Chapter 6. Making “politics” relevant

Hofstetter, Emily; Stokoe, Elizabeth

doi:10.1075/dapsac.80.06hof

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Casework is an effective way for MPs to gain a reputation for service responsiveness (Parker 2021). In the UK, constituency service has long revolved around the constituency surgery-or advice surgery-in which MPs (and staff) meet with constituents to learn service needs (Hofstetter and Stokoe 2018).…”

Section: Review and Theoretical Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representational Style Across National and Constituency Contexts: Members of Parliament in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Blidook,

Koop

2024

Political Research Quarterly

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In this study, we ask how and why do Members of Parliament adopt different representational styles? Looking at MPs in four Westminster-style democracies, we identify differences between MPs and inductively explore influences on representational styles by first using participant observation to gain deep insights into the activities of a small sample of MPs and then by using semi-structured interviews from a larger sample to elucidate findings from the observations across states. Our primary focus is the method of connection between representative and citizen, as fostered by the representative while present in the constituency. Despite similar institutional and electoral contexts across countries, we find a significant variation that is influenced by both country-level and constituency-level factors. Findings suggest a continuum from highly service-oriented to highly symbolic-oriented styles, where MPs from the UK illustrate the former, and MPs from Canada illustrate the latter, though with further variation at the constituency level that is based, in part, upon both geography and demographics.

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Section: Review and Theoretical Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representational Style Across National and Constituency Contexts: Members of Parliament in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Blidook,

Koop

2024

Political Research Quarterly

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“…The everyday work of the constituency office is less to campaign for re-election, and more to mediate between constituents and bureaucratic agencies, especially with cases that do not fit into the typical processes, and signposting cases to other more specialized agencies (Alexander and Hofstetter, 2021). The offices deal with a huge variety of situations, from neighbour disputes to immigration, from problems with the local council to child custody and from parking to political complaints (Hofstetter and Stokoe, 2018). Unlike certain other service provision settings (e.g.…”

Section: Ethnography As Developing Competenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novice inquiry into unique adequacy

Hofstetter

2022

Qualitative Research

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In this paper, I question how a researcher might fulfil the unique adequacy requirement when studying novices in a setting in which the researcher is already a member. Since novices by definition lack the expected competencies in a setting, having unique adequacy for novice methods may appear oxymoronic. However, this paper suggests that unique adequacy requires enacting specific ways of ‘seeing’ as part of accomplishing local order; once one is competent, it becomes difficult to enact incompetent action in a locally adequate way, suggesting one can actually lose unique adequacy. Furthermore, as any given situated involves a multifaceted set of competencies, exactly which or whose competencies are relevant is both an analysts’ and members’ issue to solve. With reference to examples, I discuss how analysts and members delimit the ‘provinces of meaning’ in the process of finding what is locally adequate.

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Chapter 1. Introduction

Kranert

Horan

2018

Doing Politics

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Chapter 6. Making “politics” relevant

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Representational Style Across National and Constituency Contexts: Members of Parliament in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

Representational Style Across National and Constituency Contexts: Members of Parliament in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom

A novice inquiry into unique adequacy

Chapter 1. Introduction

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