🙏 Humility for being entrusted with the task of steering such a precious ship. Gratitude for such a stellar team that runs JEPP as if they had done nothing else before. Asya, @danjdevine.bsky.social, Martin, @twinzen.bsky.social, @vanghel.bsky.social, and @koblischke.bsky.social: you truly rock 🕺

What role did/does/could/should faith play in shaping our national identities? With Prof Linda Woodhead and great panel. Book here👇

Really fascinating piece of survey research by @chrisclaassen.bsky.social and @danjdevine.bsky.social. Conclusion: "So for political parties, openly criticising empire is not a winning strategy. It yields only minimal gains on the left while antagonising and mobilising voters on the right."

New paper out w/ @tomwgvdmeer.bsky.social & @hakhverdian.bsky.social in @epsrjournal.bsky.social. We show that political trust dynamics matter for electoral behavior. While stable and variable distrusters behave similarly, declining trust boosts both abstention and anti-establishment voting. 🧵

Also a useful reminder that ~half the country don't know who Zack Polanski is, or at least enough to know whether they like him. There's a good chance that many expressing some opinion are also making it up.

The latest in the deluge of evidence that Labour are not only barking up the wrong tree but on the entirely wrong planet.

@danjdevine.bsky.social's turn in our series: 🐈 The tree is up, marking the final few weeks of the year. We have recently got a new, much younger, and more active cat, and so we suspect it won’t be the only time we have to put the tree up (the older one is fine, just past her tree-climbing days) 🧵

It's out!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Big thank you to my coauthors @small-schulz.bsky.social and @lorenzspreen.bsky.social, and to all participants who discussed 20 political issues over 4 weeks in 6 subreddit, 3 experimental conditions and let us observe.

I'm also thinking about all of those student halls and houses that have wiped non-student housing, and the impact on the areas around them when they remain empty. Obviously an opportunity to repurpose and reduce rents but that seems a less likely outcome

Neither of these PMs will be in power in 5 years and they only have themselves to blame. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Next try after my initial flight got cancelled due to the storm yesterday: Very much looking forward to presenting "Parties under Pressure" @sotonpolitics.bsky.social today (weather and flights permitting, wish me luck!). Thanks so much, @danjdevine.bsky.social, for having me! tinyurl.com/bp7tpr4a

What skill did you master that you will never, ever use again? 'Master' is too far, but I spent a _lot_ of effort on getting to a pretty decent standard (~ A Level) of Icelandic that has turned out to have fairly limited usage

The international conference “Political Trust: A Challenge for Democracies”, hosted by @cevipof.bsky.social in Sciences Po is now underway! Exciting discussions ahead on the future of democratic trust. #PoliticalTrust #Democracy

It was a pleasure to attend this workshop @cevipof.bsky.social and see lots of familiar and new faces. And somehow my first trip to Paris!

1/ Does growing up poor always lead to political apathy? Very happy to share my first paper published (open access) in @electoralstudies.bsky.social, where I show that parents' influence mitigates the poverty gap in participation, while economic mobility does not. 🔗 shorturl.at/p5Bac

Join us! Die Abteilung für Innenpolitik & Politische Soziologie sucht zum 01.04. eine*n neue*n Kollegin*en. Wir bieten: volle Promotionsstelle (EG13) für drei Jahre (Verlängerung um 3 Jahre möglich), flexible Arbeitszeitregelungen, kollegiales & forschungsstarkes Team. Mehr Informationen hier👇

I popped up briefly on @itvnews.bsky.social News at Ten last night in relation to the "Budget Shenanigans" and public trust (and people being, more importantly, worried about their finances): youtu.be/-56hNi57O94?...

Lower-income people are less likely to vote than higher-income people, across racial groups - and that gap has been growing. That’s a real problem for the future of US democracy. It’s not apathy or ignorance - for many, it’s a sense that politics is not for or about them. In a report out in Jan +

On the budget. Do people, generally, think tax/spend is too high or too low? Up until July 2024, people were mixed, and by a margin probably wanted higher tax/spend. Suddenly, that flipped. After Labour won the election. This is of course driven by a huge flip amongst Conservatives.

🚨New article🚨 What do people want from political leaders in times of crisis, and are those preferences gendered? Interested? Then check out our new Electoral Studies paper @jess-smith.bsky.social @viktorv.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social @hannahbunting.bsky.social @carolineleicht.bsky.social

It’s all about ‘trust’ in our politicians and how journalists, our disinterested tribunes, can undermine it.

Not a drill - there's a Britain-focused lectureship (FT, permanent) available. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ588/l...

Many newspapers and politicians have been calling yesterday's fiscal statement a 'Budget for Benefits Street'. Here's three reasons why that is not accurate 🧵

V happy to see this paper out with @chrisclaassen.bsky.social at @bjpols.bsky.social . We argue that nostalgia for Britain's past is an important, distinct opinion dimension which has meaningful consequences for party evaluations and vote choice.

