Soziologie

From 8 to 11 September 2026 the working group Comparative Politics & Public Policy was represented at the General Conference of the European Consortium for Political Research (EPCR) in Kraków.

Sonja Blum, Maria Paulina Arnal and Nora Habelitz participated in discussions about public policy, expertise, the Narrative Policy Framework and emotions in policymaking at the Jagiellonian University.

Sonja Blum presented joint research with Sooahn Meier and Oussama Meftha titled “From Knowledge to Prescription: International Organisations’ Engagement and Normative Underpinnings in Work–Family Policy” in a panel on “The Organization and Governance of Knowledge”.

In a panel on “Policy Conflicts in the Policy Studies”, Nora Habelitz presented ongoing research as part of her Phd titled “What drives heated climate policy conflicts? Policy Narratives and Emotionalization in Italy’s Superbonus and the German Heating Law”.

Sonja Blum and Nora Habelitz chaired a panel on "Conflicts Around Energy Transitions in Europe: Policy Narratives and Policymaking Dynamics", with presentations by Johanna Künzler, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland and Kanerva Kuokkanen, University of Helsinki. They also presented ongoing research as part of the CIDAPE project in their paper “Fueling Digital Climate Conflict: Actors and Policy Frames in TikTok Debates on Energy and Mobility Transformation” by Fabienne Lind, Veronika Ebner, Nora Habelitz, Sonja Blum, Linda Coufal.

A roundtable on “Public Policy in the Face of Political Uncertainty and Radicalisation” discussed the pathways for public policy scholarship in light of crises and uncertainty, including speakers Johanna Hornung, Phillipe Zittoun, Nora Habelitz, Patrick Hassenteufel, Evangelia Petridou and Julián Salazar.

We thank the ECPR’s public policy standing group for organizing great discussions and are already looking forward to next year!