Bricolage

www.sps.ed.ac.uk December 2014| Issue 7

News from The School of Social and Political Science

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School Newsletter

Head of School’s Message

Contents

Winter has arrived and another busy and eventful semester has come to an end. The dominant political event of the last twelve months has been the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014. This presented a unique opportunity for academics and students to examine the debates surrounding real world constitutional change and explore the potential impact in ‘real time’ on institutions, society and communities, and policy processes.

Features 06 08 10

Regulars

The Bee Line Energy and Society Watching Them Watching Us

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News in Brief

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Referendum Review

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Subject Area Profile: Social Policy

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Referendum, Research and Reaping Opportunities

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New Appointments

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Journals

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Innovative Learning Week 2015

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Outstanding Teaching 20

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Books

Throughout the long months of the referendum campaign, expert analysis from colleagues in the University and particularly here in the School of Social and Political Science - has shaped and informed public, media and political debate. Foremost in this mission to provide impartial evidencebased commentary have been the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change and the Future of the UK and Scotland Programme, both based at the University of Edinburgh (see this and recent issues of Bricolage). The referendum process has also offered learning and engagement opportunities for our campus-based students. We speak to one of our PhD students, Coree Brown Swan, to find out what it has been like to study and work at the heart of the

action in Scotland’s capital city during the referendum campaign. Other learning opportunities created by the process have included postreferendum scenario planning held as part of Innovative Learning Week for students on campus. The University also ran a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Towards Scottish Independence? Understanding the Referendum, which placed thousands of learners from the UK and beyond at the heart of the referendum question by examining arguments for and against independence. The School is incredibly proud of the contributions its staff and students have made to public knowledge and engagement on this important debate. Here, we highlight the wider impact that our research has had via global media. Work continues on research into voting behaviour, public attitudes, political identity and policy implications of the ‘constitutional chain reaction’ triggered by the referendum as well as comprehensive coverage of unfolding developments such as the recent Smith Commission Report. We speak to a selection of our leading academics

to hear their post referendum commentary on these topics. The Referendum experience demonstrates the important and mutually enriching interconnections between research, public engagement and researchled learning and teaching in a research-intensive University. In addition to our referendum activities, we visit other areas of our School to learn about the links between beekeeping and Social Anthropology; we celebrate the success of our Energy & Society research group; we preview Innovative Learning Week 2015 and we profile the subject area of Social Policy. I hope you enjoy this issue! Wishing you all a happy and productive 2015.

Fiona Mackay

Professor Fiona Mackay Dean and Head of School

Submissions If you would like to contribute to the next issue of Bricolage or subscribe to our mailing list for future editions, please send details to: Paula Fleming Web & Communications Assistant School of Social and Political Science Chrystal Macmillan Building E - [email protected]

Professor Fiona Mackay, Dr Katherine Smith, Marjorie Drysdale, Dr Michael Rosie, EUSDA, Dr Bettina Petersohn, Dr Rebecca Marsland, Dr. Mark Winskel, Nick Bibby, Professor Nicola McEwen, Professor Charlie Jeffery, Professor Ailsa Henderson, Dr Eve Hepburn, Coree Brown Swan, Helene Frossling, Dr Ruth Forbes, Dr Jan Eichhorn, Professor Lindsay

Paterson, Dr Elizabeth Bomberg, Dr Elke Heins, Dr Laura Jeffery, Dr Jennifer Palmer, Dr Mathias Thaler, Dr Alice Street, Dr Juliet Kaarbo, Dr Ugur Ozdemir, Dr Pontus Odmalm, Professor Ian Harper, Dr Mary Holmes, Professor Kay Tisdall, Dr Jamie Cross, Dr Sotiria Grek.

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School Newsletter

News in Brief

SSPS Graduate Receives Honorary Degree

Chrystal Macmillan Lecture Series The lecture itself was delivered by Baroness D’Souza and was followed by an ‘in conversation’ session including Professor Fiona Mackay, Baroness D’Souza and Baroness Golide.

Baroness D’Souza Our latest Chrystal Macmillan lecture focussed on the theme of ‘Ladies in the Lords’ and featured not one but two baronesses: the Lord Speaker, Baroness D’Souza, and also Baroness Golide, former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 until 2011, now a life peer within the House of Lords.

Baroness D’Souza spoke of how in 1958 the Life Peerages Act enabled women, including those without an inherited title, to sit in the House of Lords for the very first time. She highlighted the fact that there are now 189 women in the House including entrepreneurs, educationalists, academics, government ministers, MSPs, athletes, broadcasters, authors and clerics; illustrating that members are now often nominated based on their professional experience rather than simply their birth right. Baroness D’Souza herself was elected Lord Speaker in 2011, after leading the Crossbench group

in the Lords. Prior to entering the House of Lords, she worked around the world on humanitarian, education and human rights issues. Baroness Goldie contributed to the ensuing discussion about

Students Analyse Referendum Campaigns

Baroness Goldie life in the House of Lords, the role of women within the House and the role of the House itself within modern day politics.

Kat Smith wins Bleddyn Davies Prize

LIVED Granted Registered Charity Status

Dr Katherine Smith, of our Global Public Health Unit within Social Policy, has been awarded this year’s Bleddyn Davies Prize for Best Article Published in Policy & Politics in 2013 by an early career researcher.

LIVED, a student led project which is creating awareness and mobilising support for the lived experiences of displaced youth populations around the world, has formally been granted registered charity status.

Kat received the award at this year’s Policy & Politics conference in September for her article entitled Institutional Filters: The Translation and Re-Circulation of Ideas about Health Inequalities within Policy.

SSPS Bakes for Macmillan Cancer Support

Taking health inequalities in the United Kingdom as a case study, the article takes a discursive institutionalist approach to explaining how and why research-informed ideas about health inequalities were transformed as they moved into policymaking contexts across the devolved United Kingdom.

The School of Social and Political Science recently took part in the annual Macmillan Cancer Support’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. Cakes for the bake sale were kindly donated from staff and students across the School, with a total of £154.40 being raised in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

It has taken months of effort from the committed PG students within the team to gain charity status and to ensure that LIVED succeeds as an NGO focussing on documentary filmmaking and on running filmmaking workshops with young refugees around the world.

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Social Anthropology graduate Luke Dowdney was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor honoris causa, at last month’s graduation ceremony.

