Centre-right parties across Europe are announcing the failure of multiculturalism. We are witnessing a co-ordinated revival of Enoch Powell's idea of the aggressive outsider out to dominate the rest; only now race and immigration are being played out on the terrain of culture and religion
Right-wing populist parties tend to be anti-multinational and anti-intellectual: they endorse nationalistic, nativist, and chauvinistic beliefs, embedded - explicitly or coded - in common sense appeals to a presupposed shared knowledge of ‘the people’.
The debate in England over Scottish independence misses the point. It was the SNP's ambition and positivity, not the independence issue, that won them the Parliamentary majority. Now they must be more bold still, and build a path towards a distinctively Scottish future
The Europe that is dying is the one that remains hostage to its past. Another Europe is not only possible but is in fact fast becoming an urgent necessity. This would be a Europe of vitality, open to connections, that has let go of its civilisational conceits
It has taken 40 years for the Nationalists to become the dominant force in Scottish politics. The SNP's victory has changed the story of Scotland and of the UK itself. But a referendum on independence is not enough. We must open a pluralist conversation about the kind of Scotland we want to live i
We needn’t disavow the insights of contemporary democratic theory to explore the intuition that they have been deeply shaped by the experience of democracy in one part of the world, and that this might produce inadvertent gaps or weaknesses in the theory.
Our guest editor introduced his special feature on the ‘Uses of Xenophobia’, on Europe Day. Here, he maps the new relevance of an open and shared commons to a continent that is once again meeting economic, political and cultural insecurity with a resurgence of aggressive political demagoguery
The ideal of business, media and political separation is never fully achieved. But the trend in Central and Eastern Europe seems to be towards a worrying degradation. A podcast conversation with accompanying presentation. Podcast Powered By Podbean
The contrast between the SNP's resounding victory in Scotland and Britain's decision to embrace our current FPTP voting system suggests that we have entered an explosive political decade. The 'Scottish Spring' signals an opportunity for a genuinely democratic party south of the border
There is no ‘finished product democracy’. How should democracy or self-rule be explained and evaluated today? It requires respect for the democracy of knowledge. A global conversation held at three international meetings, involving academics, civil society and social movement activists from Asia,
Scotland emerged from its election completely and utterly changed. A huge historic Nationalist victory and the worst Labour result in seats since 1931. In its own way, the country has undergone its very own Scottish Spring
The university with the UK's highest proportion of poorer students is being assaulted by its own administration. All subject areas will be affected but Arts and Humanities are being decimated. Contrary to the Vice-Chancellor's claims, this was done without a full consultation
