ELIZABETH FRAZER, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
SELECTED PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Mary
Wollstonecraft on Politics and Friendship Political Studies Vol 56 no.l1 March
2008.
How, exactly, might friendship be relevant to
politics? Friendship between political
actors can be hypothesised to have specific effects; friendship between
individuals in society can be hypothesised to have specific political outcomes;
or friendship and politics can be understood to be conceptually connected. Mary Wollstonecraft makes friendship a
central concept in her political theory of social justice and good
government. This paper analyses how politics
and friendship are related in her texts, exploring her arguments that friendship in society is a
condition of just government, but also suggesting that for Wollstonecraft
friendship and citizenship are congruent with one another, and hence that the
connection between politics and friendship is conceptual as well as
causal.
Depoliticising
Citizenship in British Journal
of Educational Studies Vol 55 no.3 September 2007 pp 249-263
One problem faced by teachers of
citizenship is that ‘politics’ is negatively valued. The concept is actually ambiguous in
value. The paper sets out a neutral, a
negative, and a positive meaning of the term. It then goes on to explore the
way that even on the positive construction there can seem to be ethical
problems with politics. This explains
both aspects of numerous projects to ‘depoliticise’ society and government, and
to depoliticise citizenship education.
But, the alternatives mean that we lose important political values.
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Elizabeth Frazer and Kimberly Hutchings On Politics and Violence: Arendt contra Fanon
Contemporary Political Theory 2007
This paper considers the implications of Hannah Arendt’s
criticisms of Frantz Fanon and the theories of violence and politics associated
with his influence for our understanding of the relationship between those two
phenomena. Fanon argues that violence is
a means necessary to political action; and also that is an organic force or
energy. Arendt argues that violence is
inherently unpredictable, that means-end reasoning is in any case anti-political,
and that it is a profound error to naturalise violence. We evaluate their respective arguments
concluding that in her well-founded rejection of the naturalisation of violence
Arendt’s understanding of the embodied nature of violence is less insightful
than Fanon’s.
Elizabeth Frazer and Ken Macdonald ‘Sex Differences in Political
Knowledge in Britain’ in Political
Studies vol 51 67-83 March 2003
This
paper analyses, and examines the interpretation of, sex differences in
political knowledge as measured in the context of nationally representative
British surveys. The paper discusses the
construction and operationalisation of ‘knowledge’ measures in survey
research. British survey research finds
striking sex differences in scores on political knowledge items. The inclusion of contextual variables, and of
interactions between sex and other relevant variables, attenuates but does not
eliminate consistent sex differences.
'Citizenship
Education: Anti-Political Culture and Political Education in Britain' Political Studies vol 48 pp88-103 2000.
The
British Government white paper 'Excellence in Schools' and the subsequent
report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship Education for Citizenship recommend
that schools educate pupils in citizenship and democracy. This recommendation
is considered in the context of reasons why there has traditionally been no
formal or well articulated political education in schools. Among these reasons
a pervasive antipathy to politics and to government is identified as one of the
most powerful. This antipathy is expressed from the left and the right wings of
the political spectrum, and the 'critical' opposition to both, as well as from
interests such as those defending professional and personal autonomy. These
arguments imply that 'politics' is optional, not a set of practices and
institutions with which individuals must be familiar. It is argued here that
this proposition cannot be valid.
' "Probably the most
public occasion the world has ever known": public and private in press
coverage of the death and funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales' in Journal of Political Ideologies vol 5 pp201-223, 2000.
This
paper presents analysis of the distinctions between public and private life
that were drawn and reflected upon in the London press coverage of the death
and funeral of Diana Princess of Wales (died August 31 1997). This corpus is
notable because journalists and other commentators had unprecedented
opportunity and incentive to reflect, in print, on how and where the line
between public and private ought to be drawn. In so doing their efforts served
to expose more clearly the difficult, controversial and fuzzy nature of this
distinction. The corpus is also notable because it contains considered accoutns
of the nature of public life, the role of 'the public', and the constitution of
political rule in Britain. The material therefore prompts analytic reflection
on the concept 'public'. It is here suggested that within the context of
normative political theory 'reflexivity' must be a key component of
'publicity'. The analysis also shows how in discursive genres such as
broadsheet print journalism a variety of contrasting and inconsistent
conceptual analyses and social theories can be integrated. To some degree these
destabilise the meanings of public and private that liberal and conservative
commentators deploy; to some degree they fail to do this. Discourse, it seems,
can contain contradiction without much discomfort.
'Introduction:
the idea of political education' special issue Oxford Review of
Education vol. 25, 1999. pp.5-22.
