Category Archives: Political Science & Sociology

Saskia Sassen is a leading sociologist renowned for her work on globalisation, urbanisation, migration and the evolving nature of state sovereignty. She is best known for introducing the concept of the Global City — cities such as New York, London and Tokyo that wield disproportionate influence over the world economy as command centres of finance,Continue reading “Saskia Sassen and the Global City: Globalisation, Migration and Urban Inequality”

Jean Blondel (1929–2022) was a leading French political scientist and comparative analyst whose systematic, empirical studies of political parties, cabinets, leadership and institutions helped push comparative politics beyond narrow legal-constitutional description toward genuinely international, evidence-based research. This article explains Blondel’s key contributions — his classification of party systems, including the influential “two-and-a-half-party” system, his expansionContinue reading “Jean Blondel and the Rise of Comparative Politics: Parties, Cabinets and Leadership”

Doreen Massey was a highly influential human geographer and social theorist who challenged the traditional view of space as a passive, neutral container for social activity. Instead, she argued that space is socially constructed, relational, dynamic and inherently political — an idea that reshaped geography, political science, sociology, urban planning, feminist theory and development studies.Continue reading “Doreen Massey: Relational Space, Power Geometry and the Politics of Place”

Donna Haraway is a prominent feminist theorist and scholar of science and technology, renowned for challenging rigid boundaries — human versus machine, nature versus culture, male versus female, human versus animal. Her landmark essay A Cyborg Manifesto (1985) introduced the cyborg as a metaphor for fluid, hybrid identity, while her concept of situated knowledge arguedContinue reading “Donna Haraway: Cyborg Theory, Situated Knowledge and Posthumanist Feminism”

David Ernest Apter (1924–2010) was a leading American political scientist and comparative theorist, best known for his work on political modernisation, development, nationalism and violence, much of it associated with Yale University. Apter argued that development is fundamentally a political process — one that expands choices while introducing new conflicts over resource allocation, values andContinue reading “David Apter’s Theory of Political Modernisation: Mobilisation vs Reconciliation”

Axel Honneth, a German philosopher of the third generation of the Frankfurt School, is best known for his Theory of Recognition, detailed in The Struggle for Recognition. Building on Hegel, George Herbert Mead, Jürgen Habermas and Donald Winnicott, Honneth argues that individual identity is intersubjective — people build self-confidence, self-respect and self-esteem through relationships ofContinue reading “Axel Honneth’s Theory of Recognition: Love, Rights and Social Esteem Explained”

Audre Lorde was one of the most influential Black feminist thinkers, poets and activists of the 20th century, describing herself as “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior and poet” — identities she viewed as interconnected rather than separate. Long before the term “intersectionality” entered common use, Lorde’s writing showed how race, gender, class and sexuality intersect toContinue reading “Audre Lorde: Black Feminism, Intersectionality and the Politics of Difference”

Anthony D. Smith, a British historical sociologist and professor of nationalism and ethnicity at the London School of Economics, is best known for developing ethno-symbolism — a theory that bridges primordialist and modernist views of nationalism. Rejecting the idea that nations are either ancient, natural communities or purely modern political inventions, Smith argued that modernContinue reading “Anthony D. Smith and Ethno-Symbolism: Understanding the Theory of Nations and Nationalism”