Interpreting the Political explores the way that interpretations are constructed and pursued in political action. Each article in this collection develops a methodology appropriate to a substantive problem in politics.

The collection is broad in its geographical scope, ranging from Ireland to South Africa, the US to Finland. The authors redefine the notion of the "political" by considering the socio-linguistic construction of "the self" and "identity," looking at the symbolic power of national anthems, discourses of sexual politics, the politics of political science textbooks, and the role of the researcher in fieldwork. Each contribution addresses concrete issues in highly contextualized circumstances. Interpreting the Political reflects a commitment to methodological pluralism and the reconstruction of political science as a wide-ranging discipline.

Contributors: Josef Bleicher, Valerie Bresnihan, Terrell Carver, James Der Derian, Andres du Toit, Matti Hyvarinen, Marja Keranen, Veronique Mottier, Kari Palonen, Mary Robinson, Klaus Sondermann.