Forging a Discipline: A Critical Assessment of Oxford's Development of the Study of Politics and International Relations in Comparative Perspective

Forging a Discipline analyses the growth of the academic discipline of politics and international relations at Oxford University over the last hundred years. This century marked the maturation and professionalization of social science disciplines such as political science, economics, and sociology in the world's leading universities. The Oxford story of teaching and research in politics provides one case study of this transformation, and the contributors aim to use its specifics better to understand this general process. In their introductory and concluding chapters the Editors argue that Oxford is a critical case to consider because several aspects of the university and its organization seem, at first glance, to militate against disciplinary development and growth. Oxford's institutional structure in which colleges enjoyed autonomy from the central university until quite recently, its proximity to the practice of government and politics through the supply of a steady stream of senior administrators, politicians and prime ministers, and its emphasis on undergraduate teaching through intensive small group tutorials all distinguish the development of teaching and research on politics in the university from such competitors as Manchester or the LSE as explained in one of the contributions. These themes inform the book's chapters in which the contributors examine the founding of the first dedicated position in political science in the university, the study of the British Constitution and the development of electoral studies, the introduction and consolidation of international relations into the Oxford social science curriculum in contrast to the way in which war studies emerged, the commitment to research and teaching in political theory, the careful harvesting of area studies, particularly of Latin America and Eastern Europe including Russia, and the distinctive role of Oxford's two social science graduate colleges, Nuffield and St Antony's, in fostering a graduate programme of study and research. What emerges from these historically researched and analytical accounts is the surprising capacity of members of the politics discipline at Oxford to forge a leading place for their scholarly perspectives and research in such core parts of the discipline as political theory, the study of comparative politics as a subject rather than as an area, ideas about order in international relations and the scientific study of elections in Britain and comparatively. That these achievements occurred in a university lacking the formal system of hierarchy and, until the last decade, departmentalization makes this volume a valuable addition to studies of the professionalization of social science research and teaching in modern universities.

Table of Contents:
List of Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements Part I: Setting the Scene 1: Christopher Hood, Desmond King, and Gillian Peele: Introduction Part II: Origins and Overview: The Academic Study of Politics in Oxford and Elsewhere 2: Rodney Barker: A Tale of Three Cities: the Early Years of Political Science in Oxford, London and Manchester 3: Simon J. D. Green: Warden Anson, All Souls College and the Curious Creation of the Gladstone Chair of Political Theory and Institutions at Oxford, c. 1908-1912. 4: Laurence Whitehead: The Role of Specialist Graduate Colleges in Disciplinary Development 5: Alan Ryan: Paradigms Lost: How Oxford Escaped the Paradigm Wars of the 1960s and 70s. 6: Robert E. Goodin: Political Science and Institution Building: Oxford in Comparative Perspective. Part III: Developments: What it led to, in Disciplines and Discoveries 7: John Curtice: Political Science and Institution Building: Oxford in Comparative Perspective. 8: Iain McLean: Constitutionalism since Dicey 9: David Miller: Political Theory, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences: Five Chichele Professors 10: Martin Ceadel: The Academic Normalization of International Relations at Oxford, 1920-2012: Structures Transcended 11: Hew Strachan: The Study of War at Oxford 1909-2009 12: Jack Hayward: Beyond Zanzibar: The Road to Comparative Inductive Institutionalism 13: Archie Brown and Stephen Whitefield: The Study of Communist and post-Communist Politics Part IV: An Assessment 14: Christopher Hood, Desmond King, and Gillian Peele: Conclusion

About the Author :
Christopher Hood, FBA is Gladstone Professor of Government at the University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford Desmond King, FBA is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of American Government at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford Gillian Peele, FRHistS is University Lecturer in Politics at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Review :
This is a very readable and well-edited book that provides a comprehensive and sometimes entertaining account of politics at Oxford. It represents an important contribution to the small but growing literature on the history of political science in Britain. This book analyses the growth of the academic discipline of politics and international relations at Oxford University over the last 100 years ... a very readable and well-edited book that provides a comprehensive and sometimes entertaining account of politics at Oxford. It represents an important contribution to the small but growing literature on the history of political science in Britain. this is an important volume which should be read by those who are interested in the development of political studies in the UK. It will also appeal to those who are interested in the development of higher education in general and the University of Oxford in particular.