I have this disparate set of things I’m calling ‘doing politics’. I’ve become fascinated by what politics and policy making look like in practice, on the ground, as a set of human actions and interactions. What do we actually do in order to do politics, make policy? What sorts of activity or do they comprise? People seem to go to demonstrations and meetings of various kinds, usually to talk, though they also write and refer to papers, reports and so on. I’m trying to figure how and why these things work in the way they do, and what holds them together.
It’s an idea I set out in my inaugural and have being trying to develop ever since. It’s informed by different research projects, but it’s been worked out in teaching as much as anything else, both in Edinburgh and elsewhere. I’ve finally got it down in manageable form as a paper, and now really want to make it work as a book.