The research brought together within the centre takes place under three general strands:

• Theoretical work on the conceptualisation of culture and politics and their inter-relationships. Here work is concerned, firstly, with the history of the present of political thought, with uncovering and bringing together theories of the political and applying them to pressing questions about contemporary regimes in the era of global politics. The second concern is with the concept of culture and how we should conceive of culture in relation to politics (as unfolding traditions, as disjunctures and flows, as multiple and contradictory); the methodological challenges of researching ‘cultural politics’ and the impact this has on epistemologies and ethics.
• Analytical work examining specific forms or moments of cultural-political activity.  Analysis of cultural and political forms – including empirical research – is shaped by but also stimulates theoretical reflection. The Centre is involved in research into specific cultural artifacts (for instance, television programmes, theatre, rhetoric, websites) and also cultural formations and processes such as national identities and identifications and the deployment of cultural resources by political forces and movements. Centre researchers take a particular interest in the impact of changing means of communicating on the forms taken by political communication and rhetoric, the aesthetic and stylistic aspects of political actions and actors and the politics of specific cultural and artistic forms.
• Policy work relating to the assessment and interpretation of cultural policies as well as recommendations. A third part of our work concerns the explanation and understanding as well as the evaluation of government policies. The concern here is, firstly, with those polices specifically related to cultural production such as the regulation of broadcasting, investment in cultural creativity and the stimulation of provision. We are particularly interested in the relationship between such policies and the global challenges facing smaller regions and nations, such as Wales. A second concern is with the broader way in which polices affect, shape and reshape the culture of everyday life. For instance, educational and welfare policies - by acting directly on the body and mind of individuals - can be understood as attempts to re-engineer cultural dispositions,  lifestyles and aspirations. Here the concerns of the centre, in theoretical elaboration, empirical study and policy analysis converge.

Staff involved with the Centre are developing research related to all three strands and are developing connections with researchers and practitioners involved in these areas. 

Current Research Projects

Protest Politics and Civil Society

Professor Axtmann is collaborating with colleagues at the universities of Zurich, Halle and Heidelberg on research concerned with the development and change of protest movements across Europe since 1945. A conference Shaping Europe in a Globalized World? Protest Movements and the Rise of a Transnational Civil Society will take place at Zurich from June 23-26, 2009. 

The Humanities as a Source for Creativity and Innovation

Dr. Mark Evans is collaborating with colleagues from the University of Primorska, Slovenia and Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany as well as other institutions in Europe on the development of research looking at the role of the humanities in the development of civil society. 

How the Leader Speaks: British Political Rhetoric and Argumentation

This project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, is overseen by co-director of the Centre Dr. Alan Finlayson who is working alongside Judi Atkins. It examines the development and change of British political rhetoric through a systematic study of the speeches party leaders have delivered to their party conferences since 1895. The speeches will also be made available online for other researchers. The project is intended as a contribution to our understanding of how changing media forms have affected political communication, and to the theory and analysis of political speech and performances generally.

Online Remembrance: Websites, Memorialisation and Political Violence.

This project, led by Lee Jarvis, is concerned with website memorials established to commemorate and memorialize victims of terrorist attacks. The research looks at the ways in which identity, community and temporality are constituted through these sites and, more broadly, at the interaction of contemporary digital technologies with the longer history of politicized practices of memorialisation. 

Cultures and Subjects of Financialisation

Dr. Claes Belfrage, Dr. David Berry, Dr. Alan Finlayson and Dr. Nuria Lorenzo-Dus are collaborating on research looking at the spread of a culture of finanicalisation in the UK. The project combines the analysis of government policies on savings, assets, financial literacy and inclusion, study of how banks have promoted and sold accounts, pensions, mortgages and the analysis of print and broadcast media coverage of finance. The unifying focus of the project is the development of the ‘investor subject’ and the spread of a culture oriented towards welcoming the individualization of risk and of openness to investment. The project will ask how has this culture been created and how has it been affected by the collapse of the financial sector? 

Raymond Williams and the Politics of Culture

Raymond Williams is a foundational figure for those interested in studying the relationship of culture and politics. The archive of Williams’ personal papers is now housed in the library in Swansea University. Alan Finlayson, in collaboration with colleagues in the School of Arts, is developing projects that will encourage the re-reading of Williams and the reassessment of his contribution to political theory and to the appreciation of the history of culture and politics as well as its contemporary analysis.