Parties and Politicians
The New Political Class is a data collection and research project directed by Jennifer vanHeerde-Hudson (UCL) and Rosie Campbell (Birkbeck). This aim of the project is to understand how the socio-economic Britain’s political class has changed from 1945-2015. To do so, we will collect and make publicly available biographical, socio-demographic and electoral data on candidates and MPs from 1945-2015. Current data exists almost exclusively for MPs, is located in disparate and inaccessible formats, and is limited in the range of data collected on parliamentary candidates.
The data will in turn allow us to consider our three key research objectives:
- To analyse how the socio-economic profile of parliamentary candidates and MPs has changed overtime
- To examine how social (i.e. race/ethnicity, education) and electoral (e.g. party, incumbent, candidate quality) attributes influence candidate selection
- To explore the relationship between social and electoral attributes and career trajectory
- To create a single, comprehensive, publicly available dataset combining biographical, social, electoral and institutional attributes for PCs and MPs from 1945-2015
In addition to our academic objectives the project and resulting data are intended to be a tool for political parties, think tanks, NGOs and the media. In addition to the accessible datasets, we are working to create a searchable database by candidate name, constituency and party amongst others.
Our project is just under way. Check back soon for data and publications arising.
We welcome all enquires and/or comments. Please contact any of the team using the details below:
Dr Jennifer vanHeerde-Hudson
Principal Investigator
Position: Senior Lecturer in Political Behaviour & Departmental Graduate Tutor
Location: University College London, 29-31 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9QU
Telephone: 020 7679 4781
Email: jennifer.hudson@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Rosie Campbell
Co-Principal Investigator
Position: Senior Lecturer in Politics
Location: Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 7HX
Telephone: 020 7631 6785
Email: r.campbell@bbk.ac.uk
Dr Chrysa Lamprinakou
Position: Research Associate & Teaching Fellow
Building: University College London, 29-31 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9QU
Telephone:020 3108 9267
Email: c.lamprinakou@ucl.ac.uk
Federica Izzo
Position: Research Intern
Building: University College London, 29-31 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9QU
Email: f.izzo@ucl.ac.uk
