The department is happy to host and participate in a number of recent and ongoing research projects that often involve cooperation with different universities. Our faculty members are also involved in a number of international research consortia that are funded through the European Union's Framework Programme or other external funding agencies. Please browse the links below for more information.
Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine (CELAB) - Judit Sandor
The interdisciplinarity of the issues of ethics and law of science and technology create a unique intersection of research fields also at the Central European University, where more and more students choose a topic in bioethical and scientific ethical issues. Their interest in this interdisciplinary domain is indicative of the growing importance of this field of study. To promote research and teaching in the field of bioethics and biomedical law in 2005 CEU established the Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedicine. The Center shall assist scholars and students in their ongoing research and represent the University in international research consortia.
Center for the Study of Imperfections in Democracy (DISC) - Carsten Schneider
The research center DISC was established at Central European University in 2007, to develop and encourage research that reaches across traditional academic and geographic boundaries that exist in the study of democracy by connecting researchers from distinct world regions and from various fields and perspectives. The present challenges and changes give rise to serious concerns about political accountability and democratic performance that signal an imperative and critical need for learning more about the present and future state of democracy. DISC aims to advance the state of research and teaching on democracy to address the challenges faced in present-day democracies through research projects, educational programs,lecture series, and conferences.
Political Economy Research Group (PERG) - Student and Faculty Members
The mission of PERG is to foster collaborative research among the CEU faculty and students doing research in the tradition of political economy. The primary focus of PERG are varieties of capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe. During teaching semesters PERG convenes weekly seminars for faculty, students and visitors. PERG members also maintain a public blog commenting on issues of interest and a gated research blog for its members.
Political Behavior Research Group (POLBERG) - Student and Faculty Members
POLBERG is a research-facilitating and learning environment for the study of political behavior and political communication. It organizes regular seminars with paper presentations, replication seminars, and more informal talks on research methods and emerging research agendas. The events are open to students and faculty from any CEU department as well as interested scholars at other academic institutions, and offer them the opportunity to discuss their own research with a specialist audience.
Integrated and United? A Quest for Citizenship in an Ever Closer Europe (INTUNE) - Gabor Toka
The IntUne project is one of the few Integrated Projects on the theme of Citizenship financed by the European Union within the scope of the 6th Framework Programme. IntUne is a four year project which officially started on the 1st September 2005 and is coordinated by the University of Siena. It involves 29 European Institutions and over 100 scholars across Eastern and Western Europe.The following fields of research are represented among the current faculty of the Political Science Department (broad keywords are followed by more specific signals about areas of research interest):
Diversity and the European Public Sphere. Towards a Citizens' Europe (EUROSPHERE) - Andras Bozoki
EUROSPHERE is a European Commission-funded Integrated Project within the 6th Framework Programme. The EUROSPHERE Consortium comprises 17 European universities and research institutes and approximately 150 researchers will be working in the project's different parts and phases. The project is coordinated by the University of Bergen. The overall objective of EUROSPHERE is to develop innovative perspectives on the European Public Sphere and to identify the factors which facilitate or hinder the articulation of a European Public Sphere. The research plan comprises synchronized data collection and analysis activities in 16 countries as well as creation of a Eurosphere Knowledge Base.
The Determinants of Active Civic Participation at European and National Level (CIVICACTIVE) - Gabor Toka
CivicActive is a European Sixth Framework Research Programme which scientific objective is to analyse the individual and societal factors that affect active civic participation. The project has 14 partners and is coordinated by the National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland. A closer description of the project can be found here.
Regenerative medicine in Europe: emerging needs and challenges in a global context (REMEDIE) - Judit Sandor
The globalisation of regenerative medicine is gathering pace yet has not been examined with respect to its medium and long-term implications for European regulators, the corporate and clinical sectors or patients located within different member states. Over the coming years it is hypothesised that the global pace of change in this field will be extensive, though uneven, and this needs to be both tracked and assessed to provide basic empirical and analytical research results to be made available to healthcare systems across Europe. ...more.
EUROPOLIS: A deliberative polity-making project - Gabor Toka
The project intends to test whether deliberative democracy can contribute to address the democratic deficit in Europe, with particular reference to the next European parliamentary elections. EuroPolis is a carefully designed experiment that assesses how political and social attitudes toward EU issues change as a result of exposure to information, and what implications this has for political participation and voter turnout. Read more.
Towards a “Topography” of Tolerance and Equal Respect (RESPECT) - Andres Moles
Tolerance has been increasingly invoked as the inspiring ideal of a number of social policies in European democracies. Appeals to tolerance have animated especially the political debates on those policies addressed to accommodate minorities’ requests. Among such requests those for the allocation of public spaces have recently acquired pride of place in the political agendas of many European and extra-European countries (e.g. the allocation of space for Roma sites; Muslims’ requests to build places of worship and housing policies for migrants). Despite such a generalized political and societal relevance of the notion of tolerance, some problems may occur when policies inspired by it are implemented. Read more.
Tiss.EU is a European Union funded project, coordinated by the Department for Ethics and History of Medicine, University of Göttingen, whose aim it is to evaluate legislative and regulatory documents in relation to the procurement, storage and transfer of human tissue and cells for research in the European Union. The project commenced on the 1st April 2008 and this portal will provide information on the progress made and the resources available. More information can be found here.
Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe (RECWOWE) - Anil Duman
The paramount objective of RECWOWE is to create a new, tightly integrated and durable European research network capable of overcoming the fragmentation of existing research on questions of work and welfare. Since the late 1970s, both labour markets and welfare regimes have been under intense economic pressures and challenged by profound changes in social and demographic structures, as well as societal norms. The relationship between these two domains has altered and increasingly become conflicting in many European countries, partly as a consequence of emerging post-industrial labour markets which are gradually embedded in welfare states shaped by and for industrial societies. In their recent developments, labour markets and welfare systems appear to have becoming increasingly disconnected. More information can be found here.
European Living Organ Donation (EULOD) - Judit Sandor
The aim of EULOD is to document living donation activity throughout Europe, both the extent to which living donors are used for transplants, and the relationships between donors and recipients that are accepted. Researchers want to investigate the obstacles that prevent the use of living donors, to highlight living donation as a way of increasing availability of organs for transplants, and to produce guidelines that improve the quality and safety of living organ donation in Europe. More information can be found here.
Institutional Changes and Trajectories of Socio-Economic development Models (ICaTSEM) - Anil Duman
ICaTSEM is a collaborative research project granted by the European Commission (7th Framework Programme). The aim of the project is to analyze, within a comparative institutionalist analytical framework, the trajectories of socio-economic development models. Comparative analyses of forms of capitalism have underlined the diversity in institutional configurations. Within the EU, it is assumed that four types of socio-economic models exist: market-oriented, continental, Nordic, and Southern, with the position of transitional CEEC under discussion. The project will reconstitute the historical trajectories of these socio-economic models, in order to understand how their institutional configuration mediates the synergies and tradeoffs between the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. More info here.
Training Network in Electoral Democracy (ELECDEM) - Gabor Toka
The Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) brings together 11 expert teams from 9 European countries to provide substantive and methodological training in elections research to a cohort of early stage and experienced researchers. ELECDEM takes a comprehensive approach to the study of electoral democracy using cross-nationally comparative databases, content analysis and experiments in order to examine the impact of globalization, technological developments in communication and institutional change on representation and accountability.