DEMOS

• Truly, madly, politically From the current edition of the New Statesman:
  We all know a week is a long time in politics - but a weekend? Long enough, it seems, for a man to go from nuts to visionary. The David Davis saga brings to the surface the myriad underlying assumptions, relational synapses, summary judgements and convenient shortcuts that underpin political life. If politics were a good book, it would more often look as it did over the past few days - full of surprise, spontaneity, revolt, disbelief, judgement, repentance, suspicion, self-sacrifice, posturing and even conversion. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 20th June 2008
• Social Capital and the Material World Last week, I spoke at a summit on Conservation Education convened by the Textile Conservation Centre.  I presented the interim thinking from our project, Saved for the Nation.I've put the speech and the presentation I gave on the website.  They outline one of the ideas we are developing in the project, which is about the symbolism of caring for the material world, and what it means in relation to wider agenda, from identity and communities, to building cultural literacy. continue reading Posted by Samuel Jones on 20th June 2008 in Saved for the Nation
• hello mr primeminister my name's adam and i'm 14 There are so many ways to be cynical about ask the pm on youtube, but I think it rules. This is a video of Adam talking to the Prime Minister about how he wants to vote, which is sort of illogical if you think about it. This type of thing, and alot of the other semi-political content on youtube definitely isn't representative democracy... and er, it doesn't quite fit into participatory democracy either. Expressive Democracy? Any takers? This is the conundrum that the Children of Europa project... continue reading Posted by Charlie Tims on 18th June 2008 in Video Republic
• Podcast: Wicked Jihad A new podcast. Counter terrorism policy in Western Europe is increasingly about preventing violent extremism before it arises, by lessening the appeal of groups like al-Qaeda.  Most work tends to focus on the structural factors such as foriegn policy, societal discrimination, and a lack of local leadership.
  
  This week, Jamie Bartlett explains why we need to understand what the appeal of al-Qaeda might be, from the sense of adventure and feelings of personal agency through to street credibility.
  
  You can subscribe to our podcasts here. continue reading Posted by Jamie Bartlett on 18th June 2008 in Demos Podcasts Wicked Jihad Comments (1)
• Good things come to those who wait After 2 hours 14 minutes standing in the returns queue at the BFI for the preview of The Wire Series 5 + David Simon in conversation a wonderful woman has just offered me a ticket...
  
  If you haven't seen or heard about The Wire here's a good introduction. Reviews here and here continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 18th June 2008
• From Empowerment to Equality: A Political Education On Saturday, Demos hosted a session at this year’s Compass Conference, ‘Born Free and Equal’. At the conference, seminars explored the variety of inequalities existent in British society, in which contexts they play themselves out, and what exacerbates them. But one question, as ever, remained neglected. What sustains inequality? continue reading 18th June 2008 in The Everyday Democracy Index
• Resilient Nation This week we're kicking off a new project on resilience. Looking across the spectrum of risks, from floods and pandemics to power failures and terrorism Resilient Nation will explore how communities respond to systemic breakdown. In the aftermath of events such as the Asian tsunami, the London bombings, and the Buncefield explosion new stories and case studies have highlighted how the community's response to emergencies often lies outside the framework of traditional institutions continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 17th June 2008 in Resilient Nation
• Hollow Victory? Last week’s resignation by David Davis was described by politicians and pundits alike as a great political stunt, while Davis himself was subjected to some mild heckling for being a an egotistical *&%£$ and a madman. Gordon Brown described the whole event as a farce. But two days is a long time in the news cycle and the week-end saw newspapers running an altogether more positive story. Why so? Because on the issue of 42 days David Davis is right. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards on 16th June 2008 in Bringing it Home
• Making it up as we go along Synthetic Biology has again found its way onto the Today programme. The prompt this time is an admirable report (pdf) from bioscience funders the BBSRC, who asked social scientists Paul Martin and Andrew Balmer to map the social and ethical questions raised by this increasingly frenetic science. But the BBC's report is inevitably framed by Craig Venter, the energetic and unapologetic face of all things synthetic. Six months ago, when we hosted Craig Venter, I was convinced that the UK had a... continue reading Posted by Jack Stilgoe on 10th June 2008
• Contemporary Art and Social Change A couple of months ago, I wrote a review of Provoking Democracy, a book about the role of artisitc production in a democracy.We'll be revisiting this, and other topics, when we speak at the launch of Peckham Space in a couple of weeks.  It's a project run by Camberwell College of Arts and promotes participation in contemporary art as a means of social expression.It's at 7.30 pm at Camberwell School of Art ... you can find out more details here and here continue reading Posted by Samuel Jones on 9th June 2008

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