Release of the first documentary on the Zaatari camp in Jordan is coming soon, and the first workshops will be run in Bogotá this summer. For more information about the LIVED project, please visit www.livedprojects.org

PIR students studying our Referendums in Comparative Perspectives course recently created an exhibition showing visual representations of their work in one example of the many forms of innovative teaching happening within SSPS. Students worked on selected cases of referendum processes covering a range of issues such as secession, electoral reform and civil rights but also looked at what lessons could be learned for the design of campaigns for future referendums.

Luke founded the Fight For Peace charity in Rio de Janeiro which uses boxing and martial arts to connect with children who are otherwise caught up in the city’s drug trade and gang violence. Luke was inspired by the research he conducted for his Masters degree in Social Anthropology where he focused on the violence suffered by street children in Brazil. Previously captain of the University boxing team and a British Universities Light-Middleweight champion, he decided to combine both passions. His charity, Fight For Peace, has since set up a second base in London and has mentored thousands of young people, enabling them to secure an education, qualifications, and employment training.

Scottish Government Yearbooks Archive Launched August 2014 saw the launch of a digital archive for the Scottish Government Yearbooks published by the ‘Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland’ between 1976 and 1992. The Yearbooks reflect the spirit of the Unit and the Institute of Governance which succeeded it: authors cut across academic disciplines and spanned a wide range of institutions, centred upon – but not limited to – Scotland’s universities. They went beyond academia to embrace lawyers, journalists, political activists, civil servants, and clerics. Through this rich mix the Yearbooks sought to engage with a Scotland which was increasingly proving to be “a perplexing place”. The Yearbooks bear witness to, and carefully analyse, a Scotland in

which devolution seemed inevitable, only to be derailed in 1979, and a Scotland which rejected Thatcherism but endured its radical reforms. The yearbooks end in 1992 with the ‘home rule’ question reinvigorated. Our changing Scotland remains a perplexing place with an uncompleted agenda: in these yearbooks you will find much that helps explain where, in our recent history, we have come from. The archive was supported by funds from the School of Social & Political Science, and by the kind assistance of the University’s Library and University Collections. For more information please visit www.scottishgovernmentyearbooks. ed.ac.uk

EUSDA Visit UK’s Largest Onshore Windfarm Edinburgh University Sustainable Development Association, run by students from our Sustainable Development degree programme, visited Whitelee Windfarm this month to learn about how wind is used in Scotland as a renewable energy source. Whitelee is the UK’s largest onshore windfarm, powering 300,000 homes. EUSDA were lucky enough to be given a private tour and gained an educational insight into how Whitelee operates in harmony with its surrounding ecosystem.

Student Success at Undergraduate Awards Summit Fourth year Philipp Requat joined 110 students from around the world to attend the 2014 Undergraduate Awards Summit after authoring a highly commended entry in the International Essay Award. The Undergraduate Awards is the only international, pan-discipline academic award programme for undergraduates, even being described as a “junior Nobel prize”. Philipp works as an entrepreneur in parallel with his studies in Politics and Economic & Social History. His successful entry was entitled Students on the Khyber Pass – Pashtun Nationalism and Terrorist Insurgency in North Western Pakistan.

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School Newsletter

Human societies depend on bees. In the UK, insect pollination is worth £400-500 million per year. In California, commercial beekeepers transport truckloads of honeybees to pollinate orchards on an industrial scale. Across the world, glasshouse production of tomatoes and other soft fruits depends on the supply of bumblebees commercially reared in the Netherlands, Belgium and Turkey. And yet, bee populations are in danger from a range of different diseases, including the well publicized Colony Collapse Disorder in which whole colonies disappear from bee hives without trace. The causes of bee decline are up for debate. Beekeeping practices, and the transport of different bee species around the world has led to the spread of disease, most notably the parasite Varroa destructor. Bees are also vulnerable to a range of viral and fungal infections. More controversially, the use of pesticides called neonicotinoids in agriculture, and the stress caused to bees used in large scale commercial pollination have been blamed for the disappearance of some bees. News of the decline of bee populations has captured the public imagination, leading to an upsurge

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The Bee Line of interest in bees and beekeeping. Urban beekeeping is on the rise in cities across the world, and gardeners are planting wild flowers on which bees and other pollinating insects can forage. In London, architects design urban spaces for bees to live in, and protestors dressed in bee outfits have staged demonstrations outside parliament in Westminster. Earlier this year, beehives were even installed at the Scottish Parliament. But what can anthropologists possibly have to say about bees? The clue lies in our historical fascination with bee societies, and the connections that we draw between the lives of these social insects and human utopias. The analogy between bee society and human society goes right back to Aristotle, whose texts on natural history compare bees and humans, seeing the bees’ “king” as evidence of the political organization of bees. From the 16th century onwards, bees and beehives played a central role in arguments about political ideology.

Observations of bees have led their admirers to note their obedience, thrift, industriousness, unity and selfsacrifice to the whole. Their colonies are like our cities, and their social organization, like ours, appears to be hierarchical. It is possible then to ask, what is it about bees that attracts our contemporary interest? Do we still see ourselves reflected in their worlds? To what extent do bees continue to inspire the way we imagine and build our future? In September, I began an 18 month research project on the anthropology of bees and beekeeping. I will be joined by a post-doctoral researcher, Kate Milosavljevic early in 2015. The £232k project is funded by the ESRC Transforming Social Sciences scheme. The research will take place in the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and the USA. The rationale behind the project is that different ways of keeping bees inspire different ways of thinking about human societies, and to this end we will be investigating three distinct kinds of beekeeping.

Our first case study will consider the use of bees in industrial agriculture for pollination. We will investigate commercial beekeepers in California who travel thousands of miles with their truck loads of bees to pollinate enormous single crop orchards, such as the million acres planted with almond trees in Central Valley. We also hope to visit the companies who commercially rear bumblebees in the Netherlands, and the soft fruit farmers who buy them. By necessity this kind of beekeeping depends on efficiency and economies of scale, and is part of a world that values industry, productivity and profit. The second case study will be of urban beekeepers in Denmark, London and Edinburgh. We will visit Bybi, a social enterprise project in Copenhagen that has trained formerly homeless people to become beekeepers on the roofs

of corporations across the city. City beekeepers are contributing to a transformation in the way that we view nature in urban areas. Our towns and cities are no longer designated for humans alone, but are now recognized as multispecies environments. Our final case study will be of “barefoot” beekeepers and activists. Barefoot beekeeping promotes a natural approach, in which bees are kept in hives that are designed to be close to the way that bees live in the wild. They do not aim to extract the maximum amount of honey from bees, instead they endeavour to improve bee health and increase the bee population. They keep bees for the sake of the bees. Activists are involved in campaigning against the use of pesticides in agriculture, and against importing bees from overseas which bring in diseases,

and compete with indigenous populations. In this last case study we ask, what kind of society this “green” approach to beekeeping envisages? We no longer find just one model for living in bee societies. Different approaches to beekeeping require different techniques and create different paths, or beelines, through the world for bees and for our own societies.

