This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I out... more This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I outline why this has happened, the consequences of such neglect and how it might be remedied. The article proceeds in four stages: First, it makes the case that British politics has neglected race and racism. I do this by showing that race does not feature within the core concerns of the discipline, and that despite the fact that race may be noted in the relationship between demography and representation, its status as a social construct is not addressed. Second, the article explores the question of disciplinary reflexivity. Drawing on Emirbayer and Desmond's (2012) racial reflexivity framework, I delineate the disciplinary and scholastic unconscious of British politics, showing that the reliance on the Westminster Model obscures questions of race. Next, the article discusses the Sewell Report (2021), explicating its post-racism narrative, and draws parallels between the findings of the report and the study of British politics. The final section of the article outlines a framework for a British politics of race. The framework draws on critical race theory, and Britain's imperial history of colonialism and empire-building and thus puts the study of race at the centre of the discipline.
Wood and Flinders re-center political participation on the idea of “nexus politics.” The effort i... more Wood and Flinders re-center political participation on the idea of “nexus politics.” The effort is laudable because it contributes to other ongoing efforts at broadening our understanding of the nature of ‘political’ participation. Unfortunately, in our view, the authors misspecify new forms of political participation that have emerged by: (1) failing to take Henrik Bang’s work seriously; (2) focusing exclusively on motivation/intention, so that an action is “political,” only if the person acting sees it as “political”; (3) seeing all political participation as necessarily oppositional.
This article considers the recent resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick,... more This article considers the recent resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and places this event within the context of ongoing attempts to address institutional racism in the police. The article argues that successive police commissioners have publicly supported tackling institutional racism while maintaining serious reservations about the concept and, in the case of Dick, ultimately rejecting it. It goes on to show that Dick's record on tackling institutional racism has been partial and contradictory, focussing on recruitment of ethnic minorities whilst simultaneously increasing use of stop and search tactics. Institutional racism, I argue, is a useful, but frequently misunderstood concept. Institutional reform, however, is possible if we recognise that everyday individuals actively create and maintain institutions, which is to be contrasted with the conventional approach to institutional reform where it is the institution that moulds or reforms the individual. As such, reforming the police requires starting at the bottom as well as the top.
Supporting increasing equality and diversity in the recruitment and retention of Early Career Res... more Supporting increasing equality and diversity in the recruitment and retention of Early Career Researchers from the widest pool of talent available is high on the agenda of universities and policy makers. Notwithstanding this, the demanding nature of academic careers has a disproportionate effect on Early Career Researchers, who may face indirect obstacles in their career development particularly following a period of maternity or parental leave. Our research seeks to expose the nexus of challenges, from job insecurity to the pressures of raising new families that Early Career Researchers face during this critical juncture in their career trajectory. Focusing on Politics and International Studies Departments in the United Kingdom, we document the institutional mechanisms that exist to support Early Career Researchers returning from maternity and parental leave through a Heads of Department and an Early Career Researcher survey to gain an understanding of needs and the impact of institutional measures. Adopting a feminist institutionalist analysis, we map gendered outcomes in the university, through formal and informal rules, which mitigate against those Early Career Researchers taking maternity and parental leave. We end by identifying specific measures which would help to ensure that the university is more supportive of Early Career Researchers taking maternity and parental leave.
There is no doubt that the nature of political participation is changing in liberal democracy. At... more There is no doubt that the nature of political participation is changing in liberal democracy. At first, many researchers argued that the main feature of this change was an increase in political apathy (for a discussion of this literature see Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). To support that view, they pointed particularly to a decline in voting, where it was not compulsory, and in political party membership; often together seen in terms of a process of partisan dealignment (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000). However, more recently this view has been critiqued, with many suggesting that political participation has not declined, rather the forms that it takes have changed and that the mainstream literature underestimates the extent of these changes (see e.g. Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). This issue of Policy Studies addresses some of the key questions involved in these debates and in this introduction we want to provide the background for what follows, by outlining the main concerns of the recent more critical literature, many of which are explored in the articles in this volume. More specifically, we focus upon four crucial issues discussed in this literature; how we conceptualise the ‘political’ when talking of ‘political participation’, how we can conceptualise the links between connective and collective action and online and offline ‘political’ activity; the relationship between duty norms and engagement norms and between project identities and oppositional or legitimating identities; and the putative rise of what Henrik Bang terms as Everyday Makers (EMs).
