Political science in motion

What are the main trends in contemporary political science research? This book examines recent developments in political science research. What are the new influences to which the discipline opens itself up? Is political science research converging towards a single model or splitting into different streams? What are the new challenges at the beginning of the 21st century? This collection of essays discusses three interrelated topics: the relationship between political science and the problems of politics, the relationship between political science and other fields of research, and the transformation of the profession. EXTRACT The past, the present and the future of political science have always been a topic of inquiry for political scientists. This collection of essays is not the first to explore the evolution of the discipline. Since its inception, scholars of politics of all persuasions have (re)produced the story of the field as a discipline and as a profession (Farr et al. 1990: 598; Blondiaux 1997: 10; Gunnell 2002: 339; Dryzek 2002; 2006). They have explored the discipline’s relation with its social and political environment, they have questioned its epistemological and ontological specificities, and more recently they have documented its professional standards, codes, and practices. As the discipline expands in different parts of the world, the attention devoted to its evolution and development has increased. Political science is a recognized object of study and “state of the discipline” studies are flourishing. This book seeks to contribute to these recent debates about the evolution of the discipline by exploring three interrelated themes, namely (1) the discipline’s co-evolution with politics, (2) its changing relations with sister disciplines, (3) and the transformation of its practices for knowledge production and dissemination. We argue in this volume that these topics are fundamental, as they directly addres