Alan Finlayson

Alan FInlayson is a British political theorist and political scientist, and a Reader in The Department of Political and Cultural Studies at Swansea University . 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 and on the phenomenon of Blue Labour.

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 Groupof 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

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