21st IPSA World Congress of Political Science "Global discontent? Dillemas of change", Santiago 2009

The term “global discontent” sums up many of the challenges of our times. Globalization, while old in origins, has come to dominate our lives during the last couple of decades. If technological change has been the driving force, the collapse of the bipolar world system has opened the floodgates for it to reach all corners of the world. Internationalization as a phenomenon has been with us for a long time. As communication and transportation systems around the world improved, we were constantly told that the world was becoming a smaller place. But globalization as a process is of more recent vintage. It refers not only to the speed with which information, money and goods travel around the world but also to the reorganization of the world economically and politically in ways that were not possible before. Finally, globalization has become an ideology. Its proponents perceive the world through this cognitive framework and mobilize it in their efforts to shape how the world system operates and where it should be going.\ \ A total of 2,389 people participated in the 2009 IPSA World Congress of Political Science in Santiago, Chile. The 21st triennial version of the event was held from July 12 to 16 at the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Members of IPSA research committees and individual members of IPSA from 70 countries organized over 600 panels, for a busy academic program that often included up to 35 simultaneous sessions. \ \ IPSA’s membership has over 3,500 individual members. IPSA is working hard to create even more opportunities for interaction and mutual benefit among its members. To become a member, go to IPSA Individual Membership page. To sign up for the free IPSA monthly E-Newsletter and find out about upcoming events, calls for papers and more, go to IPSA Newsletter page. \ \ More at www.ipsa.org.