Welcome
Dear friends and colleagues,
I am grateful to IPS for the opportunity for sharing with you a few considerations on our professional and scholarly agenda. Political science is fast growing in our country, as the figures from Stefania Panebianco’s article in IPS previous issue so clearly show. More members are joining our association, more articles and books are being published, political science is being taught in a growing number of Faculties across Italy. This expansion is all the more important as it comes at a time of deep institutional uncertainty. Recruitment has been slacking, the overall framework of university degrees is undergoing one more dramatic change, research funding is becoming more and more meager. In spite of so strong structural constraints, our discipline is getting healthier. Where does our energy come from? Three factors, in my view, play a major role in spurring the growth of Italian political science.
One first factor is the consolidation of Ph.D. Programs all over the country. The Florence Conference, last June, brought together over 50 students attending doctoral programs at different universities, for an unprecedented session of intensive training and discussion. For all of these young researchers, English is the lingua franca for most of their teaching and reading. This is a tremendous leap forward, both in numbers and quality, when compared to the situation we had only 10 years ago.
The second factor is internationalization. Young scholars who choose to venture today into our discipline take for granted that their research and academic environment is international. This is also the case for the more senior members of the profession. Taking part to international conferences, research networks, associations, boards is nowadays a routine activity for all PS Italian tenured professors.
The third factor is communication. Our scholarly community is becoming more and more tightly networked. The explosion of Internet as a new learning and research environment has multiplied occasions and locations for sharing research interests, projects, results. We are entering a new age of knowledge. As a relevant portion of all scientific literature is available at the fingertips by surfing on the Web, access to the new «libraries without walls» is no more a privilege. Making the best of Internet is a major intellectual as well as professional challenge. A challenge I am ready to take upon myself as the President of the Italian Political Association.
I’ll bring to this task the experience and the enthusiasm I have developed, through the past decade, directing a number of web-based projects. Most of you may be already familiar with IPSAPortal, an official publication of the International Political Science Association, offering an authoritative guidance to electronic sources for students and scholars worldwide (www.ipsaportal.net) . IPSAPortal is also published in a printed version, as a handbook to keep on your desk and browse at your own convenience, and is freely available to all interested scholars. Along with the colleagues on the SISP Executive Committee, we are now working at a new improved release of our association’s website. Please, send your suggestions and advice. It is a new challenging journey into a world of more open and better networked scholarship. Welcome aboard!
Mauro Calise
Chairman of SISP
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