SWEPSA 2026

MDU-chair: Anna Johansson External link.

Co-chair: Ylva Norén Bretzer, University of Gothenburg

This working group explores how political systems, public institutions, and communities govern uncertainty, crisis, and transformation. We welcome theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions on crisis preparedness, risk and crisis governance, resilience, and the politics of security and recovery.

A particular focus of the group is the implementation and evaluation of preparedness reforms—especially in relation to civil protection and the evolving system of total defence in Sweden and beyond. We invite papers that connect local, national, and transnational perspectives on risk and crisis governance and that examine how reforms are translated into organisational routines, inter-agency coordination, and street-level practices.

Relevant themes include crisis learning, civil protection and total defence, administrative capacity and accountability under stress, organisational and community resilience, critical infrastructure protection, risk communication, and governance transformations triggered by compounded crises.

MDU-chair: Gustav Sundqvist External link.

Co-chair: Hanna Bäck, Lund Universi

This working group examines how democratic institutions, norms, and practices are evolving amid contemporary challenges including democratic backsliding, rising authoritarianism, geopolitical instability, and technological disruption.

We invite papers that analyze the resilience, adaptation, or erosion of democratic systems during periods of crisis and transformation. Key themes include institutional trust, governance reforms, and electoral integrity; patterns of political participation, democratic innovations, and civic mobilization; political polarization and affective divides; the spread of disinformation and misinformation in digital environments and the resulting challenges to information integrity and epistemic trust; as well as foreign interference, authoritarian influence, and illiberal governance practices.

We also welcome analyses of democratic responses to emergencies, including pandemics, military conflicts, economic crises, and climate change, that examine tensions between effective governance and democratic accountability.

We particularly encourage contributions that bridge theoretical frameworks with empirical analysis, employ comparative or cross-national perspectives, or utilize innovative methodologies including mixed methods designs, computational approaches, and experiments. Both established and emerging scholars are invited to submit a proposal. 

MDU-chair: Terence Fell External link.

Co-chair: Nils Hertting, Uppsala University/Institute for Housing and Urban Research

With the ambition of blowing life into one of SWEPSA’s “golden oldies”, the Urban Politics and Citizenship (UPC) working group (WG) has now been resurrected. It reaches out to political scientists with a background in a wide variety of traditional subject areas that share a research interest in UPC such as political theory, Swedish politics, comparative politics, public administration and policy, and international relations.

We also invite researchers from other academic disciplines with similar interests. With awillingness to participate in a critical dialog on urban development, the UPC-WG constitutes an arena that provides an opportunity for researchers to both confer and gain new insights on urban processes.

We invite you, firstly, to contribute a draft paper on any subject that touches on UPC and, secondly, to discuss the contributions of your colleagues. In this way, we can address any relevant, current, and urgent topics intrinsic to urban development locally and globally.

These topics are, in turn, related to the “causes and effects” associated with the spatial exclusion as well as stigmatization and vulnerability of marginalized segments of the population. In this context, and indeed in the wider urban context, issues of class, ethnicity and citizenship dominate. For this reason, we invite contributions that analyse the role politics, urban governance, housing policy, resident engagement and participation plays in the urban drama.

MDU- chair: Anna-Karin Eriksson External link.

Co-chair: Jaakko Turunen, Södertörn University, Rolf Hugson, Umeå University

The worldwide rise of populism and authoritarianism make the aesthetic dimensions of politics increasingly visible. Beginning with the premise that politics – and collective action – has an aesthetic, or sensory, dimension manifested in the ways how different regimes of visibility and experience are structured and how they come to shape how political issues, processes, subjects, and spaces are communicated, this working group builds on diverse theoretical traditions, inviting contributions that examine how aesthetic practices, semiotics, and culture function as modes of governance and modalities of resistance. Artistic interventions informing political practice, digital politics, the role of images and platform aesthetics, memes, design, protest in urban spaces, and the politics of visibility and occlusion are all equally welcome as well as political attempts to steer and regulate culture and aesthetic experiences in society. The working group is open to both empirical and theoretical submissions, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. Bringing together scholars working across the social sciences and humanities, our aim is to foster dialogue about the aesthetic dimensions of politics and the political dimensions of aesthetics

MDU-chair: Jonas Hultin Rosenberg External link.

