Your Search Results

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2009

        Men in political theory

        by Terrell Carver

        Men in political theory builds on feminist re-readings of the traditional canon of male writers in Political Philosophy by turning the 'gender lens' on to the representation of men in widely studies texts. It explains the distinction between 'man' as an apparently de-gendered 'individual' or 'citizen', and 'man' as an overtly gendered being in human society. Both these representations of 'man' are crucial to a clearer understanding of the operation of gender. Newly available in paperback, the book is the first to use the 'men's studies' and 'masculinities' literatures in re-thinking the political problems that students and specialists in the social sciences and humanities must encounter: consent, obligation, patriarchy, gender, sexuality, life-cycle, and discriminatory disadvantage related to sex, age, class, race/ethnicity and disability. It does this by re-examining the historical materials from which present-day concepts of citizenship, individuality, identity, subjectivity, normativity and legitimacy arise. The ten chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx and Engels show the operation of the 'gender lens' in different ways, depending on how the philosopher deploys concepts of men and masculinity to pose and solve classic problems. They can all be read independently and are as suitable for those just making the acquaintance of these classic writers as for those with specialist knowledge and interests. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2008

        Political responsibility and the European Union

        by Myrto Tsakatika

        This book addresses the question of political legitimacy in the European Union from the much neglected angle of political responsibility. It develops an original communitarian approach to legitimacy based on Alasdair MacIntyre's ethics of virtues and practices, that can be contrasted with prevalent liberal-egalitarian and neo-republican approaches. Tsakatika argues that a 'responsibility deficit', quite distinct from the often discussed 'democratic deficit', can be diagnosed in the European Union. This is documented in chapters that provide in-depth analysis of accountability, transparency and the difficulties associated with identifying responsibility in European governance. Closing this gap requires going beyond institutional engineering. It calls for gradual convergence towards certain core social and political practices and for the flourishing of the virtues of political responsibility in Europe's nascent political community. Throughout the book, normative political theory is brought to bear on concrete dilemmas of institutional choice faced by the EU during the recent constitutional debates. 'Political responsibility and the European Union' will be of interest to specialists and postgraduate students of political theory, constitutional law and European Union Studies. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Care of the elderly
        December 2014

        The politics of old age

        Older people's interest organisations and collective action in Ireland

        by Martha Doyle

        The politics of old age in the twenty first century is contentious, encompassing ideological debates about the rights and welfare entitlements of individuals in later life. An important aspect is the manner in which older people and their representative groups are given the opportunity to articulate their interests in the policy-making process. Drawing upon key literature in political science, social gerontology and cultural sociology, The politics of old age explores the relationship between ageing, politics and representation. It reveals the complexity of older people's representation and how the power the organisations exercise, their legitimacy and existence remain highly contingent on government policy design, political opportunity structures and the prevailing cultural and socioeconomic milieu. This book is essential reading for policymakers and organisations interested in ageing, policy and the political process and for students of ageing, social policy and political sociology.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2004

        The political marketing revolution

        Transforming the government of the UK

        by Jennifer Lees-Marshment

        This book shows how British politics is being transformed from a leadership-run system to one dictated by public needs and demands. No longer confined to party politics, organisations including the monarchy, the BBC, universities, local councils, charities and the Scottish Parliament are adopting the tools of market intelligence to understand their market needs and demands. The political marketing revolution raises many questions, such as whether the student or patient really does know best and can decide their own education and health care. The book calls for a debate about the movement of the British political system towards a market-orientation and a re-negotiation of the relationship between leaders and the market. Whilst recognising the need for political leaders to listen, this debate places some responsibilities on the political consumer, looking to create a new relationship that might work more effectively for both sides.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2008

        Intervention and state-building in the Pacific

        The legitimacy of 'cooperative intervention'

        by Peter Lawler, Greg Fry, Tarcisius Kabutaulaka, Emmanuel Pierre Guittet, Alan Rutter

        State-building intervention in weak, war-torn or failing states has become a priority for the international community. However, the question of how to legitimately engage in the shaping of national governance remains, at the very least, a vexed one. This book explores this key issue through a critical examination of a new model of state-building intervention which has recently emerged in relation to the Pacific 'arc of crisis'. Initiated by the Australian Government in 2003, this 'cooperative intervention' doctrine, built on declared principles of partnership and respect for sovereignty, seems to offer a legitimate way to engage in state-building intervention. Drawing on a group of distinguished Pacific specialists, this book mounts a critique of these claims, showing how international legitimacy does not automatically translate into political legitimacy among those in the affected societies; and how the attempt to legitimise the intervention internationally may actually work against such legitimacy in the recipient state. These insights will be of value to those interested in public policy studies, international law, development studies and international relations. ;

