The book reviews section at the British Politics and Policy at LSE blog draws upon experts and academics from a wide range of backgrounds. You can read more about our regular reviewers below.
Steve Coulter
Dr Steve Coulter is Senior Economics and Business Analyst for BBC News, and writes regularly for the BBC News website on UK economic policy. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Social Market Foundation think tank and wrote the SMF’s recent paper on industrial policy, Manufacturing Prosperity. He is currently working on a project on the media’s coverage of the financial crisis with the Journalism School of City University. Steve received his PhD in European Political Economy from the LSE’s European Institute. Read reviews by Steve.
Charles Crawford
Charles Crawford joined the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1979; in his subsequent career he became an international expert on Central/Eastern Europe and âtransition issuesâ, serving as British Ambassador in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Warsaw. Charles left the FCO in 2007 and is now a writer, speech writer and qualified mediator. His writings have appeared in the Independent, Guardian, National Review Online, Radio Free Europe and DIPLOMAT. His website was voted a Top 12 Non-Aligned Blog in the 2011 Total Politics UK political blogs survey. Read reviews by Charles.
Rory Creedon
Rory graduated from Kingâs College London with a degree in law. He then moved into investment banking where he worked raising capital for companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. In 2009 he moved to Mexico to learn Spanish and spent three months visiting the remaining Indian peoples deep inside the BOSAWAS rainforest of Nicaragua before returning to London to enrol in the MPA programme at the LSE. He is particularly interested in trade issues, particularly market access for developing world products. Read reviews by Rory.
Kerwin Datu
Kerwin Datu originally trained in architecture, in which he worked in Sydney, Paris and London, before completing the MSc in Urbanisation and Development at LSE. He is now pursuing a PhD on the role of the global city network in international economic development, focused on African cities. As Editor-in-chief of The Global Urbanist, he receives and publishes essays and magazine articles on issues affecting urban development in cities around the world, and is always open to submissions from new contributors. Read reviews by Kerwin.
Ryan Evans
Ryan Evans is an Associate Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence and a Fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society. His research interests include Islamism, the relationships between states and social movements, insurgency and counter-insurgency, and terrorism and counter-terrorism. Read reviews by Ryan.
Suki Ferguson
Suki Ferguson graduated from the University of Sussex with an English Literature degree in 2009. In 2010 she worked for climate change organization 10:10 on the Lighter Later campaign, lobbying parliament to pass the Daylight Saving Bill. She now works at a design company in east London and her current freelance projects include sub-editing Fabiana, the new Fabian Women’s Network publication, and writing about film for Pure Movies and Studio magazine. Read reviews by Suki.
John Gent
John Gent is a Cambridge Economics graduate of 1978 with over 30 years experience of working in financial markets in London, Geneva and New York, and is currently a first year PhD researcher in Economic History at the LSE. Before returning to academia, John worked twelve years in private banking at J.P. Morgan, where in 2000 he was chief executive of JP Morgan International Bank when he left to become one of the three founders of Lord North Street Limited, a multi-family private investment office. His research interests are the history of money, debt, the measurement of modern economic progress – and other crowd delusions. Read reviews by John.
Chris Gilson
Chris Gilson joined the LSE PPG in December 2007 as Editor/Researcher and has worked on the long-standing hot review contract with the National Audit Office, review work for the European Court of Auditors, and is now the Managing Editor of the European Politics and Policy at LSE blog. Before this, he worked for three years at the Department of Health. Read reviews by Chris.
Garrick Hileman
Garrick Hileman is a second year PhD student in LSEâs Department of Economic History. His thesis topic is âBritish Debt Sustainability and Financial Repression, 1945-51â. Garrickâs research interests include financial history, political economy, and financial crises. His private sector experience includes investment banking, strategy consulting, private equity, and start-ups. Garrick holds an MBA from IMD and a BA in accounting and international political economy from the University of Washington. Read reviews by Garrick.
Alastair Hill
Alastair completed an MSc in political theory at the LSE in 2010, having graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in history and politics in 2009. He now works as a political consultant for MHP Communications. Alastair tweets as @alastair_hill. Read reviews by Alastair.
Alice Hunter
Alice Hunter has recently graduated from the LSE Gender Institute with an MSc in Gender. She also has a BA in Journalism from UCA and is currently gaining work experience in the environmental sector. Read review by Alice.
Asiya Islam
Asiya Islam graduated in Gender, Media and Culture from the LSE Gender Institute in 2010 and has since been working in Equality and Diversity at LSE. Asiya is interested in studying intersections of race and gender in the media and popular culture. She blogs about feminism and feminist analysis of various issues on www.whyamiafeminist.blogspot.com. She also contributes to the Guardian and Womenâs Views on News. She tweets at @asiyaislam. Read reviews by Asiya.
Sasha Jesperson
Sasha Jesperson is a PhD candidate in the Government Department at the LSE. Her research focuses on the intersection of security and development in post-conflict reconstruction, and human security, comparing Sierra Leone and Bosnia. Previously, she worked with Amnesty International, both at the International Secretariat and the Australian section on a range of human rights issues, but particularly focused on human rights in conflict and post-conflict situations. Read reviews by Sasha.
