Pedagogy of the Connected
By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad In Amusing Ourselves to Death, a prophetic work on the impact of television on culture, the late media scholar Neil Postman compared two dystopias. One was George Continue reading
Category Archives
Archive for: Consumer Culture
A Deep Democracy for Scotland
By Justin Kenrick Between now and 2014 do we need a society-wide dialogue on how best to trail-blaze the rebuilding of resilient communities in a resilient ecology? As Svenja Meyerricks Continue reading
A Scottish Spring, Reflections on 2011
This is from “Despatches from the Invisible Revolution” Reflections on 2011, (Editors: Dougald Hine & Keith Kahn-Harris) by Mike Small Caledonian Dreaming From Tunisia to Egypt, Wisconsin and Spain, London Continue reading
Scotland 3.0
Equality needs to be hard-coded into the new Scotland.
Do We Know it’s Christmas?
“Christmas always seems that most English of festivals – from the cathedrals, to the music, to the food, to the commercialism, to the landscapes. Across the Channel, the feast has Continue reading
Materialism’s High Price
Tim Kasser – who spoke at St Andrews University Sustainability Institute on Tuesday night:
The Upside of Austerity
The up side to austerity is the realisation of the worthless con that is material greed on which the house of cards of collapsing economies rely.
Letter to a Dead Man
Dear young man who died on the fourth day of this turbulent 2011, dear Mohammed Bouazizi, I want to write you about an astonishing year — with three months yet Continue reading
Braehead Big Brother
By Ewan Morrison Given that we live in an era in which, as one politician once claimed- ‘it’s your duty to shop’ and at which time that civic duty of Continue reading
Love Life (Sept)
Freedom, in Scotland and elsewhere, isn’t something that is given by governments or other authorities. It’s something that’s practiced. And not just in social movements or halls of power. It’s Continue reading
The Gallic Village of Keratea
By Athanasios Georgilas Here is a video accompanying this article. It is particularly valuable because it was produced by students of Keratea. A few days before Easter, the most important Continue reading
Why Iceland Should Be in the News But Is Not
The 2008 world financial crisis was terrible for Iceland. At the end of the year the country declared bankruptcy. Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution….
Heckler
Remembering Harry Stanley, Jean Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson. This from John Pilger This is not in any way to excuse the violence of the rioters, many of whom Continue reading
When I ask why are they poor, they call me political…
“10yr old looters? Created by scum to live as scum. Don’t make pathetic excuses for criminality” The explosion of rage of Middle England is something to behold…
Commons Manifesto (Part 2) – How can we squeeze CARBON out of the economy?
By Justin Kenrick Most of the serious commentators on climate change see us as having already gone past the point of no return. This is not because the emissions in Continue reading
Atonement
By Mike Small If the arrest of Rebekah Brooks yesterday is a ploy to confuse or interrupt parliamentary questions then the police are off the leash, and this denoument isn’t Continue reading
The Commons is Alive and Well, and We Can Be Part of It
This is the second in a series of ‘Case for the Commons: the kinder Society we want’ posts – the third will try and answer the question: What is the Continue reading
Eco Mindshift
This is Natalie Jeremijenko on the art of eco-mindshift, from Pat Kane’s new Radical Animal site. Natalie Jeremijenko is an artist/engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and Continue reading
Empowerment, Addiction, Recovery & Dependence
What’s the relationship between addiction, poverty and self-determination? By AnneMarie Ward I think most folks can agree in terms of behavioural health that empowerment can be a wonderful thing for Continue reading
Mall Culture
More Tales from the Mall from Ewan Morrison…What do a cigarette, a medieval game and a wrecking ball have in common? More fascinating facts from the Mall: “The whole point Continue reading
