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Recent Posts
- Zola : a political reading. August 13, 2023
- Hotter than July? August 5, 2023
- Rethinking work July 30, 2023
- Educating for political literacy in an age of crisis. July 21, 2023
- Savoirs et valeurs : pratiquer et conjuguer July 21, 2023
- ‘Transformative Teaching and Learning in Further Education – Pedagogies of Hope and Social Justice’ July 18, 2023
- Dilemmas of Growth June 14, 2023
- A broader view of skills? June 7, 2023
- 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
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Category Archives: Politics
Zola : a political reading.
Political writing and political reading. Politics is concerned with ideas about how we live, power, class, inequality, social and economic relations and how they change over time. Writing also deals with how we live, and we can think of all … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Fiction, History, Politics
Tagged anarchism, Bonaparte, capitalism, Charles Dickens, class, Class Struggles in France, Communism, Coup-d’état, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emile Zola, France, Frederick Engels, Germinal, Hard Times, Honoré de Balzac, Ian Birchall, Jules Vallès, Karl Marx, L'Argent, L'Assommoir, La Curée, La Fortune des Rougon, Le Ventre de Paris, Margaret Harkness, Nana, Napoleon III, North and South, Pot-Bouille, revolution, Rougon-Macquart, Second Empire, socialism, strikes, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, The Paris Commune, Travail, utopianism, William Gallois, working class
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Hotter than July?
Joining the dots on system failure and climate justice in the era of global boiling. July 2023 has been the hottest month on planet Earth in recorded history. It included the hottest day ever (6 July) and before it even … Continue reading
Posted in climate emergency, Economics, Politics
Tagged Antonio Guterres, climate action, climate emergency, climate justice, climate transition, crisis, decarbonising, Ed Hawkins, fossil fuels, heatwave, Just Stop Oil, just transition, net zero, poverty, social justice, Sustainability, United Nations
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Rethinking work
What is work? Work is organised and purposeful human activity, some of which is waged and commodified. How work is defined, who does it, how it is valued and organised, by whom and for whom and how it impacts on … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Education, Politics
Tagged Andre Gorz, capital, capitalism, commodification, David Graeber, Democracy, doughnut economics, ecological economics, economy, employment, Equality, Hilary Wainwright, human capital, human capital theory, Kate Raworth, labour, labour market, Lucas workers plan, Mondragon co-operatives, post-capitalism, production, productivity, Robin Hahnel, social justice, value, work
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Educating for political literacy in an age of crisis.
“Who’s Afraid of Political Education?” The Challenge to Teach Civic Competence and Democratic Participation. Edited by Henry Tam. Policy Press, 2023 One of the key purposes of education is to help people acquire the knowledge and skills to participate and … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Education policy, Politics, Reviews, Teaching and learning
Tagged agonism, Bernard Crick, capitalism, Chantal Mouffe, citizenship education, climate emergency, co-active, co-construction, Colleges, crisis, criticality, curriculum, Democracy, Diane Reay, Education, Equality, further education, global citizenship, human capital theory, John Dewey, Neoliberalism, Paulo Freire, political education, political literacy, politics, populism, schools, social justice, systemic crisis
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Dilemmas of Growth
Our relationship with economic growth can sometimes feel contradictory: ‘can’t live with it, can’t live without it’ . This ‘dilemma’ of growth, as described in Tim Jackson’s ‘Prosperity without Growth’1, seems to be predicated on two assumptions which are in … Continue reading
Posted in climate emergency, Economics, Politics
Tagged capitalism, degrowth, Democracy, doughnut economics, ecological economics, economy, Equality, growth, Jason Hickel, Julia Steinberger, Kate Raworth, Less is More, Living well within limits, planning, Prosperity without Growth, Sustainability, sustainable development, Tim Jackson
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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
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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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Eddie Playfair 