For further information about the project, please contact Dr Rebecca Marsland – [email protected]

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School Newsletter

Energy and Society The recent research awards won by Energy and Society group members include:

Reframing Energy Demand Innovation for Sustainable Heat (2014-17)

Mags Tingey, Dr. Ronan Bolton, Dr. David Hawkey, Professor Janette Webb, Dr. Mark Winskel

A growing team of SSPSbased researchers have recently secured five major research awards with a combined value of over £1.5 Million, and are using these as a platform to form a new ‘Energy and Society’ research group based in SSPS which will engage with researchers across the University. Energy systems are being transformed in the face of increasing concerns over climate change, and energy affordability and security. These changes are complex and contested, and involve technological innovation, regulatory and market reform, and changing roles for business, communities, public bodies and energy users. There is a growing body of research in social and technical processes of change in energy systems governance at the University of Edinburgh, involving projects and experts across the social sciences. Building on Edinburgh University’s intellectual traditions in theoreticallyinformed empirical inquiry, we aim to help address one of the major societal challenges of the 21st century. Energy and Society is an interdisciplinary research group which reaches across traditional divides.

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Within the social sciences, we draw, for example, on Sociology, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), Social Anthropology and political science. The Energy and Society research group’s initial list of research themes include:

Urban Energy Governance This strand of research examines the changing relationships across the different scales of energy systems, with a particular focus on the urban, city, community and regional levels. Research questions include the roles played by central and devolved state actors in energy systems and how cities govern their energy systems, and manage change.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has made an award of £600k to Janette Webb and colleagues Ronan Bolton, David Hawkey and Mark Winskel for research on innovations in energy efficiency and sustainable heat. Our research will compare UK, Danish and German responses

funding for a three year postdoctoral fellowship from the Scottish Government through ClimateXChange (CXC), Scotland’s national centre of expertise on climate change. The aim of the fellowship is to understand and translate Europeanwide energy policy developments in terms of their impacts on (and opportunities for) Scottish and UK energy system transition, including markets and trading, infrastructure development, system balancing and low carbon investment. The detailed research content will be developed in close collaboration with Scottish Government policy teams and ClimateXChange.

Energy Markets and Regulation Our research explores the making and remaking of energy markets in the UK and other European countries. We explore how energy markets are shaped by economic knowledge, new technologies, business models, financial investment practices and societal concerns.

Energy System Transitions

Communities, People and Planning

Energy system transformation is at the heart of efforts to decarbonise economic and societal activity. We draw on intellectual tools from innovation studies and other social sciences to analyse the social and technical drivers of change and how these interact over time to shape new energy system pathways.

We focus on public engagement and influencing planning and policy. Working directly to inform government, a number of projects are exploring issues around community generation of energy, processes, methods and good practice principles for public engagement, and social acceptance of energy transitions.

Future Energy Pathways (2014-19) Mark Winskel has been successful in securing research £276k in funding from Phase 3 of the UK Energy Research Centre (funded by the EPSRC, ESRC and NERC) to help develop and analyse new pathways of energy systems transformation in the UK. Intellectual tools from Science Technology and Innovation Studies will be used to analyse the social and technical drivers of change, and how these could interact to shape energy system development.

Knowledge Exchange for District Energy Development (2014-15)

Local Engagement in Energy Systems Development (2014-15)

The Scottish Government have made an award of £26k to Janette Webb and David Hawkey for European knowledge exchange to contribute to the capacity of Scottish cities in development of district energy for low carbon and sustainable heating. We will be working with the EC Intelligent Energy Europe funded STRATEGO project, a partnership between 23 cities/regions across Europe. The Stratego Project Officer, Ruth Bush, a new member of SSPS staff, is working with us.

The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) have made a joint award of £300k to Janette Webb, David Hawkey and Mags Tingey for further research on local engagement in energy systems. The research is analysing the contribution of local agencies to changing UK energy production, supply and use. Findings will contribute to knowledge about the

If you are interested in the work of the Energy and Society Research Group, or would like to join, please email either Professor Jan Webb (Sociology), [email protected]. uk or Dr. Mark Winskel (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies), [email protected]. More information about the group can also be found on the SSPS webpage http://edin.ac/1sg4HRN. We welcome interest from across the School.

Governing Energy Demand Through a number of projects, often involving collaborations with colleagues in Engineering and Informatics at Edinburgh, we are analysing the effectiveness of interventions to reduce energy demand and manage it in new ways.

extent of local engagement in energy generation, and will identify local energy governance and business models, and examine their differential approach to value creation, and distribution of risks and rewards.

Participants at a recent workshop in Edinburgh organised by the Energy and Society Research Group

to economic and environmental challenges, and the role of cities in emerging solutions in each case. Rather than narrow (and potentially misleading) technical and economic assessments, our research seeks to explain the differences between societies in patterns of energy use for heating. We will be working closely with UK and European policymakers.

European Energy Markets and Policy (2014-17) Ronan Bolton and Mark Winskel have been successful in securing £320k in

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School Newsletter

Watching Them Watching Us The international press descended on Edinburgh en masse for September’s referendum and that interest may prove to be more than a fleeting relationship.

Yes! No! Maybe? Who knows? Are you sure? What does this mean? Can they do that? What happens if they do this? Who’s in charge? Who’s meant to be doing this? How much will it cost? What will the neighbours say? What next? Questions, questions, questions. Frequently the same questions but asked many, many times. The international media came to town for the referendum and they wanted answers. They wanted them now, and they wanted them repeatedly. So far, so good. They also, frequently, wanted them from the same person. Often at the same time. The ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change (CCC) as part of the wider Future of the UK and Scotland team, based at the University of Edinburgh and including many academics from SSPS, had more than its fair share of those answers. The cavalcade of journalists from around 4,000 media outlets had the questions. You could be forgiven for thinking that connecting the two might not be so terribly difficult. In the weeks leading up to the referendum and the days following it, the centre’s fellows were covered in 445 media outlets that have been identified so far and almost certainly many more that have not been. Much of this was driven by faceto-face interviews but some came through media outlets picking up on wire copy or gobbling up each other’s reports: the beast needs to be fed and isn’t above a spot of light cannibalism. These outlets ranged from the enormous to the tiny,

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Global Reach of Edinburgh Experts

