austrian exceptionalism? insights from a huge department in a small country

Abstract

Whereas political science has a long history in the higher-education provision of many countries, it was only in the early 1970s that it became a feature of the provision in Austria. Not only is Austria a latecomer to the political science profession, but it is also home to a rather small political science community with there only being three universities which have established political science departments: Innsbruck, Salzburg and Vienna. Today two university political science departments have mainstreamed gender into their curriculum, with this being the result of the success of feminist entrepreneurs in these departments. The provision at the University of Vienna is typified by one where professors, associates and external lecturers contribute to the curriculum in gender political science. This state of affairs is, however, far from secure as the Bologna process, the transformation toward an entrepreneurial university as well as budget cuts challenge these institutionalizations. This article seeks to explain this mixed picture through an analysis of the recent state of the art of teaching and gender research in Austrian political science before proceeding to point out the favorable factors which fostered the establishment of gender studies in Political Science. Finally, the article builds on the recent challenging conditions which jeopardizes gender studies within the discipline.

Cui Bono Scientia Politica? A Multi-Dimensional Concept of Relevance and the Case of Political Science in Austria

“…As we will outline in this section, all types of relevance (i.e., academic relevance as well as civic, professional and political relevance as the three types that constitute societal relevance) have shaped the evolution of the discipline and its institutionalization in many different ways. Most authors date the birth of political science in Austria to the 1960s and early 1970s (Sickinger 2004;Sauer 2016) and hence describe the establishment of the discipline as delayed compared to the United States, France or even Germany (Pelinka, 2004 99). Others, however, conceive various attempts of legal, economic and sociological scholars to address matters of state affairs in the 1920s (Heinisch 2004) or even before (Ehs 2010a) as predecessors of (modern) political science.…”

“…As a consequence, the University of Vienna is still home to two politicalscience departments with different orientations to this day. While the department of political science has predominantly focused on critical political science and gender studies (Sauer 2016) and has thus sought to advance the civic relevance of the discipline, the department of government has traditionally focused on empirical social science and the academic relevance of political science (Sickinger 2004, 54-65).…”

“…As Ennser-Jedenastik et al (2018) note in their article, this situation has changed profoundly with a growing number of international publications and an influx of international scholars, through which political science in Austria has become increasingly integrated and visible in the transnational discipline. At the same time, the institutionalized discipline has engaged in a process of self-reflection in which a number of scholars have inquired into the history of the discipline and have debated its scholarly achievements, potentials, and limitations (Bartenberger 2012; Brand/Kramer 2011; Ehs 2010a; Karlhofer/Plasser 2012; König 2011; König/Ehs 2012;Sauer 2016;Sickinger 2004;Hummer 2015). In this process of self-reflection, a few scholars have pointed to the importance of the discipline's relevance beyond academia (Heinisch 2004;Brand/Kramer 2011;Pelinka 2004) but a systematic and thorough engagement with this important issue is still pending.…”

“…While political scientist in these and other countries have turned a critical eye on the societal relevance of their doing, and have, at times, entered into heated public debates, their peers in Austria have remained surprisingly silent on this matter. This absence of a thorough and systematic engagement with the impact of political science in Austria is all the more astonishing given the comparatively large number of publications that take stock of the discipline's history and current state (Bartenberger 2012;Brand/Kramer 2011;Ehs 2010a;Karlhofer/Plasser 2012;König 2011;König/Ehs 2012;Sauer 2016;Sickinger 2004;Hummer 2015) 4 . Our special issue takes a first step towards closing this gap in the self-reflection of political science in Austria and thus seeks to contribute to both the contextual and the disciplinary perspective in the debate about the relevance of political science.…”

Introduction

“…The size of gender and politics research sections in professional organizations such as the American Political Science Association (APSA), the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), and the International Studies Association (ISA) indicates that gender and politics scholarship is highly successful on both sides of the Atlantic. Foster et al 2013 ;Mazur and Appleton 1997 ;Mügge, Evans, and Engeli 2016 ;Sauer 2016 ). Even where the politics of gender is taught, it is not usually presented to students as mainstream political science.…”