas Kuhn observed in his 1962 book ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolution’ the paradigmatic axioms that underpin “normal science” are periodically overthrown and replaced. Research\, so Kuhn argued\, should hence not be seen as linear and cumulative. Pitirim Sorokin expressed a similar view in his 1956 book ‘Fads and Foibles in Modern Sociology and Related Sciences’. In his 1992 article ‘Sociological Amnesia: The Noncumulation of Normal Social Science’\, Herbert Gans went even further\, arguing that sociological studies often report findings reported previously\, and without acknowledging this. Gans identified six factors contributing to what he described as collective amnesia in social science research. In this paper I will review these factors and use research into support for far-right parties to evaluate whether this literature (including my own contributions to this literature) suffer from collective forgetfulness. More specifically\, I argue this literature grapples with two challenges\, namely (a) the tendency to ignore highly relevant earlier work (thus making it possible to ‘reinvent the wheel’) and (b) the tendency to ignore new insights (thus stifling innovation). I will conclude by considering two possible collective amnesia causes\, namely a strict ‘division of labour’\, and academic incentive structures that inadvertently disincentivise ‘deep learning’.  \nBio\nFrank Mols is Senior Lecturer in the School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland\, Australia. His research interests include elections\, voting\, populist radical right parties\, leadership\, political communication\, political behaviour and evidence-based policy.\nFrank’s research has been published in leading international journals\, including Leadership Quarterly\, European Journal of Political Research\, Political Psychology\, Public Administration\, West European Politics\, Journal of Common Market Studies\, Evidence and Policy\, China Quarterly\, Journal of Social Issues\, Frontiers in Communication\, Australian Journal of Political Science\, and the Australian Journal of Public Administration.\nHis 2017 book The Wealth Paradox (co-authored with Jolanda Jetten and published by Cambridge University Press) has attracted international attention and praise for having debunked pervasive myths about populist parties and their voter base.
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminar-bifd-stathis-kalyvas-bifd-frank-mols/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270215T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270215T123000
DTSTAMP:20260724T121532Z
CREATED:20260724T121532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260724T121532Z
UID:4289-1802683800-1802694600@brias.be
SUMMARY:Junior Scholar Event: writing session
DESCRIPTION:More Details TBD soon. This event may be subject to modifications in schedule and content.
URL:https://brias.be/event/junior-scholar-event-writing-session-4/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270218T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270218T140000
DTSTAMP:20261021T094440Z
CREATED:20260724T121532Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261021T094440Z
UID:4290-1802952000-1802959200@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday seminar: BIFD Yasin Koç
DESCRIPTION:TITLE TBC\nby Yasin Koç \nBio\nYasin Koc holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Sussex and is Assistant Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Groningen. Recognised as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science\, he has also held visiting research positions at Princeton University and Université Paris Nanterre. His research focuses on marginalised identities and intergroup relations\, with the aim of improving the well-being and social status of minoritised groups and fostering more equitable relations.\nUsing experimental\, qualitative\, and mixed methods\, he examines how disadvantaged groups navigate unequal social systems and how advantaged groups can be mobilised to recognise inequality and support social change. He recently completed an FMSH-funded study on multiple marginalisation among older queer migrants from Turkey in France. He currently leads the NWO-funded project Reimagining Intergroup Apologies\, which explores community-centred approaches to intergroup apologies and social cohesion in contexts of polarisation and historical conflict.
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminar-bifd-yasin-koc/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270222T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270222T123000
DTSTAMP:20260724T121547Z
CREATED:20260724T121547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260724T121547Z
UID:4291-1803288600-1803299400@brias.be
SUMMARY:Junior Scholar Event: writing session
DESCRIPTION:More Details TBD soon. This event may be subject to modifications in schedule and content.
