Conference Resolutions from Barcelona, September 2006
From Politics and Interlocking Directorates
Contents |
Introduction
These are the resolutions of our first conference: Politics and Interlocking Directorates: A meeting to discuss current research and future collaboration. University of Barcelona, 28th and 29th September, 2006. [1]
Book/Edited Collection
It was decided to attempt to produce an edited collection loosely based on the presentations of this conference. The broad purpose of this book would be to be an overview of the current state of research on the political effects of interlocking directorates of business at a national, regional and international level.
The main resolutions of the meeting were that:
- the editors of the book would be Joseph Rodriguez, Julian Cardenas, Nicholas Harrigan, Matthew Bond.
- Chapters would be 5,000 words in length (7,000 words maximum)
- Timeline for production of the book:
- Nov 1st: A draft proposal for the book (including Title, Outline of the book, Suggested Sections, with a Report from the Conference) emailed to the 'politics and interlocking directorates' email list – Matthew Bond and Nicholas Harrigan
- Dec 1st: Abstracts due
- ~15th April (1-2 weeks before Sunbelt Conference): Draft Papers/Chapters Due.
- ~1st-6th May, 2007: Meeting to discuss book administration at Sunbelt, plus a separate stream at Sunbelt for 'Politics and Interlocking Directorates', in which draft chapters will be presented and discussed.
- The following people volunteered to follow up with the following publishers about the potential for publishing the book:
- Brill – Val Burris
- Hopkins & Sage – Jeffrey Kentor
- Routledge – Bill Carroll
- Cambridge – Wouter de Nooy
Data and Software Archives
Data Archive There was discussion of the possibility of setting up an international data archive/repository. It was felt that we could begin by collecting a list of all the datasets which people are using, and which they are prepared to share (share with anyone, with the entire group, with people who are willing to co-write a paper) and also if there are intellectual property/commercial issues associated with their datasets.
The major resolution on this topic was that Val Burris and Erica Salvaj would coordinate the data archive project and would design and administer the questionnaire.
Software Archive: Later in the meeting there was a discussion about a proposed software archive. The idea was that this would be an online archive of software for use with interlocking directorate data.
It was decided that questions about software would be included in the survey being undertaken by Val Burris and Erica Salvaj.
Joint Research Projects and Funding Applications.
There was a general discussion about undertaking a coordinated study of the politics of interlocking directorates in Europe. There were several elements of this proposal:
- Preliminary aggregation of datasets: Lothar Krempel has a list of the names of the top 500 corporations in Europe. It was suggested that he email this list to the 'Politics and Interlocking Directorates' email list, and that anyone who has information about these companies, email a list of what information they have to the list (years, directors, other information on the companies, etc.)
- European Science Foundation Application: There is a process for scholars from EU countries to put a joint application through the European Science Foundation in April 2007. The coordinators of this are: Bruce Cronin, Matthew Bond, Nicholas Harrigan.
- Other participants thought that they may be able to get funding through various national government bodies:
- COST: Joseph Rodriguez
- Dutch Science Foundation: Eelke Heemskerk
For the countries outside the EU, various people were delegated to follow up on potential funding bodies:
- USA: Jeffery Kentor & Val Burris
- National Science Foundation
- Foundations funding for meetings
- Rosa Luxemburg Foundation
- Canada: Bill Carroll
- Eastern Europe: Vladimir Popov
- Latin America: Erica Salvaj
Research Committee on Politics and Interlocking Directorates
A proposal to form an ongoing research committee or working group was discussed. After some discussion the proposal was agreed to.
The major resolutions were that:
- Email list: We will continue with the existing discussion list, but that Dominik Batorski will look into finding a better email list provider that can allow posts of email attachments larger that 1 Megabyte.
- Website: We will establish a website, based on a Wiki format – Dominik Batorski and [Joseph's friend who did the conference website: name?]
- Annual meeting/conference: The next meeting of the group will be at/before the Sunbelt Conference in Greece (1st-6th May, 2007). We will organise a short meeting to discuss the proposed book, and will organise a separate stream at the conference on "Politics and Interlocking Directorates". Coordinators: Bruce Cronin, Matthew Bond
- Affiliation to the ISA: We will seek affiliation to the International Sociological Association – Bill Carroll to coordinate.
- Secretariat/Convening: The current convenors of this Barcelona Conference (Joseph Rodriguez, Julian Cardenas, Nicholas Harrigan, Matthew Bond) would continue as the coordinators of the research committee, and any other people who attended the conference were welcome to join the coordinating committee [I don't believe that anyone else took up this offer (?)]
- Name of Group: A decision about the name of the group was deferred for further discussion on the email list. Nicholas Harrigan to initiate this.
Miscellaneous
- Collecting Power Point Presentations and Papers from this website: Joseph Rodriguez
- Methodology Archive. It was suggested that we have a methodology archive. The methodology archive would contained detailed instructions for researchers on how to undertake a range of techniques for analysing corporate networks. These 'methodologies' would probably include a wide range of different styles, from papers on new statistical techniques, or how to use a piece of tailor made software, to step by step 'recipe-style' instructions on how to reproduce particular measures of corporate power. It was decided that the best way to do this would be for individuals to load these on the website themselves, using the Wiki-style website that Dominik Batorski is producing.
- Developing a reliability standard or test for electronic data sets which we obtain from governments or business information providers – Eelke Heemskerk & Roy Barnes
- Faculty Exchanges and visiting scholars – discuss this on the email list
