Friday, Jan 27th 2012
BLDGBLOG: Interview with Mike Davis: Part 1 (2006)
This, in a way, is the most interesting – and least-understood – dynamic of global urbanization. As I try to explain in Planet of Slums, peri-urbanism exists in a kind of epistemological fog because it’s not well-studied. The census data and social statistics are notoriously incomplete.
Yesterday I spoke to Professor Terrence McDonough on the phone, about his talk at the recent TASC conference entitled Towards a Progressive Economics. In a conversation that lasted about 30 minutes Professor McDonough described how orthodox economics is commonly (and inaccurately) understood and suggested that the left in all its forms should take a fresh [...]
Over the next few days there will be considerable analysis of the ESRI’s current quarterly review. I’d like to highlight just one projection - the rising annual deficit.
There are two things to remember: the one and only goal of Government fiscal strategy has been to contain the deficit. They have set no targets for job [...]
David Harvey | Obituary of Giovanni Arrighi
Marxist Geographer David Harvey on sociologist Giovanni Arrighi. " [Arrighi] identified four systemic cycles of accumulation in the history of global capitalism. The systemic crises that produced such reorganisations, he argued, were preceded by phases of financial expansion. Appealing to Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony, he provided a compelling [...]
In 2003 the Bare Necessities report by independent think-tank Democratic Dialogue revealed that nearly 30% of Northern Ireland’s households were poor. According to the report, in 2002-03 half a million people in Northern Ireland were living in poor households of whom148,900 were children (37.4 per cent of all children).According to the report, “based on the [...]
BBC - Adam Curtis Blog: Kabul: City Number One - Part 3
When you look at footage of the fighting in Helmand today everyone assumes it is being played out against an ancient background of villages and fields built over the centuries.
This is not true. If you look beyond the soldiers, and into the distance, what [...]
SnagFilms: Democratizing Documentaries | Brain Pickings
SnagFilms — an ambitious repository of full-length, high-quality documentaries that you can watch however, wherever you like, for free.
By making the films streamable on-demand, 24/7, anywhere in the world, the project rallies for — and, we dare say, greatly succeeds in — expanding the audience for documentary film. A Snag [...]
What an Idyllic View!
Hola both my reader! I am being back from have having had my busman’s holiday, which as you know was to be spent on a lovely driving tour of the Greek islands. In retro specs, it was perhaps a too ambitious itinerant, especially the driving bit, since the Greek islands are mostly [...]
It’s not up there with “5 more years”, battle cry of both Republicans and Democrats in the not too distant past, now is it? But that’s the reality we’re now facing in the wake of the vote at the Green Party Convention this weekend. 31 months to be precise, leaving out this one, that is [...]
Some arguments I just don’t get. For instance, if I were an owner or manager of an enterprise that sold goods and services into the domestic economy (that’s most enterprises) I would be concerned at falling consumption. After all, if people cut their spending, my sales fall. If people are worried about holding on to [...]
