An 'IAPSS Working Group' is a group of people developing academic projects in a specific field of relevance for themselves and IAPSS, within the areas of Political Science and related fields.
IAPSS strives to stimulate research, facilitate exchange of academic information, nurture constructive dialogue and in doing so, attempts to reach and connect political science students worldwide. Therefore, we wish to give the Working Groups a true international dimension.
There are two types of working groups:
1. Locally based Working Groups
These groups are initiated by local associations or a group of individual IAPSS members from the same university or city, and are therefore locally based. Members of these groups can also be non-members of IAPSS, provided that at least the coordinator is a member of IAPSS.
One particular aspect of these groups is that their members are able and strongly recommended to organise and conduct their research and activities by using direct, face to face contact, in addition to any electronic facilities otherwise needed.
2. Online Working Groups
Online Working Groups can be initiated by members of IAPSS. The participants should be persons from different cities or countries, individual and association members alike, whether part of the IAPSS community or not, providing that the Working Group coordinator is an IAPSS member.
Due to the physical distance between the participants it is difficult for them to meet in person on a regular basis. Therefore, most of the activities will most likely be conducted through electronic means.
In order to smooth dialogue and add a more personal dimension to the conducted research, it is recommended that members organise a face to face meeting at least once along the set framework of activity of the Working Group.
The activities of the Working Group and its time framework are left to the decision of its members and coordinator. However, the most common suggestion is to organize an event where the ideas of the group or the materials created can be discussed with other people interested; the event may take any form from small debate with students or professors/ specialists in the field to academic conference, summer schools; or other activities such as film projection, photo exhibition etc.
Other possible outcomes are also creating databases of interesting books related to the topic or providing useful links related to the topic for those interested, creating a joint academic paper on the theme of the group, creating an academic or informal publication on the theme of research, upload on the group page individual papers of the members concerning the topic of discussion, manuals and publications of advice and tips from students for students, related to the theme, reports of members' participations and findings at various local/international events connected to the theme, book reviews etc.
