Towards a New Generation of Interest Group Studies? New Modes of Interest Representation and Research.

In this section, we focus on the role of interest groups in all types of policy systems by addressing recent worldwide developments such as transboundary crises, the polarization of societies, processes of democratic backsliding, and the digitalization of political systems. These, and many other transformations of our times, shape the societal role of interest groups and their relationships with members, public officials, and the media. New contextual developments together with methodological advancement, increasing cross-fertilization with different disciplines, force us to expand our knowledge and revisit current assumptions and findings in the field. More specifically, the process of digitalization has altered how politics works and forced organized interests to change their modus operandi and adapt to the digital sphere. What are the consequences of digitalization for interest group interaction with members and policy-makers? And how has this changed the usage of consultation tools? Other current topics are a rising inequality among citizens, increasing power of elites and the industry as well as the ongoing climate crisis and pandemic. How do these developments affect interest representation and lobbying? This section welcomes work that addresses these questions and that evaluates the role and relevance of interest groups across the entire influence production process. It especially invites scholars who focus on geographical regions that have so far received less attention in the literature and studies that employ innovative methods such as experiments, text-as-data approaches and spatial techniques. We aim to involve an international community of scholars from varying levels of seniority and different disciplines. The section welcomes papers on below themes with a theoretical, empirical and/or normative angle: 1. New modes of interest representation: How do interest groups navigate the digital sphere? And how does that affect interest groups' strategies, access and influence? 2. Interest representation in turbulent times: Do crises affect the modus operandi of interest groups, and how? What are the long-term effects on interest representation? 3. New methodological and analytical approaches: How can the field benefit from methods as experiments, text-as-data methods as well as the usage of spatial data techniques? 4. Societal interest representation – through intermediary organizations or alone? Do citizen groups represent the interests of their members, and how? When do citizens by-pass interest groups, and what are the normative implications? 5. Interest groups' role across the policy cycle: How do groups shape public policy in the different stages of the policy cycle (i.e., agenda setting, policy-design, implementation and evaluation)? 6. Beyond the usual suspects – interest representation in geographical areas that are studied less: Interest representation takes place on a global scale, yet most research in this field focuses on Western Europe and the US. We welcome papers outside of this scope, so that we can broaden the focus and view of interest group studies. 7. Behavioral dimensions of interest group – public officials' interactions: What behavioral dynamics explain how interest groups and policy-makers interact? 8. Filling the gaps in the influence production process – population, mobilization, strategies, access and influence: Where do we stand in terms of empirical knowledge and theory related to the different stages of the influence production process?