Political trials and the suppression of popular radicalism in England, 1799-1820

This chapter examines the decision-making process between the Home Office and the government’s law officers in prosecuting individuals for sedition and treason in the period 1799–1820. The term state trial suggests a more centralised and government-led repression of popular radicalism than the process was in practice. Provincial reformers also faced the complex layers of their local justice system, which was more loyalist, committed to stamping out political radicalism. The trial of the “Thirty Eight” Manchester radicals in June 1812 demonstrates the mutable definitions of treason, sedition and processes of justice in the theatre of the court.Peer reviewe

Steven E. Jones. \u3ci\u3eAgainst Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism\u3c/i\u3e.

A Review by James C. McKusick. In Against Technology: From the Luddites to Neo-Luddism, Steven E. Jones offers a cultural history of the Luddite movement and an account of how it was ultimately transformed into contemporary neo-Luddism. Against Technology highlights essential differences between the historical Luddite movement and modern neo-Luddism while still elucidating important continuities in the beliefs and attitudes of those who have stubbornly resisted the encroachment of technology into everyday life

Destructive power, enforcement and institutional change

Institutions are usually defined as rules of the game. But if rules are dead letters without being enforced, then what is the role of destructive power in the genesis of institutions? This is the first question which will be addressed in the present paper. While the importance of incremental or evolutionary changes in informal rules is undeniable, what is the role of destructive power or revolution in politics with regard to institutional change? To what extent is destructive power involved in the change of rules? This is the second question that will be tackled in the present paper. The purpose of this paper is to answer these two questions focusing on a point that current scholarship regarding institutions usually fail to notice, with an emphasis on rules and laws: the power that enforces those rules and laws. The analysis of different forms of power will demonstrate the fact that the capacity to destroy as well as the capacity to produce plays a role in generating and maintaining institutions. I will try to show that the recognition of destructive power sheds new light on at least three major issues: i) the relationship between property rights and sovereignty, ii) the importance of revolution as well as evolution in social change, iii) the emergence of various means of collective expression such as Luddism, universal suffrage, and association.Destructive power; creative power; exit, voice and scream; institutional change; enforcement

Redeeming the Loss of Being: Ontology and Possibility in Thomas Pynchon\u27s Later Novels

This thesis takes up two novels written by Thomas Pynchon, and attempts gain a better understanding of how these two novels pose, reframe and resolve questions concerning existence in a postmodern era. Characterized by a loss of tangible meaning, uncertainty, and ever-increasing variability, the postmodern period has forced artists to define large philosophical concepts such as being, knowledge, and understanding without the sensibilities which grounded bygone eras. Mason & Dixon and Against the Day, both novels by Thomas Pynchon, take up the question of being in an uncertain time, and offers a reconceptualization of the political responsiblities of the individual in the postmodern era

Nottinghamshire and the Great Peace: reflections on the end of the Napoleonic Wars, 1814-1815

This article explores Nottingham’s ambivalent attitude to the battle of Waterloo, which concluded hostilities between England and France in June 1815. It poses a contrast between Nottingham’s muted reaction to Waterloo and the town’s exuberant commemoration of the general peace between England and France the year before. The article considers different reasons for this, including Nottingham’s response to earlier set-piece battles on the continent and its reaction to domestic political events. The article explores Nottingham’s commitment to radical politics before 1815, as symbolised in its continued petitioning of parliament, and its patriotic commitment to the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. The article argues that it was the disappointment of the town’s hopes for economic relief, following the end of hostilities in 1814, combined with fears of a further prolonged period of conflict and delays to parliamentary reform, which helps to explain the town’s attitude during Napoleon’s ‘Hundred Days’ (March-June 1815) and after Waterloo

Public technology: challenging the commodification of knowledge

Discusses the role of technology in commodifying teaching, that is making it a marketable commodity, and describes a number of examples of how academic staff around the world are using open technologies to make teaching and learning both accessible to a wider public, and to involve the wider public in student learning

