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The 3rd HO PhD Symposium on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus

14-15 June 2007

The 3rd PhD Symposium on Contemporary Greece took place at the LSE on the 14th and 15th June 2007 concentrating on the broad themes of ‘Structures, Context and Challenges’.

Due to popular demand and for academic reasons, this year’s symposium was extended to a second day. This turned out to be a very useful extension as this year we had more applicants to participate, and present, at the Symposium than in the previous two conferences held in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

In the final programme we had to schedule 28 panels over the two days, to accommodate over 110 presentations by PhD students, who were speaking on topics relevant to their current doctoral research or recently completed PhDs. The participating students came from the UK, Greece, the rest of Europe, North America, and Australia. We were equally lucky to able to draw on the high quality pool of Greek academics employed in UK universities to chair the panels and act as discussants on the papers of the student presenters.

Indeed, this is one of the main ambitions of the PhD Symposium; to allow doctoral students to discuss their research questions and thesis design with established academics from different institutions who may have some expertise in their area of interest.  In this way we hope to provide a forum for PhD students working in an area which may not be in them mainstream of the research community of their home institution to be exposed to debate and dialogue with established figures from other institutions and to use them as a sounding board for issues pertaining to their research. This is a significant complement to the other main ambition of the PhD symposium which is to bring together PhD students, who are conducting research on contemporary, and allow them to discuss their work, to exchange ideas, to create networks and to appreciate that they are not conducting their postdoctoral research in a vacuum – there are others out there with common interests, research questions and concerns.

The specialist panels covered a wider range of topics and were extremely well attended. Bracketing the panels session we had the pleasure of hosting three eminent plenary speakers. Professor Fotis Kafatos, President of the European Research Council (and Professor of Immunogenomics at Imperial College London) spoke on the general topic of Education, ‘Research and the Global Knowledge Society: Can Greece Compete?’ Our second plenary speaker was Professor George Tsebelis, Anatol Rapoport Collegiate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, whose lecture was entitled, ‘Veto Players and Greek Politics’. Last but not least we had the pleasure of hearing Professor Nikiforos Diamandouros, European Ombudsman and Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Athens. The title of his lecture was: ‘Confining Conditions, Critical Junctures and Evolutionary Breakthroughs: Reflections on Greece's Transition to Modernity’.

These three eminent scholars and public servants provided an excellent context and a variety of academic and intellectual influences and approaches which provoked much debate and discussion.

Supporters:

Most of all we would like to thank the sponsors of the event, the Onassis Foundation, Niarchos Foundation, and the Bodossaki Foundation for their generous support. Their assistance allowed us not only to host the event and invite eminent speakers, but most importantly to cover – as much as possible – the travel costs and expenses of the heart of the Symposium, the PhD students.

 

Programme

 

9:30 - 10:00

Thursday 14 June, 2007

Registration                             

10:00-10:15       

Welcome Address by Prof Kevin Featherstone (LSE)                     

10:15-11:30     

Plenary Session I: Education, Research and the Global Knowledge Society: Can Greece Compete?                   

11:30 -12:00 

Coffee Break                  

12:00-13:30

Panel Session I.

13:30-14:30

Lunch Break                       

14:30-16:00

Panel Meetings                       


16:00-16:30


Coffee Break

16:30-18:00

Panel Meetings            

18:00-19:15     

Plenary Session II: Veto Players and Greek Politics

19:15- 20:30

 Reception 



09:30-11:00      

Friday 15 June, 2007

Panel Meetings                  

11:00-11:30

Coffee Break                        

11:30-13:00     

Panel Meetings  

13:00-14:00  

Lunch Break      

14:00-15:15        

Plenary Session III: Confining Conditions,
Critical Junctures and Evolutionary
Breakthroughs: Reflections on Greece's
Transition to Modernity

19:15- 20:30

 Private Wine Reception 

 

Plenary Sessions

The plenary sessions took place at the Wolfson Theatre (New Academic Building, LSE) and were open to the public (non-participants). The purpose of these lectures was to allow the exchange of ideas between young researchers and scholars on issues related to Greece and Cyprus. We are extremely grateful to the A.G. Leventis Foundation, for  its generous support.