Abstract: The power of business is a very important issue for understanding the
operation of demo... more Abstract: The power of business is a very important issue for understanding the operation of democracy, but establishing the nature and extent of its power is not easy. We acknowledge that this is, in large part, an empirical problem and requires a more sophisticated conceptual framework to address it. Attempting to address this, the recent literature on the power of business has increasingly focused on the role of structure, agents and ideas. However, too little attention has been paid to how these concepts are defined and conceptualized. We argue that it is crucial to: specify the structures (economic/political/social) which we see as affecting the role of business; identify the agents, collective and individual, involved and how they interact; and specify which ideas are playing a role, at what level of generality and how these different ideas at different levels of generality interact. This article explores these issues through a critical consideration of the extant literature in order to provide a more developed framework for future empirical analysis.
On the death of Margaret Thatcher we were inundated with claims that she
had transformed British ... more On the death of Margaret Thatcher we were inundated with claims that she had transformed British politics. Here we argue that we need to contextualize Thatcherism and question arguments that now seem to be taken for granted. We do not argue that nothing changed as a result of 'Thatcherism', that, clearly, would be an indefensible claim. Rather, we would argue that claims of transformation need to be interrogated and that, to some extent, they are based on a particular, and at best partial, reading of the prior period.
The strength of Lukes’ third face of power is the recognition that agents can be influenced by st... more The strength of Lukes’ third face of power is the recognition that agents can be influenced by structures and ideas in ways of which they are unaware. The weakness of Lukes’ position is that his consideration of the third face is underdeveloped. In this article, we argue that Bourdieu and Foucault’s work offer fruitful ways of exploring this ‘pre-conscious’ dimension. Using Bourdieu’s work, the core of any understanding of the third face is rooted in the relationship between the social field and the habitus, while, for Foucault, the focus is upon the construction of the subject and her preferences in relation to the ongoing production of power. We subsequently explore the differences between their positions.
This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues ... more This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues against the tendency to define agency exclusively in terms of reflexivity. Margaret Archer, in particular, is highlighted as a key proponent of this thesis. Archer argues that late modernity is characterised by reflexivity but, in our view, this position neglects the impact of more enduring aspects of agency, such as the routinisation of social life and the role of the taken-for-granted. These concepts were pivotal to Bourdieu and Giddens’ theorisation of everyday life and action and to Foucault’s understanding of technologies of the self. We offer Bourdieu’s habitus as a more nuanced approach to theorising agency, and provide an alternative account of reflexivity. Whilst accepting that reflexivity is a core aspect of agency, we argue that it operates to a backdrop of the routinisation of social life and operates from within and not outside of habitus. We highlight the role of the breach in reflexivity, suggesting that it opens up a critical window for agents to initiate change. The article suggests caution in over-ascribing reflexivity to agency, instead arguing that achieving reflexivity and change is a difficult and fraught process, which has emotional and moral consequences. The effect of this is that people often prefer the status quo, rather than to risk change and uncertainty.
According to the mainstream literature on political participation, declining rates of voting and ... more According to the mainstream literature on political participation, declining rates of voting and party and interest group membership reflect a crisis of democracy in Western democracies. In this article, we challenge this view by highlighting the rise of alternative forms of political participation that operate outside formal arenas. We suggest that the mainstream approach ignores such forms of political participation for two reasons: First, it operates with a narrow arena definition of politics; second, it is based on the assumption that non-participation in arena politics results from political apathy. We suggest that there is not a crisis of political participation, but there is a growing crisis in engagement resulting from an uncoupling between citizens and the state. Halting this form of democratic decline through a recoupling process will require changes on the part of governments and citizens.
This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I out... more This article explores the neglect of race and racism in the discipline of British politics. I outline why this has happened, the consequences of such neglect and how it might be remedied. The article proceeds in four stages: First, it makes the case that British politics has neglected race and racism. I do this by showing that race does not feature within the core concerns of the discipline, and that despite the fact that race may be noted in the relationship between demography and representation, its status as a social construct is not addressed. Second, the article explores the question of disciplinary reflexivity. Drawing on Emirbayer and Desmond's (2012) racial reflexivity framework, I delineate the disciplinary and scholastic unconscious of British politics, showing that the reliance on the Westminster Model obscures questions of race. Next, the article discusses the Sewell Report (2021), explicating its post-racism narrative, and draws parallels between the findings of the report and the study of British politics. The final section of the article outlines a framework for a British politics of race. The framework draws on critical race theory, and Britain's imperial history of colonialism and empire-building and thus puts the study of race at the centre of the discipline.