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from the utterly mainstream to the downright obscure. They all got fed. At several points during referendum week the centre was averaging an interview request every fifteen seconds. Somehow they were all fulfilled - bar three, where the concept of time zones seemed to prove unduly troublesome for the journalists concerned. Many of those requests were with press agencies or with the London correspondents of major print and broadcast outlets, whose copy and coverage was picked up by other papers and broadcasters back home. For the week preceding the vote, the demand was unremitting, the interest furious, the appetite apparently insatiable. Then, at seven o’clock on the evening of the poll, everything stopped. The beast paused, reduced to the occasional grumble while votes were cast and counted, and Scotland made its choice. Plans had been laid and there was little to do except watch them play out. Fellows and friends of the centre were placed to provide expert comment across BBC TV and radio, on CNN and Al Jazeera ensuring, with James Mitchell on ITV, our bases were firmly covered. Additionally, the centre’s offices at St John’s Land acted as a media hub, providing commentary, background and analysis into the wee small hours. Academics shuttled between the hub and the waiting international press based at the Scottish Parliament, the council’s This is Edinburgh media centre at the APEX International and the count at Ingliston. The centre includes scholars from Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Stirling, Strathclyde and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) in London. It’s Edinburgh

219 base, however, tends to encourage operational links with the University; colleagues from SSPS, other academic departments and the University press office all stepped in to relieve some of the pressure during the week. On the night they were joined by political scientists, constitutional lawyers and others from universities around the world – all in town to watch the results come in and share their thoughts with each other and the waiting media. This diversity of personal and professional backgrounds, the range of languages it offered, and the extraordinary body of knowledge gathered in the same place not only added to the collegial feel of the night, it also made managing the press interest easier - “Political scientist? German speaker? Expert on federalism? Sure, be there in ten minutes”. Having many of those who are usually based in the office beamed in by the magic of TV and radio further added to that sense of it being a family affair rather than a global media frenzy. The dominance of the international media during the week of the referendum inevitably led to a slightly surreal, ‘He’s big in Tallahassee’ effect. However, throughout the process there was also the serious business of informing the debate at home. Satisfyingly, in between

Countries across the globe published or broadcast SSPS researchers’ opinions on the referendum.

Press and broadcast interviews were undertaken by SSPS researchers July - Sept 2014.

93,497 9,458,273 the glitz and glamour of phone interviews at one in the morning for Jamaican radio or flitting between the breakfast news shows on CBS, the referendum also demonstrated a massive domestic interest in the social sciences and their ability to provide objective insights into complex political situations. The desire for impartial, unspun assessments of the possibilities and problems within various constitutional arrangements for Scotland – and the rest of the UK – was one of the hallmarks of the campaign. The feedback on the work the centre undertook directly with the public also reflected this fact. For much of the two-year long campaign the centre, and the Future of the UK and Scotland programme of which it was a part, received impressive coverage in the

Visits to the Future of the UK and Scotland website were recorded August - Sept 2014.

Readers were reached by just nine articles, featuring SSPS researchers, in leading global media titles.

domestic media and the referendum week continued that trend. The international press interest tailed off almost immediately following the result but the Scottish and UK media was left with the issue of what happens next. The prospect of a key ally breaking apart may be enough to get the attention of the Washington Post but it takes more than even Smith’s breakneck speed to hold it. However it would be wrong to assume that this was simply a case of ‘Small War Not Many Dead” for international journalists covering the story. The coverage makes clear that scholars were doing rather more than filling airtime, column inches and a small corner of a server farm somewhere in Iowa until the results were known. The output of Basque and Catalan journalists –

and, to a noticeably lesser extent, those from Flanders and Quebec – suggested that the CCC scholars’ analysis was informing political debate well beyond the borders of both Scotland and the UK. The debate in Scotland and throughout the UK will continue for the next few months and years but the experience of seeing ourselves as other see us, of being caught up in their narratives and debates, served as a welcome reminder that Scots are not alone in grappling with these issues. The relationships built up in a couple of weeks in September look set to inform our own deliberations and those of other nations.

Nick Bibby is Communications Officer for the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change.

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Referendum Review All three UK parties had pledged to strengthen devolution, but failed to agree a package of proposals before the referendum. The three UK party leaders infamously vowed, two days before the referendum, to deliver ‘extensive new powers’ by spring 2015.

Professor Nicola McEwen

Where next for Scotland? After years of deliberation, 44.7% voted in favour of Scotland becoming an independent country, and 55.3% voted against. The result was clear enough to park the independence issue, at least for a while, but close enough to ensure that the debate over Scotland’s constitutional future within the UK will continue.

What next for other indy movements in Europe? One can imagine the European Commission breathing a collective sigh of relief when the results of the Scottish independence referendum were announced. The indyref had created a migraine for officials in Brussels, in trying to figure out whether Scotland would have to leave the EU and then reapply (President Barroso’s preference) or if it would allow Scotland to retain membership. If the process was seen as too easy, there were fears that this would cause a domino-effect as other stateless nations would demand entry. But was this sigh of relief premature? For one thing, Scotland wasn’t the only territory with an indyref on the cards. All eyes have now turned to Catalonia, where an unofficial poll on 9 November, in which 80% of participants (2 million voters) favoured

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Immediately after the vote, the Prime Minister set up a process, under the chairmanship of Lord Smith of Kelvin, to broker agreement on ‘a unifying set of proposals’ in the form of ‘Heads of Agreement’ by 30 November. There are several reasons why the agreement to emerge from the Smith commission is unlikely to be long-lasting. First, the process now incorporates a resurgent Scottish National Party and Scottish Green Party, and broad swathes of civic Scotland. The former and much of the latter all support forms of devolution which go considerably beyond

those submitted by any of the UK parties, making it difficult to secure agreement that can satisfy all those who engaged with the process. Second, the Smith commission has neither the time nor the remit to fully investigate and analyse the implications of devolution in those areas likely to make it into the Heads of Agreement. This, together with the speed of the process, is unlikely to generate legislation which can stand the tests of time and implementation. Third, the electoral cycle – a General Election in May 2015, a Scottish Parliament election in May 2016, local elections and a possible EU referendum in May 2017, provide ample opportunities to transform failed expectations into demands for further constitutional change.

