This research cluster builds on a strong intellectual tradition in LSE Sociology. Research focuses on several themes: the social bases of political parties and movements; the theory and practice of human rights; democracy and participation in states, firms and civil society organisations; political ideologies, including liberalism and neo-liberalism, socialism, conservatism, secularism and cosmopolitanism; political violence, including war and its opponents, transitional justice, trauma and the investigation of atrocities; and the politics of cities and housing. Members work on the US, UK and Australia as well as Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, and collaborate with leading scholars around the world. They use comparative, historical, case-based, ethnographic, critical, post-colonial, and institutionalist methods and approaches, among many others.
The cluster is associated with LSE Human Rights, regular Political Sociology research seminars, dedicated postgraduate degrees in both Political Sociology and Human Rights, and a lively programme of public events.
Members: Mahvish Ahmad, Suki Ali, Robin Archer, Chetan Bhatt, Ayça Çubukçu, Rebecca Elliott, Monika Krause, David Madden, Claire Moon, Olivia Umurerwa Rutazibwa, Sara Salem, Mai Taha.