Interpreting the Political explores the way that interpretations are constructed and pursued in political action. Each article in this collection develops a methodology appropriate to a substantive problem in politics. The collection is broad in its geographical scope, ranging from Ireland to South Africa, the USA to Finland. Collectively the authors redefine the notion of the 'political' by considering the socio-linguistic construction of 'the self' and 'identity', looking at: the symbolic power of national anthems discourses of sexual politics the politics of political science textbooks the role of the researcher in fieldwork Written to a practical brief, with no purely methodological chapters, each contribution addresses concrete issues in highly contextualised circumstances. Interpreting the Political reflects a commitment to methodological pluralism and the reconstruction of political science as a wide-ranging discipline.