The Second National British Studies Conference: The United Kingdom after the General Election 2010

The British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA,
The Chair of European Studies and The Institute of Political Science, 
University of Warsaw
September 15–16, 2010
The Senate Hall, Kazimierzowski Palace, Central Campus of the University of Warsaw, 
and the Stefan Czarnowski Lecture Hall, Principal building of the Faculty of Journalism and Political Studies, 3 Krakowskie Przedmieście Str.

The Second National British Studies Conference: The United Kingdom after the General Election 2010 was held on the September 15-16, 2010 at the University of Warsaw under the joint patronage of His Excellency Mr. Roderic Todd, Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Republic of Poland, and Her Magnificence Professor Katarzyna Chałasińska-Macukow, Rector of the University of Warsaw. The Conference was organized by the Chair of the European Studies, University of Warsaw - British Socio-Political Studies Research Group BRITANNIA in cooperation with the Institute of Political Science, University of Warsaw. The conference was held in Polish and English.

The General Election of May 6, 2010 marked a closure of an important era in the British politics – an era of the unprecedented series of electoral victories by the Labour Party resulting in thirteen years of its government, with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown as leaders. The conference was aimed at assessing the outcomes of the Labour governments of 1997–2010: their successes and failures, and discussion the opening balance of the new government. The fact that the winning Conservatives and Liberal-Democrats formed the first peace-time coalition government in eight decades demonstrates visibly the importance of the chosen topic.

The conference was designed as an interdisciplinary confrontation of different research perspectives and approaches; hence invitations were presented not only to scholars in political science but also to historians, lawyers, economists, sociologists and philosophers as well as representatives of other disciplines of research. The organizers also intended to present to the British and Commonwealth Studies community in Poland the projects concluded by the Research Group BRITANNIA as well their plans for the future.

The Conference was jointly inaugurated on September 15th in the Senate Hall, Kazimierzowski Palace, Central Campus of the University of Warsaw by His Excellency Mr. Dominic Roderic Todd, HM Ambassador in Poland, by Professor Marta Kicińska-Habior, Vice-Rector of the University of Warsaw, and by Professor Franciszek Gołembski, chairperson of the BRITANNIA Group and of the Organising Committee. His Excellency’s speech took a form of opening lecture and attracted a vivid interest of the public, demonstrated by numerous questions.

Conference proceedings gathered scholars representing leading Polish academic institutions conducting research in British and Commonwealth Studies (such as the Warsaw School of Economics, Jagiellonian University, Nicolas Copernicus University, Marie Curie-Sklodowska University, Catholic University of Lublin, University of Casmir the Great, Jan Kochanowski University, University of Opole, University of Szczecin) as well as British scholars (Cardiff University). There were 28 conference papers accepted for presentation. The conference was organised around five panels devoted to: The 2010 election campaign, the British party system and political leadership (chaired by Professor Franciszek Gołembski), UK’s foreign and security policy after the General Election 2010 (chaired by Dr Bartłomiej H. Toszek, University of Szczecin), UK’s bilateral relations with selected countries after the General Election 2010 (chaired by Professor Krzysztof Zuba, University of Opole), Prospects for devolution and local government reform after the General Election 2010 (chaired by Dr Przemyslaw Biskup), and Identification, identity, and culture in the British society (chaired by Dr Wojciech Lewandowski). Importantly, there was visible positive influence of the Conference on the integration of the British and Commonwealth Studies community in Poland.

THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE

• Chairperson of the Organizing Committee: Professor Franciszek Gołembski (Chair of European Studies, Chairperson of the Research Group Britannia)
• Committee Coordinators: Dr Przemysław Biskup (Chair of European Studies); Dr Krzysztof Jaźwiński (Institute of International Relations), Dr Małgorzata Kaczorowska (Institute of Political Science), Dr Wojciech Lewandowski (Chair of European Studies)
• Committee Members: Dr Filip Ilkowski (Institute of Political Science), Dr Krzysztof Winkler, Adam Dąbrowski M.A. (Ph.D. Candidate at the Faculty of Journalism and Political Science), Mr. Rafał Kamiński (Institute of Political Science and Institute of International Relations)
• The Organizing Committee wishes to express their gratitude to Mr. Rafał Antosiewicz and Mr. Hubert Wawer for the most valuable assistance offered in the course of conference preparations and proceedings.
  
  

For more information, please see the Conference Report.