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Publications

Staff in the School have an outstanding record of publication in books and journals; in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 85% of the School's research output was deemed as recognised internationally. We also host a number of key journals in the field, and staff have editorial involvement in several other leading journals.

Below you will find details of recent books published by members of academic staff, and details of journals with editors based in the School. For a full list of publications by individual members of staff, please see the staff pages.

Forthcoming Publications

Ros Hague, Autonomy and Identity: The Politics of Who We Are (March 2011)

Autonomy and Identity are key concepts in both political and feminist thought and have played central roles in both fields. Although there has been much academic work on both concepts there has arguably been little that has addressed the connections between autonomy and identity.

Autonomy and Identity seeks to draw innovative links between these concepts in order to develop a new understanding which sees autonomy as a process by which we change and develop our identity. It draws on thinkers from the canon of political thought such as G.W.F. Hegel, Mary Wollstonecraft, J.S. Mill and Simone de Beauvoir and features illustrative examples drawn from a wide range of contemporary issues including pornography, domestic violence and women’s citizenship. Hague argues that identity is best understood as changing, multiple, and something we need to take control of ourselves. In order to support this version of identity there needs to be a concept of autonomy which emphasises self-direction to control our identity.

Providing valuable insight into the complexities of thinking about linking autonomy to identity, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, gender studies, contemporary political thought and the history of political thought.

Wyn Rees The US-EU Security Relationship: The Tensions between a European and a Global Agenda (2011)

A wide-ranging assessment by a leading authority on contemporary US-EU security relations. This book systematically examines the development of the relationship since the Cold War and considers how global and European issues such as EU enlargement, international terrorism and the war on terror have affected security relations.

Recent Publications

Andreas Bieler and Ingemar Lindberg (eds.) Global Restructuring, Labour and the Challenges for Transnational Solidarity. (2010)

Globalisation has put national labour movements under severe pressure, due to the increasing transnationalisation of production, with the production of many goods being organised across borders, and the informalisation of the economy.

Through a range of case studies, this volume examines the possibilities and obstacles to transnational solidarity of labour in a period of global restructuring and changing global political economy. It brings together a range of international and transnational case studies, examining successful and failed transnational solidarity covering inter-trade union co-operation as well as co-operation between trade unions and social movements within the formal and informal economy, and the public and private sector. It is structured in six parts and examines:

Globalisation and the new challenges for transnational solidarity
Inter trade union co-operation across borders.
The dynamics of co-operation between trade unions and social movements across borders, looking at developing and developed countries.
The struggles to defend the public sector against private service providers.
The possible ways forward towards transnational solidarity of formal and informal labour in the global economy.

Tony Burns (Author,Editor) and James Connelly (Editor), The Legacy of Leo Strauss (2010)

Leo Strauss was a political philosopher, who died in 1973. He came to prominence in the United States in the United States and in Britain in the 1990s, at the time of the First Iraq War, especially because of his associations with American Neoconservatism and the foreign policy of the administration of former US President George W. Bush. At that time there was a widespread belief that the architects of the War, figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, and others who held staff positions in the US State and Defence Departments, as well as the National Security Agency (NSA), had studied under, or been influenced by the academic work of Strauss and his followers. It began to be reported in the popular press in the United States, as well as in intellectual and academic journals, that a group known as the Straussians had been instrumental in determining the long-range strategic planning of US foreign policy, both to advance American interests and to encourage the exportation of Western 'democracy' to other, non-Western societies.

This volume of essays opens up the topic of Leo Strauss and the Straussians to those outside the relatively narrow circles which have been concerned with him and his followers up to now.

Tony Burns is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics & International Relations, University of Nottingham, and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) there. James Connelly is Professor of Political Thought at the University of Hull.

PhilipCowley-TheBritishGeneralElectionof2010

Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2010 (2010).

