INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY |
Director: (This position is currently
vacant)
Tel.: 210 7491659 Fax: 210
7489801
Secretariat: M. Avramopoulou
Tel.: 210
7491658 Fax: 210
7489801
E-mail (Institute): inpos@ekke.gr
Profile - Aims - Basic Research Fields
The National Centre for Social Research
(EKKE) continues the work of the Athens Centre for the Social
Sciences, which was founded in 1959. It operates as a public entity
under public law and constitutes the most important state centre
for social research in Greece. The Institute of Political Sociology
operates as an autonomous organization since 1995, when the Act
1514/85 was put in effect and provided for the establishment of
autonomous institutes and directorates at EKKE. The directives
of the law have been realized in the development of research policy
and activity in four distinct scientific fields.
Research Fields
The Institute's research fields include:
- Political System, Public Administrations
and Political Institutions
- Information Society, Mass Communication
and Politics
- Political Culture and Political
Behaviour
- Social Institutions, Social Cohesion
and Integration
Within the framework of these four scientific
fields, the research activity of the Institute of Political Sociology
has been developed along the following issues:
Political and Social Institutions
Political Culture
Political Parties - Political Personnel
Pressure and Interest Groups
Planning of Public Policies
Information Society, Mass Media and Policy
Electoral Sociology and Electoral Geography
Nationalism - National Identity
Communication
Social Exclusion and Integration
Cultural Identity and Management of Cultural Resources
The Institute's
scientists and research personnel have developed their research
activities in the following areas:
- Political Sociology - Political
Science
- Sociology of Institutions
- Politics and Social History
- Sociology of Crime and Deviance
- Communication
The Institute of Political Sociology has developed
cooperation networks with research centres, universities and policy-making
institutions at national, international and european levels.
The Institute's Research Activity and Operational
Plan
The Institute has achieved to manage a series
of survey research that focus on political culture and electoral
behaviour (since 1985). It has also accomplished research on political
and social institutions, attitudes and values, migration, xenophobia
and racism. The political research at EKKE has also been oriented
at the institutional level, through the collection and classification
of full series of official electoral results in Greece, since
1926. At the same time, a completed archive of the Greek political
personnel has been constructed and is available through an updated
database.
The Institute participates in a wide range
of competitive european programs focusing on targeted and/or applied
research. As a result, research has been linked with important
state-policy issues relating to certain aspects of the Greek society
and its institutions. This practice has re-directed the Institute's
general scope, that is the systematic study of the relationship
between the changing social conditions and the crystallized political
institutions and behaviours, towards two focal study areas: the
modernization of public structures and institutions and the development
of issues relating to values, attitudes and practices that arise
from the new position of Greece in the european charter and its
new role in the Balkan area.
The research activity of the Institute has
created the preconditions for the Institute's linkage to Data
Networks and Research Teams all over Europe with contiguous research
interests in the broad area of electoral sociology and political
behaviour. This initiative has also established an important infrastructure
for the systematic and coherent study of current political and
social issues, within the framework of a permanent, stable, and
firm Political Observatory.
Participation in International Research
- Scientific Networks:
1. Comparative Charting of Social Change:
Universities and Research Centres from U.S.A., Canada, France,
Italy, Spain, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany and Greece - EKKE.
2. Euroreporting: Coordinator ZUMA - Manheim
and Paul Lazarsfeld - Society for Social Research, Vienna, Pan-european.
3. European Thematic Network of Political
Science: TN, Pan-european.
4. E.S.F.: European Social Survey
5. EUROMEDIA: Research Centres and Universities,
Paderbonn, Berlin, Bochum, Amsterdam, Vienna, Athens - EKKE.
6. ECN, European Communication Network.
7. Comparative National Election Studies:
Coordinator R.Gunther, Research Teams from U.S.A., Germany, Britain,
Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Chile, Argentina, Hungary, Poland - EKKE.
8. Operational Network Publishing the 'Social
Change Report', University of Virginia and Centre of Middletown
Studies - Indiana.
Synergies:
The Institute of Political Sociology, within
the framework of its agenda and through its research activities,
expands continuously the range of its cooperation with national
and international research institutes and public policy institutions
(Ministries, Public Entities, the National Statistical Service
of Greece, O.A.E.D., I.N.E./G.S.E.E., E.I.E., etc.). The collaboration
of the Institute's members and personnel in research projects
and networks led by other Institutes and Directorates at EKKE
has ensured a multi-dimensional research approach as in the case
of the 'Network and Research Project of Excellence on Poverty
and Social Exclusion and Discrimination' of the Institute of Social
Policy and the 'Node Development for Secondary Analysis and Administration
of Socio-Economic Indicators and Variables' of the Directorate
for Research Support (DYE).
Research Projects:
Target: POLITICAL SYSTEM - INSTITUTIONS
(Studies-research projects on the improvement of the efficiency
of the Public Administration, on social conflicts and social movements,
on political and social institutions such as political parties,
education, law, etc.).
Target: INFORMATION SOCIETY - MASS MEDIA AND POLITICS
(Studies-research projects on the consequences of the application
of information technology on public organization).
Target: POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR
(Studies - research projects on political and electoral behaviour).
Target: SOCIAL COHESION
(Studies on social exclusion and integration, political culture,
xenophobia, nationalism and criminality).
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