Nicola McEwen is Professor of Territorial Politics and Associate Director of the ESRC Centre on Constitutional Change.

independence, was struck down as illegal by Spanish authorities. Veneto, a wealthy northern region of Italy, recently passed a bill to hold an indyref, and South Tyrol unofficially voted to secede from Italy last year. Sardinia narrowly failed to pass an indyref bill in its assembly earlier this summer, but is likely to try again soon. Then there’s the Basque Country, which sought to hold an independence referendum in 2008, but was prevented from doing so by Madrid. Finally, few people now believe that the question of independence has been put to bed in Scotland: with a recent poll showing majority support for independence, it may only be a matter of time before Scots vote again. The EU – and its member-states – should not rest on their laurels: these movements are not going to go away. Ironically, the EU appeared to have undercut indy demands in the 1990s by giving sustenance to the idea of

Dr. Eve Hepburn a ‘Europe of the Regions’; but when these hopes were dashed with the Lisbon Treaty, nationalist movements across Europe radicalised their demands for independence. The onus is now on the EU to figure out how internal secession within its borders might actually work – because there are now several wannabe states knocking on its doors. Eve Hepburn is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Deputy Director of the Academy of Government.

The Prime Minister’s surprise announcement was to call for quick action on ‘English Votes for English Laws’ (EVEL), that is change in the procedures of the House of Commons to limit the role of non-English MPs on laws that mainly affect England.

Professor Charlie Jeffery

EVEL times ahead for England?

So what caused the PM suddenly to think of England? There are three reasons. Probably the least important for the PM was that EVEL has emerged as the means most popular among citizens in England of expressing what they now clearly want: something that gives voice to what they see as an under-represented part of the UK.

Those who thought Scotland had a monopoly on constitutional debate had a rude awakening on 19 September. They went to bed on the 18th thinking the issue at stake was whether or not Scotland would be an independent country, and woke up to hear Prime Minister David Cameron talking about England.

A second reason, more important for Cameron, was to put pressure on Labour. EVEL suggests a lesser role at Westminster for Scottish MPs, and Labour provides the great majority of them. EVEL could make it much harder for Labour to govern UK-wide.

What do Scots really want?

higher than they had typically been. Second, the length of the campaign engaged voters in ways previously unseen. This engagement focused, understandably, on independence, and less so on the various merits of the different proposals of unionist parties for more devolution.

Long before the referendum on 18 September we knew that Scottish voters preferred greater devolution to independence. Opinion polls before and after the referendum show that around one third want Scotland to have more influence over central (UK) decision making (shared rule) and around one third want power over new policy areas (self rule). If we translate that into specific policy areas, energy, welfare benefits and powers of taxation are at the top of the list, with lower levels of support for pensions and immigration. One might be tempted to conclude that we now find ourselves in a situation not dissimilar to that of November 2012, namely that we know most Scots want greater powers for the Scottish Parliament. Several things, however, have changed. First, Yes Scotland led a campaign that raised levels of support for independence to fifteen points

But third, and the most important

Third, the post-referendum Smith Commission finds itself having to identify a single proposal for further constitutional change out of the different proposals of political parties and wildly varying preferences of voters who tend to agree on the basics, but disagree on the specifics. If we ask Scottish voters how much of the Scottish Parliament’s spending should be covered by taxes raised in Scotland, the most popular answer, mentioned by almost half of the survey sample, is 100%. If we tell voters that the Labour and Conservative parties want the Parliament to raise 40% of its spending through regional taxes, the most popular answer is 40%. The considerable public engagement on

reason, is the pressure UKIP is putting on the Conservatives. UKIP is a party which mobilises those with a primarily English identity around English dissatisfactions - and gets the bulk of its support from exConservative voters. Raising the EVEL English question is a key part in the PM’s strategy to staunch the loss of Conservative support to UKIP. And what does all this say about constitutional change in the UK? Well, we are now in new territory. We see the aftermath of Scotland’s debate as one which pits not just party against party, but also nation against nation. England’s interests are now defined against those of Scotland, just as there has always been an undercurrent in the Scottish debate which sees England as the problem. So much for the referendum result affirming the union!

Charlie Jeffery is Professor of Politics and Senior Vice Principal of the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Ailsa Henderson independence increased knowledge about the costs and benefits of a currency union or European membership, but there has been little public engagement on issues of further devolution with the result that priming voters with certain pieces of information or framing choices in a particular way has more influence on their preferences than it did on their referendum vote choice.

Ailsa Henderson is Professor of Political Science and Head of Politics & International Relations.

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Referendum, Research and Reaping Opportunities

PhD student Coree Brown Swan tells us what it has been like to study in Scotland’s capital city during the referendum campaign.

What are your main research interests? The working title of my PhD is Protest, Power, and Party Strategies: the Scottish National Party and the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie. My work is comparative, and examines the impact of entry into government on the territorial goals of substate nationalist parties, particularly Volksunie / Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie and the Scottish National Party.

What made you choose to study for a PhD at Edinburgh? Edinburgh was the best place to pursue my research interests, given the concentration of academics focused on multi-level, territorial, and regional politics. I was also the recipient of the Edinburgh Global Research and Principal’s Career Development funding.

What other research projects have you been involved in aside from your own PhD? I’ve worked as a programme researcher for the ESRC-funded Future of the UK and Scotland project which aimed to inform the referendum debate. Projects we carried out included the development of accessible, non-partisan online content and interactive tools to

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inform the public as they made their decision, a series of public events designed to present expert views, and an ebook which sought to answer the main questions people have. This work continues post-referendum in the form of the Centre on Constitutional Change.

What are the benefits of studying at a research intensive university such as Edinburgh? Edinburgh benefits from a concentration of researchers and projects. There is always something going on and the staff are eager for participation from post-graduate researchers who express an interest. I’ve been impressed by how open and accessible many of the staff members are. People are very willing to chat about their own work.

What opportunities has the Scottish Independence Referendum presented for you as a student? I applied for my MSc in January 2011, which was perfect timing for my research, given that the SNP majority government was elected in May 2011 and plans for a referendum were rolled out shortly after that. My funding, through the Principal’s Career Development scholarship for public engagement and my work with the Future of the UK and Scotland project have helped facilitate this. The referendum provided an opportunity to engage both with the academic community and the larger public. As part of my work with the Future of the UK and Scotland, I helped produce online publications, public events, and spoke to the media. I also presented a series of introductory lectures for international students interested in the referendum and presented my work as part of the Just Festival in August.

What employment opportunities have presented themselves during your time at Edinburgh? I’ve been a bit busy, working as a resident assistant in international student halls during my MSc year which has allowed me to develop pastoral skills and experience working with diverse student populations. I have also worked as a tutor for Scotland: Society and Politics, an undergraduate course, and Analysing Qualitative Data, a MSc / PhD course. I also lectured on the open studies adult learners course Scottish Politics, which was particularly lively in the run-up to the referendum. My focus has been on developing a diverse range of skills for whatever comes next.

