"The October Readings" - 2021

The X Annual International Conference “October Readings – 2021” took place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Short Report

The organizers of Conference were: National Research University Higher School of Economics - St. Petersburg; Russian Association of Political Science and Interregional center STRATEGY with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation branch in Russia. The theme of October Readings – 2021 was  «Policy Transfer, Diffusion and Translation: Bridging Rationalist-Constructivist Divides». Chair of Organization Committee – professor NIU HSE – SPb Alexander Sungurov, Chair of Program committee – associated professor  NIU HSE – SPb Oleg Korneev

This time the conference has been dedicated to the issues of Policy Transfer, Diffusion and Translation. More than 50 experts and scholars participated this year, geography of whom varied from the farthest reaches of Russia to the Netherlands, The UK, Brazil, France, and Armenia. Participating authors presented their research results in the diverse range of panels and workshops dedicated to a wide variety of topic.

The first day of the conference was marked by an impressive keynote speaker presentation devoted to the concept of policy diffusion in World Politics. Additionally, by tradition, the youth forum occurred with a noticeable number of young participants from different universities of Russia. As per usual, the 3 most high-quality reports were awarded with a FES certificate and a cash reward.

The program of the conference included 9 panels and 3 roundtables, during which the scholars and experts discussed different aspects of institutional transfer, policies diffusion and their dynamics, and international relations issues.

4 keynote speakers presented their academic reports. The first one was dedicated to the spread of various paradigms and scientific schools of the IR subfield. The second report considered the translation of governance models and expertise. The following keynote speaker spoke on the issues of nation-states cooperation studying the case of Russo-Armenian relations. The last keynote sections concluded the conference by discussing the latest frontiers in studying the policy transfer, diffusion, and circulation.

In overall the conference gathered many scholars and experts of different specialities and subfields from the HSE University in St. Petersburg and Moscow, NRIG RANEPA, SUG, Perm State University, ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Humanitarian University of Ekaterinburg. To bolster the quality of discussions many different experts and scholars were invited from all around the World. These included participants from University Sorbonne Nouvelle, University College London and University of Kent, Research Laboratory PACTE, Erasmus University Rotterdam. The participants were engaged in wide variety of activities including moderation of panels, sections, and roundtables.

The organizing committee of the conference received positive feedback regarding the established program and high organizational quality. The conference itself enhanced further communication between the scholars and facilitated establishment of new connections.

Traditionally, when the conference ends, the organizers decide on the following topic. This time it has been decided that constitutional politics will be the next main theme of the conference. The Department of Political Science and International Relations in St. Petersburg is confident that the upcoming conferences will attract the number of participants even bigger than before and standards set by the conference will rise even higher.