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This book examines how borders structure the working class, shaping exploitation and resistance. The book uses the example of Britain to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of a Marxist approach and develop insights that have international relevance. In the wake of the 'Brexit referendum' and facing an uncertain future, debate rages as to whether immigration is good or bad for British society, in economic and cultural terms. Within the political mainstream, both sides in this debate share the assumptions that categories based on nationality, citizenship and country of origin are fixed, legitimate, and appropriate for assessing social change, measuring social benefit and harm, and allocating resources. Likewise, both sides of the debate limit their horizons to what is possible within the capitalist mode of production. Given the long history of migration to and from Britain, and the historically recent development of ideas of nation and citizenship, it is necessary to ask how and why borders and the divides they produce have become so deeply rooted and widely accepted, to the point that they appear as a ‘common sense’ division of humanity. Perhaps more importantly, what role do these ideas play in shaping responses to the crisis, and what are the alternatives?

There were more colons used in legislation in 2015 than there were words enacted in 1900. Using analysis from machine readings of all legislation enacted between 1900 and 2015, this book discusses the social impact of increasingly elastic legislative language on the contemporary workings of the British constitution. The hot-button debates of our time — from immigration to European integration, to the creeping power of judges — have, at their core, battles over what policy instructions are authoritative. The book encourages readers to connect the dots of British statecraft, and to understand how, exactly, public demands are transferred into laws that are then implemented with greater and lesser degrees of success. Crucially, it shows that vague legislation has a tremendous impact on policy delivery, disproportionately affecting the weakest, in areas including immigration, homelessness and anti-discrimination.

Rational Choice and Political Power is a classic text republished with two new chapters. It critiques the three dimensions of power showing that we can explain everything the dimensions are designed to highlight using the tools of rational choice theory. It argues power is best seen as a property of agents, and can be measured by looking at their relative resources. Breaking down power resources into five abstract categories we can see why groups of individuals can fail to secure their best interests due to the collective action problem. We can also define objective interests in through the lens of collective action. Despite power being seen as a property of agents rational choice models of power provide structural Explanation. The power and luck structure is the relationship in agential resource-holding given agents preferences. The book explains the difference between power and systematic luck – the latter is where groups, including powerful ones – can get what they want without doing anything simply because of their social location in the power and luck structure. The book engages with some feminist critiques of seeing power in rational choice terms and includes some methodological discussion of the relationship of methodological individualism and structuralism and then that the concept of power is essentially contested. This book’s unique interaction with both classical and contemporary debates makes it an essential resource for anyone teaching or studying power in the disciplines of sociology, philosophy, politics or international relations.

This book develops new ways of thinking beyond the nation as a form of political community by seeking to transcend ethnonational categories of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Drawing on scholarship and cases spanning Pacific Asia and Europe, it steps outside assumptions linking nation to state. Accessible yet theoretically rich, it explores how to think about nationhood beyond narrow binaries and even broader cosmopolitan ideals. Using cutting-edge critical research, it fundamentally challenges the positive connotations of British patriotism and UK politics’ anti-immigrant discourse, pointing to how these continue to reproduce vocabularies of belonging that are dependent on ethnonational and racialised categorisations. With a cross-continental focus, this book offers alternative ways of thinking about togetherness and belonging that are premised on mobility rather than rootedness, thereby providing a constructive agenda for critical nationalism studies.