Research Policy and Review 9. A Space for Place (or a Place for Space) in British Psephology: A Review of Recent Writings with Especial Reference to the General Election of 1983

Abstract

In most psephological writings in Britain only scant regard is paid to the role of place as a context in which political attitudes are learned and voting decisions are made. As a result, it is implied that Britain has a spatially uniform political culture, one that is not in line with the ‘facts’. In this review article the development of that attitude is traced and linked to the reliance on survey data. Works on the 1983 General Election are reviewed to show how the influence of place is far from fully integrated with most explanatory accounts. It is necessary, it is argued, for British psephologists to become aware of recent developments in social theory and the attempts to produce a holistic social science in which place has a central position.