Don't Sweat the small stuff

Public Seminar, 2016

This piece is part of the OOPS Series, "Social Interaction." Jeffrey Goldfarb's "The Politics of Small Things" is a both an insightful work of social analysis and-through this analysis itself-an enactment of this-worldly hope in, as he might phrase it, these dark times. Instead of focusing on Grand Narratives of sociological theory, Goldfarb instead turns to the way power is

Communication Director, 2015

Presenting a consistent image over time through the UK’s famously trivialising, variety-seeking, negative and antagonistic media is not easy for any organisation. Now imagine that your organisation is not a corporation, but a political party, and that every message you broadcast will be relentlessly scrutinised by commentators with long memories, attacked by well-funded lobby groups, criticised by factions within your own party, and ridiculed by dedicated opponents. This might give you an idea why political communications is often at the cutting edge of communications practice. Here are a few lessons from the recent general election campaign that produced a shock Conservative victory on 7th May.

Emergence, complexity, organizations, 2004

In this paper 1 would like to pay attention to two items: • First, to how 1 understand complexity, expressing sorne ideas through eight thesis that summarize this understanding. • Second, hardly touching the surface of human-social complexity, to d o it from the perspective ofthat part of reality that we call Third World, and drawing near to it from the disciplinary problematic of the social sciences, specially poli ti cal science. To think complexityfrom the human-social standpoint means, first of all, as 1 believe, to se e ourselves -researchers- as persons who participate in social life in a context, and notas transcendental subjects owners of a privileged and neutral epistemological position that endows us with a definitive knowledge.

Social Studies of Science, 2020

If you get people in a room together, if people have the freedom to meet, talk and argue, they’ll make better decisions about the things which affect their lives than anyone else. In ‘Letting Go: How Labour can learn to stop worrying and trust the people’ Jon Wilson argues that Labour needs to become a movement rooted in people’s experience, not be the party of the central manager. Above all, it needs to trust people again. The politician’s vocation should be to create institutions where those conversations happen, not determine what they decide. This doesn’t mean Labour should abandon its faith in the state. Indeed, that faith needs to be renewed, because our public institutions embody Labour’s sense of the purpose of politics: to protect and care, and provide a basis for us to lead good lives together. But the argument in favour of the public sector should be an argument for local control and popular ownership.

2012

This is the third report relating to the Anatomy of Civil Societies Research Project. It covers an omnibus study of UK society using a mixture of different methods. The report is a public report and hence simple and non-technical.

Leadership

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2013

To briefly summarise the argument presented last time. The ‘Underparts Gnomes’ argument, taken from the TV show South Park, was the titular Gnomes’ business plan which ran along the lines: “Stage 1 Collect Underpants. Stage 2 ? Stage 3 Profit! As the Gnomes explain to the boys in the episode, they haven’t worked out what the middle stage is yet, but until they do they keep collecting underpants anyway.

The Political Quarterly, 1995

is part of nature, and it needs great art, or great wisdom, to know when to lay down the brush and bring to end any form of action. We should always avoid perfectionism.' [Jean Monnet] * Denis MacShane is the Labour MP for Rotherham.

Banatul azi, 2024

Just one week ahead the parliamentary elections in the UK, we talked to Professor Paul Wingrove trying to understand the stakes and the possible results. His diagnosis, confirmed shortly after, by the popular vote, was a tough one: the conservatives have lost a lot, the Labor Party won, perhaps the most beautiful and consistent victory in the last half a century, while the nationalists will have a narrower room of influence. The future does not look bright for the conservatives while a radical reform of the domestic politics is to be expected in the UK.