How to Do a Political Theory PhD
The other chapters in this book describe and critique the standard methods used in analytical political theory. Here we give a few pointers, of the sort we give to our students, about doing a political theory PhD.
The other chapters in this book describe and critique the standard methods used in analytical political theory. Here we give a few pointers, of the sort we give to our students, about doing a political theory PhD.
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Digitised version produced by the EUI Library and made available online in 2020.
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Recent calls to 'decolonise the curriculum' are especially pertinent to the teaching of political theory, which has traditionally been dominated by a canon made up overwhelmingly of White (and male) thinkers. This article explores why and how political theory curricula might be decolonised. By mapping core political theory modules provided at UK universities, and examining associated textbooks, the article shows that non-White thinkers and discussions of colonialism and race are marginalised and neglected. It then argues that there are intellectual, political, and pedagogical reasons why this neglect is problematic and should be reversed. Finally, the article reflects on the experience of rewriting and delivering a core second-year undergraduate modern political thought module at a post-92 London university, including assessing the impact of the changes on the attainment gap between White students and Black and minority ethnic students.
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A review of: Nathaniel TkaczWikipedia and the Politics of OpennessUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2015ISBN 9780226192307 US$25.00
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This is the first book to explain how to use key methods in analytical political theory. The methods discussed include contractualism, reflective equilibrium, positive political theory, thought experiments and ideological analysis. Many discussions of political theory methods describe and justify these methods with little or no discussion of their application, emphasizing 'what is' and 'why do' over 'how to'. This book covers all three. Each chapter explains what kinds of problems in political theory might require researchers to use a particular method, the basic principles behind the method being proposed, and an analysis of how to apply it, including concrete principles of good practice. The book thus summarizes methodological ideas, grouped in one place and made accessible to students, and it makes innovative contributions to research methods in analytical political theory. Read more at http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/political-theory/methods-analytical-political-theory#EP2v8RWdozzbQZay.99
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Rezension zu: Margaret Moore, A Political Theory of Territory (New York: Oxford, 2015).
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In the various conversations, deliberations, postings, panels, and forums in which I have participated, I confess that I often have felt like Admiral James Stockdale, who ran for Vice President on Ross Perot's independent ticket in 1992. In the vice-presidential debate with Al Gore and Dan Quayle, he began his opening remarks with the questions: "Who am I? And why am I here?" Less metaphorically, the question I must confront is: What is a political theorist doing in these deliberations over Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT)? What does DA-RT have to do with political theory? We may recall that Admiral Stockdale's question, profound in its existential implications, and elegant in its practical simplicity, was responded to with laughter and turned into a joke, as Stockdale was read as a nice, but confused, old man. He was considered irrelevant to the election. Political theory, similarly, has been sidelined, dismissed, as irrelevant to this discussion, indeed, perhaps to the entire discipline, because we don't deal with "data." We may be nice colleagues, and some colleagues may begrudgingly acknowledge that perhaps political theory needs to be taught to our students, but we are often not seen as serious participants in the conversation called political science, and that has extended to the DA-RT debates.
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Mary G. Dietz is John Evans Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She is the author of Turning Operations: Feminism, Arendt, and Politics and Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil. ; With a New Preface by the Author. ; This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. ; This volume explores, from a variety of perspectives, the political theory of the man who is arguably the greatest English political thinker. It is the first substantial collection of new, critical essays on Thomas Hobbes by leading scholars in over a decade. Hobbes's writings stirred debate in his own lifetime, for two centuries thereafter, and continue to do so in ours. They emerged in a period of intense political turmoil—a time of civil war and regicide, of puritanical rule and royal restoration. "They were motivated," Dietz argues, "by concrete political problems and a practical concern, namely, to secure political order, absolute sovereignty, and civil peace." The contributors emphasize and answer a series of expressly political questions that, to date, have not been fully addressed in the Hobbes literature. They contend that Hobbes's writings are not mere static artifacts of a particular historical milieu, but rather rich sources of a variety of interpretations and criticisms that spur discussion and debate in their turn.
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Book review of: Hess, Andreas (2014) The Political Theory of Judith N. Shklar: Exile from Exile, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.235 pp.ISBN: 978-1-137-03249-2.Price: $ 110,00 (Hardcover)
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This paper separates Wollstonecraft's critical concept of "machiavelian" power and the capacity for domination, from a neutral concept of politics as the complex processes surrounding the power to govern, from her normative account of popular sovereignty which emphasizes collective political power to ensure the discharge of natural duty by way of civil and political rights and duties. Wollstonecraft's voice as political judge—which is audible throughout her work, but particularly clearly in her book on the French Revolution—articulates the ways that political power can be abused and misused, and can also be effective. Her theory is political in several ways: she interrogates the nature of political power and its explanatory importance; she consistently articulates political judgment about matters both conventionally political and social; she offers a theoretical justification for the expansion of the scope of politics to cover relations that hitherto were thought to be outside its domain; and finally her work itself constitutes a political intervention.
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This volume explores, from a variety of perspectives, the political theory of the man who is arguably the greatest English political thinker. It is the first substantial collection of new, critical essays on Thomas Hobbes by leading scholars in over a decade. Hobbes's writings stirred debate in his own lifetime, for two centuries thereafter, and continue to do so in ours. They emerged in a period of intense political turmoil—a time of civil war and regicide, of puritanical rule and royal restoration. "They were motivated," Dietz argues, "by concrete political problems and a practical concern, namely, to secure political order, absolute sovereignty, and civil peace." The contributors emphasize and answer a series of expressly political questions that, to date, have not been fully addressed in the Hobbes literature. They contend that Hobbes's writings are not mere static artifacts of a particular historical milieu, but rather rich sources of a variety of interpretations and criticisms that spur discussion and debate in their turn. Description Mary G. Dietz is John Evans Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She is the author of Turning Operations: Feminism, Arendt, and Politics and Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil. With a New Preface by the Author. This Kansas Open Books title is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program. ; https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/kansas_open_books/1016/thumbnail.jpg
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Should political theorists engage in ethnography? In this letter, we assess a recent wave of interest in ethnography among political theorists and explain why it is a good thing. We focus, in particular, on how ethnographic research generates what Ian Shapiro calls "problematizing redescriptions"—accounts of political phenomena that destabilize the lens through which we traditionally study them, engendering novel questions and exposing new avenues of moral concern. We argue that (1) by revealing new levels of variation and contingency within familiar political phenomena, ethnography can uncover topics ripe for normative inquiry; (2) by shedding light on what meanings people associate with political values, it can advance our reflection on concepts; and (3) by capturing the experience of individuals at grips with the social world, it can attune us to forms of harm that would otherwise remain hidden. The purchase for political theory is considerable. By thickening our understanding of institutions, ethnography serves as an antidote to analytic specialization and broadens the range of questions political theorists can ask, reinvigorating debates in the subfield and forging connections with the discipline writ large.
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A review of: Nathaniel TkaczWikipedia and the Politics of OpennessUniversity of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2015ISBN 9780226192307 US$25.00
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In: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021282119
"Reprinted from Political science quarterly. v. xxiv, no. 2" ; Mode of access: Internet.
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