Described by politicalbetting.com as 'the political book of the year', this is the eighteenth in the prestigious series of books dating back to 1945. It draws on hundreds of confidential interviews with all the key players, as well as considerable empirical analysis, and offers a compelling insider's guide to the election's background, campaign and results, including a detailed account of what happened in the formation of the UK's first coalition government since the second world war. The Guardian described it as 'popular academic writing at its best', the Telegraph called it 'indispensable', and the Observer described it as a 'political thriller', noting that the book 'is distinguished by the quality of its sources: the ministers, aides and strategists who open up to these academics in a way they might not to journalists'.

Alex Danchev, 100 Artists’ Manifestos From the Futurists to the Stuckists (paperback 2011)

In this remarkable collection of 100 manifestos from the last 100 years, Alex Danchev presents the cacophony of voices of such diverse movements as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Feminism, Communism, Destructivism, Vorticism, Stridentism, Cannibalism and Stuckism, taking in along the way film, architecture, fashion, and cookery.

Artists’ manifestos are nothing if not revolutionary. They are outlandish, outrageous, and frequently offensive. They combine wit, wisdom, and world-shaking demands. This collection gathers together an international array of artists of every stripe, including Kandinsky, Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, Le Corbusier, Picabia, Dalí, Oldenburg, Vertov, Baselitz, Kitaj, Murakami, Gilbert and George, together with their allies and collaborators – such figures as Marinetti, Apollinaire, Breton, Trotsky, Guy Debord and Rem Koolhaas.

In his introduction, Alex Danchev examines the rhetoric, the politics and the revolutionary fervour of manifestos, a genre launched by that great utopian project of the modernist period, The Communist Manifesto. Along the way he uncovers humour, wordplay, posturing and catfights. This collection stakes the claim for manifestos as the passport to modernity, to postmodernity, and beyond.

Catherine Gegout European Foreign and Security Policy (2010)

This is the first book to offer a theory to explain European Union decision-making in foreign and security policies. It also provides a detailed and practical analysis on how the Common Foreign and Security Policy really works, before and since the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

Carmen Gebhard and David Galbreath(eds) Cooperation or Conflict? Problematizing Organizational Overlap in Europe. (2010)

Following the end of the Second World War, the creation of regional organizations in Europe provided niche functions to help ensure regional stability through security and transition. Yet, as the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union dissolved, each of these organizations evolved to have a post-Cold War role in the region. Since then, the level of convergence of norms, interests and objectives between these main regional organizations has increased considerably. Is there a common agenda in Europe? Does Europe still need so many organizational elements to tackle the major challenges? The volume examines the way the EU, NATO, OSCE, and Council of Europe relate to and interact with each other, identifying the areas of positive convergence and divergence as well as areas of negative cooperation and conflict. By tracing the institutional development and regional integration in Europe, the book questions to what degree do European organizations maintain separate identities and most importantly do these organizations still offer a unique and useful service to regional stability. In developing this argument, policy areas analysed include security, democracy promotion, peace building, human rights, minority rights, and group protection.

Carmen Gebhard and Walter Feichtinger (eds) Globale Sicherheit – Europäische Potenziale. [German: Global Security – European Capabilities]. (2010)

The drastic geopolitical changes after the end of the Cold War have brought about new security political challenges for both the European Union and its Member States. The adoption and implementation of inclusive and comprehensive security concepts has become a priority for all actors in international crisis management. In the face of these challenges, the European Union has built up a wide range of political, structural and operational instruments for the management of crises and conflicts. This volume brings together a selection of expert practitioners and academics, who take stock of the EU’s political, organizational and operational capabilities, and problematize the way these are being developed along the lines of a growing range of security political challenges.

