Mitchell James Professor

Educational background

• M.A. (Abdn)
• D.Phil. (Oxon)

Profile

James Mitchell first joined the department in 1987 but left in 1998 to take up a chair in Politics at Sheffield University, returning to Strathclyde in 2000.

Main interests:

Territorial politics which fall under three broad headings:

• the politics of nationalism and regionalism
• territorial impact of public policy
• multi-level government and devolution

Other information:

• Delivered annual St David's Day Lecture, University of Wales, March 2007
• Delivered annual O'Donnell lectures, University of Wales, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Bangor, 27-30 March, 2006.
• Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft lectures in Düsseldorf, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Berlin, Schwerin, 11-15 April 2005
• Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Constitution Unit, University College, London, 2001-2006"   
• Member of Scottish Steering Committee of Hansard Society (Scotland) since 2004
• Member of Editorial Board of Parliamentary Affairs
• Member of the British Study of Parliament Group
• Adviser to Committee of the Centre, Northern Ireland Assembly, 2001-2002
• Member of Advisory Committee on Policy Making, advising Office of First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM), Northern Ireland Executive, Late 2000- Spring 2001

Publications since 2008

Books

• J. Mitchell (2009), Devolution in the United Kingdom, Manchester, Manchester University Press, pp.261, ISBN 978 0 7190 5358 0.
• C. Jeffrey and J. Mitchell (eds) (2009), The Scottish Parliament, 1999-2009: The First Decade, London, Hansard Society.

Articles

• C. Carman, J. Mitchell and R. Johns (2008), 'The Unfortunate Natural Experiment in Ballot Design: The Scottish Parliamentary Elections of 2007' Electoral Studies, vol.27, no.3, pp.442-459.
• R. Johns, J. Mitchell, D. Denver, C. Pattie (2009), ‘Valence Politics in Scotland: Towards an explanation of the 207 election’, Political Studies, vol.57, no.1, pp. 207-233.
• James Mitchell (2009), ‘Summoning the Harpies: Legitimacy and the Anglo-Scottish Relationship’, Scottish Affairs, no.68, pp.36-56.
• James Mitchell (2010), ‘Introduction: The Westminster model and the state of union’ Introduction to special section of Parliamentary Affairs, vol.63, pp 85-88
• James Mitchell (2010), ‘The Narcissism of Small Differences: Scotland and Westminster’, Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 33, pp. 98-116.

Book Chapters

• James Mitchell, 'Minority Governments, constitutional change and institutional cultures in Scotland', in Alex Brazier and Susanna Kalitowski (eds), No Overall Control, London, Hansard Society, 2008, pp.79-88.
• J. Mitchell (2008), ‘Ever Looser Union’ in Alan Trench (ed.), The State of the Union, London, Imprint Academic.
• J. Mitchell (2009), ‘From Breakthrough to Mainstream: The Politics of Potential and Blackmail’ in G. Hassan (ed.), The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, pp.31-41.
• J. Mitchell, R. Johns and L. Bennie (2009), ‘Who are the SNP Members?’ in G. Hassan (ed.), The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, pp.68-78.
• James Mitchell and Rob Johns (2009), ‘New Parliament, New Elections’, in C. Jeffrey and J. Mitchell (eds), The Scottish Parliament, 1999-2009: The First Decade, London, Hansard Society
• James Mitchell (2010 in press), ‘Two Models of Devolution: A Framework for analysis’, in: Klaus Stolz (ed.), Ten Years of Devolution. The New Territorial Politics in the United Kingdom, Augsburg: Wissner Verlag.

Current Research projects include:

1. ESRC Scottish Election Study 2007 (ESRC RES-000-22-2256): Co-director (with Rob Johns (Strathclyde), David Denver (Lancaster University) and Charles Pattie (Sheffield University) of study of elections to the Scottish Parliament.  This has involved three waves of internet surveys of public opinion.  For more details see:http://www.scottishelectionstudy.org.uk/
2. ESRC Study of Scottish National Party (ESRC RES 062 23 0722): This study combined a survey of the entire membership of the SNP plus face-to-face interviews with the party's leadership.  The study will provide a unique data base and address questions relevant to debates on nationalism, Scottish politics, political parties and participation.  To read more click here.

Research projects since 2001:

• The Politics of Territorial Finance: Leverhulme-funded Regions and Nations Initiative on territorial public finance, 2000-2005
• Convenor/editor of Monitoring Scottish devolution exercise ESRC/Leverhulme jointly funded research project (ESRC L219 25 2016) 2001-2005
• Director of ESRC Devolution and the Centre project, (ESRC L219 25 2026) 2001-2004
• Co-director of ESRC Multi-level politics and its impact on local representation, (ESRC L219 252103) April 2002-March 2005 with Jonathan Bradbury (Swansea) and Meg Russell (UCL)

Teaching

• GT 102 Politics: Concepts - Principal Lecturer
• GT 103 Politics: Government and Governance
  
• GT 419   Territorial Politics in the UK

Postgraduate research supervision

I have supervised PhDs on Scottish politics, nationalism, multi-level governance in the EU, identity, political parties.