Annual Report 2015, Budapest

The main point to note is the short duration of Dr Geoff Bright's role as Network Led Convenor which inevitably curtails the breadth and depth of this report. Due to a short term precarious contract situation at his institution he has withdrawn from his position as Lead Convenor after only one year (as of the ECER conference in 2015). Regretfully, he felt that he could not secure the institutional base on which to meaningfully carry out the role of Lead Convenor. In light of his short tenure, he can only comment in a very superficial way about the small amount of network business that he has overseen.

The key feature of Network 19's role at ECER 2015 was how the network contributed to the business of the Network Convenors meeting (and thus of ECER as a whole) both in general and specifically around developing a response to the European refugee crisis. Network 19 is a small network but but it has a strong identity. It is also a network that takes political questions and the link between research and contemporary social concerns very seriously.  As such, it was able to quickly organise discussion within the network around the refugee situation, help lead discussion at the NW Convenor's meeting and follow through with action that ultimately influenced the production of a collective conference statement on this key aspect of contemporary European life.