26.02.2010
Bridging the gap between political theory and practice
How are political decisions made in the European Union? What interests ultimately dominate - and why? - These are the kind of questions which will be addressed by the"Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models" (EITM) European Summer School, which is scheduled to be held at the University of Mannheim from 21 June through to 5 July this year. The EITM courses will mainly be taught by US American lecturers. The programme is intended to bridge the gap between theory and practice, to familiarise participants with new methods and to support the professional development of up-and-coming scholars working in international research settings.
The first European EITM was held in Mannheim last year at the initiative of political scientist Prof. Thomas König. "Our aim is to reproduce in Europe the outstanding training opportunities provided for young academics by the top Ivy League American universities. 36 people from eleven European countries and the USA took part in the European EITM in 2009. We also anticipate receiving applications for this year's summer school from highly-qualified scholars from Germany and abroad," explains the initiator, Prof. Thomas König. Invitations are extended to doctoral students and potential applicants who have recently acquired their PhDs in any field of political science, economics, sociology or psychology. Applications must be submitted by 1 April 2010. According to the University of Mannheim, until last year, courses of this kind were only offered by the US universities Stanford, Duke, Michigan, Berkeley, Washington University, UCLA and Harvard.
The programme will primarily focus on political economy, a field in which the University of Mannheim was recently awarded the collaborative research unit 884 entitled "The Political Economy of Reforms" from the German Research Foundation. The new EITM course programme will enable the university to contribute to the debate on how theoretical models which explain political decision-making and strategic behaviour can be empirically better understood. The EITM Summer School is supported by the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), Washington University in St. Louis and the Mannheim Graduate School for Economic and Social Sciences (GESS).
