Hamish Campbell, looking at the past and future of “native” grassroots media. In the last three decades, the digital landscape has undergone dramatic changes. I have witnessed its evolution firsthand, working in radical media and engaging with grassroots technology. But this journey hasn’t been without its challenges and setbacks. The Dawn of the OpenWeb The…
The Open Governance Body: Revolutionizing Governance with Grassroots Tech
In our ever-evolving digital world, governance is often left behind, struggling to catch up with the pace of technology and social change. Among the myriad of attempts to tackle this problem, there’s one that stands out for its innovative and participatory approach: the Open Governance Body (#OGB). This grassroots, federated project is more than just…
Politics, paper, print: reflections on the book history of the Mao era
For historians of the book, the case of modern China offers much to challenge and embellish prevailing narratives of the field. The Mao era was a particularly extraordinary period, when one of the world’s most populous and powerful states turned its attention to the dissemination of print on an unprecedented scale. In this talk, Dr…
‘The Arkenstone and the Ring: wilful objects in Tolkien’s The Hobbit’
A series of seminars to commemorate the death of J. R. R. Tolkien, to be held in 2023/2024 in the University of Oxford. The talks present an introduction and further background to Tolkien’s life, work, and legacy. They have an academic approach, but they are also aimed at those who have read Tolkien’s work but…
A cobra effect in a greening world: can Earth scientists find the antivenin?
The planned energy transition signed by world’s nations in the Paris agreement sets the target to phase out fossil fuels by mid-century. This “green reset” requires a build-up of fossil fuel-free energy capacities (in production, end-use, and storage) which will entail on an unprecedented demand in mineral resources. While the Earth crust hosts such resource…
The mess we make without blind behavior
We have to focus for activism. How to change them and how to make us better at changing them, both are valid and needed for any real change to happen. Most visible activism is the tension between fluffy and spiky, this debate is what pushes affective progressive change and challenge, dogmas of either side of…
Panel discussion: ‘Post-COP28 debrief: Does the agreement go far enough?’
COP28 closed with an agreement, that for the first time in three decades, includes oil and gas. But what does the agreement mean in real terms? And is keeping the global temperature limit of 1.5°C within reach. Join us as our panel of academics share their thoughts after attending COP28 and look forward to what…
If you do not change your behaviour: preventive repression in Lithuania under Soviet rule
Who is targeted by preventive repression and why? In the Soviet Union, the KGB applied a form of low-intensity preventive policing called prophylactic. Citizens found to be engaging in politically and socially disruptive misdemeanors were invited to discuss their behaviour and to receive a warning. Using novel data from Soviet-occupied Lithuania in the late 1950s…