Steve Buckler (1960–2013)
| Author | Richard Shorten,Richard North |
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885113485617 |
| Published date | 01 April 2013 |
| Date | 01 April 2013 |
| Subject Matter | In memorium |
European Journal of Political Theory
12(2) 97–98
!The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1474885113485617
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EJPT
In memorium
Steve Buckler (1960–2013)
It is with great sadness that we learnt Steve Buckler passed away on Thursday,
3 January 2013.
For the past four years Steve had been an Editor of the European Journal of
Political Theory. Prior to that period, Steve had served the journal in countless
informal ways, having been integral to its general activities ever since the journal’s
founding, at the University of Birmingham, in 2002. For that invaluable contribu-
tion, the journal will forever remain in gratitude to Steve.
The dedication and diligence that Steve brought to the life of this journal was
expressed in at least equal measure to that which he brought to the Department of
Political Science and International Studies at Birmingham. As Senior Lecturer in
Political Theory, Steve was, at the time of his passing, the longest serving member
of the department. Over several decades he played a central role in its administra-
tion and management, acting for a considerable while in the role of Deputy Head.
The size of the congregation in attendance at Steve’s funeral in Birmingham – the
city he grew up in, and returned to – was ample indication of the enormous warmth
and affection in which he was held by all colleagues, past and present, academic
and administrative alike. Steve was widely liked for his unending patience and
modesty, his dry sense of humour and conversation and, amongst those who
worked with him, his unerring willingness to support others, including both of
us who knew him first as teacher and mentor, then later as a friend and colleague.
The intellectual contribution that Steve leaves behind is a significant one and it
reflects the three principal areas of engagement that sustained his interest down the
years: political ethics; the relationship between political theory and practice; and
perhaps above all, the political thought of Hannah Arendt. Steve’s first book, Dirty
Hands: Problems of Political Morality, was published in 1993 by Avebury Press,
and was the outcome of earlier doctoral work on that theme at the University of
Southampton. He continued to explore this dimension of political ethics in later
work, and it was a notable feature of the issues explored in the numerous courses,
undergraduate and postgraduate, that Steve taught across his career.
Steve’s interest in the theory–practice relationship was most manifest in the large
number of journal articles he published on the topic of political ideology. These
were directed both at a general conceptual level, and also in particular relation to
the ideology of the British Labour Party. Many of the articles of the latter kind
were the product of a fruitful intellectual partnership Steve enjoyed with the pol-
itical scientist Dave Dolowitz. They also bore the mark not only of Steve’s typical
analytical rigour combined with detailed knowledge, but also an empathetic under-
standing that was the product of a characteristically non-dogmatic set of personal
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