Research
Our primary focus is on developing and supporting research of high quality across the range of our three themes and utilizing an appropriate range of research methods. Within the continuum of research that stretches across this substantive and methodological range we recognize a number of clusters of distinctive research strength which bring together significant numbers of researchers. These clusters relate to:
- Analytical Political Theory,
- Comparative Public Policy,
- Electoral Politics,
- Global Political Economy, and
- Poststructuralism and Critical Thought.
While these clusters represent the largest concentrations of research excellence, there are other areas in which high quality research is underway including: European Politics, East Asian Politics, Political History, Historical Materialism, the Politics of Gender, and the Politics of War and Terrorism.
Some research clusters, and some elements of research within the ‘continuum’, relate to the work of broader research groups that cross disciplinary and School boundaries at Manchester. For example, there are connections between the research cluster on Comparative Public Policy and the Institute of Political and Economic Governance (IPEG), and between the research cluster on Electoral Politics and the Democracy, Citizenship and Elections Research Network (DCERN), just as there are links between researchers in Politics and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in European Studies (JMCE), the Centre for Chinese Studies (CCS), the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) and other bodies.
Politics at Manchester performed very well in the most recent (2008) Research Assessment Exercise. According to official figures 80% of Politics' research activity is "world-leading", "internationally-excellent" or "internationally-recognized". This result places Politics at Manchester in 4th place among the UK's Politics departments in terms of Research Power.