URL:https://brias.be/event/junior-scholar-event-writing-session-5/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270225T120000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270225T140000
DTSTAMP:20261021T095037Z
CREATED:20260724T121547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261021T095037Z
UID:4292-1803556800-1803564000@brias.be
SUMMARY:Thursday seminar: Sofia Serra-Silva + Oscar Mazzoleni
DESCRIPTION:Book launch: Open Parliaments: The Reality of Public Engagement in European Democracies\nby Sofia Serra-Silva\nDemocratic institutions are under strain. The bond between citizens and political institutions has significantly frayed\, and parliaments\, long positioned as the institutional heart of representative democracy\, find themselves at the center of this legitimacy crisis. This book asks whether they can be part of the solution. Can parliaments deliver on their commitments to openness and public engagement? Do their efforts live up to their promises\, or do they amount to symbolic transformation without structural change? \nOpen Parliaments makes no prior assumption that they can. Instead\, it asks how\, where\, when\, and to what extent parliaments deliver on their promise to open up\, and who can access and participate in these newly opened spaces. To answer these questions\, the analysis draws on a comparative study of twenty-one European parliaments and two in-depth case studies\, Austria and France\, where novel institutional engagement practices have been embedded in parliamentary life. \nThis book reveals empirically how legislative institutions have achieved only a narrow openness: doors technically unlocked but never truly open\, information formally disclosed\, participation nominally possible. Yet this openness proves neither accessible nor inclusive. Content remains difficult to read and navigate for ordinary citizens\, participatory instruments are not designed nor equipped to make participation consequential\, and engagement consistently skews toward those already proximate to power. Caught between the temptations of engagement myopia and magical thinking\, parliaments offer citizens a performance of openness rather than its substance. \nBio\nSofia Serra-Silva is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences\, University of Lisbon. She holds a PhD in Comparative Politics (2020)\, and her research examines how political institutions and citizens engage within the contemporary globalized digital landscape. Her work has been published in leading journals including Party Politics\, Policy & Internet\, Parliamentary Affairs\, Journal of Legislative Studies\, South European Society and Politics\, European Politics & Society\, and Mediterranean Politics\, among other outlets. She is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of the FCT-funded project Bridging the Gap: A New Approach to Understanding Citizen Attitudes and Perceptions Towards the Portuguese Parliament (ref. 2023.12063.PEX). \nDemocratic weaponizing: the challenge of the contemporary radical right\nby Oscar Mazzoleni \nFor most of the twentieth century\, the enemies of democracy were easy to recognize: fascist and authoritarian movements openly sought to abolish parliaments\, elections and individual rights. The radical right of the twenty-first century doesn’t reject democracy. It weaponizes it. As scholars have pointed out\, it turns democratic institutions\, procedures and core concepts (tolerance\, equality\, solidarity\, freedom and democracy itself) against the pluralist and universalist substance they were meant to protect. The words stay the same\, but their content is replaced. So far\, though\, this literature has judged the radical right almost entirely against participatory or procedural-liberal ideas of democracy\, asking whether it is a corrective or a threat. This lecture argues that this framing is important but misses the socio-economic component. Research shows that a significant part of the European and American public defines democracy as including material security and social rights (e.g. Davis\, Gaddie and Goidel 2022). Taking this public view seriously means that labor-market protection\, welfare chauvinism and immigration aren’t just policy issues. They’re contested parts of what democracy is represented\, and this is where actors of radical right achieve better support. \nBio\nOscar Mazzoleni is a professor in political science at the University of Lausanne. His current interests are devoted on political parties\, populism\, nationalism\, regionalism\, electoral studies\, and Swiss politics in comparative perspective. His last book is “The radical right and demographic populism” (ed. with K. Koxha)\, Manchester University Press\, 2026.
URL:https://brias.be/event/thursday-seminar-book-launch-open-parliaments-the-reality-of-public-engagement-in-european-democracies-oscar-mazzoleni/
LOCATION:BrIAS\, Boulevard Général Jacques 210\, Ixelles\, Brussels\, 1050\, Belgium
CATEGORIES:Programme Events
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