What advice would you give to prospective PhD students? Take opportunities to get involved, make connections, and engage with the larger community! Your PhD needs to come first (write! write! write!) but don’t shut yourself away in your office. There is an amazing, vibrant community around you and it’s important to be a part of that. The academic job market is a tough one and developing skills relevant both within academia and outwith it is always a worthwhile investment.

What are your plans for the future? I plan to submit in early autumn 2015 and then pursue an academic career, although I am open to other opportunities. I’ve enjoyed the mix of research, lecturing, and public engagement activities I’ve been able to pursue here at Edinburgh and hope to continue these activities in my next stage.

Innovative Learning Week 2015 Innovative Learning Week, a University-wide innitiative for creative and unusual learning, will return in 2015 and will run from 16 - 20 February. In SSPS we have some exciting events in the pipeline. The concept of Innovative Learning Week is to open up the University to learning in different formats; be that a game, a debate, a fashion show or an exhibition, to mention just a few previous examples. Although we hope that you will participate in the events we have here within SSPS, don’t forget check the wider University calendar to find out about events which will be taking place elsewhere, and dive right in! New for this year; the University will be placing more emphasis on events organised by students. Some of our SSPS students, both undergraduates and postgraduates, have already suggested some great ideas: the Social Anthropology Society are collaborating with staff members to follow the successful events

Mindfulness Attention to the practice of ‘mindfulness’ has developed rapidly across the UK over the last few years. It has attracted considerable media attention and is gradually being embedded into the workplace including Westminster Parliament, primary and secondary school education and more explicitly into therapeutic practice via the NHS, counselling and psychological services.

of ILW 2013 Social Anthropology in 100 Objects and 2014 The Social Sounds Project. In 2015, the focus will be on how music affects people in public spaces, and will include collaborations with music students using original compositions. Keep an eye out for the Social Sounds Project 2.0! Sociology staff will be adding a couple of exciting events to the ILW calendar. How about Sexy Statistics? Professor John MacInnes is planning to show you the sexy side of statistics, which will be free from numbers and calculations, and may include predictions about the future ... and about goats. The SSPS Graduate School’s Practice Programme is offering PhD students a three-day retreat to the Highlands for cross-discipline and cross-institutional collaborations with students from partnering institutions in Germany. Also with a main focus on postgraduates, there will be a student-led training event

on using geography within research. Cleverly titled Lost!, it promises to put your research on the map. For those who want to engage their creative side we are excited to be hosting a photography competition which will use Edinburgh as the canvas for interpreting the work of famous sociologists. Prizes promised! At the time of writing there are still several event ideas being finalised. Keep an eye on our own ILW page as well as the central calendar for more updates - www.sps.ed.ac.uk/ about/innovative_learning_week

Helene Frossling SSPS Event & Dissemination Officer

There has been specific interest in applying mindfulness to different areas of social work practice, such as work with immigrants, group work with children and young people, families and community work.

medicine. It will give participants the opportunity to choose whether they wish to explore mindfulness further, increasing the likelihood of it becoming part of their professional practice.

The place of mindfulness within higher education is also developing at pace as a means of helping students to improve focus, attention, energy and emotional resilience.

We will also be promoting mindfulness as a wider innitiative in an attempt to improve the work-life balance of staff within the School of Social and Political Science. A weekly Mindfulness ‘drop-in’ session has already been piloted this semester, led by practitioner Dr. Avinash Bansode, from Mindfullybeing.co.uk.

Mindfully Does it!, a workshop delivered by a social work practitioner and organised by the Social Work department as part of ILW 2015, is intended to be a taster session promoting an initial awareness of the benefits of mindfulness practice for our students. The session will be of particular benefit to students from professional degree programmes such as social work, counselling, nursing and

The weekly sessions, held in the Chrystal Macmillan Building 6th floor common room, provided a welcome space for calm and focus throughout the hectic semester, and were well attended. They will continue to run next semester. For more information on these sessions please contact [email protected]

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School Newsletter

Subject Area Profile

Social Policy well as historical and documentary analyses and often integrate these with multiple further approaches.

Describing Social Policy is not an easy task. Although it is a subject area for many it is less intuitively perceived as a discipline than some other social sciences. That may be surprising considering the long history of social policy as a field at the University of Edinburgh dating back as far as 1917. At second look it may be less surprising, mainly because Social Policy brings together academics from many different backgrounds, including sociologists, political scientists, economists and medical professionals amongst others. They share a common goal however, of understanding how social and political structures and processes create the contingencies within which policy is developed and in turn how these policies influence the social world we live in.

Research Methods This requires the active interaction of different fields of knowledge as well as a combination of different methods. As a subject area, all our members are committed to high quality empirical research. We do not favour any type of approach, but see our strength in bringing together methodological expertise from a range of disciplines to engage with all relevant facets of the interplay between social policy and society. We use interviews and large scale quantitative surveys as

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Building our work on research that aspires to a high methodological standard and that is grounded in comprehensive conceptual thinking enables our goal of contributing to debates beyond the academy. A common motivation across our subject area is to influence public and elite debate on the policy issues we work on. We do this through a range of avenues, working with external partners in the third sector, different governments, media outlets and we cooperate in knowledge exchange across disciplines within the School through centres such as SKAPE.

Partnerships Cooperation is essential to our work, as such complex issues cannot be understood by easy means or by following simplistic doctrines. We cooperate with many international partners partially funded by the European Union. Much of our research is comparative in character and we often investigate what happens in Scotland and the UK within the context of a wider European and international scene through multilevel approaches. We also cooperate within our School with staff in many other subject areas. We do this via joint PhD supervisions, research projects and centres, such as the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) in which a range of staff and PhD students are active. CRFR connects staff to other schools, too (such as Health and Social

Science and as well the Centre for Population Health Sciences), and brings together staff from five other universities in Scotland – showcasing the dedication to fruitful partnerships across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. It is a great example of a network through which practitioner engagement and public impact can be achieved using work conducted in a range of partnership-based research grants.

Research Themes Topically, our colleagues work on many pressing issues of contemporary society. Research in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh addresses too many topics to list, but some core areas include labour market and welfare policy, health (mainly through our Global Public Health Unit) and wellbeing, education policy, children and families as well as socio-legal matters. Connecting all of these themes is research into the actual world of policy making which enhances our understanding of who influences policy makers, in which ways, and what that means for the interests represented most extensively – potentially at the expense of others. Stratification as a theme is not simply analysed in terms of the distribution of resources, but forms a core dimension of many projects within our subject area.

