Towards a sociological concept of neo-liberalism I
Who’s afraid of neo-liberalism? Writing last year, Terry Flew inveighs against neo-liberalism as a shibboleth in academic discourse, signalling a distaste for markets but vague in meaning. Flew appears particularly exercised about its use in cultural studies, arguing that it [...]
Margaret Thatcher and neo-liberal sovereignty
As a footnote to my post on Margaret Thatcher, I wanted to draw attention to some responses to the special sitting of Parliament and the state funeral in her memory. A number of Labour MPs boycotted the House of Commons [...]
Envisioning realistic Utopias, realised utopias, Erik Olin Wright and Crooked Timber
There’s been a fascinating series on Crooked Timber on Erik Olin Wright’s book Envisioning Realistic Utopias. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem yet to be a sidebar link which captures the posts, and Wright is new to blogging and hasn’t linked back [...]
LP and Catallaxy to merge
Today the Cat Herding Cabal have an exciting announcement. LP will be merging with Catallaxy to bring you the best from both sides of the political divide. We look forward to a new era of stoushing, debate and trolling. The [...]
Are we ever more individual? Or is that the wrong question? A historical sociology of interiority and ascesis
I’ve been reading Guy G. Stroumsa’s The End of Sacrifice, which looks at religious transformations or mutations in the transitions from paganism to Christianity, and Axial moments.
Accord nostalgia, Labourism and the fact challenged ‘economic debate’
A number of intriguing trajectories of argument have crossed over recently, as the Labor government continues to be under great pressure. In leaving the Gillard Cabinet, Martin Ferguson called for an end to ‘class war’ politics (see previous post by [...]
The policy avalanche
Three days ago it was teacher training. Two days ago, it was media law reform – with a “take it or leave it” offer to the crossbenchers to either pass or reject the bill within a very short space of [...]
PJK’s True Believers
We shouldn’t let the 20th anniversary of the Victory of the True Believers pass without comment. It was two decades ago that Paul Keating led the Labor Party to a famous win over John Hewson’s Coalition. Keating, of course, is [...]
How the Wivenhoe engineers fell foul of the Floods Commission
As I outlined in the first post, in February this year the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry reconvened as a result of reporting in The Australian by Hedley Thomas which suggested there had been a major breach of the flood [...]
Behind the Seams: Agriculture, land use and aquifers
Because of Crikey’s IT problems last week, there’s a bit of a backlog in Coal Seam Gas: Behind the Seams articles, so we’re publishing this piece here. In CSG and the land: straight from the farmers’ mouths I looked at [...]
Behind the Seams: Moderate voices in the CSG debate – video interviews
Cross-posted from The Wellhead As Kim Jameson reported, The Greens have ramped up the pressure on their key issue of Coal Seam Gas today, as the election enters its closing days. Similarly, Lock The Gate Alliance made an intervention around [...]
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