URGENT QUESTIONS

Urgent (and Not So Urgent) Questions is where we ask scholars in the field of parliamentary and legislative studies questions about their academic careers, their research, their upbringing and their interests.

If you would like to see someone featured in this section, please email Stephen, Seán or Caroline with your nomination.

Latest Interviewee

  • Dr Stephen Holden Bates

    STEPHEN HOLDEN BATES

    Stephen Holden Bates is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Birmingham. He has published a number of articles on parliamentary questions and parliamentary committees and was a UK Parliament Academic Fellow in 2021-22. He is the outgoing Co-Convenor of PSA Parliaments.

    Please tell us a little bit about how you entered academia and your academic career

    I’m completely institutionalised at Birmingham having completed my undergraduate degree and PhD in POLSIS, as well as now having worked here as a lecturer for over 15 years. I did spend a year in London after my undergraduate degree – having a proper job with a boss was enough to tell me that the ‘real world’ was rubbish and that I wanted to do a PhD and work in academia. After my PhD, I was a teaching fellow and a post-doc for one year each before gaining a permanent lectureship back at POLSIS.

    Which five books/articles (written by someone else) have been most important to you in your academic career?

    Barbara Adam’s Time and Social Theory (1990) – imagine being that clever!

    Karl Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 – especially the bits on alienation and species being.

    Critical Realism: Essential Readings (1998) edited by Margaret Archer et al. – bit of a cop out to have a ‘best of’ but this is my academic bible. I especially love Porpora’s chapter on social structures.

    Derek Layder’s 1985 article in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour “Power, structure and agency” – it’s not in the Critical Realism: Essential Readings collection so I’m including it separately.

    Donald Searing’s Westminster World (1994) – he really shows you how to write an interesting academic book.

    Which people have been most influential and important to you in your academic career?

    Colin Hay and Dave Marsh who both taught me at undergraduate level with Dave also being one of my PhD supervisors. It was very exciting being at Birmingham in the late 1990s and I had lots of brilliant lecturers but it was these two who mainly introduced me to all the stuff I still love.

    Which of your own pieces of research are you most proud of?

    My 2010 “Restructuring Power” article in Polity. I found it very difficult to make the jump from PhD student to lecturer and it was this piece of work which proved to me (and, more importantly, referees) that I could do political science at least moderately well.

    What has been your greatest achievement in academia?

    This.

    What has been your greatest disappointment in academia?

    That we don’t yet work in a sector which has above inflation pay rises, which doesn’t have tuition fees, and which is run on cooperative, horizontalist democratic principles.

    What is the first or most important thing you tell your students about parliaments?

    Parliament is not the same as the government.

    Where were you born, where did you grow up, and where do you live now?

    I lived in Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire until I was 19. I’ve now lived in south-west Birmingham for 24 of the last 26 years.

    What was your first job?

    Paperboy for a very exploitative £3.60 a week (or 80p an hour).

    What was the toughest job you ever had?

    It’s a toss up between working in a tie factory (on my first day I ironed over 1000 ties which was a record) and my post-doc.

    What would your ideal job be, if not an academic?

    Pop star, spin bowler for Northamptonshire and England, or Euromillions Rollover Jackpot winner – don’t mind which.

    What are your hobbies?

    Road cycling, birdwatching, Iyengar yoga, watching Birmingham City FC, cooking, instagramming photos of my cooking.

    What are your favourite books?

    Anything by Primo Levi. Anything by Sally Rooney who is hands down my favourite recent author. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing changed my life, I think. I like reading utopian and dystopian political fiction with News from Nowhere, Herland, and The Iron Heal being my favourites. I’m also a sucker for a good police procedural/murder mystery with the Martin Beck novels probably being my favourite, although a special mention must go to Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers. And also We’re Going on a Bear Hunt which has brought me immeasurable joy over the last 12 years or so.

    What is your favourite music?

    My younger self won’t believe it but my favourite piece of music is Bach’s Partita in D Minor and, specifically, this version, which I listen to about a gazillion times a year.

    I also love, in no particular order, Stereolab, Pulp, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, the Beatles and the Stones, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, the Spencer Davis Group, Neu!, Shostakovich, Steve Reich, John Adams, Philip Glass and Sly and the Family Stone.

    Who is your favourite artist?

    Bridget Riley for completely obvious reasons.

    What is your favourite film?

    It’s a Wonderful Life – if you don’t cry at least twice during this film then there’s something wrong with you

    What is your favourite building?

    The Barbican, Coventry Cathedral and Birmingham’s Central Library (R.I.P.).

    What is your favourite holiday destination?

    The Isles of Scilly, Venice, and the Hautes-Pyrenees.

    What is your favourite sport?

    Football and cricket for watching (I support Birmingham City and AFC Rushden & Diamonds and Northamptonshire and Warwickshire (and derivatives) respectively). Road cycling and pingpong for doing.

    What is your favourite restaurant?

    Jhoti’s, Adam’s and Rico Libre in Birmingham, L’Anecdote in Paris and Trattoria da’a Marisa in Venice.

    Hybrid proceedings in Parliament: yes please or no thanks?

    Yes please.

    Appointed or elected upper chamber?

    Elected (obvs).

    Restoration or Renewal?

    Renewal – preferably along the lines of Cedric Price’s Pop-up Parliament.

    Cat or Dog?

    Cat, and specifically this one called Adélie who I love with all my heart:

    Trains, planes or automobiles?

    Trains, preferably a sleeper on the way from Paris to Venice or Turin.

    Fish and chips or Curry?

    Impossible to choose.

    Scones: Cornish or Devonshire method?

    Cornish (with apologies to my Devonshire in-laws).

    And, finally, four questions asked by Isaac, Seth, Ira and Bernadette, who are 13, 11, 5 and 5 respectively:

    What was the greatest experience of your life?

    Cycling above the clouds between the Col du Soulor and the Col d’Aubisque.

    Why do you have a stubble beard?

    I’m trying to see whether, at the age of 45, I can finally grow a beard.

    Why do you like birds?

    I like their songs and their different colours and the fact that they can fly.

    Why do you like cycling?

    You can go a long way and see lots of countryside and go very fast down hills and talk to your friends and it’s not boring and hard on your knees like running.

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