Austrian Chapter Activity Report 2022

(reporting period: 1.1.2022-31.12.2022)

Foundational year

After the formal approvement by ICONS, the Austrian Chapter was established in May 2022 by the following founding members: Maria Bertel, Iris Eisenberger, Konrad Lachmayer, András Jakab and Matthias C. Kettemann. The co-chairs of the inaugural period of the Austrian Chapter are Maria Bertel and Konrad Lachmayer, General Secretary Matthias Kettemann and Clara Rauchegger. In the foundational meeting, the Advisory Council as well as the International Board of Advisors were also installed. In June 2022 the website of the Austrian Chapter www.icon-society.at as well as the twitter account https://twitter.com/ICONSAustria started.

The first board meetings took place in November 2022: an in-person kick-off meeting of the co-chairs and the advisory board in Vienna with an intensive discussion round took place at Sigmund Freud University in Vienna. Moreover, an online meeting with the co-chairs and the International Board of Advisors initiated the collaboration with other national chapters.

Since early-career scholars shall play an important role in the Austrian chapter, a permanent working group on early career scholars consisting of early career scholars from the advisory board as well as the co-chairs and the secretary general was established .Two meetings (with the aim to prepare an online series of talks for young scholars with experienced scholars from the International Board of Advisors sharing their experiences) were held.

Outlook ‘23/’24

The activities in 2023 will primarily consist of online early career scholars events. The first Austrian chapter conference will take place 16. / 17. May 2024 in Vienna and will focus on “Public Law and the Cities”. The year 2023 will serve as preparation period. Links to the neighbour chapters (especially the CEE Chapter, the German Chapter and the Italian Chapter) will be intensified.