Wood and Flinders re-center political participation on the idea of “nexus politics.” The effort i... more Wood and Flinders re-center political participation on the idea of “nexus politics.” The effort is laudable because it contributes to other ongoing efforts at broadening our understanding of the nature of ‘political’ participation. Unfortunately, in our view, the authors misspecify new forms of political participation that have emerged by: (1) failing to take Henrik Bang’s work seriously; (2) focusing exclusively on motivation/intention, so that an action is “political,” only if the person acting sees it as “political”; (3) seeing all political participation as necessarily oppositional.
This article considers the recent resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick,... more This article considers the recent resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and places this event within the context of ongoing attempts to address institutional racism in the police. The article argues that successive police commissioners have publicly supported tackling institutional racism while maintaining serious reservations about the concept and, in the case of Dick, ultimately rejecting it. It goes on to show that Dick's record on tackling institutional racism has been partial and contradictory, focussing on recruitment of ethnic minorities whilst simultaneously increasing use of stop and search tactics. Institutional racism, I argue, is a useful, but frequently misunderstood concept. Institutional reform, however, is possible if we recognise that everyday individuals actively create and maintain institutions, which is to be contrasted with the conventional approach to institutional reform where it is the institution that moulds or reforms the individual. As such, reforming the police requires starting at the bottom as well as the top.
Supporting increasing equality and diversity in the recruitment and retention of Early Career Res... more Supporting increasing equality and diversity in the recruitment and retention of Early Career Researchers from the widest pool of talent available is high on the agenda of universities and policy makers. Notwithstanding this, the demanding nature of academic careers has a disproportionate effect on Early Career Researchers, who may face indirect obstacles in their career development particularly following a period of maternity or parental leave. Our research seeks to expose the nexus of challenges, from job insecurity to the pressures of raising new families that Early Career Researchers face during this critical juncture in their career trajectory. Focusing on Politics and International Studies Departments in the United Kingdom, we document the institutional mechanisms that exist to support Early Career Researchers returning from maternity and parental leave through a Heads of Department and an Early Career Researcher survey to gain an understanding of needs and the impact of institutional measures. Adopting a feminist institutionalist analysis, we map gendered outcomes in the university, through formal and informal rules, which mitigate against those Early Career Researchers taking maternity and parental leave. We end by identifying specific measures which would help to ensure that the university is more supportive of Early Career Researchers taking maternity and parental leave.
There is no doubt that the nature of political participation is changing in liberal democracy. At... more There is no doubt that the nature of political participation is changing in liberal democracy. At first, many researchers argued that the main feature of this change was an increase in political apathy (for a discussion of this literature see Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). To support that view, they pointed particularly to a decline in voting, where it was not compulsory, and in political party membership; often together seen in terms of a process of partisan dealignment (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000). However, more recently this view has been critiqued, with many suggesting that political participation has not declined, rather the forms that it takes have changed and that the mainstream literature underestimates the extent of these changes (see e.g. Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). This issue of Policy Studies addresses some of the key questions involved in these debates and in this introduction we want to provide the background for what follows, by outlining the main concerns of the recent more critical literature, many of which are explored in the articles in this volume. More specifically, we focus upon four crucial issues discussed in this literature; how we conceptualise the ‘political’ when talking of ‘political participation’, how we can conceptualise the links between connective and collective action and online and offline ‘political’ activity; the relationship between duty norms and engagement norms and between project identities and oppositional or legitimating identities; and the putative rise of what Henrik Bang terms as Everyday Makers (EMs).
Abstract: The power of business is a very important issue for understanding the
operation of demo... more Abstract: The power of business is a very important issue for understanding the operation of democracy, but establishing the nature and extent of its power is not easy. We acknowledge that this is, in large part, an empirical problem and requires a more sophisticated conceptual framework to address it. Attempting to address this, the recent literature on the power of business has increasingly focused on the role of structure, agents and ideas. However, too little attention has been paid to how these concepts are defined and conceptualized. We argue that it is crucial to: specify the structures (economic/political/social) which we see as affecting the role of business; identify the agents, collective and individual, involved and how they interact; and specify which ideas are playing a role, at what level of generality and how these different ideas at different levels of generality interact. This article explores these issues through a critical consideration of the extant literature in order to provide a more developed framework for future empirical analysis.
On the death of Margaret Thatcher we were inundated with claims that she
had transformed British ... more On the death of Margaret Thatcher we were inundated with claims that she had transformed British politics. Here we argue that we need to contextualize Thatcherism and question arguments that now seem to be taken for granted. We do not argue that nothing changed as a result of 'Thatcherism', that, clearly, would be an indefensible claim. Rather, we would argue that claims of transformation need to be interrogated and that, to some extent, they are based on a particular, and at best partial, reading of the prior period.