Julian Kirchherr
Julian Kirchherr studies Public Policy and Management at the London School of Economics (LSE). He joined LSEâs Public Policy Group (PPG) in January 2012. He is primarily interested in elite theories, environmental policy, welfare economics, human resource management, digitalization and futurology. In his spare time, he runs a career consultancy and serves as the editor-in-chief of Libertas, the magazine of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC). Read reviews by Julian.
Scott Levin
Scott Levin is currently enrolled in the LSE’s two year MPA program. Previously, Scott worked for Jeanne Shaheen’s successful US Senate campaign and subsequently spent two years working for the US Senate Foreign Relations and Rules and Administration Committees. Scott has studied counter-insurgency at the US National Defense University and has been a fellow with the bipartisan group Partnership for a Secure America. Read reviews by Scott.
Tamara Micner
Tamara studied English at Yale University, and Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge. She worked at Google in-between, and now writes for the theatre, magazines and blogs. She tweets @tamamic and writes about the arts, travel, and food on micner.blogspot.com.
Ashley Mog
Ashley has a BA in Women Studies from the University of Washington and a MSc in Gender from the LSE Gender Institute. She is currently working for LSE in IT administration and volunteers teaching knitting in her spare time. She will be starting a PhD in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the autumn. Read reviews by Ashley.
Andreea Moise
Andreea Moise has recently completed a masterâs degree in social research methods and social policy at the London School of Economics. She is currently working as a policy research intern at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She is also collaborating on the Impact of Social Sciences Project. Read reviews by Andreea.
Amy Mollett
Amy Mollett joined the LSE PPG in September 2010 and is now an Assistant Editor of the British Politics and Policy at LSE blog and the Impact of Social Sciences Blog. She holds an MSc in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics and a BA in English Language and Gender Studies from the University of Sussex. Before joining the PPG, Amy worked on a European Commission funded project on domestic violence policy across Europe. Read reviews by Amy.
Dominic Moran
Dominic is Professor of Environmental Economics and Science Leader, Sustainable Rural Systems at the Scottish Agricultural College in Edinburgh. He is an applied economist specialising in the areas of environmental and resource economics and policy analysis in developed and developing countries. His research focuses on applying economics to environmental management and the development of interdisciplinary approaches to resource allocation problems. Read reviews by Dominic.
Tony Murphy
Tony Murphy is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Westminster. He also works as an Associate Lecturer in the Social Sciences at the Open University. Tony previously taught Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University, and worked as a Research Assistant at the LSE. Tony holds BSc and MSc degrees from the LSE, and a number of postgraduate qualifications from the Open University. Read reviews by Tony.
Dave O’Brien
Dave is a Lecturer in Cultural Industries at City University London. His work on cultural value includes a recent secondment and report to the UK’s Department for Culture Media and Sport. His work on urban cultural policy can be found in his PhD from the University of Liverpool, which explored the governance of the European Capital of Culture programme and cultural policy in Liverpool and NewcastleGateshead. He has published several papers on this topic and is currently developing a book on the subject. Read reviews by Dave.
Carl Packman
Carl Packman is a health researcher, writer and blogger. He has written for the New Statesman, the Guardian, Tribune Magazine, The Philosopher’s Magazine and the International Journal for Zizek Studies. He is a blogger at Liberal Conspiracy, Though Cowards Flinch and he tweets as @carlraincoat. Read reviews by Carl.
Matthew Partridge
Dr Matthew Partridge has recently completed a PhD in Economic History at the London School of Economics. He is a freelance journalist who has written for The Guardian, Times Higher Education and the websites of Prospect and New Statesman. Read reviews by Matthew.
Natacha Postel-Vinay
Natacha Postel-Vinay is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Economic History at the LSE. She has an undergraduate degree in economics and political science and an MSc in economic history from LSE. She specialises in financial history, and her PhD thesis concentrates on the causes of bank failures in the U.S Great Depression with an emphasis on their behaviour in the 1920s. She also has a particular interest for political and economic philosophy, economic development, and statistical tools for economic investigation. Read reviews by Natacha.
Philippine Reimpell
Philippine Reimpell is currently working at the BBC World Service Trust. Her current work deals with the impact of community radio on governance in Sierra Leone, Angola and Tanzania. She previously worked as a research officer on the âSensitive Technologies and European Public Ethicsâ project in the Methodology Institute at LSE. She has degrees in molecular biology, global politics and quantitative research methods for political science (the latter two from LSE). Read reviews by Philippine.
Barbara Richter
Barbara Richter is a PhD student in the Department of Economics at the LSE. Her areas of specialisation are growth and technology and natural resource conflicts. Before she came to LSE Barbara obtained undergraduate degrees in economics and political science at a German university. Read reviews by Barbara.
