Quick link: Who goes to right wing rallies, and why?
I don’t always agree with Bernard Keane but I think he is right on the money on the question of the demographics and motivations of participants in right wing rallies such as the recent ones in Canberra, in his first [...]
London burning IV: Tory authoritarianism triumphant
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech to the House of Commons in the aftermath of the English riots set the tone for a bizarre crackdown: Responsibility for crime always lies with the criminal. But crime has a context. And we [...]
London burning II: The sociology of civil disorder
It’s time for another thread on the English riots, since the last one is now rather long.
To update on some of the analysis, the prediction that a number of the usual suspects would turn the events into a partisan football has unsurprisingly been borne out. So let’s ignore that, and have a look at what we know about what’s happened and what it means.
London burning: Why here, why now? The sociology of civil disorder
Underlying all this is deep inequality, which creates the subcultures where setting the town alight can be perceived as a rational action. Addressing those causes would require a different form of society altogether, and a politics which would take us there.
Towards realistic utopias I
I intend to write on Erik Olin Wright’s important book Envisioning Real Utopias, but I thought it might be useful to make it a five part series, rather than the world’s longest blog post. I’d also like to have a [...]
Addressing the preconditions of atrocities: Silvestri
Writing at Open Democracy, Sara Silvestri makes an excellent argument about the massacres in Norway, and how we should act to avoid their repetition.
The Global Village still has idiots
WA’s Attorney General wants to give parents legal rights over their children’s Facebook pages. Miranda Devine, in her typically careful way with words, describes social media as “barbarism, unleashing the worst elements of human nature, with no restraints” and quotes [...]
Amy Winehouse and the tragedy of myths
Winehouse’s struggles will have been compounded by the world she found herself in. Her death should stimulate reflection on how myths surrounding mental illness have a cruel hold over real lives.
We don’t need to buy stuff? Peak Consumerism
Post-GFC, there are now arguments in places like The Economist and the New York Times that we’ve passed Peak Consumerism.
Social capital, social networking and the Brisbane floods
My colleague in several incarnations, Dr John Harrison, has a neat post on social capital and the SEQ floods at jmaced: The good thing is that communities with high levels of social capital recover from adverse circumstances faster than those [...]
On feeling sympathy with Stephen Conroy
We really must be in a new paradigm when some people on Twitter end up thinking Sophie Mirabella speaks truly and I find myself feeling some sympathy with Stephen Conroy. But that’s perhaps by the by. I think one of [...]
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