how was it for you? the helsinki joint sessions, may 2007
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elsinki 2007 simply saw far too many poor performers and poor performances from the so-called ‘main stars’. Indeed, some of these performances were so truly wretched they had onlookers desperate to leave as soon as possible. By the end of the week, the disappointment in their representatives’ performances among some of the member nations was palpable, well, all except for the Serbian contingenty! For those of you who were not at this year’s Joint Sessions, or who are not fans of Euro-pop at its best (or worst!) you won’t be aware that there were two major European events taking place at the same time in Helsinki this May: the ECPR’s Joint Sessions of Workshops and the Eurovision Song Contest! In fact, while this coincidence made it difficult to obtain hotel rooms and book restaurants, it also gave the city a real buzz, and gave us all something (awful?) to look forward to at the end of the week. If your Workshop was lucky you had a bird’s eye view down into the central square where the semi-finals (did you know there were semi-finals in the Eurovision?) were held during the week of the Joint Sessions. The paraphernalia on sale to advertise the Eurovision was extraordinaryy and not matched by that offered by the ECPR this year. World famous for its conference bags until now, the Helsinki ‘bag’ failed to live up to all expectations: perhaps this is all about
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carbon-footprinting, but I cannot envisage meeting another Helsinki bag on my ECPR travels. Last year I spotted an ’82 Aarhus – a good vintage, still maturing well, not yet past its best – and this year, of course, several from the 2005 Granada crop (a very fine example, probably the best for 20 years!). But a paper bag resembling something you might be given free in your local deli does little to excite the imagination – paper may be ‘greener’, but does it have the staying power? Je suis desole ´e Helsinki, mais nul point! However, a full ‘douze points’ could be awarded to Helsinki on other fronts. The receptions were magnificent (a few less dishes and surely we could have had a proper bag?), the tourism was first rate and the food a joy to experience (is it ethical to eat bear, elk and reindeer? Check with your waiter and then try it). And the weather was wonderful: clear, crisp days for the most part. Moreover, the days were longy and they got visibly longer as the week progressed. Indeed, by the time I flew back to my homeland the evenings seemed to be rather dark and dismal. The days were also long, of course, because at this ‘conference’, unlike any other academic ‘conference’ held in the world, real, extended and detailed discussion takes place. Despite attending several ‘Joint Sessions’, nobody has told me why they are (or were) called ‘sessions’ and why they are ‘joint’: with whom
european political science: 6 2007 (332 – 336) & 2007 European Consortium for Political Research. 1680-4333/07 $30 www.palgrave-journals.com/eps
do we ‘join’ when we meet? One for the ECPR web-site, surely, if not an article in EPS? But if ‘joint sessions’ was origi
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