This book combines mainstream historical and social science approaches with cultural theory to consider how parliamentary ritual is constructed through ceremony, space and socialisation.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies.

1. Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament: Preface Shirin M. Rai 2. Analysing Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament Shirin M. Rai 3. The Archi-Texture of Parliament: Flaneur as Method in Westminster Nirmal Puwar 4. An Anthropology of the House of Lords: Socialisation, Relationships and Rituals Emma Crewe 5. The Speaker, Parliamentary Ceremonies and Power Faith Armitage 6. Disrupting Rituals of Debate in the Indian Parliament Carole Spary 7. Researching Ritual and the Symbolic in Parliaments: An Institutionalist Perspective Georgina Waylen 8. Rules and Rituals: The Case of South Africa's New Committee System Victoria Hasson 9. Pinning the Butterfly: Women, Blue-Collar and Ethnic Minority MPs vis-à-vis Parliamentary Norms and the Parliamentary Role of the Group Representative Karen Celis and Bram Wauters 10. The Gendered Dimensions of Rituals, Rules and Norms in the Chilean Congress Susan Franceschet

Shirin M. Rai is Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.