Research areas

Quality of democracy: analysing the many forms of governance

Challenges and transformations

Representative democracy, the cornerstone of modern political systems, faces unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. Understanding the multifaceted causes of these challenges is a crucial task for the social sciences, and for contemporary political science in particular.

The changing role of political players

The role of political parties and governments is changing. In a globalised world, the position of nation states within the European Union is developing. The forms and arenas of political participation are diversifying, while the rise of “populist” movements reflects a growing rejection of traditional political elites.

A return to the foundations of democracy

The aim of this theme is to analyse the formal and procedural conditions of democracy, the capacity of political institutions to meet these criteria, and the causes and consequences of democratic transformation. The research carried out under this heading includes a legal approach to democracy, theoretical reflections on the criteria of good government and an empirical analysis of political processes.

Key research areas

Using various approaches and methodologies, the work in this thematic area focuses more specifically on:

• Political representation (elections, parties and parliaments): These elements play a central role in representative democracy. This subfield examines the dynamics of representation, the challenges facing political parties and the changing role of parliaments in the 21st century.
• Beyond representation: The success of direct democracy practices and the growing importance of deliberative and participatory experiments in democracy are also prompting research to push back the boundaries set by our representative systems and analyse the principles, procedures and consequences of different democratic practices
• New spaces for democracy: This area of research explores the expansion of democratic principles into new spheres, such as the workplace (economic democracy) and the digital environment (e-democracy). In particular, the rise of digital technologies has had a profound effect on political life, opening up a field of research into the potential and challenges of e-democracy.
• Multi-level governance: With the deepening of the European Union and other supranational organisations, combined with territorial demands for autonomy and independence, the nation-state is being weakened. The analysis of democratic governance and the definition of several territorial levels is a fundamental dimension of the issues facing our contemporary societies. 
• Meeting the challenges of the 21st century. By examining the changing nature of representative democracy and the various challenges it faces, this theme contributes to a better understanding of contemporary political systems and the prospects for democratic renewal. Research conducted in this thematic strand provides valuable information to policy makers, researchers and citizens as they navigate the complex and dynamic political landscape of the 21st century.

International reconfiguration: advanced research into global dynamics

ESPOL-Lab’s ‘Reconfiguration of the international’ research area focuses on the changing landscape of world affairs, offering rich and diverse research on international security, migration, economic globalisation and North-South relations, with particular attention given to the place of the European Union in global change.

Beyond the traditional concept

The development of supranational organisations, international mobility and globalisation has considerably broadened the international dimension of many issues. While 50 years ago international affairs were confined to relations between states, today they have moved closer to the daily lives of citizens, even in times of peace. This area looks at the contemporary international dimension, including issues traditionally seen as domestic, such as migration and terrorism, as well as more traditional areas such as war and foreign policy.

Understanding international issues through a variety of approaches

The theme adopts different perspectives, enabling us to examine the impact of the internationalisation of issues on the domestic and foreign policies of states. The integration of these perspectives provides a deeper understanding of the contemporary challenges and opportunities facing the international community.

Key research areas:

The research carried out under this heading covers a wide range of thematic areas, including:

• International security. This sub-field explores the dynamics of security in the 21st century, examining the role of states (de facto or de jure), non-state actors and multilateral institutions in addressing global security challenges. It includes the analysis of armed conflicts, whether inter-state or civil wars, as well as the evolution of transnational terrorism and new forms of counter-terrorism.  
• Migration and borders. This second theme deals with various issues relating to the mobility of people, including political asylum, economic or environmental migration and the development of international law on these questions. The evolution of migration policies and the effects of migration on national politics are also important aspects of the research in this area.
• Europe and international organisations. This last theme analyses the role played by international and supranational organisations, their development and influence. Particular attention is paid to the European Union and its integration into international organisations and international issues.

Politics of the Anthropocene: economic and societal development in the face of the environmental crisis

The Anthropocene denotes a new geological epoch in the Earth’s history in which humans have become the main drivers of planetary-wide changes.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, plastic seas, overexploitation of natural resources, and other problems prompted by capitalist globalisation and wasteful lifestyles endanger the habitability of the planet. It characterises a fundamental change in the human-environment relation, as the human species dominates over biological and geological processes on Earth. This in turn points to the political and social implications of the Anthropocene concept.

Politics of and for the Anthropocene

In our work, we focus, first, on the politics of the Anthropocene from different perspectives. The changing relations of nature and society shed light on the acceleration of contradictions and dualist divisions as a way of organising these relations under capitalist conditions (e.g. North/South, nature/culture, men/women, us/them, human/non-human).

The idea of the Anthropocene brings to the fore the political necessity for thinking our relations to the environment in the era of advanced capitalism. This second strand of work focuses on politics for the Anthropocene. In response to the challenges of the Anthropocene, human societies must question power relations and rethink their principles and practices to navigate away from critical tipping points in planetary natures.

Key research areas

The work of this research area focuses on the Politics of and for the Anthropocene, including:

• Social and political responses to the environmental crisis,
• Governance of nexus problems (e.g. security-environment, food-water-energy) and navigating complexity and interdependences,
• Visions of sustainable development and just futures,
• Pathways towards transformation and collective change, relating to sustainable development and reorganisation of nature-society relationships.