The LSE is one of the most dynamic universities in Europe when it comes to the study of elections and political behaviour. As part of this focus, an exciting initiative in electoral psychology called ECREP is directed by Prof Michael Bruter and Dr Sarah Harrison from the Department of Government. Their research, supported by the European Research Council (the project is appropriately named “Inside the Mind of a Voter”) won the Market Research Society for Best International Research in December. The project is comparative, covering about 15 countries from the US and the UK to South Africa and Brazil, and from Israel and Germany to Japan and France. It prides itself in its cutting edge and varied methodology which includes a whole range of unique approaches (such as a visual experiment where the shadow of voters is filmed in the polling booth, and asking voters to keep daily election diaries) in addition to panel study surveys of over 5 years, experiments, and in depth interviews.
Next month the ECREP initiative is proud to organise a first major conference in electoral psychology that will be hosted at the LSE on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 November. Presenters from the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Canada, Spain, and France include leading names in the field such as Prof Robert Erikson from Columbia University, Prof Mark Franklin from Harvard, Prof Martin Rosema from the University of Twente, Prof Ed Fieldhouse from the University of Manchester, and Prof Patrick Fournier from the University of Montreal, as well, of course, as members of the ECREP team themselves.
The conference, held on the Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, will include three panels on advances in electoral psychology, advances in electoral ergonomics, and methodological breakthroughs, as well as some plenary sessions. It is intended to showcase both the state of the art in electoral psychology worldwide, and some of the first comprehensive results of the work conducted by the ECREP initiative themselves.
Attendance to the conference requires registration because of limited space but is entirely free thanks to the support of the INMIVO project financed by the European Research Council, and some space is reserved specifically for LSE staff and students. Anyone interested in attending or requiring any further information should contact Prof Michael Bruter or Dr Sarah Harrison. More information can also be found on Michael’s website or the ECREP website. We will also post a summary of some of the highlights from the conference on the LSE Government Department blog in November.
