We are delighted to announce our annual prize winners from all articles published in Policy & Politics in 2025.
The Bleddyn Davies Prize, which acknowledges scholarship of the very highest standard by an early career academic, is awarded to Iolanda Bianchi for her article entitled The democratising capacity of new municipalism: beyond direct democracy in public–common partnerships.
In this expansive and impressive paper, winner Iolanda Bianchi, offers a comprehensive analysis of how new municipalist movements can reshape and democratise local governance. Drawing on the case of Barcelona, she analyses collaborations between public institutions and citizen-led “common” initiatives, arguing that these public–common partnerships democratise governance not merely by extending participation, but by redistributing power and reconfiguring the relationship between state and society. This excellent article worthy of the best paper prize by an early career scholar offers an interesting, important, and research-provoking contribution to public policy literature and critical urban studies.
Congratulations Iolanda on your well deserved prize!
The Ken Young Prize, which is awarded to the best article judged to represent excellence in the field published in Policy & Politics in 2025, goes to Elsa Bengtsson Meuller and Elizabeth Evans for their article entitled Comparing policy responses to incels in Sweden and the UK.
This prize winning article focuses on gendered violence by incels (involuntary celibates), both online and offline. Much of the analysis to date has focused on what incels mean for our understanding of gender, as well as the role that the internet plays in fostering extremist ideologies. However, in this empirically salient and methodologically rigorous paper, the authors instead examine the challenges and policy responses related to incel communities and their role in perpetuating misogynistic violence, focusing on comparisons between Sweden and the UK.
Using critical frame analysis, its findings show that there is greater engagement among parliamentary actors in the UK than in Sweden, although there appears to be a clearer policy response in Sweden, where it is addressed as part of strategies to counter violent extremism. However, neither country has developed specific policies to tackle the threat posed by incels. Moreover, given its relevance to a range of diverse policy frames, this, to some extent, makes it difficult to create targeted policies.
Based on these findings, the article concludes that this absence of policy response is a form of abdication of responsibility by government. Since publication, this article has been one of our most popular and highly cited provoking significant interest from scholars of gender-based violence, feminist theory, political science and policy studies.
This is an excellent article from worthy winners of this year’s best paper prize.
Read the Best Paper Prize articles in Policy & Politics:
Bianchi, I. (2025). The democratising capacity of new municipalism: beyond direct democracy in public–common partnerships. Policy & Politics, 53(2), 403-422 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000033 [Open Access]
Bengtsson Meuller, E., & Evans, E. (2025). Comparing policy responses to incels in Sweden and the UK. Policy & Politics, 53(3), 424-442 from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2024D000000045
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