There exists in our mind an image of what and where we would have been at this point had the pandemic not happened. It is not necessarily grandiose; it may even be a little mundane. We would have attended conferences, had opportunities to network and actually conduct the fieldwork we had spent months planning and reflecting on. We would not have been inside all day though that is for sure, conducting this ineluctable mix of three halves that somehow still make a whole: half working, half fulfilling other responsibilities and half procrastinating – in a never-ending loop. Most importantly of all though, we would have been able to continue to immerse ourselves in the vibrant and eclectic community that lives through the discipline of Politics at Manchester.

This month is the anniversary of the first lockdown in the UK as a result of the pandemic. It comes with much reflection but also a sense of longing for that future that never was and the community that we struggle to fit into boxes on screens (and not without considerable effort!). It often seems as if it’s bursting to break free from those boxes, maintaining a tenuous but certain link with what has become the new normal for us.

In reshaping and relaunching Political Perspectives we hope to channel that sense of community that we all crave. Restarting the Postgraduate Politics Journal at The University of Manchester has been a long time in the making. Preparations to relaunch were all but complete in March last year. Then, like almost everything, the brakes were triggered, and everything came to a grinding halt. It stayed like that for some months while waiting for things to blow over. Of course, they never did.

Just before Christmas 2020 the ball began rolling again, though. Another PhD researcher joined our editorial team, and the old journal regained some new life again. We realised that while there is light on the horizon – with the hope tied to the vaccine – it was definitely time to provide more space for the Politics community to continue to burgeon and grow, even (and especially) in a pandemic!

In the past, Political Perspectives exclusively published peer reviewed journal articles by Early Career Researchers from across Social Science disciplines. In the interest of generating a dynamic platform to represent the Politics community even further, we are expanding its focus with a new vision:

Political Perspectives will aim to engender lively intellectual conversations across different aspects of political studies and to reflect the emerging research agendas of upcoming academics. Political Perspectives is a space to showcase students’ work on different aspects of political sciences, everything from political theory to public policy, governance, and comparative and international politics. However, it can also bring together diverse fields of study that touch on politics, such as human geography, development studies, planning, economics etc. All theoretical positions are of course welcomed and encouraged from all areas of Social Science.

In practical terms, this means two things…

Firstly, we need your political perspective. We are after fresh content, in new forms, not simply the journal articles which have traditionally been published. We are looking for submissions from PhD and Early Career Researchers of the following variety:

• Individual Working Papers
• Individual Journal Articles
• Proposals for Working Paper Series (e.g. following a conference)
• Proposals for Special Issues of the Journal
• Academic Blog Posts
• Book and Paper Reviews
• Podcasts and Media content

To express your interest, fill out this form – and we’ll be in touch!

Secondly, the platform is still entirely managed by PhD students (including submissions, reviewing and editing), and we intend to maintain a high level of quality with the expanded focus. Political Perspectives puts a strong emphasis on assisting with professional development. This includes the development of students’ research by giving constructive feedback on manuscripts and assisting contributors to expand their research and publication profiles.

We encourage all PhD researchers in Politics and the rest of the Social Sciences to join our group of peer-reviewers for the journal: please fill out this form. This will involve quality assessing and providing feedback for papers and written work which is submitted to us on an occasional basis. There is no time commitment. You may do as much or as little reviewing as you wish. What we require is a bank of experts in their field (that means you!) to review and comment on work before it goes to print.

We are delighted to launch this widened version of Political Perspectives and hope that you will help us make it a vibrant outlet for the academic thoughts and opinions of researchers in the Politics community, and Social Sciences more broadly, at The University of Manchester.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or ideas at political.perspectives.uom@gmail.com

The Editors
Cressida Arkwright, Marion Greziller and Matthew Perry

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