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2023

        The penny politics of Victorian popular fiction

        by Rob Breton

        Penny politics offers a new way to read early Victorian popular fiction such as Jack Sheppard, Sweeney Todd, and The Mysteries of London. It locates forms of radical discourse in the popular literature that emerged simultaneously with Brittan's longest and most significant people's movement. It listens for echoes of Chartist fiction in popular fiction. The book rethinks the relationship between the popular and political, understanding that radical politics had popular appeal and that the lines separating a genuine radicalism from commercial success are complicated and never absolute. With archival work into Newgate calendars and Chartist periodicals, as well as media history and culture, it brings together histories of the popular and political so as to rewrite the radical canon.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2023

        The sociology of sovereignty

        by Terje Rasmussen

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2022

        In defence of councillors

        by Colin Copus

        In defence of councillors is an unashamed defence of local representative democracy and of those elected to serve as councillors from the often ill-informed, ill-judged and inaccurate criticism made by the media, government and public, of councillors' personal, political and professional roles. By using qualitative research from a number of related projects, the book examines the roles, functions and responsibilities of councillors and the expectations placed upon them by citizens, communities and government. It also examines the impact council membership has on other facets of the councillor's life. The book examines how councillors develop strategies to overcome the constraints and restrictions on their office so as to be able to govern their communities, balance their political and public life and democratise and hold to account a vast array of unelected bodies that spend public money and develop public policy without the electoral mandate and legitimacy held by our councillors.

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        July 2024

        Undermining resistance

        The governance of participation by multinational mining corporations

        by Lian Sinclair

        Why do multinational mining corporations use participation to undermine resistance? Do the struggles of local communities, activists and NGOs matter on a global scale? Why are there so many different global standards in mining? This book develops a new critical political economy approach to studying extractive accumulation, drawing on three detailed Indonesian cases to explain how participatory mechanisms continuously reshape and are reshaped by community-corporate conflict. Findings highlight feedback between local social relations, conflict, transnational activism, crises of legitimacy and global governance. The author argues that corporate social responsibility, community development, 'gender-mainstreaming' and environmental monitoring are neither simple outcomes of corporate ethics nor mere greenwashing strategies. Rather, participation is a mechanism to undermine resistance and create social relations amenable to extractive accumulation.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2011

        Constitutions and political theory

        Second edition

        by Jan-Erik Lane

        Since constitutional arrangements are what make politics work, they are a central concern of political theory. This book, now completely updated, was the first comprehensive exploration of the political theory of constitutions. Jan-Erik Lane begins by examining the origins and history of constitutionalism and answers key questions such as: what is a constitution? Why are there constitutions? From where does constitutionalism originate? How is the constitutional state related to democracy and justice? Constitutions play a major role in domestic and international politics in the early 21st century and an updated version of this classic textbook will introduce students to a number of different areas - theoretical, empirical and moral - which will aid their understanding of this important topic. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Social welfare & social services
        June 2015

        Between two worlds of father politics

        USA or Sweden?

        by Michael Rush

        The essential message of the 'two regimes' model is that the social politics of fatherhood have taken on a global significance and that the USA and Sweden represent two ends of an international continuum of ways of thinking about fatherhood. The key selling points of the two regimes model are its topicality, originality, its global appeal, and its particularised appeal to readers in the USA, the Nordic countries, Great Britain, Ireland, the European Union, Japan and China. The book offers students a comparative analytical framework and new insights into why some welfare states have 'father-friendly' social policies and others do not. The book makes an original contribution to the growing fields of welfare regime and gender studies by linking the epochal decline of patriarchal fatherhood to welfare state expansion over the course of the twentieth century and it raises new questions about the legitimacy of religiously inspired neo-patriarchy.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2024

        Sexual politics in revolutionary England

        by Sam Fullerton

        Sexual politics in revolutionary England recounts a dramatic transformation in English sexual polemic that unfolded during the kingdom's mid-seventeenth-century civil wars. In early Stuart England, explicit sexual language was largely confined to manuscript and oral forms by the combined regulatory pressures of ecclesiastical press licensing and powerful cultural notions of civility and decorum. During the early 1640s, however, graphic sex-talk exploded into polemical print for the first time in English history. Over the next two decades, sexual politics evolved into a vital component of public discourse, as contemporaries utilized sexual satire to reframe the English Revolution as a battle between licentious Stuart tyrants and their lecherous puritan enemies. By the time that Charles II regained the throne in 1660, this book argues, sex was already a routine element of English political culture.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2010

        Towards a regional political class?

