The double-design dilemma : political science, parliamentary crisis and disciplinary justifications

Two separate, but inter-linked, dilemmas have highlighted the importance of design-led thinking. First, the crumbling physical fabric of the Palace of Westminster has prompted a multi-billion rebuilding project, which will require the parliamentary studies specialism to engage with questions of design, space, and architecture. Separately, political science more generally has been challenged to utilize the insights of design-thinking and design-practice: a challenge to which it is culturally and methodological ill-equipped. This article considers what a design-led approach to political science looks like in theory, and in practice, in the case study of the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster. This represents a first attempt at how such a fusion could be beneficial for both politics as theory and politics as practice. The main conclusion is that although design-orientated political science is not a panacea for the challenges of modern democratic governance – in intellectual or practical terms – it does appear to offer significant potential in terms of theoretically-informed but solution focused research

Book Review: Heiduk, Felix (ed.): Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice

Book Review of the edited volume by Heiduk, Felix (ed.) (2014), Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 978-0-230-22 896-2, 264 pages. Successful security sector reform (SSR) has been regarded as essential to achieve a successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy. However, the scholarly focus has appeared to be somewhat limited: whilst there have been numerous in-depth case studies assessing military reform, there has been an absence of analysis within the other fields of SSR. Felix Heiduk, together with the individual chapter authors, moves to remedy this and widen the scholarly focus in this highly original and engaging examination of SSR in Southeast Asia

Book Review: Heiduk, Felix (ed.): Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice

Book Review of the edited volume by Heiduk, Felix (ed.) (2014), Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 978-0-230-22 896-2, 264 pages. Successful security sector reform (SSR) has been regarded as essential to achieve a successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy. However, the scholarly focus has appeared to be somewhat limited: whilst there have been numerous in-depth case studies assessing military reform, there has been an absence of analysis within the other fields of SSR. Felix Heiduk, together with the individual chapter authors, moves to remedy this and widen the scholarly focus in this highly original and engaging examination of SSR in Southeast Asia

Book Review: Heiduk, Felix (ed.): Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice

Book Review of the edited volume by Heiduk, Felix (ed.) (2014), Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia: From Policy to Practice. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, ISBN 978-0-230-22 896-2, 264 pages. Successful security sector reform (SSR) has been regarded as essential to achieve a successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy. However, the scholarly focus has appeared to be somewhat limited: whilst there have been numerous in-depth case studies assessing military reform, there has been an absence of analysis within the other fields of SSR. Felix Heiduk, together with the individual chapter authors, moves to remedy this and widen the scholarly focus in this highly original and engaging examination of SSR in Southeast Asia