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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Lithium overdose: market practices and symptomatology of lithium trade in Latin America
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-03-16)This thesis examines lithium supply and trade in the Atacama Desert in Chile from stances of social studies of markets. It focuses on the contracts held between mining companies and the Chilean State that establish terms ... -
Expectations and expertise in artificial intelligence: specialist views and historical perspectives on conceptualisation, promise, and funding
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-07-13)Artificial intelligence’s (AI) distinctiveness as a technoscientific field that imitates the ability to think went through a resurgence of interest post-2010, attracting a flood of scientific and popular expectations as ... -
Understanding technological capabilities in the Kenyan textile and apparel sector: a patchwork market of tailors, fashion designers, and stylists
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-03-13)This research project examines the extent to which the entrepreneurs in the Kenyan cities of Mombasa and Nairobi engage with the global textile and apparel value chain in order to accumulate the technological capabilities ... -
Taking a ‘leap of faith’ to migrate: exploring UK approaches to anti-human trafficking
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-02-22)Human trafficking is an international phenomenon that has been given more attention by governments, law enforcement, and NGOs as the world has continued to globalise. As a result, numerous combative human trafficking ... -
Navigating seas, smoke, and social relations: making a living in a Sierra Leonean fishing town
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-27)This thesis explores maritime livelihoods in the fishing town of Tombo, in Sierra Leone’s Western Province. With global attention on the decreasing fish stocks in the Gulf of Guinea, and national and international policies ... -
Inclusion de-moderation hypothesis: Egyptian secularists in democratization
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-24)Democratization could lead to de-moderation. This is the proposed argument of this thesis which studies the impact of political openings on secularist forces in Egypt between 1970 and 2013, a timeframe which crosses ... -
Forever home? The complexity of adoption breakdown in Scotland
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-19)Adoption is widely considered to be the best option for children who are unable to live with their birth families. But what happens when adoptions breakdown? This thesis explores adoptions for 122 Scottish children who ... -
Discursive construction of higher education policies in Greece during the financial crisis (2011-2014): a critical discourse analysis of the debate around the policy-making of the 4009/2011 framework act
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-17)During the past decade Greece has been experiencing a tremendous fiscal crisis. The recession ensued by the crisis along with the adopted austerity measures have dealt a severe blow not only to the basic, daily operations ... -
Toxicities, illegalities and protest: a landscape of coal in South India
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-13)This thesis focuses on the construction and operation of state-owned coal-fired thermal power plants in Ennore, a coastal peninsular suburb located to the north of Chennai (Tamil Nadu, India). At the time of my research, ... -
Sovereign debt and economic policy: a relational sociology of debt in the United Kingdom, 1960s–1980s
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-01-12)This thesis studies how what I call relational fiscal practices shape government elites' (and non-government actors') understandings of economic policy options. It examines how symbolic fiscal practices, classification ... -
Contested environmental futures: rankings, forecasts and indicators as sociotechnical endeavours
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-10)In a world where numbers and science are often taken as the voice of truth and reason, Quantitative Devices (QDs) represent the epitome of policy driven by facts rather than hunches. Despite the scholarly interest in ... -
Going global: a contrast ethnography of new cosmopolitan elites and their world schools, in Beijing and New York City
(The University of Edinburgh, 2023-01-09)World Schools are examples of an emergent category of elite schooling guided by the pursuit of creating global citizens as a key educational aim. They provide a cosmopolitan, globally minded education. This new form of ... -
Fractals of a mountain: human-environment relations in the Peruvian Andes
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-22)This thesis is about the personhood of mountains in the southern Peruvian Andes and the ways in which Quechua-speaking people called Runakuna attempt to enter into reciprocal yet asymmetric exchange relations with them. ... -
Bound to lead? China's role in climate change governance between perception, conception, and behaviour
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-20)The puzzle this thesis investigates is the narrative of China as an obstructor to climate change mitigation around 2009, especially at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), and as a climate leader around the 2015 ... -
Exploring experiences of children who migrate to Delhi: understanding gender and space
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-19)This study explored the experiences of migrant street children in Delhi, India, including the reasons for their migration, their lives on the streets, and their exit from the streets, as well as the impact of gender and ... -
Cross-border transport corridors and developmental regionalism in Africa: experiences from West Africa and the Horn
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-13)This thesis aims to improve our understanding of the factors that have shaped the outcomes of regional integration initiatives in Africa. The earlier theories of regional integration have often been criticized for their ... -
Dog person: nature–cultures of more-than-human kinship in Edinburgh and on the internet
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-12-08)This dissertation is an ethnographic bricolage of portraitures of dogs and their humans in Edinburgh and on the internet. Through stories of dogs and dog people before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it explores the ... -
Looking after grandchildren: the motivation, pattern, and the impact of intergenerational engagements on grandparents in rural China
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-22)Across the world, grandparents are increasingly becoming the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. China is no exception. The rapid growth of an ageing population, large scale rural–urban internal labour migration, ... -
Pro Deo et Patria: unfolding the hybrid governance and political participation of religious institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-22)The nexus between Religion and Politics has shifted in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2016—a year that marked the end of Joseph Kabila’s constitutional two-term limit. This interdisciplinary thesis unfolds ... -
New adaptation or the same old script? Political elites' national role conceptions and domestic role contestation in the UK and Germany during the European 'migrant crisis'
(The University of Edinburgh, 2022-11-17)The European ‘migration crisis’ in 2015-16 highlighted the stark variation in national policy responses to forced migration among European Union (EU) member states and engagement in responsibility-sharing arrangements. ...
