University of Southampton

Tweet The Good Politician is reviewed  by Peter Allen in LSE Review of Books here. The review provides a nice summary of the argument and contributes some important reflections on the book and its place within Political Studies. Here is how the review finishes: ‘Anyone interested in the future of representative political systems in Britain […]

Tweet Today, our new book is published by Cambridge University Press (see www.cambridge.org/9781108459815). Here is the blurb from the back cover: Surveys show a lack of trust in political actors and institutions across much of the democratic world. Populist politicians and parties attempt to capitalise on this political disaffection. Commentators worry about our current ‘age […]

Tweet We’ve just signed the contract for a book with Cambridge University Press. The title is ‘The Good Politician: Folk Theories, Political Interaction, and the Rise of Anti-Politics’. We’re hoping the book will be available from May/June 2018. It will cover: the phenomenon and conceptualisation of anti-politics; why anti-politics matters; the historical development of anti-political sentiment […]

Tweet We’ve just published the following paper in Public Opinion Quarterly: ‘The decline in diffuse support for national politics: The long view on political discontent in Britain‘. Here is the abstract: This research note considers how to track long-term trajectories of political discontent in Britain. Many accounts are confined to using either survey data drawn […]

Tweet We’ve just published the following paper in Political Geography: ‘Changing spaces of political encounter and the rise of anti-politics: Evidence from Mass Observation’s General Election diaries‘. Here is the abstract: Negativity towards the institutions of formal politics is currently a concern across much of the democratic world. It is generally agreed that such negativity […]

Tweet Click here for the link to our online publication This document was published to accompany the event of the same title. On 19 May 2016, in the Macmillan Room of Portcullis House, Westminster, we discussed the rise of anti-politics in Britain with MP and historian Tristram Hunt, journalist Isabel Hardman, and audience members.

Tweet Portcullis House, Westminster, 0930-1130, 19 May 2016 In this session, a team of researchers from the University of Southampton will present findings from a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council on ‘Popular Understandings of Politics in Britain, 1937-2015’. Using data from Mass Observation and various polling organisations, they will focus in […]

Tweet On Monday 21 March, Will Jennings will be presenting findings from the project at the PSA Annual Conference in Brighton as part of a panel on ‘Causes, consequences and cures of anti-politics’. Click here for more information about the panel.

Tweet Will Jennings, Gerry Stoker and Joe Twyman have published a paper in Parliamentary Affairs on ‘The Dimensions and Impact of Political Discontent in Britain’. Abstract: Political discontent remains a pressing issue for UK parliamentary democracy that needs to be better understood. We offer a range of theoretical perspectives on dimensions of political disaffection and […]