The 2011 Johan Skytte Prize is awarded to Ronald Inglehart, University of Michigan, and Pippa Norris, Harvard University for contributing innovative ideas about the relevance and roots of political culture in a global context. The Johan Skytte Prize is among the most prestigious prizes relating to the field of political science and carries an award of SEK 500,000.
The 2011 Johan Skytte Prize in political science is awarded to two researchers who individually but far and foremost in close cooperation have systematically investigated and highlighted the importance of human values and value change for political behavior and societal life. Ronald Inglehart, emeritus professor in sociology at the University of Michigan and Pippa Norris, professor in political science at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, share the prize for "contributing innovative ideas about the relevance and roots of political culture in a global context, transcending previous mainstream apporaches of resesarch".
In three co-authored books and numerous articles they have, through sophisticated analyses and a globally-based material including a majority of the world´s population, shown that a crucial key to continuity and change in political participation, interest and why issues become prioritized is the values, beliefs and attitudes of the citizens themselves. In their joint work, the importance of religion in today´s contemporary world has been in focus, as well as gender equality and the role of global media and information technology in affecting values to converge or become more polarized. The process of value formation and change is intimately related to structural factors such as the shift from industrial to post-industrial production, and furthermore rests on feelings of existential security which are affected by a spread in the equality of well-being.
Characteristic of Norris and Inglehart´s research is that their analyses ties together their own as well as previosuly launced theories with a uniquely rich and subtle material, allowing for systematic empirical testing, development but also refutation. Their focus is consequently on the citizens, the people, and their indirect interplay with elites and political and societal institutions.
Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris will accept the prize at a ceremony in Uppsala on 24 September 2011.
About the Johan Skytte Prize:
In 1622, Johan Skytte, then Vice-Chancellor of the University, established the Johan Skytte chair in Eloquence and Government, which is probably the world's oldest active professorship in political science. The lands included in the original donation continue to finance research and the Johan Skytte Prize. The prize is awarded each year by The Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University to the person who has made the "most valuable contribution to political science."
Read more about the prize on the Johan Skytte Prize Committee website: http://skytteprize.statsvet.uu.se/
For more information, please contact:
Li Bennich-Björkman, Chair of the Prize Committee, Telephone: +46 (0) 708 289 519,
e-mail: li.bennich-bjorkman@statsvet.uu.se