Research Clusters
Policy and Political Developments in Key European States
(Lead researchers: Cole, Cumming, Donovan, Dorey, Dyson, Furlong, Palmer, Parsons, Wyn Jones)
This research cluster cuts across most of the research projects below. Cole, Cumming and Parsons work on France: Dyson and Palmer work on Germany; Donovan and Furlong work on Italy; and Dorey and Wyn Jones work on the UK.
Comparative European Local and Regional Governance
(Lead researchers: Cole, Palmer, Wyn Jones)
This research cluster has attracted several major ESRC grants, including two under the Devolution Programme, one comparing devolution and decentralization in Wales and Brittany and the other focusing on voting behaviour and public attitudes in Wales (both rated ‘outstanding’). ESRC grants have – and are – supporting further research into patterns of partisan choice post-devolution, as well as convergence/divergence in public policies. Further research funding has been provided by the Leverhulme Trust, as well as large grants from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (on international lessons from local and regional governance) and from the Swedish government. EGIPP organized two ESRC conferences in Cardiff around this work. Cole sits on the executive committee of the Paris-based Groupement de recherches sur l’Administration locales en Europe (GRALE), including the French interior ministry and the CNRS as institutional partners. Wyn Jones is also involved in the ‘Citizenship after the Nation State’ project, funded in party by the ESF as well as other partners including the Welsh Assembly Government, which collects and analyses data at the regional level across western Europe involving research teams in Scotland, Germany, Spain, Austria and France. Dowling works on identity formation and governance in Catalonia, on which he has a forthcoming book. Recent key books include: Beyond Devolution and Decentralization (MUP); Sub-national Democracy in the European Union (OUP); Sub-national Government in France (Palgrave), and Palmer’s Devolution, Asymmetry and Europe: Multi-level Governance in the UK (Peter Lang 2008). Its members are active in the Wales Governance Centre.
Europeanization of Governance and Public Policies
(Lead researchers: Dyson, Cole, Furlong, Parsons)
This research cluster attracted funding for research on France and Germany from ESRC, The British Academy and STICERT-LSE to support conferences and workshops at The British Academy (Dyson, with Goetz), as well as a British Academy large research grant (Cole). The Germany project led to a much-cited volume published as Proceedings of the British Academy Vol. 119/OUP – Germany, Europe and the Politics of Constraint. It also led to an edited volume on the Politics of Economic Reform in Germany: Global, Rhineland or Hybrid Capitalism? The latter was funded by the Anglo-German Foundation and by DAAD. Parsons has worked on the Europeanization of social policy and of wages and collective bargaining with Pochet (OSE, Brussels), whilst Cole has published on Europeanization of France and Furlong on Europeanization of Italy. Dyson continues to work on the Europeanization of economic policies across Europe and different varieties of capitalism.
European-level and Comparative Economic Governance and Policies
(Lead researchers: Dyson, Furlong, Parsons)
This research cluster was supported by British Academy and Nuffield Foundation grants, as well as the Anglo-German Foundation and DAAD, leading to major international conferences and workshops. Dyson has led two EU Framework 6 activities: a research project on impacts of EMU on expert elites (INTUNE), and a network of excellence (EU CONSENT) on EMU and EU enlargement. Following the first systematic study of the euro from the perspective of Europeanization in European States and the Euro, Dyson’s research focus shifted to east central Europe and euro entry, with a major edited OUP book (2006) based on a British Academy research workshop and DAAD research funding. Recent books include Central Banking in the Age of the Euro (with Martin Marcussen, Copenhagen University) and The Euro At 10, both with OUP. In the latter volume Furlong co-authored chapter on Italy and Parsons on wages and collective bargaining. Both these collaborative projects were funded by the British Academy and by EU-CONSENT. Dyson’s big 2-volume research project is published in 2010 (with Lucia Quaglia, Sussex) as European Economic Governance and Policies: Commentary on Key Documents (OUP), funded under the EU-INTUNE integrated research project. His latest project deals with creditor and debtor states in the context of intra-European imbalances and systemic risks.
Parsons’ research on comparative governance of labour markets attracted successive EU funding for cross-national research on employment policies and led to the publication of an edited volume (with Yuan Zhigang, Fudan University, Shanghai) on Economic Globalisation and Employment Policy. Parsons has also collaborated with Pochet (OSE, Brussels) on research on differentiated integration in EU social policies and on wages and collective bargaining. He is currently working an international research project investigating the political strategies of trade union and senior organizations relating to social security and pension politics, led by Professor Joe Cordes from the George Washington University, USA, and Dr Christian Toft, Kassel University, Germany.
European Political Parties
(Lead researchers: Donovan, Dorey, Wyn Jones)
Donovan has worked on the transformation of the Italian party system during the 1990s. He is particularly interested in party system theory and co-edited a special issue of Modern Italy (2008) on ‘The Centre in Italian Politics’. His current research is focused on a book examining Italy’s parties from the perspectives of ideology, organization, electoral mobilization, and policy impact. It emphasises the centrality of party elites and their alliance strategies.
