Why the zero-carbon homes policy hasn’t gone to plan

In this post, Max Lempriere, PhD Researcher at The Department of Political Science and International Studies discusses why the zero-carbon home policy has not gone to plan. Is this zero-carbon? No one really knows. Yui Mok/PA One of the UK’s flagship sustainability policies is in big trouble. Less than a year from now, the theory … Continue reading “Why the zero-carbon homes policy hasn’t gone to plan”

The West Midlands – a bellwether for the election?

In this post, Cherry Miller discusses the key battleground seats and issues in the West Midlands. The original version of this post was published as part of the General Election 2015 series on the LSE British Politics and Policy Blog on 14th April 2015 It would seem churlish for any contributor in this series not to stake a … Continue reading “The West Midlands – a bellwether for the election?”

The cyber threat to the United Kingdom

Gavin E L Hall is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Birmingham. His main focus of research NATO’s role in the broadening security environment, especially cyber-security.  You can follow him on twitter @GavinELHall. When the new government takes office in May 2015 one of the first tasks … Continue reading “The cyber threat to the United Kingdom”

Gender & the Research Excellence Framework: An Analysis of the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment (II)

by Fran Amery, Stephen Bates & Steve McKay This is the second of two posts on gender and the Research Excellence Framework (you may also be interested in this post on what titles of outputs submitted to the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment tell us about (sub-)disciplinary trends). In our first post, we … Continue reading “Gender & the Research Excellence Framework: An Analysis of the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment (II)”

Gender & the Research Excellence Framework: An Analysis of the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment (I)

Ever wondered about the gendered dimensions of the REF returns and rankings for the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment? Well wonder no longer. by Fran Amery, Stephen Bates & Steve McKay 1320 people were submitted to the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment of REF 2014. Of these, 929 were men, 387 … Continue reading “Gender & the Research Excellence Framework: An Analysis of the Politics & International Studies Unit of Assessment (I)”

A Corpus-Based Analysis of REF Output Titles for Politics and International Studies*

Have you ever wondered what the titles of outputs submitted to the REF tell us about disciplinary trends, foci and boundaries? Well, thanks to the wonder of corpus linguistics and Laurence Anthony‘s AntConc, wonder no longer. Table 1 shows us a ranking of the 100 most popular words used in titles of work submitted to the 2014 REF and … Continue reading “A Corpus-Based Analysis of REF Output Titles for Politics and International Studies*”

Do Local Authorities Really Want Sustainable Construction Powers?

National planning policy and building regulations have undergone considerable reform in recent years. The latest incarnation is embodied in the Housing Standards Review, (HSR) published in 2014. The HSR sought to consolidate the plethora of standards into national building regulations whilst making it harder to local authorities (LAs) to introduce standards that supplement these national … Continue reading “Do Local Authorities Really Want Sustainable Construction Powers?”

Depoliticisation and the Father’s Clause in Parliamentary debates

Dr Stephen Bates, Dr Laura Jenkins and Fran Amery, use work on in vitro fertilisation to think through depoliticisation.  Originally posted on May 19th at Policy and Politics Journal Blog Depoliticisation, in simple terms, involves disavowing political responsibility, or persuading the public that one is no longer responsible for particular decisions, with the result that … Continue reading “Depoliticisation and the Father’s Clause in Parliamentary debates”

Should I stay or should I go? Why the UK should stay out of the Crimea issue

Iván Farías, Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Political Science and International Studies argues why the UK should stay out of the Crimea issue. The Republic of Crimea is said to be at the centre of a dispute between the Russian Federation and the international community. Such dispute arose when about two weeks ago, 96.7% of … Continue reading “Should I stay or should I go? Why the UK should stay out of the Crimea issue”