DEMOS

• Radical measures Jamie and I have a piece on Comment is free on the Government's new new-ish radicalisation strategy.  You can read it here. continue reading Posted by Charlie Edwards Jamie Bartlett on 3rd June 2008
• Public science and public goods Our debate on university science a couple of weeks back has been picked up by Times Higher. It served the important, and possibly therapeutic, purpose of getting some things out into the open. As someone with strong opinions in this area, I found my independence as a chair stretched. But my desire was to expose some unacknowledged tensions and start a genuinely new conversation about where science in universities is going and what assumptions are steering it. The debate was instigated by... continue reading Posted by Jack Stilgoe on 2nd June 2008
• Politics and Emotions Politics and Emotions British political life is in the throes of a paradox. The public seem to be both anxious and bored: fearful about life as the ‘nice decade’ draws to an end, but bored with government seemingly unable to address their fears. These are emotional times.But are we at ease talking about emotions? They are seen as manipulative, worse, selfish and certainly not to be trusted as a guide to decision-making.We need to reappraise emotion and its role in politics. In... continue reading 30th May 2008 Comments (3)
• Jihad in the age of YouTube I've a short piece in this month's Prospect magazine which looks at the suicide bomber videos of the men currently on trial for plotting to blow up Atlantic flights mid air.  You can read it here. The suicide bomber video used to be a fairly well thought out and impassioned justification.  However, these recent videos are more like ego-centric farewells which resemble pop videos or a myspace page, complete with the clichéd Palestinian headscarf and Arabic posters. They are... continue reading Posted by Jamie Bartlett on 28th May 2008 in Wicked Jihad Comments (1)
• Podcast: The Politics of Public Behaviour Last week we published a new pamphlet called The Politics of Public Behaviour.
  
  Here, Duncan talks about the role of government in influencing people's decision making, arguing that this is a new battleground for politics. continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 23rd May 2008 in Demos Podcasts
• Fixing failed states Yesterday we hosted a seminar on state building with Ashraf Ghani and Clare Lockhart. Their new book Fixing Failed States calls for an integrated approach to national building, bringing together the international community, Afghani leaders and citizens themselves to re-imagine a future for this failing country. continue reading Posted by Silvia Guglielmi on 22nd May 2008
• Is politics stuck in the present? As the Human Fertilisation and Embryology bill ducks and weaves through parliament, the debate around it reveals the poverty of the politics of the future. Politicians are pretty happy talking about VALUES, INTERESTS, THE EVIDENCE and even ETHICS. So abortion gets the headlines, alongside daddies for test tube babies. When it comes to the research aspects - hybrids, embryonic vs adult stem cells and all that - the evidence and the ethics are only part of the story. So Ann Widdecombe insists... continue reading Posted by Jack Stilgoe on 21st May 2008
• Engaging engagement Engagement is an art, and much like any art it requires practice and exercise.  At Demos, we’ve been working with a new Canada-based organisation called Mass LBP.  It claims to be reinventing public consultation and its premise is a simple one: that much as anyone should expect to perform jury duty at some point in their life, so everyone should expect at one point or another to be called upon to deliberate and feed into public consultation.  The idea is that such consultation, such engagement should be near-routine, it should be embedded in the fabric of everyday life and the basis for everyday democracy.
  continue reading Posted by Catherine Fieschi on 19th May 2008
• The Talking Cure Wednesday morning was the launch of The Talking Cure. Faizal and I wrote the pamphlet to try to capture the changing conversations taking place between professionals and patients around health. The discussion at the launch was fascinating and impassioned. Howard Stoate gave us his perspective at the only practising GP in the House of Commons. Richard Horton was as thoughtful and fired up as ever.
  
  You can listen to all of the speeches, questions etc. here. continue reading Posted by Jack Stilgoe on 19th May 2008 in Healthy Conversations
• Podcast: Talking Cures We're back for a new series of Demos podcasts. In the coming weeks you'll be able to hear all about our work on the politics of public behaviour, privacy, and radicalisation, to name just a few. Stay tuned. First though, Duncan caught up with Jack and Faizal, to talk about their new pamphlet The Talking Cure, which was launched on Wednesday... continue reading Posted by Peter Bradwell on 15th May 2008 in Demos Podcasts

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