Menu
Menu
Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.
Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”
The ECPR Research Network on Political Anticipation (ECPR RNPA) has been created to aggregate the research people and works which are distributed in various disciplinary areas, but which essentially concern various concepts of anticipation for relevant issues in political science and connected interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological domains.
The ECPR Research Framework on Political Anticipation has been founded in June 2022 by Camelia Florela Voinea (Assoc. Professor, University of Bucharest) and a small group of Founding Members who have supported the founding proposal. Holger Molder (Assoc. Professor, Technical University of Tallinn) and Klaus Troitzsch (Emeritus Professor, University of Koblenz) have participated in the first Steering Committee and group workings plans and actions.
ECPR RNPA aims to become a European research group able to emphasize and endorse the work, trends, and resources for political anticipation research in Europe and the world. This research network aims to find the appropriate answers to the need of political science community to approach the strong phenomena which are shaking the Europe and the world: the increased relevance of the advanced technologies of the artificial in society and citizens' social life and political participation, the global pandemics, the war in Ukraine, the decline of democracy and the rise of populism and extremism, and the climate change and migration are but few of the visible and non-visible, predictable and non-predictable phenomena and some of the strong challenges of the future.
While this future appears threatening, it is still open to our choices and abilities to design a preferable future for politics, society, and human civilization. Political Anticipation aims at supporting this areas of research by stimulating the study of Anticipatory Democracy and Governance, and aggregating the students whose main research work is that of approaching this great challenge.
The ECPR Research Network on Political Anticipation aims at aggregating research fellows, research groups, and research works approaching all currently known paradigms of studying the possible, probable, wild, and preferable futures. Research which concerns issues of anticipation and is relevant for political research is rather distributed in many scientific areas either closely connected, like the social sciences or rather distant, like climate change or medical research.
In political research, the classic paradigm of prediction is still the most powerful with its enormous resources of impressive empirical data, analysis methodologies, and theory able to make prediction on various issues concerning future situations with the aim of avoiding or tackling risks, identify alternative solutions, and improve policy reach and outcome. However, the complexity of the real situation and phenomena goes far beyond determinism or even non-determinism. Future studies, also characterized as ‘possible’, ‘probable’ and – most interesting! – ‘preferable’ futures describe many areas in which theoretical and methodological research on anticipation has been developing.
Besides the aim of aggregating and unifying a corpus of theory and methodology in political anticipation, our research network aims at emphasizing the relevance and high utility of such studies for political science, especially at a time when digitalization not only that has penetrated all dimensions of our daily life, but has also raised questions on how the political organization, and participation would look like in this new era? – It is our aim to configure a European core of political anticipation research which could include students and experts from different areas but united by their interest in developing the necessary resources and types of expertise for the design of a political space of the future.
Our short-term objectives are therefore based on the idea of building up collaboration between individuals and groups developing research in various futures and anticipation areas in Europe and the world: participating in ECPR general conference and joint sessions of workshops would provide for the appropriate framework of collaboration which could foster communication and presentation of research issues and outcomes. Our new series of RNPA Lectures and Webinars, as well as our Newsletter would also add a conceptual space to this ECPR collaboration framework.
Our long-term objectives address the need for the foundation of projects, programs and institutions for political anticipation research which could systematically develop this ECPR framework. The elaboration of political anticipation packages of courses and seminars for the ECPR Winter and Summer Method Schools would be one of our fundamental objectives meant as a competence-building program.
RNPA Strategy of Participation in ECPR Events
Participating in the ECPR Academic Events:
1. Endorsing sections and panels for the annual ECPR General Conferences,
2. Organizing Joint Sessions of Workshops in which all relevant research centres in Europe and world could participate and present their ongoing research projects
3. Providing course packages on political anticipation for the ECPR Method School
4.Organizing competence-building projects and solutions for European and national institutions (National Governments, EU, OECD, Lisbon Council) interested in anticipatory approaches of decision making, policy making, approaching security risks and public threats, and increasing resilience of governance institutions
History of Participation in ECPR Events
2025 ECPR General Conference, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 26-29 August 2025
Section S09: "Anticipatory Democracy in Hybrid, Virtual and Immersive Environments"
Section Chairs:
Paula Espírito Santo Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas
Bruno Ferreira Costa University of Beira Interior
2023 ECPR General Conference, Charles University 4-8 September 2023
Section S07: "Anticipatory Approaches in Political Science: Anticipatory Approaches on Governance, Democracy and Public Values"
Section Chairs:
Holger Molder (Tallinn University of Technology)
Camelia Florela Voinea (University of Bucharest)
2022 ECPR Joint Session, University of Edinburgh & Online, 19-22 April 2022
Workshop VIR08: "Producing cultural change: how political populism and extremism can influence the development of international political and security environment?"
Chair:
Holger Molder (Tallinn University of Technology)
Co-Chair:
Camelia Florela Voinea (University of Bucharest)
Publications edited by RNPA members
Volume: "Producing Cultural Change in Political Communities.
The Impact of Populism and Extremism on the International Security Environment"
Editors:
Holger Molder (Technical University of Tallinn)
Camelia Florela Voinea (University of Bucharest)
Vladimir Sazonov (University of Tartu)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43440-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
Year: 2023