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The CEVIPOF (Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po)
CEVIPOF (Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po) was founded in 1960 by Jean Touchard. It became a joint Sciences Po-CNRS research centre in 1968 and has been headed by Kevin Arceneaux as Director since January 2024, with Anne Muxel, as deputy Director.
Ever since it was first created, CEVIPOF has been considered to be one of the major centres for research in political science as demonstrated by academic appraisal, feedback from the public debate arena and the expertise it provides to government. While it offers an in-depth focus on the political sphere in France, much of the work carried out at the centre adopts a comparative approach while other themes are global in scope.
CEVIPOF Methods and Techniques
CEVIPOF is a multi-disciplinary research centre, which draws on an extended landscape of methodological resources. These include quantitative and qualitative methodologies to process surveys and opinion polls, longitudinal studies, big data and discourse analysis, theoretical comparative research, and also a number of techniques specific to socio-physics. CEVIPOF has been conducting systematic electoral studies since 1968 when it became a joint Sciences Po-CNRS centre, thus providing a unique and cumulative series of data comparable over time
CEVIPOF researchers publish their work in a wide variety of leading international journals and are regularly invited to present their research at international academic events. The centre hosts a number of visiting researchers throughout the year. It also organizes conferences and academic events on a regular basis thus creating a platform for its ever-expanding international network to interact and develop their mutual interests in the political sciences.
The centre plays a vital role at the interface between research and politics providing a valuable resource for political actors, society at large, economic decision makers and the media.
Research Plan 2023-2028
Democratic uncertainty and dynamics: understanding the notions of trust and responsibility in a time of crisis.
Three research focuses and three transversal axes.
Research focuses
Conveners: Gilles Ivaldi & Romain Lachat
Researchers:
Kevin Arceneaux - Daniel Boy - Bruno Cautrès - Jean Chiche - Martial Foucault - Gilles Ivaldi - Romain Lachat - Janine Mossuz-Lavau - Anne Muxel - Pascal Perrineau - Henri Rey - Dominique Reynié - Luc Rouban
Conveners: Olivier Costa & Patrick Le Bihan
Reflection on this theme specifically focuses on institutional dynamics linked to anthropological changes currently at work: the digitisation of society, transnational environmental challenges and the politicisation of the living world.
Researchers:
Elie Cohen - Olivier Costa - Serge Galam - Guy Groux - Éric Kerrouche - Zaki Laïdi - Patrick Le Bihan - Lou Safra -Virginie Tournay - Jean Viard
Conveners: Alexandre Escudier & Samuel Hayat
Ever since its creation, the study of political ideas has played a central role at CEVIPOF. Three major themes can be discerned in current research concentrations:
· The question of democratic procedures, i.e. ways in which the ideal of power exercised by the people for the people can be institutionalised.
· The question of citizenship and, in particular, of the crisis in classic conceptions of citizenship and more critical citizen engagement.
· The question of "being a society": a national culture, common values, intermediary bodies, the sense of justice.
Researchers:
Gil Delannoi - Jean-Marie Donegani - Alexandre Escudier - Frédéric Gros - Samuel Hayat - Lucien Jaume - Annabelle Lever - Janie Pelabay - Bernard Reber - Réjane Sénac
Transversal focuses
The study of emotions and political passions is playing an increasingly significant role in the way in which political attitudes and behaviours are understood. What new roles do the emotions and affects play? In what way is the emergence of an ‘affective’ citizen intertwined with the broadening of forms of political expression and behaviour? The objective here is to study the effect of emotions on citizenship.
Legitimacy and trust are essential concepts for political philosophy and political science, relative to acceptance of political institutions and power as a result of consent rather than coercion.
The question of trust spans the different concentrations at the centre: from a political point of view, what does an increased level of political distrust entail? Can democracy function with a low level of trust in the mechanisms that breathe life into it?
The 2023-2028 research plan continues to include the study of political reality, drawing on a wide range of methods and a plurality of approaches to do so.
The objective is threefold:
- To encourage joint research work and dialogue among the different concentrations at the centre;
- To pursue the aim of ensuring that research carried out at the centre is present in international research networks, all the while assuming the historical status of CEVIPOF as a major centre for French Politics at an international level; - To broaden the range of research topics beyond these three crosscutting plans.
Contact Us
Address: 1 place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris
Ph.: +33 (0)1 45 49 51 05
Email: info.cevipof@sciencespo.fr
