Collaboration in research and politics
This article, written with political scientist Michelle Taylor-Robinson, is about co-operative and polarised politics in Texas. Political work requires alliance building, but antagonism and divisions dominate legislatures and society in many democracies. In Texas legislators are pulled in both directions simultaneously in surprising ways. We use the anthropological method of ethnography and the political science method of network analysis and show how their combination enhances understanding of cross-party cooperation among Representatives even when such work is not depicted in the…