NEWS - The Politics of Imperial Nostalgia - https://cup.org/4p1QbRA "right-wing opposition to criticism of the imperial past is stronger than left-wing support" - Christopher Claassen & @danjdevine.bsky.social #OpenAccess

V happy to see this paper out with @chrisclaassen.bsky.social at @bjpols.bsky.social . We argue that nostalgia for Britain's past is an important, distinct opinion dimension which has meaningful consequences for party evaluations and vote choice.

I think it's worth _some_ reflection that a basically soft-left position (that is, spend to pay for core services even if that involves borrowing) is radical enough to get a scoff of disbelief from the UK's primary political journalist.

Recently did around 30 requests to ppl who'd published very similar papers to the one I needed reviews for. 3 declines, 25 no response. Please at least decline guys it slows stuff down so much otherwise.

From @philipjcowley.bsky.social - thanks to a happy coincidence we have a much more rigorous than usual understanding of the impact of Keir Starmer's "Island of Strangers" speech. As Cowley puts it "It is not obvious this was the intended outcome"

Full (working) paper which Phil alludes to here osf.io/preprints/so... Probably the only positive thing the Labour government will do for academia or, in fact, me.

Some disastrous numbers in this new IfG report. Less than half - half - of boys eligible for free school meals meet basic standards of early-years development.

The Labour Party have lost sense of any reality.

Developmental science is full of all kinds of methodological challenges that turn out to be relevant beyond kid research - Infants stubbornly refuse to fill out surveys, so we built Children Helping Science to capture webcam data. Voice/video consent process at the start of every session.

🚨 New working paper 🚨 We often see populist parties like Reform UK blame higher energy bills on climate change policies. What are the political consequences of this strategy? Very early draft; comments and criticisms are welcomed! full draft: z-dickson.github.io/assets/dicks...

🚨Working on economic inequality perceptions and support for redistribution? Sonja Zmerli and I are coordinating a Section about perceived economic inequality at the next @ecpr.bsky.social's General Conference. 👉 Do consider submit your paper! ecpr.eu/Events/Event... @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social

There's not much political & social science can point to and say 'we know almost certainly that this will happen', but accommodating the far-right and subsequently losing is one of them.

Second POAL methods brief by amazing @laurenleek.eu on how leading polling and survey providers deal with AI bots with tips for researchers fielding their own surveys too!

I have a (very) short open access encyclopedia entry, with @tomwgvdmeer.bsky.social on how 'Trust' has been used over the last 15 years: link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/... The book it's in is a v useful reference point for teaching of 200 concepts in soc sci: link.springer.com/referencewor...

🚨 NEW in @bjpols.bsky.social : When Partygate hit Westminster, trust in Scottish politicians increased. Our experiments reveal a "contrast effect" - scandals at one level can make the other look better by comparison. Who lost most trust in Westminster? Scottish unionists. Read now #OpenAccess 👇

under my regime if a company uses the term “tools” to refer to something without measurable weight which cannot be physically brandished and used as a weapon, that company will be dissolved and its assets seized

We're now over halfway through our @sotonpolitics.bsky.social department seminars! It's been such a good line-up and very grateful for all those who've joined us - today @dafnoukos.bsky.social and last week Peter Dinesen.

🚨 EPSS Belfast 2026 Call for Papers - One week to go! 🚨 Don't forget to submit your paper or panel proposal to the European Political Science Society @epssnet.bsky.social 2026 conference - just one week to go before the deadline: epssnet.org/belfast-2026...

Are you, or do you know, someone who wants to do a PhD? Applications are open for full funding (scholarship + maintenance) @sotonpolitics.bsky.social through the @scdtp.bsky.social Get in touch if you're interested southcoastdtp.ac.uk/apply/

What a complete failure of the Labour Party.

Unrelated to this post, but: talking about 'class' is the single most effective, cost-free change Labour could make to improve their support.

Happy, alongside @emiliabelknap.bsky.social, to make my debut contribution with the fantastic folks at @ukandeu.bsky.social Emilia & I use data from @britishelectionstudy.com to correct the atomistic fallacy in people's understanding the Reform UK gender gap ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...

Our findings suggest that, even though working-class backgrounds have always been underrepresented, not only the level but also the nature of this underrepresentation has changed. Today's working-class politicians are much more likely to have exited the working class before entering politics.

One key result is that, among Social Democratic ministers with a working-class background, there has been a shift: Today, most of those individuals experienced upward class mobility *before* entering politics, whereas the picture was much more balanced in the early post-war era:

🚨New paper out in @jeppjournal.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/1350... @manuelwagner.bsky.social & I re-conceptualize class representation to take into account social mobility between classes and variation in how individuals enter politics.