Dear all,
A belated happy new year to you all. I have two items for your attention.
The first concerns the PSA conference (Leicester, April 15th-17th 2003). Below are the panels that the Scandinavian Politics Specialist Group has been awarded.
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VALUES AND EUROPEANISATION IN THE NORDIC STATES
Chair: Nicholas Aylott (Umeå)
Paper 1: Annika Bergman (Edinburgh), “The Nordic States, Adjacent Internationalism and the Process of Civil Regionalisation”
Paper 2: John Madeley (LSE) & Nick Sitter (Norwegian School of Management BI), “Differential Euroscepticism Among the Nordic Christian Parties: Protestantism or Protest?”
**Discussant**
THE DECLINE OF NORDIC SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
**Chair**
Paper 1: Nicholas Aylott (Umeå), “Linkage and Political Exchange in Mass Parties: A Dynamic Model”
Paper 2: Christine Agius (Lancaster), “The Decline of Progressive Politics in Sweden?”
**Discussant**
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So:
(a) Can the PAPER-GIVERS please confirm to me that they still intend to take part?
(b) We need a **CHAIR** for the second panel and **DISCUSSANTS** for both. If you fancy taking on one of these roles, or you know someone who might, please let me know as soon as possible. The conference organisers are, understandably, hassling me to fill these gaps quickly. Thanks for your help with this.
The second item concerns politics here in Sweden. Last September's election already seems like ages ago. But only now has the Royal Institute for International Affairs got round to publishing on its website my election report (http://www.riia.org/pdf/research/europe/OERN%20Swedish1.pdf). Any comments about it would, naturally, be welcome.
You might also be interested in the new "official gateway to Sweden", Sweden.se (www.sweden.se). It might be useful for teaching purposes, especially in the run-up to the referendum on EMU, now set for September 14th this year.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
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Department of Political Science, Umeå University
www.pol.umu.se
