Ballots & Bullets

The presence of injustice, marginalisation and social exclusion has always provided social science researchers with a rich terrain in which to critique society. This is especially true when research contributes to an emancipatory project for those who are subject to such injustice, marginalisation and/or social exclusion.

The ethnographic methodological approach is certainly no stranger to critiquing societal conditions with a …

The leaders of Britain’s three main political parties currently support a campaign to rename Big Ben the ‘Elizabeth Tower’ as a tribute to the Queen in her fiftieth year on the throne.

In a post on his personal blog, Steven Fielding reflects on this consensus – and why it is that Britons still look upon the monarchy in such …

Below are two responses to the Kony2012 campaign. The first is from a member of staff, and the second is from one of our first year undergraduate students. Let us know what you think.

Oversimplification (Eddie Tembo)

I was first asked about the Kony2012 campaign during a seminar on Human Rights and Intervention. I confess: I did not …

In 1939 the Mexican artist Jesús Escobedo produced a work simply entitled ‘Las clases’ that captured in a single composition the history and imagery of the outcome of the Mexican Revolution. The artist was part of the Liga Pro-Cultura Alemana (whose membership included Hannes Meyer) that was engaged in incorporating the emerging geopolitical conflict of the period into a …

The recent unmasking of the membership of LulzSec by the FBI and pronouncement of the organisation’s leader (Sabu) as a government informant has led to suggestions that LulzSec have been decapitated. Following an international policing operation, the arrest of Sabu (real name Hector Xavier Monsegur) alongside five other alleged co-conspirators has been reported as a significant counter-attack against hacktivism. The …

With numerous voices questioning the ability of Ed Miliband to deliver Labour election success, two undergraduates enrolled in the ‘British Party Politics’ module offer their thoughts.

Three Problems Facing Red Ed

Being the leader of the Labour party against a Tory-led coalition government that is introducing vast cuts should be easy. But Ed Miliband has somehow managed to make the …

This is the twelfth of a series of posts that report on the state of the parties as measured by opinion polls.

By pooling together all the available polling evidence we can reduce the impact of the random variation each individual survey inevitably produces. Most of the short term advances and setbacks in party polling fortunes are nothing more than …

Much has been made in recent days of Nicolas Sarkozy overtaking François Hollande for the first time in polling for the first round of the French presidentials. This symbolic croisement may or may not reflect a change in Sarkozy’s fortunes and the first step towards an historic electoral turnaround. It certainly reflects a trend to date found only in the IFOP …

For the second time in Select Committee history, a Government Minister has ignored the rejection of a Committee of a public appointment candidate and continued to support their appointee. This is the impetus that should allow a veto of public appointments by all Select Committees.

The House of Commons departmental Select Committees have the obligation to scrutinise candidates put …

One month from now, the trial of Anders Behring Breivik will begin. Aside from sparking a vigorous debate in Norway over the mental state of Breivik, the case has also prompted an upsurge of interest in the underlying causes and perpetrators of right-wing extremist violence. In the UK, the events on July 22 2011 prompted a Home Affairs Committee on …