Alan Finlayson is a British political theorist and political scientist

Political science

Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

. Currently a reader

Reader (academic rank)

The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...

 in the Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University

Swansea University

Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...

, 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 Open Democracy. He has written widely-read articles on UK Uncut

UK Uncut

UK Uncut is a United Kingdom-based protest group established in October 2010 to protest against tax avoidance in the UK and to raise awareness about cuts to public services. Various sources have described the group as left-wing in its political orientation...

 and on the phenomenon of Blue Labour

Blue Labour

Blue Labour is an influential political tendency in the British Labour Party that was "effectively disbanded" in July 2011 following remarks about immigration by Maurice Glasman, though political commentators argue that its ideas still have strong influence with the Labour leadership...

.

Rhetorical Political Analysis

Finlayson is a noted advocate of the development of Rhetorical Political Analysis within British Political Studies. 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. He is responsible for the website British Political Speech which archives political speeches and promotes the study of political oratory in the UK.

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

References

External links

Swansea University Department of Political and Cultural Studies

Open Democracy