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.
Will the killing of Osama Bin Laden bring justice and peace to the world? There is a growing body of evidence reaching back through the centuries, to suggest that it will not.
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,
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
The danger of the well-being movement is that it could lead to us being spoon-fed advice on how to live. Yet the art of living may be the most rewarding subject to teach and learn, as long as adults and children are given the opportunity to challenge this advice, and hold it to account
The Royal Wedding is already fading from public memory, taking its place in the archives of history. But the marriage of the second in line to the throne has shifted the landscape, not only for the monarchy, but for the Conservative state and the legacy of New Labour
The Scottish Parliament elections, for all their drama, have not given us bold, imaginative politics. Scotland needs a new story, that breaks out of our comfortable myths and default positions. Scotland's future story will be about inter-dependence, a politics of a self-governing nation
Igor Kon, one of Russia’s leading intellectuals and one of the founding fathers of Soviet sociology, has died aged 82. He was a veritable polymath whose interests ranged from history to sexology, a branch of science he set up in Russia, often in the teeth of considerable harassment and opposition.
Bardo and Ophelia at the triumphal arch: will the censored verses of Hamlet reveal to us who killed the poet? An extract from the new novel by Luis de Miranda
The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris, is the latest assault by the "new atheists" on their favourite targets. But does it offer anything beyond classical utilitarianism?