Co-chairs: Jörgen Ödalen, Uppsala University/MDU and Siri Sylvan, Uppsala University

This working group welcomes submissions in political theory broadly conceived, including normative theory, the history of political thought, and theoretical analyses of contemporary political and policy problems. We invite papers addressing fundamental political concepts such as justice, democracy, and legitimacy, as well as theoretical perspectives on, e.g., sustainability, technology, and global challenges. The group is open to diverse methodological and philosophical approaches and aims to foster dialogue across traditions.

MDU-chair: Jakob Schwörer External link.

Co-chair: Thomas Karv, Mid Sweden University

This working group focuses on research concerning political behaviour, elections, and political parties. We welcome normative, theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions that explore voting behaviour, participation, representation, party competition, political communication, and social movements. Comparative and case-based studies are equally encouraged, as are papers examining trust, ideology, and new forms of political engagement.

MDU-chair: Joakim Johansson External link.

Co-chair: Josefina Eriksson, Uppsala University

This workshop brings together scholars interested in gender-focused analyses of power and politics. We welcome contributions from a wide range of methodological approaches that use gender or sexuality as analytical categories, draw on intersectional perspectives, or integrate gender analysis more broadly into political inquiry.

The workshop invites theoretical, methodological, and empirical work from all subfields of political science and encourages interdisciplinary engagement. In particular we welcome contributions that engage with various aspects of Swedish gender equality policy, masculinity studies, or explore intersections between disability and gender.

MDU-chair: Tobias Johansson-Berg External link.

Co-chair: Vicki Johansson, Gothenburg University.

This working group explores the politics of policymaking, public administration, and governance across levels and sectors. We invite theoretical and empirical papers examining how policies are designed, implemented, and evaluated; how governance networks operate; and how administrative capacity, accountability, effectiveness, and legitimacy evolve in times of change. The group encourages comparative work and welcomes both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Chair: Anna Michalski, Uppsala University

Co-chair: Linda Berg, University of Gothenburg

This working group covers research on European politics in a broad sense, including European integration, EU institutions, policy processes, and the EU’s role in global politics. We welcome papers addressing political dynamics within and between EU member states, as well as studies of legitimacy, governance, and democracy in the European context.

The group invites theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions, and encourages cross-disciplinary perspectives.

MDU-chair: Laura Pantzerhielm External link.

Co-chair: Roxanna Sjöstedt, Lund University

This working group welcomes papers on all aspects of International Relations, global governance, security studies and international political sociology.

The group encourages contributions on a wide range of empirical topics, such as diplomacy, foreign policy, peace and conflict, security, international institutions, international law, development, trade and financial relations, humanitarian affairs and IR history. It is open to diverse methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives and epistemologies.

Contributions that address the future of IR as a discipline, aim to push key theoretical and conceptual debates in the field or seek to make sense of contemporary uncertainties, disruptions and transformations of the international realm are particularly welcome.

MDU-chair: Martin Karlsson External link.

Co-chair: Monika Berg, Örebro University

This working group focuses on the political dimensions of environmental- and climate change issues at local, national, and global levels. We invite papers addressing environmental governance, green transformations, sustainability transitions, and environmental justice.

Contributions may explore the role of institutions, policy innovation, public opinion, and social movements in shaping environmental outcomes. The group welcomes conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work from all methodological traditions.

MDU-chair: Zelal Bal External link.

Co-chair: Malin Holm, Uppsala University/Stockholm University

This working group welcomes research drawing on critical approaches to study politics, power, and knowledge production. We invite theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions informed by post-structuralism, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, Marxism, new materialism, postcolonialism or related traditions.

Papers may address issues of oppression/domination, governing practices, subjectivity, normativity, embodiment, as well as emancipation and resistance in contemporary or historical contexts. The group seeks to foster dialogue across subfields and theoretical perspectives.