STEP AHEAD - American Political Science Association

STEP AHEAD

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: STEP Ahead is the official newsletter of the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section of the American Political Science Association. The newsletter contains valuable information on conferences and symposia, jobs and fellowships, publishing information, and items of special interest to members of the section.

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CONTENTS

APSA WRAP-UP CALLS FOR PAPERS CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS TEACHING STEP

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CONTENTS

EDITORIAL OPPORTUNITIES

STEP MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

RECENT ARTICLE PUBLICATIONS

NEW BOOKS

MEET THE APSA STEP AHEAD NEWSLETTER TEAM

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APSA WRAP-UP

HOW TO MAKE CONFERENCING CLIMATE FRIENDLY:

A PROPOSAL FROM THE STEP DIVISION

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CLIMATE FRIENDLY CONFERENCING

BACKGROUND

As scholars who focus on environment and climate, members of the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section are keenly aware not only of the urgency of the climate crisis but also of our own carbon footprints, of which airline travel typically contributes the largest share. At the 2019 Annual Meeting, STEP members endorsed piloting options for low-carbon participation in the

2020 annual meeting, ideally with APSA's partnership and support. An informal group consisting of Brett Cease, Deserai Crow, Nives Dolsak, Kathryn Harrison, George Hoberg, Sarah Hughes, David Konisky, Aseem Prakash, and Deborah Seligson developed a proposal that the STEP division

could present to the APSA Secretariat.

STEP SURVEY

The working group sought formal feedback from STEP members and in October 2019, we conducted an online survey of STEP members' interest in participating in and/or attending online conference panels. We received 89 responses. Here

are the key findings:

80% of respondents indicate that they would consider submitting a proposal for an online conference presentation. 8% were opposed, others unsure.

73% would support the recording of their online presentations to make it available through APSA's website. 9% were opposed, 18% unsure.

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CLIMATE FRIENDLY

CONFERENCING

STEP SURVEY

There was a strong interest (77%) in virtual attendance in online panels among those who would not be attending the annual meeting in person. The figure was lower, 48%, for virtual participation "the same conference weekend," suggesting (not surprisingly) that respondents would be less likely to participate if they are at the annual meeting in person.

Roughly half of the respondents (52%) attended the 2019 annual meeting and at least 3 of the last 5 years. However, 48% of respondents have attended only once or twice in five years. This figure, of course, excludes political scientists who are not currently members of APSA, perhaps because they do not attend the annual meeting and thus are not required to join for that purpose.

A large fraction of respondents took advantage of the invitation to provide comments on the proposal. As with the numerical responses, the comments are overwhelmingly positive, though some raise concerns about the loss of networking opportunities, particularly for junior scholars. We would note that we are not proposing the complete replacement of the face-toface conference, but rather providing options for those who cannot afford or do not wish to fly.

We anticipate that STEP members' reluctance to attend will grow over time, as the climate crisis continues and awareness of flight emissions grows. The combination of the high level of interest in virtual participation among current members, half of whom do not usually attend the annual meeting, suggests to us that virtual panels have considerable potential to increase STEP members' engagement in the scholarly community offered by the APSA annual meeting, and potentially to increase STEP and

APSA membership.

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NEXT STEPS

The working group is presenting a plan of Action to STEP Executive. Once the plan is approved. STEP division will formally contact the APSA secretariat with

the following proposals:

Work with the STEP Section to pilot 4 fully-online panels at the 2020 annual meeting, ideally on the same day and in the same room. We will survey presenters as well as in-person and virtual attendees and would be happy to share our findings with other

sections.

Record the panels and make them available on APSA's gated website. We believe this would be desirable for other panels as

well (with presenters' permission).

Waive or set a nominal virtual/low-carbon registration fee (e.g,. $10). During the pilot, remote presenters and attendees will only be able to take advantage of the four panels.

Given the significance of flight emissions associated with the APSA annual meeting, we ask that registration includes an

offset fee, either calculated based on the registrant's location or based on an estimated average, with an opportunity for opting

out in recognition that participants may not be flying or may already have paid a carbon price for their flights.

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CALLS FOR PAPERS

THE SIXTH ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE CONFERENCE will take place June 25-28, 2020, hosted by the University of Oslo's Department of Political Science. From the organizers: "It is probably fair to say that some previous EPG conferences have attracted more quantitative than qualitative papers and more papers focusing on domestic policy or politics than papers addressing international issues. Hoping to obtain a balanced set of papers at the 2020 conference, we particularly call for more proposals of papers using a qualitative approach and more proposals focusing on international research questions. We emphasize, however, that quality will remain the principal selection criterion."

Paper proposals should consist of electronic submission of an anonymous PDF file with a detailed abstract (of no more than 1,000 words) outlining the research question, theory, data, and methods, along with the contributions to the field of environmental politics and governance. The abstract may include one table or figure, as appropriate. Works in progress only. Proposals should be submitted to epg-conf2020@stv.uio.no with the subject "EPG Proposal". Please list the author(s) in the body of the email submission. Deadline is January 15. For more information, visit .

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS

FROM SECTION CHAIR DESERAI CROW:

"Please consider submitting your proposal to the STEP section for the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting. Sarah Hughes (University of Michigan) is our section's conference chair this year and will look forward to receiving your proposals. As a reminder, January 14th is the deadline for submissions."

THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS (STEP) SECTION invites proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables that engage with this year's conference theme focused on the contemporary challenges of and to democracy. Proposals may seek to examine how evolving democratic institutions, growing polarization, and diverse populations are shaping political and policy outcomes in the STEP domain. Conversely, proposals may identify examples of action within the STEP domain to counter polarization and embrace equity and inclusivity. We particularly encourage proposals that exhibit theoretical and methodological diversity and interdisciplinarity.

THE 6TH ANNUAL DUCK FAMILY GRADUATE WORKSHOP for doctoral students working in the area of environmental politics and governance (EPG) will take place on May 13-15, 202 at the University of Washington's Center for Environmental Politics. This follows on the successful workshops that the Center hosted in previous years ( uploads/2019/05/CEP-Workshop-Program0514.pdf )

The EPG Grad workshop provides a venue for doctoral students to present their work, receive feedback, and network with others working on similar issues. Understanding the governance and political aspects of environmental issues is critical for addressing the gamut of environmental challenges. The politics of governance perhaps has become an even more critical factor in the changed political milieu. The multi-disciplinary nature of EPG research often makes it hard to share ideas, concepts, and research methods across relevant disciplines. We hope the annual Duck Family Graduate Workshop will help overcome these barriers and provide a multi-disciplinary venue for doctoral students to become active participants in the community of EPG scholars.

There are no workshop fees and the Center will pay for local expenses, namely each participant's food and shared hotel lodging (with two participants per room) for three nights, May 13, 14, and 15. Participants are responsible for travel expenses. The Center will, however, purchase carbon offsets for all.

This workshop will be most useful for doctoral students who have made substantial progress in their graduate studies: that is, they are able to present a fully developed paper or a chapter from their dissertation. The students need to submit: (1) an abstract (about 800 ? 1,000 words) of a paper/dissertation chapter to be emailed to envirpol@uw.edu (and cparr182@uw.edu) and (2) a letter of support from their graduate advisor to be emailed to envirpol@uw.edu (and cparr182@uw.edu). The deadline for submission is February 14, 2020. Should you have any questions, feel free to email Aseem Prakash; aseem@uw.edu or Christianna Parr (parr182@uw.edu).

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