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Do the public really want to change ‘the system’?: Stuart Wilks-Heeg presents polling evidence
Don't trust MPs' constitutional poker: Guy Aitchison supports the call for a citizens' convention
Brown's 'National Council for Democratic Renewal': Anthony Barnett on the Prime Minister's desperate proposal ColumnsPaul Rogers Li Datong Fred Halliday Mary Kaldor Daniele Archibugi
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The Chinese Capitalist Revolution, ODDcircle Tue 20 Oct 09 at The Blue Mugge
Notes based on TV documentary, summer 09, with the same title, odn articles: China Local/China Global by Kerry Brown, Beijing’s Credibility Crisis by Datong and What Was Communism by Fred Halliday.
Civil Society: Enabling Dissent - joint oD/Carnegie eventSt Martin-in-the-Fields, London4:30pm-6:30pm, Tuesday 28 July 2009 (Tea and coffee served from 4:15pm) The Carnegie UK Trust Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland and Open Democracy are delighted to invite you to an event to explore the role of civil society associations in creating and supporting spaces for dissenting voices, both in the UK and globally. Podcast of the openDemocracy Russia evening, 2 July, LondonListen to a recording of openDemocracy's Russia evening. openDemocracy Russia editor Susan Richards and scholar Anatol Lieven discuss Susan Richards' new book Lost and Found in Russia.What are Universities for? (ODDc Tue 14th July 09 )What are Universities for?ODDc Tue 14th July 09 (and replacing The Lunar Men which will feature in the autumn programme) at The Blue Mugge pub BNP success in the European elections is a boost for British Democracy?BNP success in the European elections is a boost for British Democracy? ODDc Tue 30 June 09 at The Blue Mugge pub These notes using comments and questions from TC, EB and DT. 1. Where does BNP support come from? 2. Has the two-party/first past the post system, linked with a move to the centre by the main parties, left sections of the population feeling marginalised? 3. Will the BNP gain of two seats in the European elections lead the main parties to address legitimate concerns of those who feel alienated and disenfranchised from the political process? 4. The BNP claims to represent/support the ‘indigenous, white working-class’. What’s wrong with that? 5. Visit the BNP web-site: read-up on their policy on immigration and note that the BNP leader this month ‘Denounces Racist and Sectarian Violence in Northern Ireland’ > debate on the nature of racism and fascism. …………………………………………………………… What part does History play? BNP Mission Statement: ‘The BNP exists to secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands… We use the term indigenous to describe the people whose ancestors were the earliest settlers here’. From book to film, Tue 9 June 09 at The Blue Mugge pubBook > Film: The ReaderODD Circle Tue 9 June 09 at The Blue Mugge pub A discussion on film and TV adaptations of novels. 1. Joseph Conrad’s novelistic intention: ‘My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see.’ (1897). 2. ‘As anyone who has seen any version of Anna Karenina knows, a great book does not necessarily make a great film’ Mark Brown, in an article this month introducing the recent attempt to select ‘The top 50 adaptations from book to film’. 3. Our discussion will begin with several who have read The Reader and seen the film commenting upon those quotes. Don’t worry if you’ve not read this book or not seen the film. A brief narrative summary will be given and the aim this evening is to engage with general issues around adaptations. Everyone, in every bar tonight, will have seen some kind of film adaptation? 4. For example, some film theorists have argued that a director should be entirely unconcerned with the source, as a novel is a novel while a film is a film… The Trout and the ZeitgeistLast weekend I learned that there's been groups meeting in pubs in Liverpool discussing philosophy for several years... They too have a website > www.philosophyinpubs.org.uk We are making connections and links...'The Mugge, the Trout and the Zeitgeist': a future theme? Keep smiling, Derek Heidegger, ODD circle Tue 26th May 09 at The Blue Mugge Pub...3. “Heideggerians regard as crucial the argument of his work – which in essence, bears on one single topic: what he calls ‘the being of Being’.”… “For Heidegger… constant fear of death and the anxieties of life, helped man ask this central question: ‘What is it to be?’… ‘Why is there being at all instead of nothing?’ Recording of openDemocracy's Latin America evening, 14 MayAn unedited recording of the talks and discussion with openDemocracy authors Juanita Leon and Ivan Briscoe, Thursday 14 May, 2009. If you want to keep in touch with the Juanita's and Ivan's writing on openDemocracy you can subscribe to RSS feeds from their author pages below: http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/Ivan_Briscoe.jsp http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/Juanita_Leon.jsp Juanita Leon's Colombian news site can be found here http://www.lasillavacia.com/ And to read all openDemocracy's Latin American articles just click here, or sign up to the RSS feed - orange button top left of the page: http://www.opendemocracy.net/editorial_tags/latin_america_caribbean
Thursday May 14th. London oD pub evening - Media and democratisation in Latin AmericaLatin America's Democratic Opening. What was the role of media and what should be the role for new media? When: Thursday May 14th at 7.15pm Where: The Perseverance, 63 Lamb's Conduit Street. Nearest tube Holborn. Map here. What: Pub meeting. (Small) oD tab. The room can hold about 30 people. Email Julian Stern (julian.stern@opendemocracy.net) if you'd like to come. Discussion led by Juanita Leon and Ivan Briscoe.1 hour of seminar-style discussion followed by social. Juanita's intro: Colombia has changed a great deal in the last 30 years, in no small part because of the great social mobility created by drug trafficking. The entertainment, the business and the political world have evolved and democratized in ways that have surprised even the more skeptical in the Left. The media world, instead, remains one of the last trenches of the old elite.
