Professor Gail Mc Elroy

Summary

COHESIFY will assess the contribution of Cohesion policy to citizens' identification with the EU and produce a new strategy to communicate EU cohesion policy to citizens. To assess how and to what extent EU Cohesion policy affects citizens' perceptions of and identification with the European Union, the project focuses on three inter-related issues: (1) the identity of EU regions in an EU, national, regional and local context (2) governance, communication and impacts of Cohesion policy, including citizens' perceptions of the policy and identification with the EU (3) what is needed to make the Cohesion policy more effective in terms of people's perceptions of the policy and the EU more generally. A mixed methods design is employed using a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques including a set of geographically balanced and comparative case studies. COHESIFY will fill a key gap in knowledge for EU and national/regional policymakers and interested stakeholders. The outputs will inform Cohesion policy communication strategies at the EU, Member State and regional levels enabling communication efforts to adapt to local and regional realities maximising their impact, to increase the civic appreciation of Cohesion policy and how to improve regional policy relevance and efficiency. The consortium comprise academic institutions and SMEs across a range of EU Member States with complementary disciplinary and methodological expertise and applied expertise of Cohesion policy, communication strategies and tools for engaging with citizens and the various political structures at EU, national, regional and local levels.

Funding Agency

European Commission

Programme

H2020

Person Months

22

Summary

Does gender matter for legislative behaviour? Do female representatives have distinct policy goals? Do women bring alternative perspectives to policy debates? With the centenary of both women's suffrage and the election of the first woman to the Dáil (Markievicz 1918) fast approaching, we know surprisingly little about what female TDs do, once elected. Do they differ from their male counterparts in the topics they focus on for instance; do they broaden the range of public interests represented, do they represent women's and minority issues more systematically? This project examines these questions by examining parliamentary debates in the 22nd-31st Dála.

Funding Agency

Irish Research Council

Programme

New Foundations

Summary

In spite of significant social change, the use of a proportional electoral system and no obvious voter bias, the number of Irish female legislators (TDs) remains low by international standards. The evidence to date suggests that, all else equal, women have as good a chance of getting elected as men and the real difficulties in achieving equitable representation lie in the candidate emergence and nomination stages. This project moves current research beyond the study of electoral results and voter data to examine the pool of potential candidates, exploring why qualified women do not put themselves forward for election.

Funding Agency

IRCHSS

Programme

Collaborative Research Projects

Person Months

12

Summary

Funding Agency

European Science Foundation/IRCHSS

Programme

Eurocores

Person Months

36

Summary

This programme ocuses on the globalisation of political parties and party competition, with particular reference to the European Union. This project studies the effects of the European Parliament election on political competition at both the national and supra-national level and the interaction between these two domains.

Funding Agency

Institute for International Integration Studies