It is a pleasure to invite you to the annual Congress of the SPSA 2022, organized by the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne. It will take place on the campus of the University of Lausanne on the 3rd and 4th of February 2022.
The general conference theme will be focused on the politics of crisis. Since the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 is profoundly affecting our everyday life and raises numerous questions on the social and political implications of the pandemic, and the political responses to this public health crisis. Despite the singularity of the current crisis, it also requires addressing broader questions in relation to ongoing political, social, economic, financial, and environmental transformations. More specifically, what are the impacts of crises like the COVID-19 on the public opinion? What are political actors’ strategies from the local to the transnational level? How do crises affect public policy and multilevel governance arrangements? How do countries and national institutions and political actors react to these disruptions? How have these changes affected political processes and outputs? What may explain divergences or similarities in these reactions? Is it possible to distinguish between short term reactions to an urgent situation, and more long-term impact on the functioning of public policy and politics in general?
Some of these questions will be addressed during the plenary session with a specific focus on the political impact of COVID-19. The keynote speech will be held by Giliberto Capano, Professor of Public Policy at the University of Bologna, specialist in public administration and public policy in comparative perspective. His recent works specifically relate to the political reactions to COVID-19 in Italy and abroad.
The keynote speech will be followed by a roundtable dealing with the broader issue of crisis management (including for instance the climate emergency and the financial crisis).