There is a huge media concentration, which creates a high-level entry barrier for other competitors, so the idea that it is ‘impossible’ to create an alternative successful media has gotten hold of my generation. New Media, and specially the new open-source platforms, create the opportunity to break that monopoly with new information sources that are not linked to the economic or political elite of the country. Ivan's intro: Latin America's democratic opening has come at one remove from the media: while certain outlets chipped at dictatorship, they certainly did not fell them (this was largely an elite enterprise). Indeed the "democratic" media have been marked by privileged relationships with power, maintenance of a hysteric agenda of crime and insecurity, selective use of information and blatant political meddling (Mexico, Central America, Argentina stand out). For the new left, the creation of alternative media spaces has been combined with attacks on the major conglomerates (Venezuela, Nicaragua). The end result is hardly the establishment of a real independent sphere of debate. Obviously the new media has immense potential here, though yet to be realized. Segmentation of society and opinion is the prevalent norm, patrolled by extraordinary flexible and self-justifying discourses; the established Latin American commentators operated at a stellar distance from ground-level. That ground level expresses itself as threat - political or criminal. Real purposive exchange of experience is vital.
Local Railways, ODD Circle Tue 5 May 09 at The Blue Mugge PubLocal RailwaysODD Circle Tue 5 May 09 at The Blue Mugge Pub Two visitors with special knowledge of the North Staffs. railways’ situation will be present and given opportunity to present information and make comments as appropriate. Preliminary - getting up steam… Brief reviews of the wider picture and context, each who wishes only commenting for a minute or so on these points. 1. The significance of railways in Britain: history and impact. 2. ‘The steam locomotive is the most aesthetically pleasing of all engineering creations’ Examples, for and against. (Photos, if possible).. 3. Railways in art, literature, film and architecture: Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed; Dickens Dombey and Son; The Railway Children; Brief Encounter; Night Mail (film, poetry and music); St. Pancras. Any more? We’ll simply make a list and consider, maybe, a future session on this. Individual Freedom in the UK, Lazy Trout Meerbrook 7-30pm for 7-45pm Monday May 4th 2009Individual Freedom in the UKLazy Trout Meerbrook 7-30pm for 7-45pm Monday May 4th 2009 Tue 28th Apl 09 at The Blue Mugge Pub - How is Obama doing?The USA - how’s Obama doing?ODD Circle Tue 28th Apl 09 at The Blue Mugge Pub Notes using Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope and articles from www.opendemocracy.net 1. Hope’ is the word, from his book and from his speeches which carries infectious resonance. Yet, already Naomi Klein writing in The Nation this month has sign-posted ‘hopebroken and hopesick’… What are our hopes, reservations and fears? 2. Geoffrey Hodgson, director of Reuters’ Foundation Programme, Oxford “No American president has started with more personal ability or more sheer good-will from around the world than Barack Obama…” At the recent G20 “Obama spoke of a new, more subtle, more truthful style of leadership”. ODD Programme Summer 2009 The Blue MuggeFrom USA to Feminism, Marx to Heidigger, confidence to engineering ...Citizenship and Sustainable Communities (3) - Tuesday 7th April 2009 at The Blue Mugge Pub, Leek
Open Circle or ODD Group
ODD Circle - Kierkegaard: Why?ODD Circle Tue 31st Mar 09 at The Blue Mugge PubAnthony Barnett's "What Next?" - grainy recordingFrom The BigChill, Kings Cross, London. 26 Mar 2009
I tried out my first iPhone audio blog on Anthony's "What next?" proposal earlier this evening to the Convention on Modern Liberty post-event party. Turn up the volume and get close to the speakers -- next time I'll try and be closer to the speaker:
The Lazy Trout. Do we get the politicians we deserve?Lazy trout ,Meerbrook 30th March 2009 at 19-30 for 19-45 start.Pets as kin. Lazy Trout Discussion GroupPets as KinODD Circle Tue 24th Mar 09 at The Blue Mugge Pub Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London. Thursday Mar 19 2009openDemocracy's quarterly London meeting. Bill Thompson led a discussion on journalism, the web and civil libertiesLeek ODD Groupa forum for weekly debate on pertinent social and political issuesODD - Abstract Painting - ‘Anyone could do that’?Open Circle or the ODD groupTue 18 Nov 08 at The Blue Mugge pub ODD Discussion Group. Autumn 08 ProgramOpen Circle or The ODD Group(Open Democracy Discussion Group) Provisional Programme - Autumn 2008 Tuesdays at The Blue Mugge pub, Osborne St., Leek 19.30 for 19.45 > 21.15 Poetry and Sylvia PlathEnclose notes for the Blue Mugge pub discussion next Tue 4 Nov. Roger Elkin has prepared these notes and will lead/chair the discussion. A reminder of programme change: on Tue 25th Nov we will be debating and discussing The Crash, 2008. Also: Friday 7th November 10.30 - 3.30pm
Open Circle or Odd Group Tuesday 4th November 08 at The Blue Mugge Pub, Leek Some Poetry Definitions 1 S.T.Coleridge: Poetry; the best words in the best order. 4Which of the above do you agree with?
Mushrooms Sylvia Plath Overnight, very Our toes, our noses Nobody sees us, Soft fists insist on Even the paving. Perfectly voiceless, Diet on water, Little or nothing.
We are shelves, we are Nudgers and shovers We shall by morning
Consciousness 2 - ODD Study groupOpen Circle, ODD Group
A brief reminder that the theme tomorrow evening, Tue 28 Oct, will be 'Consciousness 2'. == -1Consciousness Additional notes for Tue 28th Oct. From The Conscious Brain by Steven Rose - former Professor of Biology, the OU. “Consciousness means many things, sometimes simultaneously, often contradictorily. Consciousness in my sense of the term, is a continuously unrolling, continuously developing activity of minds/brains in interaction with their environment, modified, either temporarily or permanently, by changing circumstances.”
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