Blurring genres: An agenda for political studies’

Rhodes, R. A. W. and Hodgett, Susan (2021) Blurring genres: An agenda for political studies’. In, Rhodes, R. A. W. and Hodgett, Susan (eds.) What Political Science can learn from the Humanities: Blurring Genres. Houndmills, Basingstoke. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-29.

Abstract

The first step in mapping a research agenda for political science that draws on the Humanities is to describe where we are now. We describe the dominant intellectual trend affecting all British universities over the past four decades – neoliberalism in the guises of marketisation, and managerialism. Two consequences follow - the mainstreaming of research, and the search for relevance. The case for blurring genres is an opportunity to withdraw from this instrumental rationale and reclaim the intrinsic value of the Humanities and Social Sciences; to reject air of gloom and doom surrounding the Humanities; and to counter the unrelenting pressure for marketization and relevance. Shared trends in political science and the New Area Studies identify the space for working with the Humanities. There is a shared concern with interpretive approaches, and qualitative methods that focuses on the meaning of human action, fieldwork or thick descriptions, narrative analysis, historical contingency, and plausible conjectures. We suggest an ambitious mind map built on four values shared by the Humanities and the ‘soft pure’ Social Sciences; empathy, enlarged thinking, edification, and the examined life.

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Contributors

Author: R. A. W. Rhodes

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