What Political Science Can Learn from the Humanities

This book asks, 'what are the implications of blurring genres for the discipline of Political Science, and for Area Studies?' It argues novelists and playwrights provide a better guide for political scientists than the work of physicists. It restates the intrinsic value of the Humanities and Social Sciences and builds bridges between the two territories. The phrase blurring genres covers both genres of thought and of presentation. Genres of thought refers to such theoretical approaches as post structuralism, cultural studies, and especially interpretive thought. Part 1 explores genres of thought, focusing on the use of narratives. Specific examples include the narratives of post-truth political cultures; narratives in Canadian general elections; autoethnography as a new research tool; and novels as a way of understanding economic development. Part 2 emphasises genres of presentation and focuses on the visual arts. The chapters cover: photography in British political history, the architecture of American statehouses and city halls, design, comics, and using the creative arts to improve policy practice. This book is interdisciplinary and should have an appeal beyond political science to area studies specialists and others in the humanities. It is an advanced text, so it is aimed primarily at academics and postgraduates.

Argues novelists and the playwrights provide a better guide for political scientists than the work of physicists Argues that blurring genres is an opportunity to withdraw from the clamour for relevance and reclaim the intrinsic value of the Humanities and Social Sciences Builds bridges between the Social Sciences and the Humanities

Autorentext

R. A. W. Rhodes is Professor of Government (Research) at the University of Southampton, UK, and Director of the Centre for Political Ethnography. He is the author or editor of 40 books including, most recently, The Art and Craft of Comparison (with J. Boswell and J. Corbett, Cambridge University Press 2019).
Susan Hodgett is the founding Professor of Area Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her most recent book is Necessary Travel. New Area Studies **and Canada in Comparative Perspective (edited with Patrick James, Lexington Books, 2018).

Klappentext

This book asks, what are the implications of blurring genres for the discipline of Political Science, and for Area Studies? It argues novelists and playwrights provide a better guide for political scientists than the work of physicists. It restates the intrinsic value of the Humanities and Social Sciences and builds bridges between the two territories. The phrase blurring genres covers both genres of thought and of presentation. Genres of thought refers to such theoretical approaches as post structuralism, cultural studies, and especially interpretive thought. Part 1 explores genres of thought, focusing on the use of narratives. Specific examples include the narratives of post-truth political cultures; narratives in Canadian general elections; autoethnography as a new research tool; and novels as a way of understanding economic development. Part 2 emphasises genres of presentation and focuses on the visual arts. The chapters cover: photography in British political history, the architecture of American statehouses and city halls, design, comics, and using the creative arts to improve policy practice. This book is interdisciplinary and should have an appeal beyond political science to area studies specialists and others in the humanities. It is an advanced text, so it is aimed primarily at academics and postgraduates.

Inhalt

1. Blurring Genres: An Agenda for Political Studies.- 2. Narrative ecologies in post-truth times: Nostalgia and conspiracy theories in narrative jungles?.- 3. It's the Way You Tell It: Conflicting Narratives in the 2011, 2015, and 2019 Canadian Federal Elections.- 4. Novels and Narratives: The Pursuit of Forms and Perceptive Policymaking.- 5. Autoethnography as Narrative in Political Studies.- 6. Autoethnography in collaborative research.- 7. Photography in British Political History.- 8. Architectural Power.- 9. Design and Politics.- 10. Persuasive Comics.- 11. Political Science and the Arts as Allies and Strange Bedfellows: a chapter in five parts.