To mark the anniversary of 150 years since the establishment of the University of Bucharest as a higher education institution and recalling its own interdisciplinary origins, as well its academic freedom and scientific curiosity values, the Faculty of Political Science, through its research centres, and its partners initiated SCOPE: SCIENCE OF POLITICS – International Interdisciplinary Conference of Political Research.

THE INTERDISCIPLINARY VOCATION OF POLITICAL SCIENCE(S)

LA VOCATION INTERDISCIPLINAIRE DES SCIENCES POLITIQUES

VOCAŢIA INTERDISCIPLINARĂ A ŞTIINŢELOR POLITICE

The informed reflections upon political life, ideas, interactions and outputs have never been the exclusive privilege of one type of approach or intellectual inclination. With the emergence and subsequent consolidation of political science(s) as an academic discipline since the late 19th century, such reflections have transformed into more rigorous and methodologically-concerned analyses that have generated a tremendous amount of knowledge and structure within a very diverse field of inquiry. The existence of different genealogies, traditions and even different names for our discipline, as well as the pressure of certain scientific canons have fueled the search for delimiting better the shape of our community and strengthening its public voice, including through the establishment of national and international professional associations of political research or political scientists. However, the quest for boundaries has also built walls that sometimes have hindered the dialog either within the discipline or with academic and professional communities outside it, diminishing thus its innovation and reproduction capacity.

Against this background and aiming to examine the state of discipline and the future our scientific community in an interdisciplinary context, we invited submissions of papers, panels and round tables on subjects relevant for political research. All topics, themes, schools of thought, disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches were invited, as long as the proposals were relevant for contemporary political research and scientifically articulated. Some proposals were structured around more traditional research clusters such as political theory, comparative politics, international relations, public policy, political history, political sociology, political anthropology, political psychology or political methodology. At the same time, the organizers encouraged the submission of papers and panels that bridge such traditional groupings and that are built around major, timely or innovative political science concepts or around hybrid topics and research areas that have a highly interdisciplinary focus such as, but not limited to, university and politics, technology and politics, art and politics, gender studies, and international development. Round tables and workshops on the state of our discipline, or the challenges and opportunities that political science profession(s) currently exhibit were also welcomed.