The strength of Lukes’ third face of power is the recognition that agents can be influenced by st... more The strength of Lukes’ third face of power is the recognition that agents can be influenced by structures and ideas in ways of which they are unaware. The weakness of Lukes’ position is that his consideration of the third face is underdeveloped. In this article, we argue that Bourdieu and Foucault’s work offer fruitful ways of exploring this ‘pre-conscious’ dimension. Using Bourdieu’s work, the core of any understanding of the third face is rooted in the relationship between the social field and the habitus, while, for Foucault, the focus is upon the construction of the subject and her preferences in relation to the ongoing production of power. We subsequently explore the differences between their positions.
This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues ... more This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues against the tendency to define agency exclusively in terms of reflexivity. Margaret Archer, in particular, is highlighted as a key proponent of this thesis. Archer argues that late modernity is characterised by reflexivity but, in our view, this position neglects the impact of more enduring aspects of agency, such as the routinisation of social life and the role of the taken-for-granted. These concepts were pivotal to Bourdieu and Giddens’ theorisation of everyday life and action and to Foucault’s understanding of technologies of the self. We offer Bourdieu’s habitus as a more nuanced approach to theorising agency, and provide an alternative account of reflexivity. Whilst accepting that reflexivity is a core aspect of agency, we argue that it operates to a backdrop of the routinisation of social life and operates from within and not outside of habitus. We highlight the role of the breach in reflexivity, suggesting that it opens up a critical window for agents to initiate change. The article suggests caution in over-ascribing reflexivity to agency, instead arguing that achieving reflexivity and change is a difficult and fraught process, which has emotional and moral consequences. The effect of this is that people often prefer the status quo, rather than to risk change and uncertainty.
According to the mainstream literature on political participation, declining rates of voting and ... more According to the mainstream literature on political participation, declining rates of voting and party and interest group membership reflect a crisis of democracy in Western democracies. In this article, we challenge this view by highlighting the rise of alternative forms of political participation that operate outside formal arenas. We suggest that the mainstream approach ignores such forms of political participation for two reasons: First, it operates with a narrow arena definition of politics; second, it is based on the assumption that non-participation in arena politics results from political apathy. We suggest that there is not a crisis of political participation, but there is a growing crisis in engagement resulting from an uncoupling between citizens and the state. Halting this form of democratic decline through a recoupling process will require changes on the part of governments and citizens.
Book: Re-thinking Contemporary Political Behaviour: The Difference that Agency Makes., 2019
Proposing a novel approach to understanding the contemporary political landscape, Akram draws on ... more Proposing a novel approach to understanding the contemporary political landscape, Akram draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Margaret Archer on agency and argues the need for an in-depth engagement with concepts of agency to improve the reach and scope of political analysis.
Is the way that people engage with politics changing? If so, how well-equipped are we to document and explain the extent and range of the ways in which people are engaging in politics today? This book tackles these questions through a blend of theoretical reflection and empirical research, shedding new light on the relationship between arena and process definitions of politics, and how the social relates to the political. Hitherto unexplored features of agency such as the unconscious and the internal political conversation are shown to be critical in exploring how people mobilise today and how they make sense of their political engagement. Two in-depth case studies of the internal political conversations that individuals hold as well as an analysis of the 2011 UK riots are presented.
Making a case for the role of self-expression in politics, this book will be of use for graduates and scholars interested in British politics, political theory, social theory, political sociology, the theory and practice of political engagement and political behaviour.
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in political apathy (for a discussion of this literature see Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). To support that view, they pointed particularly to a decline in voting, where it was not compulsory, and in political party membership; often together seen in terms of a process of partisan dealignment (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000). However, more recently this view has been critiqued, with many suggesting that political participation has not
declined, rather the forms that it takes have changed and that the mainstream literature underestimates the extent of these changes (see e.g. Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). This issue of Policy Studies addresses some of the key questions involved in these debates and in this introduction we want to provide the background for what follows, by outlining the main concerns of the recent more critical literature, many of which are explored in the articles in this volume. More specifically, we focus upon four crucial issues discussed in this literature; how we conceptualise the ‘political’ when talking of ‘political participation’, how we can conceptualise the links between connective and collective action and online and offline ‘political’ activity; the relationship between duty norms and engagement norms and between project identities and oppositional or legitimating identities; and the putative rise of what Henrik Bang terms as Everyday Makers (EMs).
