Mad Studies: The Identitarian Problem
This piece of work although situated in the context of Mad Studies as an academic discipline, is part of work which extends beyond the boundaries of Mad Studies in all directions. These notes are partly a way of talking through various fragments and ideas in order to organise and coordinate a larger study which intersects class, community, gender culture and identity; it is work which is coordinated in a study I am calling ‘Sub-legal Violence’ as a working title. Read more…
Sexual Diversity Throughout Nature: A Primer
This post is a series of verbatim excerpts taken from the book ‘Biological Exuberance; Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity’ by Bruce Bagemihl, Ph.D. The excerpts are taken from the introduction and the beginning of chapter 1 in order to illustrate some of the themes which the book deals with and some of the sources. Read more…
A Critical Analysis of the Role of International Law in the Israeli-Palestine by Amy McLean Conflict
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” [1. Nelson Mandela, (1997) on the United Nations activism against the Apartheid]
Public Sociology: From Dehumanisation to Epistemological Error Checking
In this essay I explore the subject of public sociology by making sense of Michael Burawoy’s original theses laid out in 2004 (Burawoy, 2005). I offer a syncretic account of what I perceive to be the core dynamics of public sociology relating thinkers and bodies of work that provide particular insightful articulations. Due to the limited scope of what can be explored in detail here I have selected what I see as the key themes which pervade the spirit of public sociology making it operationally meaningful as a practice in the world. Read more…
Working Classness: Class as a Topology of Finance and Status
In this work I am attempting to make sense of the world, not just from my own perspective but to find a formulation which offers a means of understanding the sense other people make from their relative positions in shifting and changing cultural landscapes. Class as a term gets used a lot in Britain but the erosion of language has meant that the meaningfulness of language has become soft in places. When this happens we have no choice but to use qualifiers in order to retain the usefulness of the words we are utilising.
Cult Behaviours: Avoiding Dissent – Reviewing Prof Arthur J. Deikman’s Work
This is the fourth part of a review and digest of the work of Professor Arthur Deikman who studied cults and identified how certain everyday tendencies in humans can coalesce in cult behaviours. As someone who has spent his professional life examining cases of extreme cult indoctrination he is ideally placed to foster a discussion of cult like behaviours which are more common and distributed throughout our lives as human beings.