Dorey’s work focuses on the two main UK parties. Recent books include The Labour Party and Constitutional Reform, Palgrave 2008; British Conservatism: The Politics and Philosophy of Inequality, Taurus 2010; and (with Denham and Garnett) The Conservative Party, 1990-2010: From Crisis to Coalition, Palgrave 2011. He has also published The Labour Governments 1964-70, Routledge.
Wyn Jones published the first Volume of a study of Plaid Cymru in 2007 titled Rhoi Cymru'n Gyntaf (Putting Wales First) which was long-listed for the Welsh book of the year award. Volume Two, as well as an English translation, isare in preparation.
Europe and the Wider World
(Lead researchers: Cumming, Egede, Marsh)
This cluster overlaps with work in Political Theory (Boucher, Pateman and Sutch) and Histories, Memories and Fictions (Nuselovici, Prout and Topping).
Cumming has just completed a three-year research project (2007-2010) funded by a British Academy large research grant and focusing on European Foreign and Security Policy and, more specifically, France and Britain in Africa since Saint-Malo. Together with Professor Tony Chafer (Portsmouth University), he hosted research seminars at Chatham House (June 2010), Cardiff University (October 2009) and Portsmouth University (July 2008). A final presentation will be made to the prestigious French foreign policy think tank, the Institut français des relations internationals, in November 2010.
Cumming advised the FCO Strategy Unit on UK policy towards West Africa and has produced single- and joint-authored articles on Anglo-French cooperation in Africa, UK-French security collaboration, and Anglo-French cooperation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is currently completing, with Professor Chafer, an edited book entitled From Rivalry to Partnership: New Approaches to the Challenges of Africa (Ashgate 2011).
Cumming has also recently advised the European Commission on civil society-building in Cameroon. He drew upon the findings of his monograph French NGOs in the Global Era, Palgrave 2009 - the groundwork for which was funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship- as well as upon his earlier research into French government-NGO capacity-building programmes and into French and British development assistance to Africa, Aid to Africa (Ashgate).
Egede is a new appointment who is researching the use of international law as regulative norms in relations between Africa and the EU, in relation to human rights and the law of the sea.
Marsh's research is located within a post-World War Two transatlantic context, with emphasis on international security, American foreign policy, Anglo-American relations and European Union external relations. His research on Cold War Anglo-American relations in Iran was supported by grants from the British Academy and from the Harry S Truman library. It led to a monograph Anglo-American Relations and Cold War Oil (Palgrave, 2003) and a number of journal articles showing the intricacies of Anglo-American competitive cooperation in protecting Western interests in Iran and the wider Middle East. In 2007 Marsh was invited speaker at a specialist workshop in Houston, USA, on international energy. In 2009 he published research on the importance of changes in the structures and ownership of international energy to contemporary US handling of Iran's nuclear programme.
Past, Present and Future Challenges to Public Policy
(Lead researchers: Compston, Dyson, Parsons, Thornton)
Research focuses on climate change; the financial and economic crisis; labour-market change; and welfare policy change.
Compston's current research project aims to identify political strategies that will enable governments to do more to limit emissions whilst avoiding significant political damage. Recent publications include Turning Down the Heat (ed. with Ian Bailey, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) which analyses political strategy and climate policy in affluent democracies; and Climate Change and Political Strategy (ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) which applies different theoretical perspectives to the problem of identifying better political strategies. The results are summarised in 'The Politics of Climate Policy: Strategic Options for National Governments', Political Quarterly 18(1), 2010.
Dyson's recent work has been concerned with the nature and implications of the global financial and economic crisis, especially for the EU and for the Euro Area and their member states. He is currently writing a book on Creditor-Debtor State Diplomacy: 'Saints' and 'Sinners' in European History and Integration. The implications of the crisis feature prominently in the 2-volume OUP project (see above, with Quaglia). The results of ongoing work are summarized in two journal articles in 2010: 'Was für eine Krise? Welche Krise? Wessen Krise?' Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, October, and 'Norman's Lament', New Political Economy, December.
Dyson has also been researching the role of differentiated integration in responding to policy challenges, asking to what extent, how and why the 'deepening' and the 'widening' of the EU generates differentiated forms of integration. Dyson led up a large international collaboration funded by the British Academy, published as Which Europe? The Politics of Differentiated Integration (ed. with Angelos Sepos, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). It includes theoretical contributions on the temporal, spatial and functional dimensions of differentiation.
Parsons has been investigating the effects of the European single market and EU enlargement on labour markets and employment. He has written on the consequences of the use of posted workers on national industrial relations systems and labour markets, including a briefing paper for the European Parliament. As well as this, his current focus of research activity is on 'bossnappings' in France as a reaction to the global economic and financial crisis.
Thornton works on the impacts of the UK Labour Party on Whitehall and welfare policies. He has recently published Richard Crossman and the Welfare State, Taurus 2009, and Demolishing Whitehall: Harold Wilson, Leslie Martin and the Architecture of White Heat, Ashgate 2011.
