Alan Finlayson

For the South African cricketer, see Alan Finlayson (cricketer).
Alan Finlayson
Main interests
 Political science
Principal ideas
 Rhetorical political analysis

Alan Finlayson is a British political theorist and political scientist. He is Professor of Political and Social Theory at The University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, having previously taught in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University, and the Department of Politics and International Relations at Queen's University Belfast. He is a leading advocate of rhetorical political analysis and of its importance for the study of British politics.

Academic research

Alan Finlayson has published a number of books on both British politics and political theory, including Making Sense of New Labour, Contemporary Political Theory: A Reader and Guide and Democracy and Pluralism. He also writes articles on British politics from a left-wing perspective for The Guardian and openDemocracy.[1][2] He has written widely read articles on UK Uncut[3] and on the phenomenon of Blue Labour.[4]

Rhetorical Political Analysis

Finlayson is a noted advocate of the development of Rhetorical Political Analysis within British Political Studies.[5] He promotes the close study of political speech and argument on the grounds that this is a way of understanding the history and development of political ideologies.[6] He is responsible for the website British Political Speech which archives political speeches and promotes the study of political oratory in the UK.[7]

Responsibilities

Finlayson was convenor of the Post-Structuralism and Radical Politics specialist group of the Political Studies Association from 1999-2009. He is currently Treasurer of the Rhetoric and Politics Specialist Group of the PSA and a member of the Rhetoric Society of America's Internationalization Task Force. He is also a member of the management committee of the left-wing pressure group Compass and a Trustee of the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust.[8]

Selected bibliography

Media journal articles

Academic journal articles

References

  1. ↑ Profile at Guardian.co.uk
  2. ↑ Open Democracy profile.
  3. ↑ Finlayson, Alan (31 January 2011). "The philosophical significance of UKUncut". Open Democracy | Our Kingdom. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Finlayson, Alan (27 May 2011). "Should the left go Blue? Making sense of Maurice Glasman". Open Democracy | Our Kingdom. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Finlayson, Alan (November 2007). "From beliefs to arguments: interpretive methodology and rhetorical political analysis". The British Journal of Politics & International Relations (Wiley Online) 9 (4): 545–563. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856X.2007.00269.x.
  6. ↑ Glynos, Jason; Howarth, David; Norval, Aletta; Speed, Ewen (August 2009). Discourse analysis: varieties and methods (NCRM/014). Southampton, UK: NCRM: National Centre for Research Methods funded by: ESRC - Economic & Social Research Council. pp. 14–16. Pdf of paper.
  7. ↑ "About". British Political Speech. Retrieved 12 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Trustees". Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust. Retrieved 12 August 2014.

External links