Introduction

What is it that we ‘do’ when we engage in Political Science or International Relations? Clearly, we study the world of politics, but what does this activity entail? The aim of this book is to provide an understanding of what it means to be a political scientist/analyst; that is, to demonstrate what it is that we as students or analysts of politics do, and how we do it. In this book we reflect upon the different ways in which we might go about: tackling a particular question or political problem; analyzing an issue or event; discussing the potential for political and/or social transformation; or challenging dominant interpretations of the political world. Our central argument is that the ‘doing’ of political analysis is an active, and interactive, process of critical evaluation and application of theory, and it is this skill which we hope to shed some light on in the pages that follow.