What would a 21st century programme of political education look like? Darran McLaughlin writes about the forthcoming Bristol Transformed - a series of panels and workshops featuring Julian Manley (one of the architects of the Preston Model), Cat Hobbs (We Own It), Aaron Bastani, Dawn Foster, Soweto Kinch, Grace Blakeley, Owen Hatherley, James Meadway, and others.
In this edited excerpt from The Lives of Michel Foucault, David Macey views Foucault's life through his thought on desire, S&M and new forms of sexual practice in '70s gay culture:
Calling all Foucault fans! We have 40% off all our reading relating to the work and theory of Michel Foucault. Ends March 31, 23.59 EST.
Franco “Bifo” Berardi responds to Hito Steyerl's book Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War
There are three kinds of idiots: those who can count, and those who can’t. The ones who can count are obsessed with debunking received ideas and finding the hidden truth behind it. They measure things, calculate, and through the rigorous use of their own idiosyncratic reasoning they know why the earth is flat. Then there’s idiots who want to diverge from received ideas but are more playful, willful, intentionally absurd. Byung-Chul Han reminds us of this kind of idiocy which Deleuze thought characteristic of the philosopher. Is Han this kind of special idiot? Maybe.
"Each cannot help seeing the other, on occasion, as trespassers – the young seeing the old as immigrants from the past, the old seeing the young as immigrants from the future." In this extract from Dreams of Leaving and Remaining, James Meek investigates deepening divisions in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum.
The context of war and the influence of the New Right intelligentsia cannot be left out of the reckoning when it comes to understanding the making of the New Zealand terrorist. Liz Fekete on the Christchurch massacre, and a round-up of developments online and in the media.
In this edited excerpt from People's Republic of Walmart, Leigh Phillips and Michal Rozworski discuss their reluctant admiration for Walmart, and the un-sexy, liberatory potential of economic planning.
Samuel Stein, author of Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State, suggests five essential books on urban politics and planning.
Brenton Tarrant, the white supremacist terrorist who killed at least 50 Muslims in New Zealand, titled his manifesto, released shortly before the attack, The Great Replacement. The title recalls the work of French far-right author Renaud Camus, whose ideas have been eagerly taken up by Alain Finkielkraut, and in the manifesto, France looms large as the sight of Tarrant's turn to white supremacy. In this article, Frédéric Debomy castigates the influence of Alain Finkielkraut in France and the power of ideas on political action.
The actions of Brenton Tarrant, the gunman who opened fire on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand last Friday, have sparked outrage across the world. It's also raised the question of how the news media should react to such events. In this article, Lorna Finlayson questions the way the UK media has covered these instances of white supremacist violence and argues that such attacks are not made inevitable by immigration itself, nor by 'difference', but by a media and political class which relentlessly scapegoats immigrants and Muslims while bestowing legitimacy on those who preach hatred against them.
The past month has seen mass protests rock Algeria, forcing president of 20 years Abdelaziz Bouteflika to both abandon his fifth-term bid and postpone the elections themselves. In this article Hocine Belalloufi analyses the prospects for the future of the country.