Call for Papers: 17th ICPA-Forum and JCPA Workshop March 8-9, 2018

On March 8-9, 2019 Heidelberg University will host the 17th ICPA-Forum and JCPA workshop on “Issue politicization and policy change: Lesson-drawing the agriculture-food policy process” of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis (JCPA).

The goal of the JCPA workshop is to spark a structured theoretical debate on issue politicization and policy change, using the agri-food policy domain as a theory-generating case. Studies of policy change argue that politicization is an important factor in inducing learning and eventually policy change. Politicization is a situation in which an issue becomes subject to increased political attention and conflict with the consequence that there are demands on government for action. However, research on ‘wicked’ policy problems, for instance, has argued that politicization has an impeding effect for policy change. Moreover, the intensity of politicization varies widely depending on policy domain and social unit context.

Agri-food policy entails an enhanced potential for the comparative study of issue politicization. Issue politicization is formulated on the basis of a distinctive, compartmentalized and mutually reinforcing system of ideas, actors, institutional structures and policies, known as ‘exceptionalism’. In recent years, however, a ‘post-exceptional’ policy process has emerged, in which the policy agenda has been considerably broadened in the agri-food domain with agricultural policy issues now interlinking with other policy domains and national policy domains and opening up to the influence of new global discourses, ideas and governance arrangements. New policy actors have been mobilized, new policy alliances are being formed, and new ideas are being brought into the policy debate.

We hypothesize that the transition from a closed (‘exceptionalist’) to a more open (‘post-exceptionalist’) policy subsystem entails and is driven by an enhanced potential for politicization and therefore offers a good laboratory for learning about the relationship between politicization and policy change.

The workshop welcomes comparative policy contributions either between social unites or cases from which lessons can be drawn or between countries or regions. The papers may include – but are not limited to – theoretical considerations and new empirical insights regarding:

• the relationship between politicization and policy change in agri-food policy processes;
• the different causal mechanisms that connect politicization and policy change; and
• the actor characteristics (e.g. framing capacities, moral authority, localization in the policy domain) that influence politicization.

The workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss papers in a detailed and systematic comparative manner. In preparation of the workshop, a theoretical framework paper will be provided in order to frame and guide the theoretical agenda.

Papers presented at the workshop will have to follow the Aims and Scope of the JCPA and either of its criteria, be of highest academic standards, and contribute to the disciplinary and comparative policy domains. In evaluating paper proposals for the workshop preference will be given to those that are explicitly comparative in scope and methodology. Papers are eligible to be included in a special issue of the JCPA, guest edited by the workshop convenors. The submission and acceptance process will follow the Journal’s standard reviewing process towards potential publication ( www.comparativepolicy.org )

Workshop Information
Key Dates:

• Abstract submission: December 5, 2018 (300-400 words)
• Joint workshop steering committee will review the abstracts and announce selection results: December 12, 2018
• Distribution of the full syllabus, JCPA’s manuscript submission guidelines and the common theoretical framework paper: December 20, 2018
• Submission of accepted papers: February 10, 2019
• Registration deadline: February 20, 2019
• Internal review by conveners and feedback (which will be discussed in detail at the workshop): February 28, 2019

Registration information:  The workshop includes refreshments during the workshop and a complimentary reception following. The workshop fee for all participants (presenters, discussants and other attendees), is $250. For Student Rates, contact secretary@comparativepolicy.org . The fee includes membership to the ICPA-Forum and all related benefits as well as a FREE annual subscription to the  Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis .