➡️ New! MA in Political Theory @qmulsse.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social Come and study with us 🙂 The MA focuses on justice, global & local; ethics; critical thinking; & much more @drjoehoover.bsky.social @elkeschwarz.bsky.social @georgeboss.bsky.social @bntrnr.bsky.social

Ten years in the making, a very different book than I intended to write, but also the piece of academic writing I’m most proud of… more later. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Much to question and respond to here. "Left headless, an algorithmically swarming regime of machinic proceduralism would represent the most monstrous pseudo-democratic tyranny of all. Our best safeguard against this fate is the ordering power of a human ruler…" firstthings.com/the-king-and...

The King and the Swarm - First Things

The printing press did not just change how people shared information. It changed the normative patterns of consciousness itself. After those changes came a period of chaotic upheaval, out...

firstthings.com

"If we want literate citizens, we will have to rebuild the conditions for literacy deliberately, against the grain of every incentive currently pointed the other way. I know the academy has the will to do that. It also has the obligation.” www.chronicle.com/article/my-s...

Opinion | My Students Can’t Read

The generational collapse in literacy is measurable, persistent, and likely to get worse.

chronicle.com

“The trouble is that writing is not merely the act of transcribing fully formed thoughts—if it were, it wouldn’t be hard. Writing is the way people figure out what they think, and how to convey those thoughts to someone who doesn’t already share them.” www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

The End of Reading Is Here

Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.

theatlantic.com

"Even for us, then, the only real hope is harm—justified harm, necessary harm, righteous harm, but still harm.” adamkotsko.substack.com/p/the-politi...

Spaces available in person and online for this public event at LSE -- part of a three day conference on The City as a Democratic Frontier in an Authoritarian Age that I am organising with @mwojciechowska.bsky.social @drjoehoover.bsky.social and @ben-rog.bsky.social www.lse.ac.uk/cities/event...

LSE Cities Public Lecture | The City as a Democratic Frontier in an 'Authoritarian Age'

Cities are often described as inherently more progressive and cosmopolitan than nation states. But is this true, and if yes, why?

lse.ac.uk

Join us for what will be a fascinating event. @ben-rog.bsky.social @mwojciechowska.bsky.social @jmchickson.bsky.social

TheoryLAB@theorylab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Very excited to share our upcoming event: The City as a Democratic Frontier in an 'Authoritarian Age’, organised with LSE Cities and KCL’s Department of Political Economy. Join us on Thursday 25 June, 6-7.30pm. Attendance in-person and online. www.lse.ac.uk/cities/event...

🛎️ This Thu in #ECPRSeminars on Political Concepts 🎙️ @lassethomassen.bsky.social & Claudia Wiesner discuss how political concepts are formed through language and context, rather than fixed meanings – drawing on ideas from Jacques Derrida, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe 💻 7 May, 16:00–17:00 BST

Register FREE

Standing Group on Political Concepts (SGPC) Online Lecture Series

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Deadline extended for this very interesting workshop on the designing of political theory curricula: philevents.org/event/show/1... Hosted by @drsvg.bsky.social & others @yorkuniversity.bsky.social. Should b of interest 2 @biapt.bsky.social @ecpr-nptmethods.bsky.social @psapolthought.bsky.social etc

TPTN Workshop: Designing Political Theory Curricula

An important part of teaching political theory and philosophy involves the designing of curricula, programmes and modules. However, in doing so, political theorists may face any number of challenges a...

philevents.org

Journal of International Political Theory now has a Bluesky account! Follow us and get updates on some of our great articles: @j-ipt.bsky.social

GTF's Spring Symposium is live and is being generously sponsored by the Society for Applied Philosophy! Join us for a day of cointribtuions from our ECRs, senior discussants, and UCL's very own Jeffrey Howard! uclspp.bsky.social Make sure to reserve your spot (for free): tinyurl.com/GTFSymposium

