Join us on Friday October 5th at 4pm in the Political Science Lounge (5th Floor, The Graduate Center, CUNY) for a talk by Nick Micinski on his dissertation research (see the abstract below).

This is a great opportunity to learn about Nick’s fascinating research (see the abstract below) as well as to help him practice his job talk and handling probing questions in Q&A. Students and faculty from ALL SUBFIELDS are encouraged to attend, in order to better simulate the challenge of presenting one’s work to a broad political science audience. Refreshments will be served.

Peter Liberman, Deputy Executive Officer Ph.D./M.A. Program in Political Science

“Everyday Coordination & New Technologies in EU Migration Management”
Nicholas R. Micinski

Abstract:
In the summer of 2015, large numbers of refugees and
migrants arrived on the shores of the Aegean islands but the Greek
government and international organizations were slow to respond. How did civil society actors coordinate their responses when national, regional, and global governance failed? This presentation will describe how civil society actors improvised their response through new technologies and everyday coordination mechanisms defined as the informal processes for communication and decision-making that make up the day-to-day action of implementation. In Greece, four examples of everyday coordination emerged: new technologies (like Facebook groups and Whatsapp chats), peer-to-peer refugee coordination, maps of services, and field level working groups. Everyday coordination threatened traditional authority in the state or international organizations because it governed actors in a different way, created parallel systems, and sometimes promoted competing goals. The Greek government responded by institutionalizing, co-opting, and cracking down on civil society actors helping refugees.