Matthew Goodwin and Roger Eatwell, The New Extremism in 21st Century Britain (2010)

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing concern about the resurgence of extremist and radical movements in the Western world. The main focus of concern among academics, policy-makers and practitioners within Europe and beyond has been on the growth and activities of Islamists and to a lesser extent the extreme right. This book presents new empirical research on the causes of these two ‘new’ extremisms in 21st Century Britain and the appropriate responses to it by both the state and civil society. Both forms of extremism pose vital questions for those concerned with the development of a more cohesive and stable society. Unlike many studies, this volume adopts a holistic approach, bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines to examine the factors that cause support and the potential policy responses.

Chris Pierson, Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (2010)

The newly-published Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, co-edited by Chris Pierson of the School of Politics and International Relations and Professor Frank Castles of the Australian National University, is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state. The individual chapters of the Handbook are written in an informed but accessible way by leading researchers in their respective fields giving the reader an excellent and truly up-to-date knowledge of the area under discussion. Taken together, they constitute a comprehensive compendium of all that is best in contemporary welfare state research and a unique guide to what is happening now in this most crucial and contested area of social and political development.

On Art and War and Terror - Alex Danchev

Alex Danchev On Art and War and Terror (2009).

A collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war, and terror, this book offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture, and abuse. The volume takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention.

Contributions also consider war poetry, war films, and war diaries in a broad view of art and war. Kafka is drawn upon to address torture and abuse in the war on terror; Homer is utilized to critique current talk of "barbarisatio;." the paintings of Gerhard Richter are used to investigate the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof group; and the photographs of Don McCullin and the writings of Vassily Grossman and Primo Levi allow one writer to propose an ethics of small acts of altruism. The collection examines the nature of conflict over the last century, from the Great War to the current "Global War on Terror," investigating what it means to be human in war, the nature of the costs exacted, and ways of coping.

On Art and War and Terror was 'Book of the Week' in the Times Higher Education magazine and a 'Book of the Year' in the Sunday Telegraph.

Carmen Gebhard, Unravelling the Baltic Sea Conundrum. Regionalism and European Integration Revisited. (2009)

In the course of the 1990s, a variety of regional initiatives and associations emerged in the Baltic Sea Region. As a result, today, the region features an extremely high concentration of regionalist structures, which add up to a tight network of cooperative arrangements that all label themselves as “Baltic”. In this study, Carmen Gebhard looks closely at this specific regional phenomenon, the “Baltic Sea Conundrum” while employing a comparative approach. Focussing on the cases of Sweden and Finland, their political performance as both regional stakeholders and members of the European Union, the study seeks to show how regional agendas have intersected with European issues and vice versa, and what range of bilateral and intra-regional tensions has emerged from this overlap.

Political Analysis - Elections and Voters - Cees Van der Eijk and Mark N. Franklin

Cees van der Eijk (and Mark Franklin (European University Institute)), Elections and Voters (2009)

Each of the authors has been active in the field of electoral studies for some thirty years, and they have been involved in a variety of large scale comparative studies and a great number of publications.

The book argues that voters and politicians are more or less the same, wherever they are, but that apparent differences in their behaviours and preferences can be understood in terms of the institutional and cultural environments in which they live. The authors challenge a variety of ‘common wisdoms’, provide comparative perspectives across countries, across periods, and within countries, and conclude with a broad-ranging and empirically informed assessment of the performance of electoral democracy in different political systems.

Andreas Bieler, Ingemar Lindberg and Devan Pillay (eds.) Labour and the Challenges of Globalisation: What prospects for transnational solidarity? (2008)

This book critically examines the responses of the working classes of the world to the challenges posed by the neoliberal restructuring of the global economy. Neoliberal globalisation, the book argues, has created new forms of polarisation in the world. A renewal of working class internationalism must address the situation of both the more privileged segments of the working class and the more impoverished ones. The study identifies new or renewed labour responses among formalised core workers as well as those on the periphery, including street-traders, homeworkers and other 'informal sector' workers. The book contains ten country studies, including India, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil. It argues that workers and trade unions, through intensive collaboration with other social forces across the world, can challenge the logic of neoliberal globalization.