Teaching Our interdisciplinary and interactive character is also exemplified in the teaching within Social Policy. We have been actively shaping

solely done for the purpose of employability, though these skill sets are one important reason why our students thrive within jobs in government, the third sector and in international firms as well as in postgraduate study and research. We are currently reshaping part of our offer to combine this teaching more intensely with discussions about the real-life politics of policy making.

via the University of Edinburgh Q-Step Centre, will also strive to increase the employability of our students. By focussing on the practical applications of data analysis and by skill building for the workplace, we will be equipping our students with essential tools to enhance their career prospects including the opportunity to take up paid work placements with top local employers.

Employability

Our new second-year course Social Policy Enquiry will focus on four relevant and current policy themes (this year: migration, unemployment, crime and higher education financing). Students will learn what key insights researchers have developed and why public opinion is often not reflective of those. In particular we will engage with the question of how empirical evidence translates into actual policy making, considering the interplay between politics, interests and academia.

As an early-career academic who joined Social Policy rather recently, I have to end by highlighting what a pleasure it is to work in this department. It is a stimulating environment, filled with ambition to generate genuine impact through research and teaching. Collaborations are sought out constantly, while differences in academic background are seen as an asset, not a barrier. I feel fortunate to be part of such an inspiring team of people.

All of our students take classes in empirical methods. This is not

Our new Social Policy with Quantitative Methods programme, run

Dr Jan Eichhorn Chancellor’s Fellow in Social Policy

and contributing to innovative programmes like the Master of Public Policy at the Academy of Government. We also run Masters programmes which teach students about comparative perspectives and the analysis of policy as well as the particular intricacies of health policy. At undergraduate level we encourage our students to develop complex perspectives. We expect them to learn more than social policy concepts in the strict sense, but also to engage with another discipline through our flexible degree structure in which students commonly take Social Policy in conjunction with another subject. Even when students focus on Social Policy, they will have the opportunity to take other courses which broaden their horizons and help them to understand the social and political contexts in which policy is developed.

Incoming Head of Subject anthropology, since it is, in part, about such complex matters as how policy-making institutions relate to the values of a community.

In his inaugural lecture in 1965 as the first Professor of Sociology in Edinburgh University, Tom Burns characterised sociology as ‘conduct[ing] a critical debate with the public about its equipment of social institutions.’ That’s what Social Policy does. It also engages with political science, since it’s about policy, and with

If there is, moreover, an instinct within Social Policy to investigate the institutional basis of social justice, then that is following an even older tradition, in which David Hume could argue that upholding a common sense of justice was the very origin of ‘civil government and allegiance’ and in which Flora Stevenson, pioneering educational reformer, could declare, when chair of Edinburgh school board at the beginning of the twentieth century, that ‘we in Scotland have not been brought up to measure out our education to suit the requirements of any particular class or community.’

Social Policy, in short, embodies those principles of applied social science which have been at the heart of this University’s public role since the Enlightenment. It engages in public debate, in critical advice to policy makers, and in that international dialogue which ensures that the ferment of ideas in this specific place is grounded in universal concerns. Arriving in the department three years ago – though long familiar with its distinguished work – I have found its rigour and intellectual excitement to be utterly absorbing. It is a privilege to be asked to guide it further.

Professor Lindsay Paterson Incoming Head of Social Policy

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School Newsletter and provision - as well as more support to pursue those new paths. The importance of teaching is also being more widely recognised across the University which is great. The more we can nurture the synergies between teaching and research excellence the better.

What advice would you give to students on making the most of their university experience?

Elizabeth Bomberg Honoured for Outstanding Teaching Dr Elizabeth Bomberg, Senior Politics & International Relations Lecturer, has recently been given the Bernard Crick Award for Outstanding Teaching as well as the University of Edinburgh Chancellor’s Award. She speaks to us about her passion for both teaching and research.

Tell us about how you became a lecturer? I come from a family of teachers so the joys, and challenges, of teaching were instilled in me from an early age. Teaching university students, with their mature yet curious minds, was especially appealing to me. While pursuing a PhD I learned that becoming a lecturer would also allow me to combine teaching with my love of research and further study. It seemed like a perfect match!

How does your research impact your teaching? Research is a big and important part of what we do. To me the trick is to see the synergies between the two: our research makes us teachers at the cutting edge of our field, while our teaching strengthens our research and communication skills. We know

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there’s no better way to understand a subject than to teach it. I often share my draft research directly with the students and let them comment on it. I think we could all do more of that; it allows students to see how our research is related to our teaching, and how valued their insights are.

You’ve been nominated for several teaching awards - what do you think makes a great teacher? If I asked you to think back on ‘who was your favourite teacher’ I bet you’d think not necessarily of someone who taught you facts or ‘stuff’ but rather someone who motivated you to learn; they shared their enthusiasm, they made you want to read more and question often. They inspired you. I’ve found in my many years of teaching that such inspiration works both ways.

How is the teaching element of your job changing and evolving? We teach considerably more students than we used to. However, our teaching today is richer, more diverse and much less monochrome. We have an amazing range of tools, materials and approaches to choose from - including social media, online courses, flexible assessment

Firstly, don’t just view university as a place to acquire the skills necessary to compete and to get a job. University does that, but it also offers opportunities for learning in the much broader sense: it advances your knowledge and understanding, gets you to think critically about a subject and about life in general. Take advantage of the amazing range of activities such as seminars, debates and workshops on offer. Think about attending one event per month to broaden your mind or learn something new. Secondly, engage with academic staff. Find out what they are working on and ask them about it. Visit them during their weekly guidance hours. Similarly, use your Personal Tutor to discuss what you’re learning; go over your essay feedback with them, ask them about extra curricular events. Finally, do more course related activities with other students: either through students societies or one-off events, peer support schemes or group study. You will learn a lot together!

What do you enjoy most about teaching? The students. I can walk into a seminar or tutorial feeling tired and leave completely re-energized having heard their ideas, debates and questions. Here at Edinburgh we’ve got wonderfully sharp students who are full or ideas, optimism, enthusiasm and who are willing to think across disciplines. It’s a pleasure to be part of their education.

Journal Articles Comparative European Politics A new era of European Integration? Governance of labour market and social policy since the sovereign debt crisis, Caroline de la Porte and Elke Heins http://tiny.cc/c9kvpx

Human Ecology Ecological restoration in a cultural landscape: conservationist and Chagossian approaches to controlling the ‘coconut chaos’ on the Chagos Archipelago, Laura Jeffery http://tiny.cc/bpovpx

Social Science & Medicine Changing landscapes, changing practice: Negotiating access to sleeping sickness services in a post-conflict society, J. J. Palmer, A. H. Kelly, E. I. Sururd, F. Checchia, C. Jones http://tiny.cc/xsnvpx

In this article we develop a typology of European Union integration to capture how, to what extent and according to which policy aims EU involvement in Member States has altered with respect to labour market and social policy and what it signifies in terms of institutional change.