This
article considers the current context for renewed concern about 'political
education' worldwide and in the UK. The concept 'political education' is
analysed, as are normative and positive questions about the relationship
between education and political outcomes. The article goes on to consider the
history of and reasons for UKexceptionalism as regards this aspect of
educational policy - explanations for British antipathy to political education
are sought in aspects of British political institutions and political culture.
Nicholas
Emler and Elizabeth Frazer 'Politics: the education effect' special issue Oxford Review of Education vol.25 pp.251-274. 1999
This
article explores in some detail published research exploring the associations
between aspects of education (knowledge and skill acquisition, attitude
formation, credential acquisition, participation in networks and institutions)
and political outcomes such as participation, partisan choice and political
identity. Correlated effects models, direct effects models, and relative
effects models are considered in turn. Particular attention is paid to the
relative effects of network position. Some notable gaps in the research
literature are identified, notably regarding citizens' understanding of the
nature of political processes.
Elizabeth
Frazer and Nicola Lacey "Politics and the
Public in Rawls' Political Liberalism" Political Studies, vol 43 1995 pp 233-247
This
paper is a critical discussion of a number of related themes in John Rawls'
Political Liberalism. First, it considers whether Rawls' recent statement of
his position proceeds from an adequate methodology for political theory. In
particular, it questions whether Rawls has succeeded in accommodating both
universalist, analytic and paricularist, interpretive aspects of the political
theoretical enterprise. Second, it engages in critical analysis of the
conceptions of the political and the public which lie at the core of Rawls'
theory. In this part of the paper, an important though not exclusive focus will
be certain questions raised by Susan Moller Okin and other feminist critics of
Rawls about the internal consistency of his conception of justice. It is argued
that Political Liberalism neither addresses these questions explicitly nor,
contrary to Okin's view, provides implicit conceptual tools which could allow a
sympathetic interpreter of Rawls to do so. The direction of the argument will
suggest certain preconditions for the devleopment of a more substantively and
methodologically adequate approach to political theory.
"Feminist
Talk and Talking about Feminism: teenage girls' discourses of gender". Oxford Review of Education vol 15 1989
In
this paper I compare talk about class and gender by public school girls (who
classified themselves as upper class and whose parents are in socio-economic
class I and/or are landowners) and comprehensive schools girls whose parents
are in socioeconomic class III. The comprehensive schools girls had no clear
concepts or categorisations of their own class position. Girls in both schools
shared a diagnosis and set of grievances about the injustices and dilemmas of
girlhood. However, the extent to which they used feminist categories and their
contentment with these categories varied markedly - the public schools girls
being notably more uncomfortable. I analyse and theorise these differences as
discursive, rather than psychological or purely sociological. This analysis
highlights the importance of self-conscious and critical discursive practice by
educators and pupils in the educational setting.
Cameron,Deborah; Frazer,Elizabeth (1989): "Knowing What to Say: the
Construction of Gender in Linguistic Practice". In: Social Anthropology and the Politics of Language. Sociological Review
Monograph 36. (Ed: Grillo,Ralph) Routledge, London
In
this paper we address the problem of how what people say should be taken to
relate to what they mean and/or the truth about their condition. We consider
the particular problem of how to interpret and account for apparent
contradiction in informants' accounts to researchers. This has been an issue of
particular significance in studies of gender and class consciousness, and this
paper draws on a study in which the researcher recorded talk about gender,
class and race produced by girls from a number of different social groups.
"Teenage Girls Talking
About Class". Sociology Vol 22 1988
Here I
present extracts from discussion about 'class' by teenage girls from working
class, upper working/lower middle, and upper middle/upper class backgrounds. The
data demonstrate the variation in the salience of class for girls from these
different groups. This finding stands in contrast to the finding from the same
research project that for all girls 'gender' is highly salient. The material
also underpins an argument about research method. There are ambiguities in the
girls' talk about class, which raises two issues: first, there is the question
of how we interpret ambiguous talk; second, there is the issue of our
responsibilities to our informants, who are made aware by the research process
that they put forward ambiguous or even contradictory views, and are
discomfited by this knowledge
"Teenage Girls Reading Jackie". Media Culture and Society vol 9 1987
In
this paper I present empirical data - the transcripts of discussion among seven
groups of girls about a photostory from Jackie magazine, and about Jackie and
other girls' magazines like it. The data are used to underpin an argument about
the use of the concept 'ideology' in social theory and research. Critics
complain that the theory of ideology is typically ill-specified and vague, and
I discuss these criticisms. Where 'ideology' is more tightly specified, on the
other hand, it predicts a certain sort of relationship between readers and the
texts which are said to be bearers of ideological meaning and is taken as an
explanation of people's beliefs and behaviour. A more or less passive reader is
depicted. My data shows that, on the contrary, readers take a critical stand
vis a vis texts. This theoretical discussion also underpins some remarks about
social research method.