All Outputs (58)

Strategic ignorance and interests in the UK Parliament: the case of Transatlantic African Trafficking and Chattel Enslavement (2025)
Journal Article
Crewe, E. (2025). Strategic ignorance and interests in the UK Parliament: the case of Transatlantic African Trafficking and Chattel Enslavement. International Journal of Parliamentary Studies, 5(1), 9-38. https://doi.org/10.1163/26668912-bja10104

Elected UK MPs claim to represent our interests, for which they need to know our preferences within our social contexts, while peers in the House of Lords position themselves as knowledgeable experts. Parliaments are institutional knowledge producers... Read More about Strategic ignorance and interests in the UK Parliament: the case of Transatlantic African Trafficking and Chattel Enslavement.

A neo-complexity orientation to action research: perspectives on unpredictability and ethics (2025)
Journal Article
Solsø, K., Crewe, E., & Chauhan, K. (in press). A neo-complexity orientation to action research: perspectives on unpredictability and ethics. *Journal not in list,

The influence of complexity theory on action research scholarship and practice has been kaleidoscopic. Further integrating ideas derived from the complexity sciences could enrich this research tradition, but there are choices to be made about what to... Read More about A neo-complexity orientation to action research: perspectives on unpredictability and ethics.

Collaborative reflexive inquiry into parliaments: Ethnographers negotiating during research on politics (2025)
Book Chapter
Bernardes, C., Cornwall, A., Crewe, E., & Hoyler, T. (2025). Collaborative reflexive inquiry into parliaments: Ethnographers negotiating during research on politics. In J. Chibois, & S. Shapiro (Eds.), Fieldwork in centres of power, a longitudinal perspective. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003356349-12

In August 2022, a group of four ethnographers assembled in São Paulo to undertake a collaborative inquiry with politicians, each with their own different identities, positions of power, rhythms of work and sensibilities. By researching as a team, we... Read More about Collaborative reflexive inquiry into parliaments: Ethnographers negotiating during research on politics.

Living Democracy: Open Conversations (2024)
Book
Massoumian, A., Bernardes, C., Leston-Bandeira, C., Crewe, E., Fontes, G., Kaur, J., Gabrehiwot, M., Van der Maarel, S., & Haddis, T. (2024). R. Axelby, & T. Hoyler (Eds.). Living Democracy: Open Conversations. SOAS University of London Books

Reimagining rhythms, rituals and symbols (2024)
Book Chapter
Crewe, E. (2024). Reimagining rhythms, rituals and symbols. In D. Judge, & C. Leston-Bandeira (Eds.), Reimagining Parliament (32-47). Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529227024-005

This chapter identifies problems found within Westminster that exacerbate inequality, exclusion, unwellness and a shallow ethics. Four principles are proposed to guide thinking about how to reimagine parliament: a more inclusive approach to knowledge... Read More about Reimagining rhythms, rituals and symbols.

Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament (2024)
Journal Article
Crewe, E. (2024). Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament. The Journal of Legislative Studies, 30(2), 169-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2024.2345036

Healthy democracies require ethical leadership and respect for rules, but since the 2000s we have witnessed serious attacks on standards in the UK Parliament. Two narratives about scandals will reveal cultural and social aspects that are often ignore... Read More about Parliamentary standards under attack: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Westminster Parliament.

Review of: The political lives of postwar British MPs: An oral history of parliament, edited by Emma Peplow and Priscila Privatto, London, Bloomsbury, 2020, vi + 273 pp., £85, 978 1350089266 (hbk) (2024)
Journal Article
Crewe, E. (2024). Review of: The political lives of postwar British MPs: An oral history of parliament, edited by Emma Peplow and Priscila Privatto, London, Bloomsbury, 2020, vi + 273 pp., £85, 978 1350089266 (hbk). Parliaments, Estates and Representation, 44(2), 241-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/02606755.2024.2309029

Outsider Epistemologies: An Ethnographic Journey Amongst the Far-Right in London (2024)
Thesis
Massoumian, A. Outsider Epistemologies: An Ethnographic Journey Amongst the Far-Right in London. (Thesis). SOAS University of London

My PhD dissertation is an ethnography of far-right groups in London. By conducting fieldwork in three distinct field sites, this thesis looks into how contemporary far-right movements are able to mobilise fragmentary, and sometimes contradictory, for... Read More about Outsider Epistemologies: An Ethnographic Journey Amongst the Far-Right in London.

Rhythms of navigating time and space in the UK House of Commons (2023)
Book Chapter
Crewe, E. (2023). Rhythms of navigating time and space in the UK House of Commons. In S. Psarra, C. S. Sternberg, & U. Staiger (Eds.), Parliament Buildings: The architecture of politics in Europe (49-62). UCL Press

Parliamentary scholars tend to classify the work of Members of Parliament (MPs) into roles and measure their activities, votes and outputs. They thereby miss the contradictory, performative and ambivalent processes in politics. Influenced by Goffman’... Read More about Rhythms of navigating time and space in the UK House of Commons.

