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Recent Posts
- In praise of ‘low value’ subjects. February 27, 2023
- Frigga Haug and the mystery of learning December 6, 2022
- Debating Growth. November 29, 2022
- Code red for human survival November 8, 2022
- The politics of silence. September 4, 2022
- Posts on Corsican themes. August 10, 2022
- When Corsica welcomed thousands of Serb refugees (1916) August 9, 2022
- Climate justice, heat justice and the politics of resilience August 5, 2022
- Nancy Fraser’s eco-socialist common sense. August 3, 2022
- Education, social justice and survival in a time of crisis. July 18, 2022
- A political education. May 10, 2022
- Redistribution and recognition should go hand in hand. April 17, 2022
- French presidential election: could Mélenchon make it? April 10, 2022
- Owning our crises March 26, 2022
- French elections 2022 January 29, 2022
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Author Archives: Eddie Playfair
In praise of ‘low value’ subjects.
The English education system is built on value judgements. Measures of provider quality, qualification currency and student achievement create a web of rankings which shape our view of the system, and the resulting hierarchies impact how everyone feels about where … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Education policy
Tagged capitalism, class, commodification, competition, Education, Education policy, education system, elitism, hierarchy, high value subjects, human capital, inequality, labour market, low value subjects, marketisation, markets, Neoliberalism, privilege, qualifications, STEM, subjects
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Frigga Haug and the mystery of learning
How does learning happen? What exactly is going on when we acquire knowledge or skill? When we consider our own education, it’s evident that over time we learn quite a lot – some of it may even overlap with what … Continue reading
Debating Growth.
Conway Hall recently hosted a public debate about the proposition “The pursuit of growth is a disaster for our country and our planet” sponsored by the ‘How To Academy‘. Supporting it were Ida Kubiszewski, Associate Professor at UCL’s Institute for … Continue reading
Code red for human survival
The United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide us with a global agenda for human survival. From poverty to peace and justice they list the urgent challenges we face and set a broad direction of travel towards a fairer … Continue reading
The politics of silence.
Simplex and Sapiens are discussing the opposition’s strategy. Simplex: This government has lost all credibility and support and has no plan for dealing with the crisis. Sapiens: Agreed. The times we’re living in require a complete change of policy and … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged elections, Labour party, manifesto, opposition, policy, political parties, political programme, politics, pragmatism, principle
1 Comment
Posts on Corsican themes.
Seneca in Corsica The Roman senator and philosopher spent several miserable years in exile on the island in the first century A.D. Paoli in London ‘The 18th century Che Guevara’ produced one of the first constitutions of the enlightenment era and fought … Continue reading
When Corsica welcomed thousands of Serb refugees (1916)
Kathleen Courtney in Corsica. In 1916, around 5,000 Serb refugees were evacuated to Corsica via Salonika, Corfu and the Adriatic coast to escape the conflict in the Balkans. On arrival they were settled in the major towns of Bastia and … Continue reading
Climate justice, heat justice and the politics of resilience
Lethal heat and climate justice. The increase in extreme heat events around the world shows that the impact of climate change is increasingly lethal. Any climate justice strategy needs to include ‘heat justice’ and a politics of resilience. More than … Continue reading
Posted in climate emergency, Politics
Tagged climate change, climate emergency, climate justice, comfort, crisis, energy poverty, Equality, extreme temperature, heatwave, India, inequality, Kim Stanley Robinson, New Delhi, politics, poverty, resilience, The Ministry for the Future, United Kingdom
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Nancy Fraser’s eco-socialist common sense.
Nancy Fraser’s ‘Climates of Capital’. In the essay ‘Climates of Capital’ (2021) Nancy Fraser argues that we need to see the various major crises we face as systemic and connected, resulting from capitalism. If we are to survive and flourish, … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Antonio Gramsci, capital, capitalism, climate change, climate emergency, Climates of Capital, counter-hegemony, crisis, Democracy, eco-politics, eco-socialism, economy, Equality, financialization, global North, global South, Green New Deal, hegemony, inequality, markets, Nancy Fraser, nature, New Left Review, social justice, socialism, Thinking Global
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Education, social justice and survival in a time of crisis.
Based on a presentation for the CSPACE ‘1000 little fires’ conference at Birmingham City University, July 2022. A system in crisis. It is clear that we are living in a global crisis which threatens our very survival. The climate emergency, … Continue reading
A political education.
Why political literacy? Politics is about power and change, how we live our lives and what kind of world we want. The political is not a separate sphere of life, it’s embedded in our everyday experience, as are the ideologies … Continue reading
Redistribution and recognition should go hand in hand.
Reading Nancy Fraser’s critique of progressive neoliberalism. Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Antonio Gramsci, authoritarianism, capitalism, counter-hegemony, crisis, eco-socialism, Equality, hegemonic bloc, hegemony, inequality, markets, Nancy Fraser, Neoliberalism, populism, progressive neoliberalism, progressive populism, reactionary populism, redistribution, representation, social justice, socialism
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French presidential election: could Mélenchon make it?
Today’s French presidential election. Today’s first round of the French presidential election comes at a time of shifting political assumptions, although the line-up of leading candidates looks familiar, with the top 3 candidates this time round all having been in … Continue reading
Owning our crises
The climate emergency and environmental degradation, the Covid-19 pandemic, the injustices of systemic racism, wars and their humanitarian consequences, the sharp rise in the cost of living… As one crisis succeeds another in dominating our thoughts, it’s easy to see … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Anti-war, Antonio Gramsci, climate emergency, crisis, Democracy, economy, Equality, inequality, Nancy Fraser, politics, Social change, Sustainability
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French elections 2022
Electing a French President. #1 The presidential election system. 2022 is a big election year in France, with the presidential election in April followed by the parliamentary (National Assembly) elections in June. Each of these elections has two rounds, meaning … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Democracy, elections, France, French presidential elections, politics, voting
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Eddie Playfair 