Introduction

Springer eBooks, pp. 3–14

Abstract

Abstract Scholars employed by universities not only do their basic academic work but also have a professional environment that may call for their knowledge or be targeted explicitly by scholars themselves. In this book the focus is entirely on such engagement by academic political scientists. What advisory activities and roles do they take? How do they see any work at the intersection of their university home basis and the social and political environment? How do they operate in the spheres where choices must be made about facts, evidence, and normative direction? What are driving factors for such engagement, or conversely for abstention? And how do background variables such as gender, age, and status of employment affect the views and activities of political scientists? These are the central questions in this book. They are contained in a large scale cross-national project on the Professionalization and Social Impact of European Political Science (ProSEPS), with scholars from 39 countries involved and organized under auspices of the European COST Association in the period 2017–2020.

Authors 2

1. Arco I. Timmermans corresponding Aachen Institute of Public Administration

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

2. Marleen Brans

   KU Leuven

   Affiliation as printed

   Public Governance Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium