Research Themes
The Department of Political and Social Sciences specializes in comparative politics, sociology and social change, political and social theory, and international relations and has been listed as the top-ranking department in Europe in a recent survey of political science departments.
In the broad-ranging research programme of the Department there is a common emphasis on political and social change within Europe at all levels, the national, the sub-national and the transnational.
The Department currently has fifteen full-time professors whose interests range across the themes listed below. For more details of specific research plans and projects, consult the individual webpages of the professors. For more details on research output and publications, see SPS in Press and the SPS pages in Cadmus .
This includes new modes of governance and institutional change at state and European levels European integration, transitions in government and markets and democratization in Western and East-Central Europe, urban and regional government, federalism, and the comparative study of political institutions, including executives and legislatures.
Critical challenges include demographic change and societal aging, linked to the transformation of the family and life courses, social stratification, inequality and unemployment, and migration, its causes, patterns and implications which have become a key issue for Europe’s future and impact on a number of other policy fields.
This is examined at the European, national and sub-national and regional levels covers social policy and welfare states, education policy, urban and regional policies, immigration policy, and defence and security.
The Department has a particular interest in research on voting and elections, parties and party systems. There is also a interest in social movements and the study of new modes of social and political participation. There is also a interest in electronic democracy and the use of the internet as a form of political communication.
Includes theoretical issues in the study of international order, ethics of international relations, internal and external security, and the emergence of Europe as an international actor.
This theme runs through many of the Department’s research interests. Of particular importance are moral and political philosophy, global justice, theories of action and practical rationality, democratic theory and practice, and nationalism. The Department also has an interest in theories of new institutionalism and institutional change.