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One of the first published pieces of work from Matthew Watson's ESRC Professorial Fellowship project has been included in an online collection of the most downloaded articles in 2014 from Routledge's Social Science Journals. The article in question appeared in the December issue of Economy and Society, and it is entitled 'The Great Transformation and Progressive Possibilities: The Political Limits of Polanyi's Marxian History of Economic Ideas'.

The article is now fully open access and can be downloaded for free from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03085147.2014.895540#.U3N-xk1OXcs.

Matthew's ESRC project is called 'Rethinking the Market', and it has its own stand-alone website: www.warwick.ac.uk/rethinkingthemarket.

The overall objective of the project research is to show how the idea of the market has become fixed in public discourse through first having been used to delimit how we might think about everyday economic life. His Economy and Society article shows that this process of narrowing the debate about feasible economic alternatives can come from the most unexpected of sources.

Much has been made in the wake of the global financial crisis about the potential for activating a Polanyian voice to lead progressive demands for carving out new spaces of economic interaction that are definitively beyond the market realm. Yet here Matthew argues that Polanyi's own chosen history of economic ideas makes it more difficult to think through how these spaces might be first accessed and then activated. It appeals to a historical lineage that inadvertently serves to naturalise the market form, despite his own expressed antipathy to economic theories that did likewise.

Last year, a Warwick Economics graduate began a yearlong charity cycling journey. Hitesh Pankhania, who studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) is currently cycling from Indonesia to London to raise money for charity with his cousin Vivek Jadav.

Hitesh and Vivek have been updating everyone on their journey in their blog, The World on Wheels, and being a Warwick Economics graduate, Hitesh got in touch with the Department to tell us personally about his experiences cycling around the world:

“My cousin and I decided to go on a journey around the world to raise money for childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent and experience cultures, countries and people in a way that you wouldn't normally do. We'd never cycled before and now we're about 4 months in and have cycled over 3000 miles.

We've cycled some of the busiest roads in Indonesia, through the hills of Sumatra, the beaches of Malaysia and are now attempting the mountains of Laos and eventually Southern China. The past 10 days were spent teaching English at a school for monks in a remote, tiny village in Thailand; it was a humbling experience living and eating with the monks.

There are tough days, slogging up serious and almost impossible looking gradients, but thought of home, friends and our challenge for charity keeps us going.”

The rest of this article can be read here.

If you would like to support Hitesh on his challenge and help raise money for the childrens cancer charity CLIC Sargent, you can do so at justgiving.com/theworldonwheels.

Dr. Nicola Pratt, Reader of International Politics of the Middle East, has recently published a new article for openDemocracy, titled "Gendered paradoxes of Egypt’s transition."

Gendered paradoxes abound in Egypt following the departure of former president Hosni Mubarak four years ago. Under Mubarak, the women’s rights agenda was almost totally monopolized by the National Council for Women under the leadership of former first lady Suzanne Mubarak, whilst independent women’s organizing was severely constrained by limits on freedom of association. After the overthrow of Mubarak, women’s rights were threatened but independent women’s organizing flourished. Since July 2013, under the post-Morsi regime, advances have been made in women’s legal rights. However, independent women’s organizing is once again endangered by heavy handed control of the civic sphere.

You can continue reading Dr. Pratt's article on the Open Democracy website.

Dr Trevor McCrisken, Associate Professor in US Politics and International Studies, has recently been interviewed by Julie Pace, Chief White House Correspondent for the Associated Press, about Obama and the language of terrorism. Trevor is quoted directly and much of the article is based on what he said during the interview.

In the days after a deadly terror spree in Paris, President Barack Obama was criticized for purposely avoiding calling the attacks an example of "Islamic extremism," settling for the more generic "violent extremism." This week, the White House struggled to explain why the administration sometimes classifies the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist organization — and sometimes does not.

The rhetorical wrangling underscores the extent to which a president who pledged to end to his predecessor's war on terror is still navigating how to explain the threats that persist to the American public, while also being mindful of the impact his words can have abroad.

"They do believe that part of the roots of terrorism comes from the way the United States acts and talks and is perceived globally," said Trevor McCrisken, a professor at Britain's University of Warwick who has studied Obama's foreign policy rhetoric.

Julie’s piece can be read here: http://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2015/01/30/white-house-grapples-with-fraught-terrorism-language

The Associated Press story has featured in over 200 different publications worldwide, including ABC News, Daily Star Lebanon, Japan Times, Huffington Post and Yahoo! news.

Trevor appeared on HuffPost Live as a follow up to the piece, you can view the video below:

Professor Shaun Breslin recently featured on a podcast for Chatham House, "Does Britain Matter in East Asia?"

Britain has a range of longstanding interests in East Asia, based on historic, commercial and military ties. The government has made strengthening bilateral relationships with emerging powers – in particular China – a central plank of its foreign policy, whilst trying to find a balance between an ambitious commercial agenda and the promotion of democracy and human rights. But while the UK has important interests it has limited influence in maintaining regional security, which is threatened by continuing tensions in the East and South China Seas and on the Korean peninsula.

The participants discuss these challenges, and consider how the next government can balance the UK’s sometimes competing interests in East Asia.

You can listen to the podcast on the Chatham House website.