Tony Burns, Political Theory, Science Fiction and Utopian Literature: Ursula K. Le Guin and the Dispossessed (2008)

“Perhaps the most detailed and certainly one of the most widely researched studies yet done on Le Guin’s masterpiece.” —Carl Freedman, professor and director of graduate studies, Louisiana State University

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed is of interest to political theorists partly because of its association with anarchism and partly because it is thought to represent a turning point in the history of utopian/dystopian political thought and literature and of science fiction. Published in 1974, it is often thought that it marked a revival of utopianism after decades of dystopian writing. According to this widely accepted view The Dispossessed represents a new kind of literary utopia, which Tom Moylan calls a “critical utopia.”

The present work challenges this reading of The Dispossessed and its place in the histories of utopian/dystopian literature and science fiction. It explores the difference between traditional literary utopias and novels and suggests that The Dispossessed is not a literary utopia at all, but rather a novel devoted to the theme of utopianism in politics. Le Guin’s concerns have more to do with those of the novelists of the nineteenth century writing in the tradition of European Realism than they do with either science fiction or utopian literature. It also claims that her theory of the novel has an affinity with the ancient Greek tragedy. This implies that there is a conservatism in Le Guin’s work as a creative writer, or as a novelist, which fits uneasily with her personal commitment to anarchism.

Alex Danchev, Picasso Furioso (2008)

Picasso Furioso is a short work devoted chiefly to Picasso's cannibalization (or Picassification) of other artists, notably in political paintings like 'Guernica'.

AndrewDenham-DemocratisingConservativeLeadershipSelection

Andrew Denham and Kieron O'Hara Democratising Conservative Leadership Selection (2008)

Traces the effects of democracy on the British Conservative Party, specifically looking at how changes in how the Conservatives elect their leaders have altered their mandate to lead. The book includes analysis of the original undemocratic 'system' whereby a leader 'emerged' from a shadowy process of consultation, and of the six elections between 1965 and 1997 where Tory MPs, and they alone, chose the Party leader. This historical perspective is followed by in-depth analysis of the three leadership successions that have taken place under the 'Hague rules', according to which ordinary Party members have the final say, since 2001. This is the most comprehensive account yet published of the operation of those rules on the Conservative Party and the legitimacy of its leadership, and of the election in 2005 of David Cameron, the most controversial Tory leader since Margaret Thatcher. Combining detailed historical analysis of the process of choosing Conservative leaders, and of the contemporary issues surrounding Cameron's attempts to 'modernise' the Party, this book is essential reading for students, academic specialists, and anyone interested in the recent history and contemporary practice of British Conservatism.

Civilizing Missions: International Religious Agencies in China - Miwa Hirono

Hirono, Miwa, Civilizing Missions: International Religious Agencies in China (2008)

Since the early 1990s, China has witnessed an influx of international NGOs, many of which have Christianity as their foundation. The presence of international Christian agencies in China, however, is not new. Christian missionaries went to China in the age of imperialism. Historians argue the work of missionaries was inextricably linked to the idea of a ‘civilizing mission’.

This book critically assesses the idea of a Christian ‘civilizing mission’ over time, and explores the relevance of the idea to the contemporary context. By examining the non-Han people’s perception of international Christian agencies, this book advocates the importance of engagement through in-depth dialogue between international Christian NGOs and ethnic communities.

Journals

The School of Politics currently plays host to Parliamentary Affairs and will soon be responsible for editing Political Studies and Political Studies Review.

Parliamentary Affairs

Parliamentary Affairs, which was established in 1948, is a peer-reviewed academic quarterly covering all aspects of government and political representation directly or indirectly connected with Parliament and parliamentary systems in Britain and throughout the world. It has been co-edited by Professor Steven Fielding since 2006 and is published by Oxford University Press in partnership with the Hansard Society.

[Find out more about Parliamentary Affairs]

School of Politics and International Relations

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