        Professional politicians and regional institutions in Catalonia and Scotland

        by Klaus Stolz

        Focussing on professional politicians Klaus Stolz investigates the interrelationship between political career patterns and political institutions in two of the most widely discussed cases of regionalism: Catalonia and Scotland. The study deals with two different yet closely related sets of questions: Firstly, how do professional politicians pursue their careers in the regional context. And secondly, how do they shape and reshape the political institutions in which they pursue these careers. The monograph is based on extensive empirical research including a comprehensive data set on the careers of Catalan and Scottish parliamentarians, systematic surveys of regional representatives as well as in-depth interviews of a wide range of politicians and experts in both regions. Exploring the effects of political professionalisation on regional democracy, Stolz goes way beyond traditional studies of regionalism and decentralization, while his focus on the regional career arena introduces a much needed territorial dimension to the study of political careers. Rich original data, innovative theoretical concepts and a strictly comparative approach are the basis for a study that considerably deepens and enhances our understanding of the tremendous political changes both Catalonia and Scotland are undergoing. Thus, the book is of interest to the still growing number of scholars concerned with devolution in the UK, the Spanish autonomous communities as well as to those interested in regional politics and regionalisation in general. Furthermore, its theoretical focus makes it highly relevant for scholars working on political careers, political professionalisation and democratic theory. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2023

        Politics, performance and popular culture

        Theatre and society in nineteenth-century Britain

        by Peter Yeandle, Katherine Newey, Jeffrey Richards

        This collection brings together studies of popular performance and politics across the nineteenth century, offering a fresh perspective from an archivally grounded research base. It works with the concept that politics is performative and performance is political. The book is organised into three parts in dialogue regarding specific approaches to popular performance and politics. Part I offers a series of conceptual studies using popular culture as an analytical category for social and political history. Part II explores the ways that performance represents and constructs contemporary ideologies of race, nation and empire. Part III investigates the performance techniques of specific politicians - including Robert Peel, Keir Hardie and Henry Hyndman - and analyses the performative elements of collective movements.

      • Trusted Partner

        Does Movement Really Make Us Smart?

        by Petra Jansen, Stefanie Richter

        Media reports often praise movement as a cure-all. But apart from its undisputed positive effect on health, does movement really make us smarter? Consider a national football team, for example – are these excessively sports-driven players automatically the smartest people? Should we simply replace all school subjects with sports? The authors provide a detailed summary of the latest scientific findings on the influence of movement on cognitive ability. They describe the effects of movement, on old age, embodiment, emotion, school as well as other factors that influence cognition. Target Group: teachers, lecturers, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychotherapists, movement therapists.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2011

        Sovereign states or political communities?

        Civil society and contemporary politics

        by Darrow Schecter

        Explores the ideas, meaning and history of civil society, its role in the 1989 revolutions, its role in new social movements and its relationship with the state and the economy.. Distinguishes between security and freedom and illustrates how the latter is a political issue.. Draws on the writings of a wide range of political thinkers including: Kant Hegel Feuerbach Marx Weber Schmitt Adorno Arendt. Offers sophisticated and illuminating analysis and seeks to redefine politics in new ways.. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Political science & theory
        July 2015

        The political theory of the Irish Constitution

        Republicanism and the basic law

        by Eoin Daly, Tom Hickey

        The political theory of the Irish Constitution considers Irish constitutional law and the Irish constitutional tradition from the perspective of Republican theory. It analyses the central devices and doctrines of the Irish Constitution - popular sovereignty, constitutional rights and judicial review - in light of Republican concepts of citizenship and civic virtue. The Constitution, it will argue, can be understood as a framework for promoting popular participation in government as much as a mechanism for protecting individual liberties. It will be of interest to students and researchers in Irish politics, political theory and constitutional law, and to all those interested in political reform and public philosophy in Ireland.

      Subscribe to our

      newsletter