June 24-27, 2025. Supervisors: Peter van Dam, Bram Mellink, Mart Rutjes (University of Amsterdam). Registration (fully booked): bureau@onderzoekschoolpolitiekegeschiedenis.nl.
What makes people realize they have a choice in politics? How do members of social movements (or policymakers) define achievable options? And how do they ensure sufficient support to put their plans into action? This year’s Summer School of the Research School for Political History focuses on politics not as a separate sphere, but as a dimension in society. Hosted by the University of Amsterdam, it engages with the processes of political articulation and mobilization, focusing on ideas, institutions and practices.
During the four-day workshop, participants will study processes of articulation and mobilization combining discussions of state of the art scholarship with hands-on assignments. We will draw on the rich academic and social environment of the city of Amsterdam to explore the ways in which issues become political and the different ways in which these are conducted. On Tuesday June 24, the program will start with the question of how people render issues political through ideas and concepts. The opening session on the history of political ideas is followed by a city walk focused on political articulation. Observations will be discussed in a group meeting, followed by diner.
On Wednesday, we will discuss how politics are pursued in common institutional settings like parliaments, but also in bureaucracies and editorial boards. This is followed by fieldwork: working in small research group, participants will conduct interviews with a person or group engaged in political activities. We will evaluate first insights from hese interviews during a plenary session at the end of the day.
How do people actually ‘do’ politics? We will further pursue this question by discussing scholarship on political practices on Thursday morning. The rest of the day will be dedicated to an analysis of the results of the interview of the previous day, for which participants may consult the libraries of one of the historical research institutes in Amsterdam, such as the International Institute for Social History, ATRIA, IHLIA or NIOD. On Friday, the results of the summer school will be presented in groups at the closing session. During the Summer School, participants will mostly work in small groups or individually under guidance of the organizers. Shared lunches and dinners are included in the program.
