Roundtable: IPS Belgium: ‘The Methodologies of IPS’ + Meet the Editors

The IPS Belgium Team is thrilled to announce its very first event:

When: June 3, 2022, starting at 14:00 (CET)

Where: the University of Antwerp (room S.B.002) and online

Roundtable - The methodologies of IPS: navigating between data and theories

Participants: Victoria Basham (Cardiff University), Julien Jeandesboz (Université Libre de Bruxelles - ULB) and Lucile Maertens (Université de Lausanne - UNIL)

Moderator: Benjamin Herborth (University of Groningen)

As a critical approach at the crossroads of International Relations and other disciplines, International Political Sociology (IPS) questions the ontological and epistemological assumptions of traditional IR concepts and theories. With key scholars in the discipline, this roundtable will explore the ontologies of IPS by addressing key methodological questions: how to conceptualize the data? How to operationalize the concepts? What is the role of interpretation, positionality and reflexivity in how we engage with data? Our aim is to question the neutrality of methods and to examine the tension between the search for objectivity and the subjectivity of procedures and techniques that are themselves constructed. A large array of methods is used within the IPS approach, including fieldwork, ethnography, archives, discourse analysis. How far can we trust these methods? By addressing these key questions, this roundtable hopes to engage with current and future challenges of international political sociology.

Followed, at 16:00, by:

Meet the editors: To Publish or to Perish? Turning research into publications

Participant(s): Victoria Basham (editor-in-chief, Critical Military Studies) and Julien Jeandesboz (editor, International Political Sociology)

This interactive session intends to provide early-career scholars with tips and strategies to successfully publish in international journals in IPS. After introducing the specificities of the journal(s), the editor(s) of Critical Military Studies and International Political Sociology will discuss the processes and procedures of submitting research papers to peer-reviewed journals in IPS. By discussing a range of questions from how to choose the right journal, what editors are looking for in the papers that are submitted for consideration, what are the common pitfalls, to how to deal with ‘reviewer 2’, the session intends to help early-career scholars boost their publication strategies.

The event will end with a reception where you will have the opportunity to have a drink and network with the participants.