News

The 8th Biennial Conference on Regulatory Governance organised by the University of Exeter and supported by our Standing Group was organised by University of Exeter as an online event, from June 23 until June 25.

The ECPR 8th Biennial Regulatory Governance Conference ("Regulatory Governance: Who Carries the Conversation?")  took place virtually and covered a wide-range of topics around the over-arching theme of who carries the conversation today. The conference tackled the present context where some well-established ‘certainties’ around democracy, rule of law, governance, public policy, compliance and accountability are no longer taken for granted.

Regulatory Studies award was presented to Professor John Braithwaite. Following the presentation of the award, Professor Braithwaite gave the Regulatory Studies Award Lecture "Beyond Realist International Relations Theory in Governance of Global Crises."

The Giandomenico Majone Prize for best paper at the conference was presented to Jose Maria Valenzuela, University of Oxford, for the Paper "System operators and regulatory governance for the rapid decarbonisation of electricity systems: a state-business configuration perspective".

Convenor’s Welcome to 2021 Conference

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted to provide this welcome to the 8^th Biennial Regulatory Governance Conference on behalf of the ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance. The Standing Group was established in 2005 to support the development of conferences and seminars and to build professional scholarly activities more broadly supportive of the growing interdisciplinary field of regulatory governance. The biennial conference is the most significant event in the Standing Group calendar and I am delighted that our colleagues at Exeter University, so ably led by Alison Harcourt, are able to host the event, even under the challenging conditions of the pandemic. On behalf of all conference participants I think Alison and the whole Exeter team most warmly for their commitment and willingness to adapt to running the event online. The biennial conference provides an opportunity to present research in progress and to get feedback and meet both old and new friends within the field and to learn more about the cutting edge of regulatory governance research. The conference provides an opportunity to advance the activities of the Standing Group, notably with the presentation of our two major awards, the Regulatory Studies Development Award (for lifetime career achievement) and the Giandomenico Majone Prize for the best early career paper at the conference, and the hosting the open business meeting  of the Steering Committee of the Standing Group. The conference programme is an exciting one, with some outstanding keynote speakers and a wide range of topics addressed at paper panels,  addressing key societal challenges. Topics include the regulation and governance challenges associated with climate change, new technologies, inequalities and, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic which has affected and challenged all of us, everywhere, so much over the past eighteen months. These challenges demonstrate the importance of regulatory governance and, in particular the necessity to exchange ideas, to learn, and to advance the field as a means to better understand key aspects of our world and how challenges may be addressed.  This includes not only addressing the substantive topics, but also the methodological and theoretical challenges which can enhance the field. This conference, and other opportunities to share in developing knowledge on regulatory governance are a vital space and I hope all with profit from and enjoy their engagement with the conference. I conclude with the hope and expectation that, while we take and develop the opportunities presented from greater online interaction,  it will not be too long before we can meet in person, as well as online, as twin mechanisms to engage to develop our scholarly field.

Colin Scott

Convenor ECPR Standing Group on Regulatory Governance