Nicholas Gane and I have co-edited a special issue of Theory Culture & Society on the theme of ‘Post-neoliberalism?’. It features articles by Melinda Cooper, Quinn Slobodian, Dorit Geva, Roger Burrows and Harrison Smith, Alan Finlayson, Nicholas Gane and me, on various aspects of the challenges to neoliberalism, especially those from the political Right. The special issue was accepted and the pieces commissioned prior to 2020, so they don’t confront the most recent upheavals and challenges to the political-economic order. However, the Introduction (which is open access) does address the significance of the Covid-19 pandemic, and what it means for the status of ‘neoliberalism’.
‘Peter Thiel: Big Tech’s dark prophet’
I reviewed Max Chafkin’s book on Peter Thiel, The Contrarian, for The New Statesman
The decline of the ‘state effect’
Comment piece on the crisis of trust in British government, originally drafted in October, now shared on the PERC blog.
How did we get here? – RSA dialogue
In advance of the publication of This Is Not Normal: The Collapse of Liberal Britain, I discussed the themes of the book with Katrina Forrester, hosted by the RSA.
New journal article
‘Anti-equivalence: pragmatics of post-liberal dispute’ , looking at the fractious and warlike character of contemporary political discourse, is now published online by European Journal of Social Theory.
The politics of like and dislike
Essay in the London Review of Books, on how media and new technologies are harnessed to trigger ‘culture wars’.
‘Anger Fast and Slow’
My article, Anger Fast and Slow: Mediations of Justice and Violence in the Age of Populism, is now available open access in the latest issue of Global Discourse. The issue also contains a response from Jeremy Engels to my piece, plus a symposium on Nervous States, with two critical appraisals and my response.
The Great British battle
Essay published by Guardian Review, on the nationalist currents being stirred by the covid crisis.
How the humanities became an enemy within
Op-ed published in The Guardian, on how multiple forces of reaction have taken aim at the humanities, in government, higher education and the arts.
‘Anger Fast & Slow’ – new journal article
My paper Anger Fast & Slow: Mediations of justice and violence in the age of populism is now published online by Global Discourse. This develops ideas first given as the 2018 Annual Lecture for the Queen Mary Centre for the History of Emotions.
On the threat of the new Johnson government
Column written for The Guardian, on the Trojan Horse of Brexit and Boris, that contains as yet unknown policies and dangers.
‘How Boris Johnson and Brexit are Berlusconifying Britain’
Comment piece published in The Guardian, on the election and the end of liberalism.