Hello, everyone! Our Annual Conference is fast approaching, so please remember to register. We also have, as per usual, lots of news for you this month.
- Reminder: PSA Parliaments Annual Conference, Cardiff
- Opportunities
- Calls for papers
- Events
- Recent Publications and Resources
- On the Blog
- Overview of Parliaments Map
If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our group, please let us know.
Best wishes,
Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, Jack and Lauren
1. Reminder: PSA Parliaments Annual Conference, Cardiff
Our Annual Conference is fast approaching! We have a great line up of panels and an exciting schedule. If you are planning to attend, please register by 11 November, to help us plan attendance and catering. We look forward to seeing you in Cardiff!
Timetable
Thursday, 21 November 2024
- Noon–4 pm: Early-career workshop (Activity room, sbark|spark)
- 6–7.30 pm: Drinks reception in the Foyer of the Senedd – with a keynote address by the Deputy Presiding Officer David Rees MS
- 7.45 pm: Informal, self-sponsored dinner (restaurant TBC)
Friday, 22 November 2024
- 9 am–3.30 pm: Conference in the Pierhead Building
- 4–4.30 pm: Tour of the Senedd
For more details, updates and the full conference programme, please visit our website.
2. Opportunities
Call by Modernisation Committee
The new Modernisation Committee has launched a call for written submissions to hear from different groups, including academics, about ideas how to:
- drive up standards;
- improve culture and working practices; and
- reform Parliamentary procedures to make the House of Commons more effective.
The deadline is 16 December 2024 and all the details can be found here.
The UCL Public Policy team has provided useful tips about giving written and oral evidence to select committees here.
Call by the Electoral Matters Committee of the Parliament of Victoria (Australia)
The Electoral Matters Committee of the Parliament of Victoria (Australia) is calling for written submissions on possible changes to the electoral structure for the Victoria’s Upper House. Submissions can address any of the following questions:
- Should Victoria be divided into regions to elect members of the Upper House, or should all members be elected by the state as a whole?
- If there should be regions, how many regions should there be and how many members should each region elect?
- How many members of the Upper House should there be in total?
- Are there other changes to the way that members are elected to the Upper House that should be considered?
Submissions are due by 3 February 2025.
For more information or to make a submission, please visit the Committee’s webpage or contact the Secretariat at emc@parliament.vic.gov.au.
3. Call for papers
ECPR Joint Sessions Workshop: Beyond Parliamentary Recruitment: Gender and pathways to Power and Influence”, Charles University, 20-23 may, 2025
The workshop “Beyond Parliamentary Recruitment: Gender and Pathways to Power and Influence” is sponsored by the Standing Group on Parliaments and welcomes submissions that focus the complex interplay between gendered structures and resistances to greater diversity and inclusion.
Deadline for abstract submissions is November, 21.
Global Political Marketing and Management Conference 5-7 August 2025
The 2025 conference will be the first event for the Global Political Marketing and Political Management network and will be held at the University of Dundee – see the conference website: The call for paper/presentation proposals and registrations are now open. Contributions are welcome from academics and practitioners from any discipline, organisation and role as long as it is relevant to Political Marketing and Political Management, including discussion of the parliamentary workplace including MPs staff and HR as well as well being, so will be of interest to your members.
Please send your proposal to gpmmnetwork@dundee.ac.uk by 1 December to be in the first round of those considered for the conference.
4. Events
The Study of Parliament Group’s 60th Anniversary Conference – Westminster, 5 and 6 December 2024
Registrations are now open for the 60’s Anniversary Conference of the Study of Parliament Group. The Conference programme has been published on the SPG website and is attached to this email. Tickets are £25 for two days or £20 per day for SPG Members. Included in the ticket price is lunch and refreshments (including coffee and tea). All tickets are available through Event Brite.
Save the date! – 9th Conference of the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments: 2-4 July 2025, University of Barcelona
The conference will bring together senior and junior scholars of the field. The academic program will be complemented by a social program including a visit to the Catalan parliament! The conference conveners will soon be inviting proposals for individual papers and entire panels consisting of preferably four (or five) papers.
5. Recent Publications and Resources
Publications
- Margaret Arnott, “Scotland in the multi-national UK state: interpreting legislatures, decentred state, territorial governance” in The Journal of Legislative Studies
- Udit Bhatia, “The Pedagogical Account of Parliamentarism at India’s Founding”in the American Journal of Political Science
- Khemvirg Puente Martínez, “Origen y desarrollo de los estudios legislativos: temas, escuelas y tendencias” in Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales
- Danny Schindler & Oliver Kannenberg, “The institutionalisation of parliamentary party groups. Towards a concept” in The Journal of Legislative Studies
Book
- Professor Margaret Arnott recently published a book on the challenges of UK Interparliamentary/Intergovernmental Relations in the devolved UK: Arnott, M.A. (2024), Interparliamentary Relations and the Future of Devolution in the UK 1998-2018 with Emerald Publishing Limited. Please also note the Emerald Press podcast with Professor Arnott discussing the future of devolution in the UK.
Other Publications and Resources
- The Hansard Society has published: What’s the point of petitions? What the last century reveals about petitioning and people power in modern Britain?, written by Anna Bocking-Welch, University of Liverpool, Richard Huzzey, Durham University, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, University of Leeds, and Henry Miller, Durham University
- The Constitution Unit has recently published MPs’ Role in the Constitution: A Practical Guide by Meg Russell and Lisa James
- Bússola Tech in partnership with the Association of Secretaries-General of Parliaments, the Organization of American States, the Society of Clerks-at-the-Table Africa Region, and the Hellenic OCR Team, and with contributions from an international group of parliamentary experts have published a report on “Key Considerations of Artificial Intelligence in Parliaments”
If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Caroline with details.
6. On the Blog
- ‘The real cost of MPs’ security to constituency representation’ by Neil Matthews and Sean Haughey
We would love to have more contributions on our blog. If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer Jack.
7. Overview of Parliaments Map
We do not have any new contributions for our Overview of Parliaments Map this month but we are really looking forward for more.
For anybody who wishes to cover any of the countries not yet covered in our map, contact our communications officer Jack.