The Commentary Roundtable on The Global Politics of Precarity and Insecure Work, edited by @stellamorgana.bsky.social and I, now has a permanent home in the latest issue of @gpejournal.bsky.social (Volume 5, Issue 1). Read more here: bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

James Hickson@jmchickson.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Building on our workshop last year on The Global Politics of Precarity and Insecure Work, @stellamorgana.bsky.social and I are delighted to share a collection of 6 original commentary articles on this theme in @gpejournal.bsky.social Read the full introduction here: doi.org/10.1332/2635...

i need the “llms are might be conscious” folx to read this

Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

Getting strong Wormtongue and Théoden vibest from Stephen Miller and Trump these days.

a man with long hair and a beard is looking at another man

Alt: Wormtongue whispers in King Théoden’s ear.

media.tenor.com

Watching Trump’s war feels like playing Sid Meier’s CIV against some anonymous online asshole. And they’ve chosen neo-imperialism as their victory condition. Has the AI already taken over?

From the distant past (2025), this helped me really understand that the AI true believers think they’re encountering a new digital consciousness. Do they believe in its being? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...

Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?

nytimes.com

Interruptions and Reverberations open.substack.com/pub/anotherm...

Interruptions and Reverberations

Experiencing the present (and persistent) crisis

open.substack.com

Political theorist William E. Connolly passed last week, leaving behind an influential body of work studying democracy, capitalism & culture To celebrate his legacy, we're unlocking his contributions to our journals thru 31 March on Project MUSE press.jhu.edu/newsro... 1/3

‘As the drunkard mutters, “you are drunk,” so the philosopher scans the assemblage of his fellow-creatures and murmurs, “you are wrong.” If we laugh at him for this, how shall we set up our personal opinions as a criterion by which the errors of mankind are to be judged?’ George Santayana

Lots of posts about the passing of William Connolly. I only met him a couple of times but his work is a huge influence on my thinking. And a personal highlight of my academic career was watching him dance to my band at the Millennium conference at LSE many years ago. www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

The first set of postdocs for our ERC project on popular government have just been advertised. These 3 postdocs will be based at UC Louvain with my co-PI Pierre-Etienne Vandamme and focus on contemporary democratic theory. Apply! jobs.uclouvain.be/Personnelsci...

aeon.co/essays/in-so...

More musings, this time on citizenship, belonging, and the strangeness of becoming British. open.substack.com/pub/anotherm...

In this brilliantly to-the-point Essay, the philosopher Julian Baggini laments the now-ubiquitous need to tie every human activity to some extrinsic, utilitarian value – from forest bathing to oxytocin-boosting hugs – in what he calls the ‘instrumentalisation of everything’

Instrumentalisation is making everything a means to an end | Aeon Essays

From art to religion to sex, instrumentalisation has drained away intrinsic value. But life is about more than material benefits

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It’s book launch day! Marx & the Politics of Need is out today, available open access. I hope it sparks ideas and conversations. Dive in here: doi.org/10.4324/9781...

Marx and the Politics of Need | George Boss | Taylor & Francis eBooks,

Marx and the Politics of Need challenges one of the most pervasive habits in contemporary political theory and practice: treating needs as moral facts that sit

doi.org

New! MA in Political Theory @qmulsse.bsky.social @qmul.bsky.social @drjoehoover.bsky.social @elkeschwarz.bsky.social @georgeboss.bsky.social More info here: www.qmul.ac.uk/postgraduate...

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature @takeshimorisato.bsky.social

The Japanese ethics of ‘ningen’ dethrones the Western self | Aeon Essays

In Japanese philosophy, unlike the atomised Western self, we are ‘ningen’ (人間), each enmeshed with other humans and nature

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We are delighted to announce the CfP for our Spring Symposium on 27th April at UCL! More info here - including the link to submit your abstract by 9th March: www.globaltheoryforum.co.uk/spring-sympo...