Suchergebnisse

"Postwar British Politics challenges established interpretations of postwar British politics and offers in place of these a novel evolutionary account of public policy and the state of Britain since 1945."

In an earlier article (2002) Kerr pointed out that evolutionary theory need not be defined in terms of functionalism, reductionism, or any type of historical determinism. However, Adrian Kay & Oliver Curry (both, 2003) take issue with this claim. Kay argues that an evolutionary theory must be functionalist in order to have explanatory power, unless it is used as a rich metaphor. Curry asserts that there is no value to be gained from its use as a metaphor; instead, there is greater scope for extending biological analysis into political science in order to predict human behavior. Here, Kerr focuses mainly on the general criticisms made by Kay, as his comments are more geared toward the author's claims. Curry's attempt to import biological arguments into social science explanations are rejected by the author as previous attempts of sociobiology have been linked to doctrines such as fascism & laissez-faire capitalism. Instead, Kerr argues that notions of 'evolution,' 'selection,' & 'adaptation,' when used as metaphors, point in the direction of variables that can be empirically examined & can help explain political outcomes. 15 References. E. Sanchez

Evolutionary theorising has a long history in social scientists' attempts to interrogate processes of change. However, for many years evolutionary theory has been damaged by its association with teleological and reductionist reasoning. Nevertheless in the past two decades, a new breed of neo-evolutionary perspective has emerged within a variety of social science sub-disciplines. This recent literature has attempted to revise the theory in order to emphasise that change is a contingent process which can take multiple paths and is underpinned by a constant interplay between agents and their environment. Although much of this literature has failed largely to impact upon the work of political scientists, recent years have also seen various attempts to apply an evolutionary conception of change to both the state and political change in general. This review article examines some of the key themes to have emerged from the renewed interest in evolutionary theorising, whilst particular attention is paid to attempts to develop the concept of political evolution.

Evolutionary theorizing has a long history in social scientists' attempts to interrogate processes of change. However, for many years evolutionary theory has been damaged by its association with teleological & reductionist reasoning. Nevertheless, in the past two decades, a new breed of neo-evolutionary perspective has emerged within a variety of social science subdisciplines. This recent literature has attempted to revise the theory to emphasize that change is a contingent process which can take multiple paths & is underpinned by a constant interplay between agents & their environment. Although much of this literature has failed largely to impact on the work of political scientists, recent years have also seen various attempts to apply an evolutionary conception of change to both the state & political change in general. This review article examines some of the key themes to have emerged from the renewed interest in evolutionary theorizing, focusing on attempts to develop the concept of political evolution. 64 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article has two aims. Firstly, to highlight a general marginalisation of queer and trans voices within the environmental/ecological movement. Secondly, to identify and explore some contemporary efforts to overcome these tensions and forge closer alliances between queer and green politics. Drawing on queer and trans ecology literatures, we highlight the radical potential that closer synergy between the progressive goals and activities of environmentalist and LGBTQIA2+ politics can bring about. Examining the online content of a number of activist organisations and platforms, we highlight some of the ways in which the queering of green politics and the greening of queer politics are being given practical contemporary expression. In doing so, we highlight the space that this type of politics can create for a reimagining of alternative ecological futures and a more progressive political economy based around a transformation of relationships both within human populations and between humans and other-than-human species and ecologies.

This article sets out to examine the politicising and depoliticising effects of the various stories that were deployed by the UK government in its response to the coronavirus crisis during its daily press briefings over a 2-month period between 16 March and 16 May 2020. In doing so, we identify four key narratives: (1) unprecedented government activism; (2) working to plan; (3) national security, wartime unity and sacrifice; and (4) scientific guidance. Through a quantitative and qualitative study of the deployment of these narratives, we attempt to further recent theoretical insights on depoliticisation by noting that the COVID-19 crisis produced a particular type of crisis moment in which the government was forced to respond in 'real time' to a set of circumstances which were rapidly changing. As such, this made it much more difficult to control the various stories they wanted to tell and therefore find a coherent 'anchor' for their politicising and depoliticising strategies. This led to some deft discursive footwork as the government sought to pass the ball of responsibility between various groups of actors in order to rapidly and continually shift the balance between avoiding blame and taking credit.

The role of populism in mobilising support for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union has been well noted. But a key feature of populist politics – the use of religious discourses – has been largely overlooked. This article addresses this gap by exploring the way in which the Leave campaign framed Brexit in quasi-religious and mythological terms. Three core themes are identified: (1) that the British 'people' had a unique role to play in global affairs; (2) that the sanctity of this special status was threatened by elites and migrants; (3) that the referendum gave voice to the sacred 'will of the people'. These narratives were underpinned by a strategic discourse centring on claims that EU membership was exacerbating a crisis in health and social care. This myth was encapsulated by the so-called 'Brexit bus' campaign.