POLIS Research Seminar Series online: looking back at Spring 2021
We invite you to catch up on our Spring term recordings, featuring research on the gentrification of green protest, utility company corruption, videogaming-extremism links and Northern party politics.
Chantal Thomson-Sullivet, a Postgraduate Research Student, examined German Green Party member activism within the context of the Party’s growing electoral success and professionalisation. Based on nine months’ ethnographic fieldwork in Berlin, Kiel and Stuttgart, Chantal’s paper introduces us to how the German Green Party’s involvement in protest movements could illustrate a gentrification of protest. Read the full abstract and watch the seminar recording on the Centre for Democratic Engagement website: “Green Party Member Activism in 2018/2019 – the gentrification of protest”.
Ruth Bookbinder, also a Postgraduate Research Student, presented research on Eskom, South Africa’s national electricity company. Ruth’s paper examines how professional practices enable predatory rent-seeking, focusing in particular on the role of contract-managing employees and the moral economy and norms in which they operate. Find out more and watch the full recording on the Centre for Global Development website: “Contextualising Crisis at Eskom”.
Dr Nick Robinson, Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies, shared observations on the use of videogaming technology by mainstream military and by extremist and terrorist groups. Dr Robinson, with Joe Whittaker (Swansea University), recently published a paper in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism examining the existing literature on the connection between violent extremism, terrorism and videogames. Watch the seminar recording on the Centre for Global Security Studies website [trigger warning: this recording contains strong language and depictions of violence]: “Playing for Hate? Extremism, Terrorism and Videogames”.
Ryan Swift, Postgraduate Research Student, explored the emerging party politics of Northernness. Ryan’s paper demonstrates the role of the North of England as an issue of contestation within political debate with interesting implications for the North in policy terms and in inter-party and intra-party relations going forward. Read the full abstract and watch the seminar recording on the Centre for Democratic Engagement website: “The Party Politics of Northernness”.
This year’s series wrapped up in May with a paper by Dr Markus Fraundorfer, Lecturer in Global Governance, on the serious public health challenges posed by Neglected Tropical Infectious Diseases (NTIDs) in South America. Dr Fraundorfer’s research is part of a larger project investigating ‘drivers and barriers’ in South American Policy Regionalism. Find out more and watch the seminar recording on the Centre for Global Development website: “Tackling Neglected Tropical Infectious Diseases in South America: The Role of Extra-Regional Global Health Governance Actors”.
If you missed out on last semester’s seminars, you can still watch our Autumn term seminar recordings.
