Category Democracy
For a Europe of freer regions
The recent clashes in Catalonia, where more than 900 people were injured in confrontations between national police and ordinary people seeking to vote in the attempted independence referendum have again shown that a number of countries within Europe, and elsewhere too, find it hard to deal with the dynamics of regional identities supplementing or in […]
The future will be back with a vengeance
Cornered animals are often amongst the most dangerous. Is the virulence of authoritarian politics in western democracies, often coupled with a retrenchment in free market capitalism, a sign of them recognising that they are facing dusk, or something else? In 1996 the late geographer Neil Smith published his work on the revanchist city, in which […]
Prisoners of Jebs
The Nigerian writer Ken Saro Wiwa once wrote a novel that simply does not age: Prisoners of Jebs. To rid Africa and Nigeria of its special criminals including deposed Dictators and the ever-present threat of their return to power and the troughs of corruption, African countries club together to create a special abode for them, […]
Press ‘play’ now – how Macron’s fresh pro EU stance can release a suppressed groundswell of support …
It is early days to hail an end to the rise of nationalism in Europe, yet it is encouraging to see how many politicians and media commentators on the continental mainland currently bask in the warm sun of the new French President Macron’s pro-European stance. Macron’s glow is inevitable: he is young, he seems to […]
An experiment in democracy
Forget about Macron’s election having potentially put a stop to the rise of nationalist movements in Europe. Aside from questions of left or right, the reality is that with his election a relatively new dynamic has entered the debate about the EU: in a big and influential member state the traditional parties have been rejected […]
The age of egotism
Today, with the formal request by the UK to leave the European Union, a decision takes hold which may well prove to be one of the most extraordinarily misguided acts in European politics of this century. We still have 80 and more years to go until 2100. A failure of global leaders to control global […]
The eclipse of generosity in politics – will civil society practice be the next victim?
In many ways politics has always been a cutthroat business. Most of those who ended up on top in the struggle for power have historically taken every opportunity to kick their opponents when they were already reeling from defeat, seeking to prevent any chance for resurgence of opposition, forever. One of the hallmarks of modern […]
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