CfP: Institutional and Policy Experiments in Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations, Berlin Social Science Center

Call for Papers: Berlin Social Science Center

Institutional and Policy Experiments in Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations

Keynote lectures will be held by 

David D. Laitin (Political Science, Stanford) and

James H. Sidanius (Psychology, Harvard)

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

March 18 – 19, 2016

While migration and ethnicity issues constitute salient political and social issues in various parts of the world, experimental designs have become very popular to unravel the causal processes underlying these issues. A major challenge is that macro level processes (e.g., institutions, policies, context factors) regulate how individuals experience migration and ethnic diversity. Many political, economic and educational interventions (laws, policies) intervene at the macro-level. Yet, our knowledge about how macro-level processes and individual experiences connect is limited (e.g., how do immigration policies shape the experience of citizens and immigrants in a country?). Our proposed conference strives to make this connection by bringing together scholars from economics, political science, anthropology, sociology and social psychology who tackle the challenge of experimentally manipulating macro-level factors (or the perception/framing thereof) and examining how institutions, authorities, policies and laws causally affect the experience and behavior of immigrants and citizens, ethnic minorities and majorities. While we welcome all submissions with experimental designs, papers that focus on the direct or indirect manipulation of macro-level factors will be privileged.

If you would like to present your ongoing research at this conference, please send your one page abstract that summarizes your theory, arguments and design until November 15, 2015 to exp_conference@wzb.eu 

In case of successful application, we cover travel expenses and accommodation in Berlin (based on economy fare and up to three nights of accommodation).

For further information you can also contact the organizers Ruth Ditlmann and Marc Helbling at exp_conference@wzb.eu