The happiness 'movement' has the potential to transform society, but do its proponents know what they're doing? William Davies sets out four strands of the debate - philosophical, statistical, economical and psychological - and shows how confusion between them is hindering progress
The 23rd of April is when Shakespeare died, allegedly was born, and is St George's day, the national day of England - were England to celebrate it. It is about time that it does and gives Britishness a healthy shaking
Allowing BP to use support for the arts as a fig-leaf for its devastating actions not only supports environmental destruction, but also neuters the potential of the artist to meaningfully challenge power
The latest of the theatre director’s ‘strange days’ in Cairo, while waiting to hear if he and his partner have permission to enter Gaza; caught in stasis while extraordinary events unfold around them. Updated.
Independent and moderate US voters do share the Tea Party’s concern about the spiralling national debt, stagnant employment and collapsing currency.
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has become a central issue in the minds of the Lebanese, implicated in power conflicts among Lebanon’s major religious groups. Can Prime Minister-designate Najib Makati assume a conciliatory role and pull the country out of crisis?
Ukrainian identity has historically been defined in opposition to Russia, but an anti-Russian agenda is unable to bind together a state with a large ethnic Russian population. With the Yanukovych administration now taking a neo-Stalinist approach to history and education, airbrushing out nationali
The Cossacks have played an important part at various times in Russian history. Now their ranks are diluted by intermarriage and the admission of non-Cossacks. Elena Strelnikova ponders the attempts to keep Cossack traditions alive in Orenburg, South Russia.
At home, our author has been building, with a hunger for food, wholeness, and what reckless history there is in the stones and the magic beneath them
In response to Daniele Archibugi, the author rejects an approach to migration which sets cosmopolitans against communitarians. Instead she proposes a scheme able to differentiate, to address and to juggle the needs of both
How much happiness does spending on the arts buy us? Which cultural pursuits are the most effective? And are these the questions the UK should be asking in formulating our arts policy?