Offering an anthropological critique of biodiversity discourses, this article explores an ecological restoration project in which the species classified by conservationists as invasive has economic, historical, and sociocultural significance for the displaced former residents.

Based on fieldwork in Nimule, South Sudan, where passive screening became the norm, this paper investigates why, among two ethnic groups (Madi returnees and Dinka displaced populations), sleeping sickness service uptake was so much higher among the latter.

Polity On Time in Just War Theory: From Chronos to Kairos, Mathias Thaler http://tiny.cc/uzlvpx

Critical Public Health Food as pharma: marketing nutraceuticals to India’s rural poor, Alice Street http://tiny.cc/c7v8px

International Studies Quarterly Explaining Extremity in the Foreign Policies of Parliamentary Democracies Ryan K. Beasley and Juliet Kaarbo http://tiny.cc/baq5px

This article examines the role of time in Just War theory, identifying the focus on rules and principles, rather than judgment and interpretation. It clarifies the dual nature of political time as chronos & kairos, arguing that a cogent account of the justice of warfare needs to incorporate both faces of political time.

This article sketches out the politics of the expansion of affordable, fast-moving nutraceutical products into rural India. It examines the relationships between industry and government as well as humanitarian organisations that are being forged alongside the development of markets for nutraceuticals.

Multiparty cabinets tend to produce more extreme foreign policies than single-party cabinets, but why? We argue that certain institutional and psychological dynamics explain this difference. We test this using a global events data set incorporating foreign policy behaviours of governments.

International Studies Quarterly Pass the Bucks: Credit, Blame, and the Global Competition for Investment, Jensen, N., Malesky, E., Medina, M. & Ozdemir, U http://tiny.cc/l5y8px

Journal of the British Academy Education and opportunity: is the UK departing from a common tradition? Lindsay Paterson http://tiny.cc/dez8px

Scandinavian Political Studies Getting the Balance Right? Party Competition on Immigration and Conflicting Ideological ‘Pulls’ Odmalm, P. & Super, B. http://tiny.cc/r0z8px

Building off work on electoral pandering, we argue that incentives allow politicians to take credit for firms’ investments. We test the implications of this theory using a nationwide Internet survey, employing a randomised experiment to test how voters evaluate the performance of incumbent US governors.

There is an assumption in public debate that Scotland and England are drifting apart in social policy. Three broad examples of policy divergence in education are discussed here in order to examine the claim — student finance in higher education, the structure of secondary education, and the school curriculum.

While the essence of the party-political space has received substantial coverage, less attention is paid to the effects that multidimensionality may have on issue competition. We analyse how contradictory positions have been negotiated, and when such tensions are likely to emerge.

New School Appointments Kelly Gardner - Administrative Secretary, SGSSS Sudeepa Abeysinghe - Lecturer (Global Health Policy), Social Policy Stephen Kaye - Teaching Fellow (Swahili), CAS Andrew Jones - Computing Officer (Systems Support), School Office Alison Macpherson Computing Officer (Systems Support), School Office Anna Drever - Senior Secretary (Admissions), GSO Niamh Moore - Chancellor’s Fellow, Sociology Kate Ferguson - Senior Secretary (Reception), GSO Amy Wilson - Senior Secretary, UTO Lisa Kilcullen - Senior Secretary, UTO Saralee Peter - Senior Secretary (Admissions), GSO Caroline Murphy - Senior Secretary (Admissions), GSO Stefanie SchmachtelMaxfield - Postdoctoral Fellow (WWS), Politics IR Christina Dineen - Research Assistant/Programme Coordinator (JWI), Politics IR Ewen McIntosh - Research Assistant (Senior Vice Principal), Politics IR Beth Goodwin-Andersson - Practice Programme Manager, GSO Richard Brodie - Teaching Fellow (Armed Force and Society), STIS Isabel Fletcher - Research Assistant/Programme Coordinator (FRIED), Sociology

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Bookshelf

New Books from Staff at The School of Social and Political Science

Development and Public Health in the Himalaya: Reflections on healing in contemporary Nepal Ian Harper

Distance Relationships: Intimacy and Emotions Amongst Academics and their Partners In Dual-Locations, Mary Holmes

Children and Young People’s Participation and Its Transformative Potential, E. Kay M. Tisdall, Andressa M. Gadda, Udi Mandel Butler

Engaging with a range of public health issues, this book charts important social and political transitions in Nepal through the lens of medicine and health development. Through four case studies of health programme intervention in a district of central Nepal, the author explains how local realities align with, resist, and are complicated by globalized narratives and practices of health and development.

We tend to imagine that living apart from lovers is painful and unpleasant, but for many couples relating at a distance is not just a difficult or necessary part of their life, but may have its pleasures. This book draws on interviews with UK couples in distance relationships to evaluate and advance sociological debates about intimate life. It provides a rich and human perspective on maintaining intimate relationships.

This book brings together theories, ideas, insights and experiences of practitioners and researchers from Brazil, India, South Africa and the UK on the theme of children and young people’s involvement in public action. It explores the potential of children and young people’s participation to be transformative and to challenge social and cultural structures that reproduce inequality and oppression.

Dream Zones: Anticipating Capitalism and Development in India, Jamie Cross

The Party Politics of Immigration and the EU Pontus Odmalm

Governing by Inspection (Studies in European Education), Sotiria Grek & Joakim Lindgren

Dream Zones explores the desired futures that constitute, sustain and disrupt capitalism in India. Drawing on research in and around India’s Special Economic Zones, this book follows the stories of regional politicians, corporate executives, rural farmers, industrial workers and social activists to show how the pursuit of growth, profit and development shapes the politics of industrialisation and liberalisation.

Why are the EU and immigration such complicated questions for political parties to compete on? And what challenges do they present to parties’ electoral strategies? By systematically comparing the political mainstream in Belgium, Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden, this study explores the changing nature of party competition on two highly salient issues in contemporary politics.

Drawing on research undertaken into three national systems, this edited volume explores the attempts to manage tensions in Europe through the development of inspection as a governing practice. Inspectorates and inspectors offer key locations for the exploration of governing tensions, positioned as they are and with responsibility for both regulation and development.

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