Research Projects

ENERGY SECURITY IN EUROPE AND EURASIA

Michael D. Kennedy (Principal Investigator)

In this project carried out in association with the Aleksanteri Institute's Eurasia Energy Group at the University of Helsinki, we seek to identify how various actors influence and transform the meanings, identities, values, and representations accompanying the exercise of power and influence around the definition and address of energy security, with special focus on the European Union and its relationship to energy coming from Russia and the Caspian Sea.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAWS AND POLICIES RELATED TO THE DISSEMINATION OF PUBLIC OPINION DATA IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

Michael Traugott (Principal Investigator); Lauren Guggenheim (Research Assistant)

This project involves a collaboration initiated when Professor Traugott was a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Central European University in Budapest.  Professor Mikl?s S?k?sd and Traugott are working on a project looking at the role of public opinion specialists, and the growth of the public opinion industry in the newly emerging democracies in Eastern Europe.  Since they began collaboration, S?k?sd became the principal investigator of an EU COST grant focusing on the development of mass communication theories appropriate to this region.

 

On the U-M part of the project, Professor Traugott has been working with a graduate student, Lauren Guggenheim at the Center for Political Studies at U-M's renowned Institute for Social Research (ISR). They have been doing background research, developing a bibliography of polling based research, as well as research on the development of the public opinion industry in the Eastern European countries that are "rising" members of the EU. They were invited to attend the COST meeting in Milan in June 2007, to present on their research. While they discussed the results of their work in informal sessions, Professor Traugott also presented on research in which he is developing a model of the role of public opinion in the support of democratic government. He is hoping that it will be possible to develop additional collaborations to look at this process in terms of a developmental sequence.

 

PATHWAYS FOR WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

Cindy Schipani (Principal Investigator)

This five-phase project started in November, 2005 at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. The Working Group (Professors Cindy Schipani (University of Michigan), Marina Whitman (University of Michigan), Virginia Maurer (University of Florida), Terry Dworkin (Indiana University), and Angel Kwolek-Folland (University of Florida) invited a group of approximately twenty-five women, including academics, prominent business women, and policy makers, from throughout the US, Canada, and Europe to Ann Arbor for two days to discuss the types of questions that should be included in the interviews and survey. The Working Group identified a number of topics to be included the survey, and published an article entitled "Women and the New Corporate Governance: Pathways for Obtaining Positions of Corporate Leadership" in the University of Maryland Law Review.

The second phase involved analyzing the data gathered in Phase I, and hiring a statistician and research assistants to also help with survey design. Phase II took place from January-December, 2006. The initial survey was drafted in this phase, after extensive meetings. In addition, members of the Working Group presented our findings to date at the Second International Conference on Women's Studies, held at Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus in April, 2006.

The third phase, involved a Workshop, convened in Paris, France in September, 2006, to gather a comparative perspective among the North Americans and Europeans. This meeting included approximately 20 participants. The purpose of this meeting was to further refine the survey instrument and discuss how best to disseminate it and collect the country-by-country data sets. This meeting was highly successful. The Working Group is now studying the transcripts from the sessions. The Group met in Ann Arbor on December 2, 2006 to revise the survey in accordance with the recommendations gleaned from the meeting in Europe. This phase should be complete in early 2007. In addition, we have begun drafting a second law review article tentatively entitled "Pathways for Women to Obtain Positions of Organizational Leadership: The Significance of Mentoring and Networking." Work on this article is ongoing. Phase IV will involve refinement and execution of the survey.

Participants in this project include:
Professor George Dreher, Indiana University
Professor Terry Dworkin, Indiana University
Professor Barbara Gutek, University of Arizona
Professor Chizu Nakajima, Cass Business School, London
Anina Mischau, University of Bielefeld, Germany
Professor Joanna Rugulska, Rutgers University
Felizitas Sagebiel, Bergische Universitat Wuppertal, Germany
Professor Marina Whitman, University of Michigan
Professor Cindy Schipani, University of Michigan
Mary Hinesly, Director, Women's Initiative, University of Michigan
Aarti Ramaswami, PhD Candidate, Indiana University
Pam Russell, Administrative Assistant, University of Michigan