"The dangerous politics of market radicalism

David Park (USA, 1911-1960), “The Jazz Musicians,” 1954 found at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford Announces Exhibition Pop to Present: Art of the 1960s 

The dangerous politics of market radicalism, George Schöpflin

In visions & reflections

Most of the comment and analysis of the slow collapse of the financial industry in 2007-08 have been about economics, focusing how the crisis came about and what to do next. Yet the processes of the last twenty-five years have had profound political and social consequences as well, and these will not disappear readily. Equally, the collapse is not just about the dominance of the market, but also of the ideology that has grown up around it. It is in this sense that the world may well be moving into a wholly new phase after a transformation that is as significant as the end of communism (see Krzysztof Rybinski, " A new world order", 4 December 2008).  The book discussed in George Sch?pflin’s essay is György Matolcsy, Éllovasból Sereghajtó: elveszett évek krónikája [From Vanguard to Bringing Up the Rear: Chronicle of Lost Years], (Éghajlat könyvkiadó, Budapest, 2008)

Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide — the 2008 edition

By Cory Doctorow on Holiday

It’s time for another Boing Boing seasonal tradition: our charitable giving guide, a list of charities we personally support and want to give more attention to. And as in previous years, we invite you to add your own favorite charities to the list in the comments section. This is going to be a rough holiday for the charitable sector — we’re all tightening our belts. Don’t forget the charities that keep the world fair, free and healthy this holiday season.

Feelings of community

By Jens Hacke

For Jürgen Habermas, one of the key tasks for a modern society is to establish a "reasonable identity". But there is a blind spot in Habermas’s theory, writes Jens Hacke. It fails to recognize the importance of non-rational, emotional identification for the formation of a collective identity.

Statue-topplings: an FP retrospective

By Preeti Aroon

Today, the last publicly viewable statue of fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on the European continent was taken down in the city of Santander:

To commemorate this occasion, here’s a look at some other notable statue-topplings:……………

Universal rights, dignified roots, Conor Gearty

In globalisation

There is much natural jubilation over the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is celebrating its sixtieth birthday in 10 December 2008. At one level, it is indeed right to observe that we live in an "age of human rights": the United Nations has been emphatic throughout its existence that human rights is at the very core of its global mission while the nation-states, particularly since the end of the cold war in 1989, have also been vying with each other for ways in which to create better structures of human rights protection for their peoples.

The society of the query and the Googlization of our lives

By Geert Lovink

"There is only one way to turn signals into information, through interpretation", wrote the computer critic Joseph Weizenbaum. As Google’s hegemony over online content increases, argues Geert Lovink, we should stop searching and start questioning.

What is postcolonial thinking?

By Achille Mbembe

Postcolonial thinking developed in a transnational, eclectic vein from the very start, says theorist Achille Mbembe. This enabled it to combine the anti-imperialist tradition with the fledgling subaltern studies and a specific take on globalization.

Violence, publicity, and sovereignty

By Arvind Rajagopal on Mumbai 11/26

Today we are once more at a time when lawless violence proliferates and territorial boundaries are infringed upon, when state leaders invoke "non-state actors" and argue for the need to respond in kind. Are new political formations taking shape in our midst, even as we defend the old order?

The “option” of unbelief

By Hent de Vries on A Secular Age

Charles Taylor suggests in A Secular Age that the "default option" in modernity is "unbelief" or "exclusivist humanism," both of which make up the major positions or viewpoints that the secular "immanent frame"—both in its open and closed or "spun" variety—solicits and fosters. But this seemingly unproblematic observation merits further scrutiny.