ABSTRACT
This volume presents new methodological and theoretical approaches to the use of metaphor in political science. It is not, therefore, about political metaphors. Rather it explores the different ways that metaphor itself can be understood, in order to demonstrate the utility (and indeed necessity) of these different conceptions of metaphor to political science. The scholars who have contributed to this work are thus doing two things: providing diverse interpretations of metaphor (and therefore of language) and offering illustrative exemplars of elucidation and explanation that will appeal to political scientists. The foundations of this work are in philosophy of language, linguistic philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, hermeneutics, discourse theory, deconstruction, post-structuralism, cognitive psychology and ethnography, though different contributors will draw more from some areas than from others. The results will thus appear in an interdisciplinary frame, though always accessible to political scientists, students of politics and social scientists in general.
