Political Theory Research Areas
Our current research activities span a range of areas united by our common interest in the interface between political theory and practical politics.
Democracy, Nation and Community
John Schwarzmantel’s most recent book Democracy and Political Violence (Edinburgh University Press, 2011) focuses on the challenge which political violence represents to established democracies and to ‘democracies in the making’. He has also written on issues of citizenship and community (Citizenship and Identity, Routledge 2003/2007), on nationalism and its relationship to ideas of cosmopolitanism and democracy, and more generally on the role and nature of political ideologies today (Ideology and Politics, Sage 2008).
Derek Edyvane’s book, Community and Conflict explores the possibility for political community in conditions of moral diversity. He has also published articles on problems of multiculturalism and the idea of ‘Britishness’ in UK politics. He is currently developing a new research project on the idea of ‘civic health’ and the meaningfulness of community life.
Mark McNally has published articles in the History of Political Thought, the Journal of Political Ideologies, Nations and Nationalism and the European Journal of Political Theory on the political thought of Antonio Gramsci and the ideological and rhetorical struggles in twentieth century Irish politics around democracy, republicanism and nationalism. He is also co-editor of a volume of essays on Antonio Gramsci entitled Gramsci and Global Politics: Hegemony and Resistance.
The group is currently organising an event for 2011 on the theme of community.
Feminism and Social Activism
Jonathan Dean's recent book Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics explores current forms of feminist activism in the UK, linking these to theoretical debates concerning agency and political mobilisation. His current research examines feminist politics, poststructuralist political theory and contemporary representations of "1968."
Gramsci
Mark McNally is a prominent scholar in the field of Gramscian studies. He has organised panels and sections on the political thought of Antonio Gramsci at conferences for the European Consortium of Political Research (2007), the Political Studies Association of the UK (2009) and the Manchester Political Theory Workshops (2010). He is currently preparing a monograph on the political thought of Antonio Gramsci, Gramsci and the United Front Comintern: Towards a National-Popular Democracy, that explores his ideas in the context of international socialism and debates around democracy and the nation.
Public Morality
Derek Edyvane is a lead academic in the White Rose Association for Political Philosophy that is currently pursuing a research agenda on the theme of ‘Liberal Realism: Political Theory in an Age of Insecurity’. He is also preparing a monograph, Civic Virtue and the Sovereignty of Evil, that defends the idea of a public morality centred on the prevention of evil.