Defragmenting our selves
I’m currently reading Not Just Beer And Bingo by Ruth Cherrington, a history of working men’s clubs in Britain. At the height of their success there were over 4000 of them. Here a few quick thoughts: While many clubs developed under the patronage of wealthy people, most of the people involved disliked meddling from their…
On a fine winter’s day, the first after weeks of storms and rain, I went for a walk in the country. I found myself in a typical English rural landscape, driving down hedge-lined lanes that grew progressively narrower. A couple of dead badgers lay whitening on the edges of the road. At the gate of…
Gentrification is often portrayed in the media as a process in which young, hip people move in to an area, improving its reputation for fun, shopping and culture. Writing in the Evening Standard Richard Godwin informs us that “it is youth culture that helped turn a place like Dalston, once an unassuming place of butchers and…
I’ve finally got around to reading Dan Hind’s Common Sense, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages on the grounds that I usually agree with his articles and The Return of the Public was at least interesting. Common Sense is a pamphlet in the tradition of the more famous Common Sense by Tom Paine. Here’s a video of…
Ostrom wrote about the governing of Common Pool Resources, in Governing the Commons. In particular she was writing in opposition to neo-liberal economics which was claiming at the time that private ownership was the only way to solve the mythical ‘Tragedy of the commons’. . Ostrom created a list of common design principles from the experience of…
I don’t usually read books by people like Gar Alperovitz – he had a career as a Legislative Director in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and very much tries to speak a language that professional politicians will understand. I couldn’t give a monkey’s whether those people understand me, since they’ve never shown any…
I haven’t posted much on the history of political organising but recently someone recommended to me the out-of-print book Angry Young Man. This is the autobiography of Leslie Paul, a founder of the Woodcraft Folk who saw at first hand many of the political movements of the early 20th Century. It is well-written and…
Have you ever wondered what happens when a big multinational mining company turns up in your small Colombian town with the intention of building a gold mine? A new report produced by a UK-based campaigning group records the experience of local people in Cajamarca, Tolima, as South African-based gold miner AngloGold Ashanti moved in. The…