Shorthand

The comparative politics seminar earlier today only consisted of around 6 of us - although another 2 are expected to turn up in later weeks. But one of John Siedel's questions to all us has already got me thinking. Since we're all doing different things - from the Latin American Left and education (that's me) to regulatory regimes for biotechnology, or forms of Catholic political organisation and democratisation and development in the Balkans - he asked each of us who the giants were in our field if we were to get others to understand what we were working on.

Hmmm. Well, there are probably two broad bodies of literature for me: the Left which would mean Castaneda and Giddens; and education/public sector reform which would mean Nelson, Grindle and Bresser Perreira. But since I want to see whether education policies make any difference I'm probably going to have to find material on evaluation - so who is a heavyweight in that field I don't yet know...