SLO Team
Institution
The University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Social Sciences (UL-FSS) is the largest multidisciplinary higher education institution in the field of social sciences in Slovenia. For five decades, the UL-FSS has been providing educational and research output in the fields of numerous basic and applicative disciplines. Within the basic disciplines of sociology, political science, communications, journalism and cultural sciences, professors and researchers at UL-FSS contribute to the development of political and communication sciences, international relations, European studies, defence studies, religion and numerous other disciplines.
Website:
Members of SLO team
Damjan Lajh, PhD, is Associate Professor at the University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Social Sciences, Head of the Centre for Political Science Research, and coordinator of Master Study in Political Science – Policy Analysis and Public Administration. He received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Ljubljana in 2005. His research interests encompass public policies and policymaking processes in the national and EU context, Europeanization processes, and new forms of governance in the EU. As author or co-author he has published ten books, including “The Reception of the Open Method of Coordination in Slovenia” and “Europeanization Process and Adaptation of Political Institutions at the National Level”, co-edited three books including “EU public policies seen from a national perspective: Slovenia and Croatia in the European Union” and “European Union from A to Z”, and has been a (co-)author of numerous articles in domestic and foreign journals and chapters of books. He has led four Jean Monnet projects, Jean Monnet Chair, and the University of Ljubljana Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. His most recent research project includes “Opening the Black-Box of Policy Consultations in EU Policymaking”, financed by the Slovenian national research agency. He was the winner of European Commission’s Altiero Spinelli Prize for Outreach (Call 2018). In 2019 he was a visiting researcher at the Metropolitan University in Prague.
Profile:
https://www.fdv.uni-lj.si/obvestila-in-informacije/imenik-sodelavcev/pedagogi/kartica/damjan-lajh/
Selected publications:
- LAJH, Damjan. Accountability in EU decision-making at the national level: lost in the multi-level setting? Teorija in praksa, 2017, vol. 54, pp. 80-95.
- NOVAK, Meta, LAJH, Damjan. The participation of Slovenian civil society organisations in EU policymaking: explaining their different routes. Journal of contemporary European research, 2018, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 105-122.
- LAJH, Damjan and Zdravko PETAK (eds.). EU public policies seen from a national perspective: Slovenia and Croatia in the European Union. Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences, 2015.
Danica Fink Hafner, PhD, is Full Professor of political parties, interest groups and policy analysis at the University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Social Sciences. She was founder of teaching and research fields of policy analysis/interest groups/lobbying/policy networks/post-socialist development of political parties in Slovenia, first Head of Policy Analysis and Public Administration Chair, coordinator of the Master Study in Political Science: Policy Analysis – European Aspects, and coordinator of PhD study in Policy Analysis. She is the author or co-author of twelve books and editor or co-editor of several books. Her articles have appeared in Journal of European Public Policy, Public Administration, Europe-Asia Studies, Czech Sociological Review, Journal of Communist Studies and other journals. She has been a project leader of several national, international and bilateral projects.
Profile:
Selected publications:
- FINK-HAFNER, Danica. A typology of populisms and changing forms of society: the case of Slovenia. Europe-Asia Studies, 2016, vol. 68, no. 8, pp. 1315-1339.
- FINK-HAFNER, Danica, HAFNER-FINK, Mitja, NOVAK, Meta. Europeanisation as a factor of national interest group political-cultural change: the case of interest groups in Slovenia. East European Politics and Societies, 2015, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 287-305.
- FINK-HAFNER, Danica. Post-accession politicization of national EU policy coordination: the case of Slovenia. Public Administration, 2014, vol. 92, no. 1, pp. 39-54.
Meta Novak, PhD, is Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana - Faculty of Social Sciences and research associate in the Centre for Political Science Research at the same faculty. She obtained her PhD in Sociology in 2014 from the University of Ljubljana. Her research interests include interest groups and lobbying, Europeanization processes, political knowledge, knowledge gap, and expression of opinion. She has been working on two international research projects and four Jean Monnet projects as assistant to academic coordinator, member of teaching and research staff in frame of which she organised a series of workshops. She is currently academic coordinator of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet project Bringing EU and youth closer together. As author or co-author she has published five books, including a book on Teaching European contents in Slovenian schools, has been a (co-)author of several articles and has participated in many international scientific conferences. From December 2017 until February 2018 she was a visiting scholar at the University of Antwerp.
Profile:
Selected publications:
- NOVAK, Meta, FINK-HAFNER, Danica. Slovenia: interest group developments in a post-socialist-liberal democracy. Journal of Public Affairs, 2019, vol. 19, no. 2.
- NOVAK, Meta, LAJH, Damjan. Entering the Brussels arena: Slovenian interest groups and the pursuit of a dual strategy. Journal of Southeast European & Black Sea studies, 2019, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 315-331.
- NOVAK, Meta, LAJH, Damjan. Show me the money: the importance of EU funding for the activities of interest groups in post-socialist countries. Romanian Journal of Political Science, 2019, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 116-138.