Forging a Discipline: A Critical Assessment of Oxford's Development of the Study of Politics and International Relations in Comparative Perspective
Christopher Hood, Desmond King, and Gillian Peele
Abstract
This book analyses the growth of the academic discipline of politics and international relations at Oxford University over the last century. The Oxford story of teaching and research in politics provides one case study of the maturation and professionalization of social science disciplines that occurred in the world’s leading universities during that time. Oxford is a critical case because several aspects of its organization seem, at first glance, to militate against disciplinary development. Its institutional structure, in which colleges enjoyed autonomy from the central university until rece ... More
This book analyses the growth of the academic discipline of politics and international relations at Oxford University over the last century. The Oxford story of teaching and research in politics provides one case study of the maturation and professionalization of social science disciplines that occurred in the world’s leading universities during that time. Oxford is a critical case because several aspects of its organization seem, at first glance, to militate against disciplinary development. Its institutional structure, in which colleges enjoyed autonomy from the central university until recently, its proximity to the practice of government and politics, and its emphasis on tutorial-based undergraduate teaching all distinguish Oxford’s approach to politics from its competitors. The chapters examine the founding of the university’s first dedicated position in political science, the study of the British Constitution and the development of electoral studies, the contrasting ways in which international relations and war studies emerged in the curriculum, the commitment to political theory and area studies, and the distinctive role of Nuffield and St Antony’s, Oxford’s two social science graduate colleges. What emerges is the surprising capacity of Oxford’s politics teachers and researchers to take a lead in such core subjects as political theory, the study of comparative politics, order in international relations, and the scientific study of elections.
Keywords:
University of Oxford,
politics,
international relations,
Nuffield College,
St Antony’s College,
comparative politics
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199682218 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199682218.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Christopher Hood, editor
Gladstone Professor of Government, All Souls College, University of Oxford
Desmond King, editor
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of American Government, Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Gillian Peele, editor
Fellow and Tutor in Politics, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford
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