Category: Academia

Academia, Media and political communication, Research projects

Some learnings from the gifting space

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about language and communication lately, particularly the largely-unexamined assumptions about language that lurk in the background of my particular branch of democratic theory. I’ll write something longer about that shortly, but broadly speaking I think of language in rather anthropological terms as fluid systems of social meaning-making, not as fixed systems for conveying pre-linguistic truth. Despite that, … Continue reading Some learnings from the gifting space

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Academia, Public Policy, UK politics and policy

Farewell mutterings 1: decentralised Britain

This October I’m moving back down under, to the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University, Brisbane. Over the next couple of months I’m going to post reflections on some of what I’ve learned in my 11 year stint in UK academia – reflections on the academy itself, on British politics and policy, and so on. I will be nice, promise. One often … Continue reading Farewell mutterings 1: decentralised Britain

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Academia, Media and political communication, Public Policy, UK politics and policy

Hiding behind transparency: the UK government online information strategy?

In the last ten years, one of the great things about being an academic has been the explosion of public information available online. While I miss aspects of browsing through dusty archives and stacks, it’s been an awrful lot easier and an awful lot quicker to go to the relevant department or ministerial website and download some policy papers at a few clicks of the … Continue reading Hiding behind transparency: the UK government online information strategy?

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Academia

The academic year: my top 10 (part 2)

But wait! There’s more! My top 10 continued… 6. The article that brewed for 8 years. As an academic you get used to rejection. It happens. A lot. For reasons that range from the incisive to the insane via the merely bewildering. This year I finally got an “accept” from a top-ranked journal, Environment and Planning C, for an article that I first started working … Continue reading The academic year: my top 10 (part 2)

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Academia

The academic year: my top 10 (part 1)

Whew. Week 10 of the Summer Term has come and gone. That’s the end of teaching although not the end of work, what with PhD students to look after, articles to write and review, a couple of book chapters to get on with… …oh, all right then, the students have gone so I’m off on holiday for three months. Happy now? Hmph. Anyway, it might … Continue reading The academic year: my top 10 (part 1)

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Academia, Public Policy

US Senate restricts funding of political science: the barbarians at the gates

On Wednesday, the US Senate voted to prohibit — yes, prohibit — funding for political science projects through the National Science Foundation except those that the NSF Director “certifies as promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.” My mind is so boggled by that I have to keep re-reading it to check that it’s true. If you doubt me, check out … Continue reading US Senate restricts funding of political science: the barbarians at the gates

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