Research activity in Political Science and Sociology

The PhD in Political Science and Sociology of the Scuola Normale Superiore develops upon the long and positive experience of the doctorate in political science at the SUM. The location at the Scuola Normale Superiore of the new PhD allows however for very important innovations in particular in terms of its very marked multidisciplinary nature. The PhD program is offered by a consortium of SNS and the University of Bologna. The main research areas which have been singled out are organized around the following topics.

Participation, democracy and society

In this area, sociological and political science competences converge around political sociology, which bridges the two disciplines through its main focus on the reciprocal influence of political and social transformations. Social movements, civil society, participative democracy, political violence, new social media and conflicts are the main concepts addressed in the teaching and research activities. In the best European tradition, the methodological approach will be sensitive to the historical, institutional and cultural specificities, but also oriented to the development of theory.

Comparative/global public policy and international governance

This area addresses, in an innovative way, themes such as the comparative analysis of public policies; the global dimension of public policies; the multilevel governance of public policies, that is of the structural and processual characteristics that influence how public politics are decided and implemented in multilevel institutional processes (from the sub-national to the national, and from the supra-national to the international ones, with due attention to the European Union); the structure of regimes and dynamics of international politics and the ways through which they influence the national policy agendas (not only foreign policy and defence, but also migration policies, social policies, public health policies, educational policies, energies policies and policies of economic development).

Politics, institutions and public opinion in a multilevel polity

This area develops around the central interest on the relations between governors and governed and of its variation in relations to regimes and forms of government, which gains an innovative character in relations in particular in relation to the challenges addresses to the nation states (and therefor to the relation between governors and governed) by economic, cultural and political globalization, and the development (especially in Europe) of a deeper supranational integration.

This PhD programme is entirely taught in English.




10 scholarships
People




Coordinator: Giliberto Capano




This PhD programme  is entirely taught in English
The activities will be held at the seat of Florence




Scuola Normale Superiore
Palazzo Strozzi
Piazza degli Strozzi
50123 Firenze




Donatella Della Porta, SNS
Stefano Marmi, SNS
Ilaria Pavan, SNS
Stefano Bartolini, Università di Bologna e Istituto Universitario Europeo
Mauro Calise, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II
Giliberto Capano, Università di Bologna Maurizio Cotta, Università di Siena
Maurizio Cotta, Università di Siena
Klaus Eder, Humboldt Universitaet Berlin
Giancarlo Gasperoni, Università di Bologna
Piero Ignazi, Università di Bologna
Pierangelo Isernia, Università di Siena
Lorenzo Mosca, Università Roma Tre
Davide Natali, Università di Bologna
Philippe Schmitter, European University Institute
Luca Verzichelli, Università di Siena
Claudius Wagemann, Frankfurt am Main