ecology & place

The relationship between people, home, and place shifts, as landscape, culture, and technology fluctuates. Here, we examine the ebb and flow of people, places, and culture.
Wednesday 17th March

The Battle for Khimki Forest

Yevgenia Chirikova, 17 March 2010
The plan to construct a section of the new Moscow-St.Petersburg motorway through the legally-protected Khimki Forest Park will destroy a rare eco-system. Dogged local resistance has turned this into a national, even international issue. But it has not derailed the plan
Friday 26th February

Saving the Amur tiger

Mumin Shakirov, 26 February 2010
With the Amur tiger population facing extinction, organisations from Russia and abroad have been working to save them. They don’t always agree as to how this should be done. Then there are the politics, Mumin Shakirov observes. Perhaps the Year of the Tiger will be auspicious for the Amur big cats…
Thursday 4th February

The blizzard of the world

Paul Kingsnorth, 4 February 2010
The exhaustion of the planet and existing ways of life presents a creative challenge: exploring “uncivilisation”. Paul Kingsnorth introduces the Dark Mountain Project.
Thursday 7th January

Does environmentalism destroy the world?

Tony Curzon Price, 7 January 2010
openDemocracy and Resurgence launch the Dictionary of Ethical Politics to explore how our political concepts can cope with the end of the limitless
Sunday 11th October

Stockholm Woodland Cemetery

Ken Worpole, 11 October 2009
Stockholm's woodland cemetery is a landscape whose democratic ideals serve a universal sense
Friday 21st August

The felling of bungalows, the building of Dhaka

Delwar Hussain, 21 August 2009
The frenetic urban growth of Bangladesh's capital forces its inhabitants into new ways of living
Monday 25th May

Saving baby seals: one woman’s crusade

Mumin Shakirov, 25 May 2009
Russia has banned the hunting of baby harp seals. The victory follows a personal crusade by International Fund for Animal Welfare's Maria Vorontsova.
Thursday 30th April

Climate Change: politics v reality

Brian Davey, 30 April 2009
Anthony Giddens' new book The Politics of Climate Change manages the politics and ignores the challenge
Monday 8th December

The "rights of nature"

Jessica Loudis, 8 December 2008
Ecuador's new leftist government is considering bestowing legal "rights" upon nature. What would Hannah Arendt think?
Sunday 26th October

A politics of crisis: low-energy cosmopolitanism

David Hayes and Andrew Dobson, 26 October 2008
The financial breakdown is opening new fissures in the world's political crust
Wednesday 30th January

Mahatma Gandhi’s achievement

Satish Kumar, 30 January 2008
Gandhi's vision of a non-violent social order remains the template for ecology, peace and social justice
Wednesday 23rd August

Roger Deakin, a journey through landscape

Ken Worpole, 23 August 2006
The author of "Waterlog" and the forthcoming "Wildwood" explored the natural landscape in fresh, surprising and influential ways. Ken Worpole pays tribute to Roger Deakin, and introduces his openDemocracy "swimmer's journey" article from July 2001.
Tuesday 4th July

The British Landscape

Ken Worpole, 4 July 2006
John Davies' beautiful panoramic photographs of the British landscape capture an industrial world now lost and a modernity running away from its past, says Ken Worpole.
Sunday 25th June

The architect and the other

Jeremy Till, 25 June 2006
Can architecture be democratic? Jeremy Till warns against empty gestures and sticking handwritten notes on technical drawings, and welcomes Lift's mold-breaking project to design a New Parliament.

The Lift New Parliament: vote for your favourite design

openDemocracy, 25 June 2006
The London International Festival of Theatre wants your vote in its architecture competition to design the Lift New Parliament, a travelling performance and meeting space – preview the designs and cast your vote.
Monday 1st May

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006): cities for life

Roger Scruton, 1 May 2006
Jane Jacobs's book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" changed the way people thought about urban planning, the street and the character of cities. Roger Scruton reflects on the relevance of its message today.
Tuesday 4th April

Ian Hamilton Finlay's world

Ken Worpole, 4 April 2006
The landscape artist Ian Hamilton Finlay created an extraordinary fusion of sculpture, inscription and philosophy in his Little Sparta garden. Ken Worpole considers a complex figure.
Thursday 9th March

Lido life

Ken Worpole, 9 March 2006
"When we get down to swimming, we get down to democracy." Ken Worpole finds a political challenge in the revival of a public arena where sensuous and spiritual pleasures combine: the lido and open-air swimming pool.
Wednesday 14th December

Living on water: welcome to a shedboatshed world

Ken Worpole, 14 December 2005
A journey through the coastal landscape of Essex, eastern England, convinces Ken Worpole that human beings in the 21st century must relearn how to live with water.
Thursday 17th February

Write the constitution down!

John Jackson, 17 February 2005
The battle over fox-hunting in England has led to a crisis of authority in the state itself. Anthony Barnett asks John Jackson, a key figure in the case and chairman of a leading law firm, Mishcon de Reya, to comment on the significance of the latest decision by a high-level panel of judges.
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