Dates : 17th, 18th of December 2026

Venue : Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po Paris

Application deadline: 9th of October 2026

Political representation depends on the actors, organisations, institutions, and processes that connect citizens to political decision-making. At a time when established forms of political intermediation are being challenged and new ones are emerging, the objective of these two doctoral days is to explore how these relationships are being reconfigured: who mediates between citizens and politics, how representative claims are constructed and received, and what these changing forms of mediation mean for democratic participation and representation.

We invite doctoral researchers engaging with these questions to contribute to four themes that are deliberately broad :(i) party-based linkage amid political disintermediation, (ii) democratic innovations and the reimagining of mediation, (iii) mediating the green transition, (iv) credibility in representation: experience, expertise, and trust. More information can be found on the open call. We seek to bring together researchers working across different empirical fields to reflect on the question of representation.

We also welcome work that cuts across these themes or approaches the broader topic of political mediation from other perspectives.