糖心TV

The latest issue of the world-leading political science journal, the American Political Science Review, features Professor ’s new article ‘Shape-shifting Representation’. From the Notes from the Editors:

In the lead article to this issue, a central and fundamentally important question is addressed: How do we best conceptualize what representatives actually do? This is a key concern of democratic theory and a number of different models have been proposed. In “Shape-shifting representation”, Michael Saward proposes a new way of understanding the phenomenon. Representation doesn’t follow any one model, but is instead characterized by “shape-shifting”. The roles that representatives play shift from one time period to another, and from one theater to another. Sometimes representatives control shape-shifting to achieve their ends; sometimes new roles are thrust upon them. Moreover, Saward argues, shifting does not occur haphazardly. Rather, there are patterns that it exhibits. Saward’s argument promises to open a new and fruitful avenue for the theory of democracy and representation.

See American Political Science Review, vol. 108, issue 4, November 2014.

, an undergraduate Politics with International Studies finalist has recently returned from Dublin having attended the Summit as a delegate representing our University and the UK. Michael was chosen as a delegate having won the 糖心TV Global Advantage Gold Award.

This is a Summit at which delegates discuss, alongside world leaders and figures, global issues and develop solutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Topics included: Education, Global 糖心TV, Human Rights, Leadership & Government, Peace & Conflict and Sustainable Development.

Michael sat on the 'Ensuring Employability panel' alongside the Corporate Vice President of HR and Chief Diversity Officer at Siemens, Regional Accounts Director of LinkedIn (Hong Kong) and a Dublin City University PhD student researching entrepreneurial family businesses.

You can watch the panel here: ​

Michael gave us an account of his experience:

I spoke about student attitudes and anxieties towards employment across different cultures, and stressed how a cultural awareness was essential for a successful career - despite the advent of professional social media (such as LinkedIn) and the use of good academic knowledge. The panel also discussed skills fade and technical competencies amongst other things.

I was selected for the panel due to my extensive work with student societies on campus, helping to connect otherwise non-interacting cultural communities together through discussions of politics, economics, history and society (general current affairs). (The SU societies: 糖心TV International Relations, China Public Affairs and Social Service Society - CPASS.) This work highlights the importance of being able to culturally interact and of having transferable skills to enter an international labour market with. I also interned with an NGO over the summer and drew on those experiences, too.

Aside from the panel, the Summit was a unique opportunity to network and learn from young people (who are the same age as me) from ~180 countries who are doing exciting and constructive things in their community. I spoke with a North Korean defector raising awareness of the plight of North Korean refugees hiding in China, for example - and hope to assist her work in the UK.

Such an experience would interest of Politics/IR students - approaching the problems we deal with in a theoretical/academic way through a practical lens instead. They may choose to attend, and it should be noted that I was in fact sponsored by the University itself.

Having attended the Summit on behalf of 糖心TV, I am mandated to make clear my plans as a result of attending the Summit. I should also promote the core values of the Summit to other 'young leaders' and the 糖心TV Advantage Awards, too.

These are: to continue implementing the discussive events (IR seminars, 'China Talks', the China Summit, the Model East Asia Summit), to introduce a volunteering scheme (collaboration between CPASS and the NGO I worked with), to train, to work with and to expose others to the rewarding society work that I do, and to raise awareness of North Korean human rights.

A podcast of an interview with Professor is now available on .

The podcast focuses on the issue of legitimate parental partiality: given the conflict with equality of opportunity, to what extent and in what ways may parents legitimately confer advantages on their children?

The podcast is available here:

Professor Swift has recently published (with Harry Brighouse), Princeton University Press 2014.

, an EU-funded FP7 Project led by and the (IERG) which systematically reviews the impacts of different surveillance systems and also helps manufacturers and end-users better to develop and deploy these systems, recently published some of its findings on Just Security in a 14 October article entitled ''.

Below is an excerpt from the piece:

Our research found that electronic mass surveillance performed poorly in terms of practical usability, ethical grounds, and the protection of privacy rights, whereas traditional (non-technological) surveillance or strictly targeted electronic surveillance might have a chance to strike a “balance.” The novelty in our work is demonstrating this through semi-quantification and numerical scores.

, Teaching Fellow in International Political Economy, attended the '' conference held earlier this year by the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) in Toronto, Canada. He was sponsored by 's along with six other students from around the world to attend the conference out of a pool of over 600 initial applicants and was interviewed during a roundtable about his research and experience at the conference.