Plenary Session I: Education, Research and the Global Knowledge Society: Can Greece Compete?         

                Lecture 1              

Speaker:                  

Professor Fotis Kafatos, President of the European Research Council; Professor of Immunogeonomics at Imperial College London. 

Plenary Session II: Veto Players and Greek Politics   

Speaker:                  

Professor George Tsebelis, Anatol Rapoport Collegiate Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan, USA.     

Plenary Session III: Conflicting Conditions, Critical Junctures and Evolutionary Breakthroughs: Reflections on Greece's Transition to Modernity.     

Speaker:                  

Professor Nikiforos Diamandouros, European Ombudsman; Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Athens.   

Papers

DAY 1 - 14 June 2007

SESSION I

Panel 1 - Social Policies and Welfare State I Chair: Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 2 - Migration and Minorities I 
Chair: Dr Gerasimos Konidaris, University of Sheffield
Read the papers

Panel 3 - Culture and Society I 
Chair: Professor Peter Loizos, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 4 - Economy I: Finance
Chair: Dr Evgenia Markova, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 5 - Culture and Society II 
Chair: Dr. Dimitris Papanikolaou, University of Oxford
Read the papers

Panel 6 - Domestic Politics: Interest Groups and Civil Society 
Chair: Dr Dionyssis Dimitrakopoulos, Birkbeck College
Read the papers

SESSION II

Panel 1 - Public Policy I: Educational Policy I Chair: Dr Dimitris Papadimitriou, University of Manchester
Read the papers

Panel 2 - Migration and Minorities II 
Chair: Dr Evgenia Markova, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 3 - Culture and Society III 
Chair: Professor Peter Loizos, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 4 - Foreign Policy I 
Chair: Dr Spyros Economides, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 5 - Greece and the EU I: Regional Policy & Development 
Chair: Dr Achilleas Mitsos, former Director General for Research of the European Commission
Read the papers

Panel 6 - Greece and the EU II: Europeanisation Chair: Professor Kevin Featherstone, London School of Economics
Read the papers

SESSION III

Panel 1 - Public Policy II: Shipping 
Chair: Professor Kevin Featherstone, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 2 - Culture and Society IV 
Chair: Dr Dimitris Papadimitriou, University of Manchester
Read the papers

Panel 3 - Economy II: Inequality and Deprivation 
Chair: Dr Dimitris Ballas, University of Sheffield
Read the papers

Panel 4 - Social Policies and Welfare State II Chair:  Dr George Tsakos, Royal Free and University College Medical School
Read the papers

Panel 5 - Migration and Minorities III 
Chair: Dr Gerasimos Konidaris, University of Sheffield
Read the papers

Panel 6 - Foreign Policy II 
Chair: Dr Spyros Economides, London School of Economics
Read the papers


DAY 2 - 15 June 2007

SESSION 1

Panel 1 - Political Development in Historical Perspective 
Chair: Dr Stefanos Katsikas, University of Nottingham
Read the papers

Panel 2 - Economy III: Behaviour of Greek Firms Chair: Dr Vassilis Monastiriotis, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 3 - Political Process 
Chair: Professor Nikiforos Diamandouros, European Ombudsman, Strasbourg
Read the papers

Panel 4 - Culture and Society V 
Chair: Professor Peter Loizos, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 5 - Institutional Frameworks 
Chair: Professor Kevin Featherstone, London School of Economics
Read the papers

SESSION II

Panel 1 - Public Policy III: Regulation - Deregulation 
Chair: Dr Pavlos Eleftheriadis, University of Oxford
Read the papers

Panel 2 - Culture and Society VI 
Chair: Dr Dimitris Papanikolaou, University of Oxford
Read the papers

Panel 3 - Economy IV: Competitiveness 
Chair: Dr Evgenia Markova, London School of Economics
Read the papers

Panel 4 - Domestic Politics II: Political Parties & Electoral Politics
Chair: Dr Dionyssis Dimitrakopoulos, Birkbeck College
Read the papers

Panel 5 - Public Policy IV: Educational Policy II 
Chair: Dr Spyros Economides, London School of Economics
Read the papers

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