Dossier: Ethnography of Governance Institutions: Introduction (2023)
Other
Dossier: Ethnography of Governance Institutions: Introduction. Brasília

Complexity and leadership (2022)
Book
Chauhan, K., Crewe, E., & Mowles, C. (Eds.). (2022). Complexity and leadership. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003092230

Leading organisations in our contemporary world means grappling with unpredictability, painful pressures and continual conflict, all in the context of an acceleration in the pace of change. We expect the impossible from heroic leaders and they rarely... Read More about Complexity and leadership.

The Past of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies (2022)
Journal Article
Martin, S., Taylor-Robinson, M. M., & Crewe, E. (2022). The Past of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies. Parliamentary Affairs, 75(4), 727-739. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac008

In this article, Shane Martin, Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson and Emma Crewe discuss the past of parliamentary and legislative studies. The exchange is based on a Roundtable on the Past, Present and Future of Parliamentary Studies, which was held online... Read More about The Past of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies.

The Future of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies (2022)
Journal Article
Crewe, E., Taylor-Robinson, M. M., & Martin, S. (2022). The Future of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies. Parliamentary Affairs, 75(4), 754-766. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac009

In this article, Emma Crewe, Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson and Shane Martin discuss the future of parliamentary and legislative studies. The exchange is based on a Roundtable on the Past, Present and Future of Parliamentary Studies, which was held onli... Read More about The Future of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies.

The Present of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies (2022)
Journal Article
Taylor-Robinson, M. M., Crewe, E., & Martin, S. (2022). The Present of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies. Parliamentary Affairs, 75(4), 740-753. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac010

In this article, Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson, Emma Crewe and Shane Martin discuss the present of parliamentary and legislative studies. The exchange is based on a Roundtable on the Past, Present and Future of Parliamentary Studies, which was held onl... Read More about The Present of Parliamentary and Legislative Studies.

Global partnerships on paper and in practice: Critical observations from inside a Global Challenge Research Fund capacity-development project (2022)
Journal Article
Axelby, R., Worku-Dix, B., & Crewe, E. (2022). Global partnerships on paper and in practice: Critical observations from inside a Global Challenge Research Fund capacity-development project. Journal of International Development, 34(8), 1496-1508. https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3649

This article describes the bureaucratic processes required to establish and manage a single international capacity-development project that brought together a funding council (AHRC), UK University (SOAS University of London) and universities and othe... Read More about Global partnerships on paper and in practice: Critical observations from inside a Global Challenge Research Fund capacity-development project.

An Ethnography of Parliamentary Ethnographers: riffs, rhythms and rituals in their research (2021)
Journal Article
Crewe, E. (2021). An Ethnography of Parliamentary Ethnographers: riffs, rhythms and rituals in their research. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 10(3), 337-345. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-10-2021-085

Social science has witnessed a growing respect towards ethnography albeit in an uneven way across regions and disciplines [1]. The tolerance for ethnography in parliamentary studies seems to be far higher in the United Kingdom (UK) than in the USA, b... Read More about An Ethnography of Parliamentary Ethnographers: riffs, rhythms and rituals in their research.

Reluctant Anthropologists: Revealing but Rare Insights into Legislatures (2021)
Journal Article
Crewe, E. (2021). Reluctant Anthropologists: Revealing but Rare Insights into Legislatures. Political and Legal Anthropology Review,

International Research Coalitions: UK universities learning to be better partners (2021)
Report
Kaur, J., Crewe, E., Axelby, R., Thitsar, M. T., Tadesse, S., & Massoumian, A. (2021). International Research Coalitions: UK universities learning to be better partners

In this learning paper on partnership we explain the Global Research Network on Parliaments and People (GRNPP) experience of managing international research coalitions. Our Deepening Democracy Programme was launched in 2017 in response to the pervasi... Read More about International Research Coalitions: UK universities learning to be better partners.

An Anthropology of Parliaments: Entanglements in Democratic Politics (2021)
Book
Crewe, E. (2021). An Anthropology of Parliaments: Entanglements in Democratic Politics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003084488

The Anthropology of Parliaments offers a fresh, comparative approach to analysing parliaments and democratic politics, drawing together rare ethnographic work by anthropologists and politics scholars from around the world. Crewe’s insights deepen our... Read More about An Anthropology of Parliaments: Entanglements in Democratic Politics.

Constituency Performances: the “heart” of democratic politics (2021)
Book Chapter
Crewe, E., & Sarra, N. (2021). Constituency Performances: the “heart” of democratic politics. In S. M. Rai, M. Gluhovic, S. Jestrovic, & M. Saward (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Politics and Performance. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190863456.013.25

The representation of a constituency is at the heart of most democracies. In many countries an elected representative acts as a bridge between a parliament and a locality, while members of the parliament as a collective mediate between the center and... Read More about Constituency Performances: the “heart” of democratic politics.