Professor Will Leggett

Professor Will Leggett

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology
Professor of Political Sociology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 415 8628
Fax
+44 (0)121 414 3496
Email
w.p.leggett@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Social Policy and Society
Muirhead Tower
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Will Leggett researches and teaches in the areas of political sociology and social and political theory, with a particular focus on the relationship between social change, ideology and political identities and action.

 

Qualifications

  • D.Phil. Social and Political Thought, University of Sussex
  • MA Sociology (with Distinction), University of Essex
  • BA Hons. (First Class) Politics and Sociology, University of Warwick

Teaching

  • LH Power, Control and Resistance
  • LH Contemporary Social Theory
  • LM Transforming Identities 
  • UG, MA and PhD Dissertation Supervision

Postgraduate supervision

Will has extensive experience of supervising PhDs to successful completion. He would particularly welcome applications from research students in the following areas:

  • Political Sociology, including: state-society relations; ideology and political action; political behaviour and individualised political practices; governance and ‘behaviour change’
  • The relationship between social theory and political analysis and action
  • (Centre) Left political ideology, parties and movements

Research

Will’s work analyses how governors and citizens adapt their political ideas and practices in the face of social change and shifting understandings of human behaviour. He is currently examining the political implications of increasingly individualised practices: these include attempts to shape citizens through ‘nudging’, or the adoption of mindfulness meditation or similar techniques. Will’s work is strongly theoretically driven, and he has developed a wide-ranging account of the society-politics relation in his most recent book, Politics and Social Theory: The Inescapably Social, The Irreducibly Political (Palgrave, 2017).

Will also has a longstanding research interest in progressive ideology and politics, social democracy and the British Labour Party. He has charted how centre-left modernisers developed and responded to narratives about social change (e.g. globalisation), and has offered critical alternatives across a range of publications including his After New Labour: Social Theory and Centre-Left Politics (2005, Palgrave Macmillan).

Publications

Leggett, W. (2021) ‘’, Critical Policy Studies. [Online open access]. 

Leggett, W. (2017) . London and New York: Palgrave. 

Leggett, W. (2014) , Policy & Politics, 42 (1): 3-19. *(2015 AWARDED BEST OVERALL ARTICLE IN POLICY & POLITICS)* 

Leggett, W. (2013) , Philosophy and Social Criticism, 39 (3): 299-315.

Leggett, W. (2011) , British Politics, 6 (2): 241-51. 

Leggett, W. (2010) ‘, in Hickson, K. and Griffiths, S. (eds.) British Party Politics and Ideology after New Labour. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 53-66. 

Leggett, W. (2009) , in McNally, M. and Schwarzmantel, J. (eds.) Gramsci and Global Politics: Hegemony and Resistance. London: Routledge, pp. 137-55. 

Leggett, W. (2007) , British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 9 (3): 346-64. 

Leggett, W. (2005) . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Leggett, W. (2005) ‘’, Political Quarterly, 76 (4): 550-57. 

Leggett, W. (2004) ‘’, Politics, 24 (1): 12-19. 

Hale, S., Leggett, W. and Martell, L. (eds.) (2004) , Manchester: Manchester University Press. [Open Access e-Book]. 

Leggett, W. (2002) ‘’, The Sociological Review, 50 (3): 419-36.

Expertise

Behaviour change and 'Nudge'; Labour Party; British politics; political ideas and ideologies; political culture; social change

Alternative contact number available for this expert:

Expertise

Behaviour change and 'Nudge'; Labour Party; British politics; political ideas and ideologies; political culture; social change

Other information

Alternative contact number available for this expert: