Politics and International Relations - Shorts

Based on a cross-national and cross-generational project on climate change and consumption with urban residents in China, Uganda and the UK, this book examines how different cultures think about past, present and future responsibility for climate change.

This short book explores Sweden’s response to the global pandemic and the wave of controversies it triggered. It helps to make sense of the response by defining ‘a Swedish model’ that incorporates the country’s value system and offers a case study for understanding the ways in which different national approaches to the pandemic have been compared.

Christopher O’Leary provides a fresh perspective on prosocial working choices in this first substantive critique of Public Service Motivation. The book reviews concepts of PSM and research to date and explores the rationales and aims of public and third sector workers before proposing alternative theories for people’s motivations to serve.

This book examines the relationship between humour and politics in Africa. Moving beyond the idea of humour as a mode of resistance, the book investigates the ‘political work’ that humour does and explores the complex entanglements in which the politics, practices and performances of humour are located.

Bringing together ten leading researchers in the field of deliberative democracy, this important book examines the features of a Deliberative Mini-Public (DMP) and considers the contributions that DMPs can make not only to the policy process, but also to the broader agenda of revitalising democracy in contemporary times.

Pathways to Sustainable Welfare critically examines how cities can address the dual challenges of climate change and sustainability while ensuring the welfare of their populations. Focused on three Swedish cities, it explores the integration of environmental and welfare concerns in local policies, urban movements and public opinions.

This book unpacks the political economy of China’s COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the Global South. Examining the political and economic forces at play, the book demonstrates how China’s vaccine provisions have been determined by a complex set of commercial interests, domestic politics, and geopolitical relationships.

This book advances new perspectives for critical thought by exploring the links between consumer culture and the post-truth politics of Trumpism, and how Trump embodies the frightening potential of capitalism to intersect with and enable fascistic forms of power.

This concise, informative book analyses impact across the social sciences. Drawing on fifteen interviews with senior academics for a longitudinal view, the author sets out valuable recommendations of how and when scholars can achieve impact.

Why do top-down reforms to public services so often over-promise and under-deliver? Using five concepts from psychology, economics and organisational sociology and diverse examples of successes and failures, Thomas Elston addresses this pressing question of good governance.

This innovative account challenges traditional views in International Relations by theorising the influence of individual leaders on foreign policy change. It examines how and why leaders shape policy, showcasing Obama's Cuba pivot as a prime example.

Clear, balanced and accessible, this book explores the alternative of a flexible European Union (EU) based on differentiated rather than uniform integration. They examine the circumstances and institutional design needed for flexibility to promote rather than undermine fairness and democracy within and between member states.