Technophilia, neo-Luddism, eDependency and the judgement of Thamus

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on society\u27s relationship with technology and particularly our increasing dependence on electronic technology – so-called eDependency. The paper argues that technology is not neutral and we must engage with the moral issues that arise from our relationship with it.Design/methodology/approach – Society\u27s relationship with technology is examined through the lens of Socrates\u27 consideration of the technology of writing. It identifies “technophilia” as a major theme in society and “neo-Luddism” as the Socrates-like examination of the benefits of technology.Findings – While rejecting both technology determinism and technology presentism the paper argues technology is not neutral and does afford social change within a particular social ecology. The authors suggest that ultimately the use of all technology, including the technology underpinning eDependency, leads to important moral questions which deserve considered debate. The paper concludes by arguing that the Information Systems (IS) discipline should take the mantle of King Thamus and that the study of these issues should become a key concern for the discipline.Originality/value – In an age of technophilia, this paper calls considered debate on the moral issues that arise from our relationship with technology, how it is appropriated, to whose benefit, and how we change it and will be changed by it

Rural Luddism and the makeshift economy of the Nottinghamshire Framework Knitters

This article explores the geography and culture of machine breaking in Nottinghamshire, home to the Luddite framework knitters. Earlier accounts have shed some light on why Luddism broke out in 1811-12; but they have had much less to say about why it assumed the form and the geography that it did. By situating Luddism in a longer chronological and broader historiographical context, the article suggests that it makes more sense when viewed as one of the last episodes in an older style of traditional and largely rural popular protest. Luddism in the region was a lot less moderate than previous accounts have argued, a reflection of the ‘rough’ culture of the knitters that thrived in the villages, a culture that has remained largely unexplored by historians. By utilising a range of sources that have been neglected in previous studies, notably parish and court records, and through a careful re-combing of the Home Office and Treasury Solicitors’ files, this article recreates aspects of the day-to-day lives of the knitters, paying attention to poverty, life-cycle and crime. Luddism was about more than wages and working conditions; it was also a response to contractions in the ‘makeshift economy’

Opportunities and Threats Analysis of Industry 4.0 under the Concept: Neo-Ludism

Industrial revolutions have played very important roles on the business world, the public and non-governmental organizations, which are defined as the third sector today, and have caused differences. The first industrial revolution and the fourth revolution at the beginning of the twenty-first century, in terms of leaving a structural and lasting impact, leave more radical traces than the others. In terms of both revolutions, "technological unemployment" and "technological unemployment anxiety", which are the most important macro variables, are common aspects. Every industrial revolution has social, economic, political, technological, legal and environmental effects. In this study, by making a literature review on technological unemployment, which is one of the most important parameters of the social and economic factors created by Industry 4.0, which is known as the fourth industrial revolution and still continues its process in the period of this study, strengths and weaknesses are discussed, opportunities and threats are evaluated and a SWOT analysis was made. By working on new business models, the concept of neo-Ludimz was introduced with a different perspective

The Home Office and Public Disturbance, c. 1800-1832

This thesis examines the role of the Home Office in the machinery of order from c.1800-1832. It combines institutional enquiry with the study of popular protest by examining protest from the viewpoint of the Home Office. It looks at how the growth of the Home Office was stagnated due to efforts to economise, and how it transformed its systems to make them more efficient in response to peaks of administrative work caused by popular tumult. The different roles that each person performed in the Home Office is outlined, and by doing so the pivotal role of the permanent under-secretary of state, who remains underrepresented in histories of protest, is exposed. It also looks at what powers the home secretary had at his disposal, and how they were used to repress food riots, the Luddite disturbances, the movement for parliamentary reform, the Swing riots, political agitation leading to the Great Reform Act, and trade unions. It compares the different approaches of home secretaries and argues that although the use of powers was generally guided by established precedent, others such as domestic espionage were more divisive, and were influenced by the personality and experience of the home secretary. The thesis also examines the relationships between the Home Office hierarchy and government departments with authorities in the provinces. This thesis brings together all the available records which relate to the Home Office as an institution and those which relate to public disturbance. It demystifies the Home Office and its archives, presents a new analysis of Home Office powers and influence, and adds to our understanding of the way the machinery of order functioned, and the Home Office’s role within it. The thesis argues that the home secretary performed the role of overseer in the machinery of order; interjecting only when necessary when civil authorities failed to contain disturbances, or when the judiciary failed to provide a firm example. It contends that there were clear limits to state authority, contests claims of extraordinary state intervention, and argues that the state struggled to innovate to defeat the threats that the early nineteenth century presented