Social and Political Sciences, School of
Established in 2001, the School brings together core social scientific disciplines to promote the critical understanding of social and political processes and the development of effective policy and practice through a wide range of teaching and research programmes. The School was formed from the departments (now subject groups) of Politics, Social Anthropology, Social Policy and Sociology; the Graduate School of Social and Political Studies; the Centres of African, Canadian and South Asian Studies; the Science Studies Unit, the Research Centre in Social Sciences and the Institute of Governance. It has recently been joined by Social Work, and now forms part of the College of Humanities and Social Science.
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Recent Submissions
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Only true philosophers? Charismatic performances of unofficial philosophy in socialist Czechoslovakia
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-07-06)In this thesis, I explore the phenomenon of unofficial philosophy seminars in socialist Czechoslovakia, focusing on the period from 1968 to 1989. After the democratizing movement known as the Prague Spring was terminated ... -
Order from chaos: agonism and salvation among Khmer Evangelical Christians in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-31)This thesis is about Christian salvation in the Khmer world. It ethnographically investigates the everyday religious experiences of poor-to-middle class Khmer evangelical Christians who have predominantly migrated from ... -
Instrumentalism, power maximisation, or legitimation? Understanding the European Commission’s response to the Global Financial Crisis, 2008-10
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-31)In October 2008, as Europe and the world stood in the midst of unpreceded turmoil on global financial markets, the European Commission launched a process that resulted in a proposal to create a European System of Financial ... -
Health needs and services for refugee women and children in Uganda’s settlements: articulating a role for social work
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-12-19)Approximately 70.8 million individuals are displaced worldwide and of these 25.9 million are refugees (UNHCR, 2019). According to UNHCR (2018), 85% of the world’s refugees are hosted by low-income nations such as Uganda. ... -
Parental socio-economic background and children’s school-level GCSE attainment
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-22)The principal aim of this thesis is to better understand the contemporary relationship between parental socio-economic background and children’s General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) attainment. Previous ... -
Study of teacher beliefs and pedagogical practices relating to gifted and talented education in selected primary schools in England and Scotland
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-13)Educational provision for gifted and talented pupils in primary schools is under-researched and so far an empirical study investigating pedagogical practices for gifted and talented pupils in both England and Scotland ... -
How do planets find their way? Laws of nature and the transformations of knowledge in the Scientific Revolution
(The University of Edinburgh, 2020-01-13)Laws of nature are perceived as playing a central role in modern science. This thesis investigates the introduction of laws of nature into natural philosophy in the seventeenth century, from which modern science arguably ... -
Children’s understandings and experiences of peer friendships in a rural Chinese boarding school
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-28)Research is limited on friendships in childhood, particularly that of Chinese rural children. To fill this gap, this research explores Chinese children’s understandings and practices of peer friendships in the context ... -
Telegraphists’ cramp: the emergence and disappearance of an occupational disease between 1875 and 1930
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This thesis is a historical, qualitative case study of the emergence and disappearance of telegraphists’ cramp in the British Post Office between 1875, when it was first reported, and 1930, by which point it was in ... -
‘Still there’: mediating personhood, temporality, and care in London Alzheimer’s Society support groups
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This thesis is an investigation of the lives of people living with dementia and their families to explore how and why the ‘social death’ of the disease is mitigated through everyday practices of care. Findings are based ... -
Citizenship and displacement: naturalisation of Burundian refugees in Tanzania (2010-2017)
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)Between 2010-2017, 150,000 of Burundian refugees, whose families fled to Tanzania in the 1970s, received citizenship in Tanzania. This thesis explores how the experience of naturalisation shaped Burundian refugees’ views ... -
Unpicking social work practice skills: an interactional analysis of engagement and identity in a groupwork programme addressing sexual offending
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)The importance of the working relationship between people who have offended (clients) and criminal justice social workers (practitioners) as a vehicle for promoting rehabilitation is increasingly recognised. To build and ... -
Fashioning labour rights? Understanding the efforts of transnational stakeholders in the responsible fashion and apparel (RFA) movement post-Rana Plaza, Bangladesh
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)In the wake of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, transnational stakeholders and stakeholder groups working within the global movement for responsible fashion and apparel (RFA) mobilised in ... -
Rhythms that matter: the kinetic melodies and matterings of autism and equine therapy practices in the UK and USA.
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This thesis is an ethnography of practices of equine therapy used as interventions for autistic people in the UK and USA. It answers the overarching research question: How is autism enacted by models used to understand ... -
Political party learning in the European Free Alliance: inspiration and information in the (Trans)Nationalist Family
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)Recent years, and high-profile events such as the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and 2017 Catalan referendum, have shown that stateless nationalist and regionalist political parties remain relevant political forces ... -
Troubled rainbows: an anthropological study of LGB communities and sectarianism in Northern Ireland
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)This thesis examines the intersection of LGB communities with sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Against the widespread notion, maintained both within and outside LGB circles, that there was no space for divisions within ... -
Espiritista-as-woman, woman-as-mother: the gendering of practice in Espiritismo Cruzado
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Habana, this thesis examines Espiritismo Cruzado, an African diaspora religious tradition enmeshed in the wider matrix of Cuban religiosity of African origin, or as my ... -
Dealing with uncertainty: a historical sociology of evaluation practices in UK life insurance, 1971-present
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019)This dissertation examines the evolution of UK life insurance arrangements by investigating how the ways in which life insurers evaluate the economic worth of insurance contracts have changed since the early 1970s. It draws ... -
Towards a less reductive ethos of reality: judging responsibility-for-complicity
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)One of the main challenges facing contemporary political theory is how humans should respond to their complicity in systemic injustice and political oppression, so as to facilitate positive social transformation. The ... -
Azadi activists abroad: transnational activism in the New Kashmiri Freedom Movement
(The University of Edinburgh, 2019-11-25)The Kashmir movement for azadi, or freedom, from India is rooted in pre-Partition mobilisation, but has evolved over time. With the end to the violent resistance throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, a predominately ...
