Welcome to ‘Bitter Britain’: repression of student demo is a sign of the times

Luke Cooper 10 November 2011
The London student demonstration on 9 Nov showed how the movement has transformed since the tuition fees protests last winter, and how the British state is hardening in its efforts to maintain control.

Multiculturalism and social cohesion

Ger Mennens 10 November 2011
The nuts and bolts of a Big Society require a conspiracy of effects at every level, local, national and international. It also requires multiculturalism.

The Internet is still changing everything. Now, the rendez-vous with ourselves

Beth Noveck 8 November 2011
The Club de Madrid convenes its annual conference this week, which this year is themed on Internet and Democracy. Down the road, indignant protesters camp in Zuccotti Park, networked through the Zeitgeist and the ether with many other groups worldwide.

No deadlines: Occupy London activists won't be co-opted

Hilary Aked 4 November 2011
The City of London Corporation has dropped its threat to evict 'tent city' at St Paul's Cathedral. Negotiations are on, but occupiers are wary of being transformed into a mute tourist attraction.

Church, city, media: how the message of #OccupyLondon is being disrupted

Jamie Mackay 1 November 2011
OccupyLondon's encampment is facing eviction from outside St Paul's cathedral. The Church of England and City of London Corporation are in turmoil. Meanwhile, the media frenzy is in danger of drowning out the message of the occupation.

E-Petition for an English Parliament: Why you should sign it

David Rickard 30 October 2011
Independence for England is supported by over 35% of English residents, yet politicians doggedly avoid the 'English question'. Now it's time to break through parliament's silence.

The Russian state and surveillance technology

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan 25 October 2011

The Russian blogosphere has burgeoned into a open-door sanctuary for all strands of political opinion. Predictably, it has also attracted the attention of the country's security services. Irina Borogan and Andrei Soldatov present the first in a series of investigations outlining how the Russian state is now monitoring its online public.

Radical media, stop fighting the mainstream - instead, let's build the future

James Hamilton 25 October 2011
Radical media are wasting too much energy competing with the mainstream. They should return to their great strength: discovering new ways of 'doing' media in the service of progressive change.

Intellectuals against the public sphere: how to do debate better than Evgeny Morozov's tear-down

Jeff Jarvis 25 October 2011
Evgeny Morozov, an engaging thinker whom we have enjoyed publishing on openDemocracy, produced an intemperate review of a peer's book. Here, that peer responds in an exemplary way. An attempt to shut down conversation has, in the best sort of Streisand effect, back-fired and opened it up.

Reproduction of movement(s) without organisation: #UKUncut, #OWS, #OccupyMovement

Aaron Peters 18 October 2011
A global day of collective action in 82 countries shook the world on October 15, 2011. Yet the protests were not co-ordinated by political parties, unions or other institutional actors. They were driven by the rapid dissemination of memes, made possible by the internet.

#OccupyLondon: not the beginning or the end, but a momentous opportunity

Hilary Aked 18 October 2011
The first weekend of the London occupation felt victorious, as the protesters established their own democracy and showed solidarity with a growing global movement. Even if it is soon disbanded, this is one step forward in an ongoing struggle.

The Revolution Will Be Digitised: dispatches from the information war

John Booth 11 October 2011
Heather Brooke uncovered the MPs expenses scandal and played a key role in the Wikileaks project. Her new book explores the emancipatory consequences of digitisation, as well as the potential for new forms of oppression.

Joining up the dots: Steve Jobs, Slavoj Žižek and "good capitalism"

Tony Curzon Price 7 October 2011
Thanks to jmak on TumblrWatch the moving and inspirational commencement speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford in 2005. From the story of his birth to the daily awareness of his death, he joins up the dots to write the personal story. But those dots are part of a larger context of what has made the technology industry a success over the past 30 years in contrast to the failure of finance in the same period. Strong, pro-active anti-trust policy is as much a part of the Jobs/Valley success-story as the manipulation of legislation is part of the tragedy of finance

Murdoch and Berlusconi: the fall of two media empires and the network multitudes

Giorgio Griziotti 30 September 2011
The simultaneous fall of the Murdoch and Berlusconi media empires – symbolic of an epoch – is not a coincidence but part of a deep global change in which the exponential growth of horizontal communication networks plays a central role. In this global epoch, despite the thin line between new democratic opportunities and the old threats of control, unforeseen democratic movements are demanding a new kind of democracy.

Anatomy of a Networked Riot: rapid violence, rapid response

Catherine Dempsey 13 September 2011
Social networking has come under fire since England's week of riots and looting. But the same tools that facilitated a rapid escalation of violence also allowed citizens to organize a speedy response.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.

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European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

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