Extending human and civic rights
Book review | A Woman’s Work, by Harriet Harman
In A Woman’s Work, Britain’s longest-serving female MP Harriet Harman offers a new memoir reflecting on her experience of high-level politics and the recent history of the Labour Party from the late 1970s to the present. Despite a small number of notable omissions, this is a valuable addition to the genre of political autobiography that puts women’s lived experience […]
Tilting at linguistic windmills: a million Welsh speakers
The target of creating one million Welsh speakers in Wales by 2050 announced by the Welsh Government as the central goal of its Welsh Language Strategy (‘Cymraeg 2050. A million Welsh speakers’) has captured the headlines: and why should it not? After all, that would mean effectively doubling the number of Welsh speakers. It would […]
Trump, Brexit and baby Searyl: what is the populist signal really telling us?
Are people rejecting democracy, as some scholars suggest? Matt Flinders asks whether a focus upon all things ‘post’ – post-Trump, post-Brexit, post-truth, post-democratic – has prevented scholars and social commentators from looking beyond or beneath the populist signal. Trump’s success, and that of other populists, is little more than the socio-political manifestation of a deeper set of structural […]
Audit 2017: How democratic is the protection of workers’ rights within the UK?
During the 20th century, developed societies increasingly accepted that democracy could not stop at politics, and had to extend to aspects of the economy as well. Democracy in the economy began – and continues – with workers’ rights. As part of the 2017 Audit of UK Democracy, Ewan McGaughey and the Democratic Audit team explore how far they have […]
Book Review | Go Home? The Politics of Immigration Controversies by Hannah Jones et al
In Go Home? The Politics of Immigration Controversies, Hannah Jones et al investigate the effects of UK immigration policy on local communities, drawing on interviews, focus groups, ethnographic observations and surveys. The book offers a powerful demonstration of the everyday impact of immigration controls and narratives, writes Sarah Burton, and unserscores the necessity of forging solidarities of resistance. Similar PostsBook […]
Book review | The End of Eddy, by Édouard Louis
With The End of Eddy, Édouard Louis gives an autobiographical account of his experience of homophobia and economic inequality growing up in Hallencourt, a village in the north of France where many live below the poverty line. While the book has being widely received for offering insight into current divisions within French society as well as the recent electoral […]
Book review | The Equality Effect: Improving Life for Everyone, by Danny Dorling
In The Equality Effect: Improving Life for Everyone, Danny Dorling delivers evidence that more equal countries enjoy better outcomes, with their populations being happier, healthier and more creative, producing less waste and committing fewer crimes. This optimistic book is a pleasure to read, writes Natasha Codiroli Mcmaster, and encourages us to see greater equality – and its social […]
Macron’s 50:50 gender-balanced cabinet: building on a concrete floor
The first cabinet appointed by new French President Emmanuel Macron has a 50-50 gender balance, with eleven of the 22 cabinet members being women. Karen Beckwith writes that Macron’s decision to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet should not have come as a surprise. Drawing on research in seven separate democracies with her colleagues Susan Franceschet and Claire Annesley, she […]
The Brazilian experience: democracy, at its fullest, saves lives
Brazil is a deeply unequal democracy which enjoyed an economic boom in the 2000s – and is now suffering from a recession and the threat of austerity cuts. Michael Touchton, Natasha Borges Sugiyama and Brian Wampler analysed the factors that led to falls in infant mortality. They found that while competitive local elections were important, they alone […]
Book review | The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain, by Sayeeda Warsi
In The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain, Sayeeda Warsi offers a book that is part memoir and part political commentary. Drawing on her Yorkshire childhood as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants and her role as the first female Muslim cabinet member, she reflects on the rise of Islamophobia, government responses to terrorism and questions […]