operation of democracy, but establishing the nature and extent of its power is
not easy. We acknowledge that this is, in large part, an empirical problem and
requires a more sophisticated conceptual framework to address it. Attempting
to address this, the recent literature on the power of business has increasingly
focused on the role of structure, agents and ideas. However, too little attention
has been paid to how these concepts are defined and conceptualized. We argue
that it is crucial to: specify the structures (economic/political/social) which we
see as affecting the role of business; identify the agents, collective and individual,
involved and how they interact; and specify which ideas are playing a role, at
what level of generality and how these different ideas at different levels of generality
interact. This article explores these issues through a critical consideration
of the extant literature in order to provide a more developed framework for future
empirical analysis.
had transformed British politics. Here we argue that we need to contextualize Thatcherism and question arguments that now seem to be taken for granted. We do not argue that nothing changed as a result of 'Thatcherism', that, clearly, would be an indefensible claim. Rather, we would argue that claims of transformation need to be interrogated and that, to some extent,
they are based on a particular, and at best partial, reading of the prior period.
In this article, we argue that Bourdieu and Foucault’s work offer
fruitful ways of exploring this ‘pre-conscious’ dimension. Using Bourdieu’s work, the core of any understanding of the third face is rooted in the relationship between the social field and the habitus, while, for Foucault, the focus is upon the construction of the subject and her preferences in relation to the ongoing production of power. We subsequently explore the differences between their positions.
in political apathy (for a discussion of this literature see Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). To support that view, they pointed particularly to a decline in voting, where it was not compulsory, and in political party membership; often together seen in terms of a process of partisan dealignment (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000). However, more recently this view has been critiqued, with many suggesting that political participation has not
declined, rather the forms that it takes have changed and that the mainstream literature underestimates the extent of these changes (see e.g. Marsh, O’Toole, and Jones 2007). This issue of Policy Studies addresses some of the key questions involved in these debates and in this introduction we want to provide the background for what follows, by outlining the main concerns of the recent more critical literature, many of which are explored in the articles in this volume. More specifically, we focus upon four crucial issues discussed in this literature; how we conceptualise the ‘political’ when talking of ‘political participation’, how we can conceptualise the links between connective and collective action and online and offline ‘political’ activity; the relationship between duty norms and engagement norms and between project identities and oppositional or legitimating identities; and the putative rise of what Henrik Bang terms as Everyday Makers (EMs).
operation of democracy, but establishing the nature and extent of its power is
not easy. We acknowledge that this is, in large part, an empirical problem and
requires a more sophisticated conceptual framework to address it. Attempting
to address this, the recent literature on the power of business has increasingly
focused on the role of structure, agents and ideas. However, too little attention
has been paid to how these concepts are defined and conceptualized. We argue
that it is crucial to: specify the structures (economic/political/social) which we
see as affecting the role of business; identify the agents, collective and individual,
involved and how they interact; and specify which ideas are playing a role, at
what level of generality and how these different ideas at different levels of generality
interact. This article explores these issues through a critical consideration
of the extant literature in order to provide a more developed framework for future
empirical analysis.
had transformed British politics. Here we argue that we need to contextualize Thatcherism and question arguments that now seem to be taken for granted. We do not argue that nothing changed as a result of 'Thatcherism', that, clearly, would be an indefensible claim. Rather, we would argue that claims of transformation need to be interrogated and that, to some extent,
they are based on a particular, and at best partial, reading of the prior period.
In this article, we argue that Bourdieu and Foucault’s work offer
fruitful ways of exploring this ‘pre-conscious’ dimension. Using Bourdieu’s work, the core of any understanding of the third face is rooted in the relationship between the social field and the habitus, while, for Foucault, the focus is upon the construction of the subject and her preferences in relation to the ongoing production of power. We subsequently explore the differences between their positions.
Is the way that people engage with politics changing? If so, how well-equipped are we to document and explain the extent and range of the ways in which people are engaging in politics today? This book tackles these questions through a blend of theoretical reflection and empirical research, shedding new light on the relationship between arena and process definitions of politics, and how the social relates to the political. Hitherto unexplored features of agency such as the unconscious and the internal political conversation are shown to be critical in exploring how people mobilise today and how they make sense of their political engagement. Two in-depth case studies of the internal political conversations that individuals hold as well as an analysis of the 2011 UK riots are presented.
Making a case for the role of self-expression in politics, this book will be of use for graduates and scholars interested in British politics, political theory, social theory, political sociology, the theory and practice of political engagement and political behaviour.