Land, apples, and political engagement in Scotland

The community growing movement in Scotland reveals a desire, and an opportunity, for a more profoundly democratic politics.

Footnotes on citizenship from rural India

Contrary to the dominant narrative of a vibrant democracy with a strong record of integration, many in India are in effect non-citizens. Citizenship cannot reach its potential unless there is a commitment to achieve equality and justice in practice. (Video, 33 mins)

Corruption and change in India

In this interview Bela Bhatia discusses the anti-corruption movement in India, the endemic failures of the Indian system and the challenge of producing a people's knowledge for change. (Video, 7 minutes)

The naked ideology of re-privatising the East Coast rail line in the UK

A new report suggests the nationalised East Coast line is providing far better value for money than Britain's disastrous private network and its eye watering prices. Is this why the Coalition is desperately trying to re-privatise it?

Nigeria, the Boko Haram risk

Abuja's response to Boko Haram's insurgency is flawed and self-defeating. Without a change of policy, Nigeria will move ever closer to becoming a centre of transational jihadist struggle. 

UK Border Agency asserts that Sri Lankans pay to get maimed so they can claim asylum

Burnt with metal rods and cigarette butts? Maybe so, says the Border Agency, but you paid someone to do this to you. A surgeon with expertise in torture scars argues that 'self-torture by proxy' is a dangerous fiction.

From shadows to darkness

After being sidelined since December 2011, the Kremlin's once-mighty propagandist Vladislav Surkov was today ousted from government. Mikhail Loginov looks back at the career of the former 'grey cardinal', and defines the man who has replaced him, Vyacheslav Volodin.

A social Europe must be a political Europe

My dear Etienne Balibar, in a recent article you explain how a new Europe can only come from the bottom up. But how would this shift from top-down to bottom-up work, and what does it even mean?

The politics of piety and secularism

In this video interview from the Oecumene project's second symposium, Saba Mahmood discusses Malala Yousufzai, women's reform movements in the Middle East and the politics of piety.

Religious liberty, the minority problem and geopolitics

In a keynote lecture from the Oecumene project's second symposium, Saba Mahmood shows that religious liberty is a mechanism of statecraft and discusses the implications for religious minority populations.

The Italian government's doomed quest for stability

When the only thing holding a coalition together is fear of the voters, instability is just around the corner. 

Britain's housing crisis: on Novara Radio

We need homes, but why growth? The Novara radio show discusses the housing crisis in Britain. For more Novara radio episodes, go to the Novara Media website.

Cyprus: Divided by history, united by austerity

A political settlement to the Cyprus dispute is no longer just a romantic fantasy; it may be the only way out of the country's current economic crisis.

When cooperation is collaboration

How should liberal Russians interact with an increasingly illiberal regime? Writer and Putin critic Grigory Chkhartishvili (a.k.a Boris Akunin) delivered a simple message at yesterday's opposition rally in Moscow.

A financial transaction tax for Europe

A tax on financial transactions in Europe could reduce harmful speculation and help restore some political control over the markets. So why don't we have one yet?

Failed cities?

Everyday life in some western cities is often more dangerous than living in so-called 'failed states'. Is it thus time to re-scale security analysis?

Careful what you wish for: thinking through the neoliberal nation

The destructive power of neoliberal globalization has prompted renewed interest in nationalism on the left. But the legacies of empire and the political nature of the neoliberal project itself suggest that enthusiasm for English nationalism needs to be tempered with a sober analysis of its unintended political consequences.

What next for libel reform in Britain?

Recent reforms to UK libel law look set to encouarge greater freedom of expression. The coming months will be pivotal in determining how they are put into practice. 

What stops the UK protecting victims of trafficking?

How we’ve managed to make protecting trafficking victims so complicated.

Deorientalizing citizenship? An introduction to the second Oecumene symposium

In the first of a series of videos from the Oecumene project's second symposium on citizenship, orientalism and colonialism, Engin Isin discusses the major themes addressed in the symposium and outlines the future for the project

This week's editor

Heather McRobie


Niki Seth-Smith is a freelance journalist and co-editor of OurKingdom.