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Recent Posts
- 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
- Zola’s ‘Money’ January 23, 2022
- Overcoming the barriers to learning January 7, 2022
- Finding our voice in a crisis. January 1, 2022
- Stupid gene. December 30, 2021
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Category Archives: Politics
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
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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Zola’s ‘Money’
Rougon-Macquart #18 A powerful anti-capitalist novel. Emile Zola’s wonderful 1890 novel ‘L’Argent’ (‘Money’) is set in the world of finance and share-speculation in 1860’s Paris. It is still fresh and relevant and should be on any reading list of anti-capitalist … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Fiction, Politics, Reviews
Tagged capitalism, economy, Emile Zola, France, investment, money, Napoleon III, Paris, Second Empire, socialism, speculation, Yanis Varoufakis
1 Comment
“You either bend the arc or it bends you”
‘Attack Surface’ by Cory Doctorow. ‘Attack Surface‘ (2020) is a gripping action-packed story of oppression and resistance with plenty of insights into the potential of new technologies and big data. It is also a powerful manifesto for the necessity of … Continue reading
‘The Ministry for the Future’ by Kim Stanley Robinson
Fiction can change the world and the didactic approach or the ‘novel of ideas’ can be compatible with good storytelling. Like any work of art, a work of fiction can change us as individuals and, through us, help to make … Continue reading
Starting to rethink education.
There are different ways to think about life after a crisis. One is: ‘let’s try to get back to things as they were as quickly as possible’, another is: ‘we can’t go back to things as they were, this is … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Education Futures, Politics
Tagged ASCL Blueprint for a fairer education, Commission on the College of the Future, crisis, Education, Education policy, future, future education, hope, Hope in the Dark, politics, Rebecca Solnit, Thinking Global, transformation, UNESCO, UNESCO Futures of Education
5 Comments
Rebecca Solnit on Hope.
In a crisis, it is easy to despair. ‘Don’t mourn, organise!’ is a good mantra in such situations. Mourning has its place, but our response should be neither blind despair nor blind hope. We need to understand the objective reality … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Reviews
Tagged Coronavirus pandemic, crisis, hope, Hope in the Dark, learning, optimism, pessimism, Rebecca Solnit, Thinking Global, utopianism
2 Comments
An A-Z for a world which has to change.
In the midst of a global coronavirus pandemic which threatens many lives, we need to remember that this is just one of several global crises we face which will change our world in profound ways. All these challenges require us … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
Tagged Anti-war, basic income, co-operation, Coronavirus pandemic, Democracy, Equality, global citizenship, inclusion, inequality, knowledge, marketisation, mutuality, poverty, rationalism, resilience, Solidarity, state, Sustainability, Thinking Global, trust, universalism, wealth, xenophobia, young people, zeitgeist
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Eddie Playfair 