Tag: academic

  • DOWN TO EARTH: BRUNO LATOUR AND THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL DELIRIUM

    French philosopher Bruno Latour has died. I was introduced to his work as an undergraduate at Brunel University by his collaborator Steve Woolgar in the late 1980s, and his writings have continued to play an important part in the way I think about the world. Here’s a piece I wrote last year, having read his […]

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  • AYCKBOURN’S ARTIFICIAL PEOPLE

    McGrath, Martin (2017) “Ayckbourn’s Artificial People.” Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 46 (128) . pp. 60-72. ISSN 0306-4964 This article explores how Alan Ayckbourn’s science fiction, in particular the use of androids/gynoids in the plays Henceforward… (1987), Comic Potential (1998) and Surprises (2012), casts light on the themes that run throughout his work. […]

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  • SOME REASONS TO BE SCEPTICAL OF THE HYPE ABOUT CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA (PART ONE)

    Like lots of people, I’ve been thinking about the current row about Cambridge Analytica and their supposed influencing of the US election and Brexit and possibly other elections around the world. I understand people’s anger and I understand the degree of fear that comes with the idea that we (or, more usually, some other group: […]

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  • FRIDAY’S WORDS OF WISDOM: DEFENDING POLITICS BY MATTHEW FLINDERS

    Writing in defence of politics and, indeed, politicians is always a potentially risky pastime. The overwhelming public perception of politics is so cynically negative that anyone who speaks out in favour of those who take on public office is immediately the subject to suspicion (mostly of “being ambitious” or, more kindly, of “being niave”). And, […]

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  • LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE OF THE NEW POLITICS: GLOBALISATION, POWER & DEMOCRACY

    After the break you’ll find the abstract and introduction to my PhD thesis published in 2005. Looking back, I think I was probably considerably more optimistic about the potential for resistance to the big challenges facing liberal democracies than I am today, though I remain convinced that the scope for local, collective resistance remains far […]

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  • AFTER HEINLEIN: POLITICS IN SCALZI’S OLD MAN’S WAR UNIVERSE

    AFTER HEINLEIN: POLITICS IN SCALZI’S OLD MAN’S WAR UNIVERSE

    The publication Old Man’s War brought John Scalzi both critical and commercial success. His work was widely praised for its fast-paced action and for its updating of classic science fiction tropes but the novel was also controversial and attracted considerable criticism. This article is not the place to rehash the extensive online debates about Old […]

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