Doing Politics

Reveals how and why corporate political influence remains largely invisible to the public eye.

Aimed at politics students in their final year of secondary education or beginning their degrees, this highly readable book is the ideal introduction to politics. Doing Politics is a detailed guide to both the study and the activity of politics, which explores why we study politics, what is involved in a politics degree, and the skills and mindset that are needed to tackle the subject. Key questions are answered, including: • Just what is politics and how does it affect us? • Why does politics, and why do politicians, get a bad press? • How do we study non-traditional forms of politics? Assuming no prior knowledge, this lively and engaging guide is the perfect introduction to the academic study of politics.

"Women have reached the highest levels of public office in Canada's provinces and territories, but what difference - if any - has their rise to the top made? Have they changed the content, tone, and style of politics? What role has gender played in their triumph and defeat? In Doing Politics Differently? leading researchers from across the country assess the track records of eleven premiers, including their impact on policies of particular interest to women and their influence on the tenor of legislative debate and the recruitment of other women as party candidates, cabinet ministers, and senior bureaucrats. Canada stands out for the variety and number of women who have reached the top in sub-national government. By evaluating the performance of women premiers across the country and comparing their records with those of men who preceded and succeeded them, this innovative volume probes how important demographic diversity is to government decision making."--

This edited volume explores the discursive, performative and mediated dimensions of contemporary political discourse. The strengths of the volume are manifold: it contains cutting edge interdisciplinary research on political discourses by international authors (UK, USA, Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark) in political science, discourse linguistic and social interaction research. The contributions represent a wide range of methodological approaches to political discourse, analyzing a broad variety of genres, some of which have been less analyzed to-date, for example Wikipedia articles in combination with their discussion pages or the interaction between politicians and voters in the constituency office of a British Member of Parliament. The contributions also focus on political discourses of high and relevant topicality, such as EU membership of Britain, populism, migration and xenophobia, terrorism and narratives in international relations.

This systematic, user friendly, and refreshingly unusual introduction to comparative politics is designed to teach students how to think comparatively and theoretically about the world they live in.The second edition retains the core features of the first, coherently integrating comparative method, theory, and issues, but provides updated material and additional cases throughout. The text now also includes study questions for each chapter.

There has been a tendency amongst feminists to see domestic work as the great leveller, a common burden imposed on all women equally by patriarchy. This unique study of migrant domestic workers in the North uncovers some uncomfortable facts about the race and class aspects of domestic oppression. Based on original research, it looks at the racialisation of paid domestic labour in the North - a phenomenon which challenges feminsim and political theory at a fundamental level. The book opens with an exploration of the public/private divide and an overview of the debates on women and power. The author goes on to provide a map of employment patterns of migrant women in domestic work in the North; she describes the work they perform, their living and working conditions and their employment relations. A chapter on the US explores the connections between slavery and contemporary domestic service while a section on commodification examines the extent to which migrant domestic workers are not selling their labour but their whole personhood. The book also looks at the role of the Other in managing dirt, death and pollution and the effects of the feminisation of the labour market - as middle class white women have greater presence in the public sphere, they are more likely to push responsibility for domestic work onto other women. In its depiction of the treatment of women from the South by women in the North, the book asks some difficult questions about the common bond of womanhood. Packed with information on the numbers of migrant women working as domestics, the racism, immigration or employment legislation that constrains their lives, and testimonies from the workers themselves, this is the most comprehensive study of migrant domestic workers available.

A unique collection of contemporary writings, this book explores the politics involved in the making and experiencing of architecture and cities from a cross-cultural and global perspective Taking a broad view of the word ‘politics’, the essays address a range of questions, including: What is the relationship between politics and the making of space? What role has theory played in reinforcing or resisting political power? What are the political difficulties associated with working relationships? Do the products of our making construct our identity or liberate us? A timely volume, focusing on an interdisciplinary debate on the politics of making, this is valuable reading for all students, professionals and academics interested or working in architectural theory.

This guide has been designed to help undergraduates develop an understanding of practical research methods, and their application in the undergraduate dissertation. Written in an accessible and engaging style, it offers advice on all aspects of undergraduate research, from choosing a dissertation subject through to presenting the finished article. Features of this book: concise chapters which provide an introduction to various aspects of research methods, including: why it is important; quantitative and qualitative methods; and practical application advice, hints and tips on planning, presenting, researching and writing undergraduate dissertations a wide range of examples of research to clearly illustrate different issues and methods which students may encounter guides to further reading and thinking at the end of each chapter.