Kate Saffin
Dr Kate Saffin has worked as a medical doctor in London, Sydney and Paris and is a qualified General Practitioner. Most recently she completed the Masters in Public Health at King’s College London and has subsequently worked for a think tank and as a freelance researcher in public and health policy. Her research interests lie in international development and the intersections between health, the environment, economics and politics. Read reviews by Kate.
Daniel Sage
Daniel Sage is a PhD student at the University of Stirling. His PhD thesis explores how welfare-to-work reforms have affected the experiences and interactions of benefit claimants with the welfare system. Additionally, he has academic interests in income inequality and social cohesion, public attitudes towards the welfare state and the politics and philosophy of social policy. He has a BA in History from University College London and an MSc in Social Policy from the LSE. He tweets at @djsage86 and blogs at http://knowledge-is-porridge.blogspot.com. Read reviews by Daniel.
Gerardo Serra
Gerardo Serra is a second year PhD student in the Department of Economic History at the London School of Economics. His main research interests are the history and methodology of economics, and colonial and postcolonial African economic history. His thesis analyses the relationship between economic theory, statistics and policy design and implementation in late colonial and postcolonial Ghana. Read reviews by Gerardo.
Joel Suss
Joel Suss joined the LSE PPG in January 2012 and is a student in the MPA programme. Hailing from Montréal, Canada, where he earned a BA in Political Science from Concordia University, Joel has worked in the most recent Canadian federal elections campaign for the New Democratic Party (NDP), now the official opposition to the government. He is primarily focused on public and social policy, welfare inequality dynamics and institutional reform. Read reviews by Joel.
Nick Taylor
Nick Taylor is a PhD candidate in the Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. His research focuses on classical political economy and its contemporary relevance to issues of labour and welfare. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and two MAs from the University of Warwick, in International Political Economy and in Politics. Nick tweets @KafkanDream and more information is available on his Warwick research profile. Read review by Nick.
Amy Thomas
Amy is a PhD student at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) in the department of History and Theory. Her research focuses on the impact of financial flows on the built environment, specifically assessing the physical consequences of British Imperial and contemporary offshore capital networks within the City of London. Amy holds an undergraduate degree (MA Hons) from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters from the Bartlett in Architectural History. Amy tweets @UrbanScrivener. Read reviews by Amy.
Jon Tonge
Jonathan Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool and a former Chair and President of the Political Studies Association of the UK. Jonathan has produced 14 books and over 50 journal articles and chapters on Irish and British politics and has completed five Economic and Social Research Council and Leverhulme Trust funded projects over the last decade. His most recent books are Loyal to the Core? Orangeism and Britishness in Northern Ireland, Irish Academic Press, 2011, with James McAuley and Andrew Mycock and Abandoning the Past? Political Prisoners and Historical Conflict (with Shirlow, McAuley and McGlynn) awarded the Political Studies Association of Ireland Brian Farrell Prize for best book in politics in 2010. Read reviews by Jonathan.
Arnaud Vaganay
Arnaud is a researcher in political science and research methodology. Currently a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Scienceâs Methodology Institute, he is primarily interested in policy reform, institutions, social research and their interactions â even though his curiosity sometimes takes him far beyond these issues. These interests stem from his previous experience as an evaluation consultant in Brussels, where for about six years he observed the respective roles of veto players, bureaucrats, interest groups and social researchers in the EU policy-making process. Arnaudâs other professional activities include teaching and consultancy to various government, business and charity organisations. Read reviews by Arnaud.
Sander van der Linden
Sander is a doctoral researcher in applied social psychology at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. Sanderâs research is concerned with designing and evaluating behavioural interventions. He studies the psychological factors and conditions under which people are more likely to change their behaviour (i.e. in a more pro-social / pro-environmental manner). Part of his research also deals with theories of dual-processing in the brain. Read reviews by Sander.
Clara Volintiru
Clara Volintiru is a PhD candidate in Political Science, in the Government Department, at the LSE. She has an MSc in Comparative Politics, also from the LSE, an MBA from CNAM, and an undergraduate degree in economics. Her thesis is focused on political parties in new democracies, but her research activity has also covered topics from the wider area of political economy or conflict studies. Read reviews by Clara.
Ramona Wadi
Ramona Wadi is a freelance writer who writes regularly for Upside Down World – an online magazine covering Latin American politics and activism. Other articles and reviews have been published in Irish Left Review, Toward Freedom, Palestine Chronicle and Green Left Weekly. Her research and writing focuses on the history of revolutions in Latin America, the struggles of indigenous people, political philosophy and human rights. Ramona tweets at @walzerscent and blogs at http://walzerscent.blogspot.com and http://redmetaphor.blogspot.com. Read reviews by Ramona.
Joan Wilson
Joan joined the PPG in January 2011 as a Research Assistant. She holds a PhD in the Economics of Education from the Institute of Education, University of London. Her thesis focused on an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of major state sector education policy initiatives in England, looking specifically at (i) pupil mobility patterns and school oversubscription in primary schools following the introduction of the school choice system and (ii) changes to the academic quality and composition of pupil admissions into âfailingâ secondary schools that acquired renewed status under the Academies programme. Read reviews by Joan.
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