Why universalism

This is a defence of a universalist position against many who have critiqued it - for example, against post modern critiques and identity theory critiques

Night Moves in a Changing City: Transformations to the Spaces and Times of London’s Electronic Dance Music Cultures

In the 2010s, London lost half of its nightclubs. Gentrification and restrictive licensing legislation contributed toward a state of spatialised precarity, later intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Popular and academic discourses focussed on a narrative of loss, but this failed to account for the emergence of new spaces and events during this period, reflecting more nuanced transformations to the space-time cultures and economies of London’s night. In this thesis, I explore electronic dance music’s relationship to contested notions of the night-time as cultural territory, economic category, and site of urban governance. I argue how urban transformations, institutionalisation, and technology are shaping contemporary nightlife, with a particular focus on how these factors impact dance music culture’s potential to produce unique forms of collectivity. My research is built around a series of case studies, representing examples of a spatio-temporal shift in London’s club culture from night into day. I explore daytime events and temporary urbanism at super club Printworks; listening practices and culture-led regeneration at an audiophile bar in King’s Cross; electronic music programming at museums and galleries; ideologies of wellness at sober event Morning Gloryville; as well as audiovisual livestreaming and the role it played in sustaining musical communities during the pandemic. Building on the emergent field of ‘night studies’, I conceptualise the urban night as a time-space of alterity and possibility. Following this, I situate club culture’s temporal shifts within profit driven colonisations of the night, refracted through ostensibly supportive attempts to reimagine London as a ‘24-hour city’. At the same time, my thesis highlights emergent nightlife practices, which complicate structural narratives of commercialisation. These draw attention not only to the radical potential of nightlife’s reimagined spaces and times, but also to the complicity of many dance music practitioners in reproducing the institutional logics of the night-time economy

Kierkegaard: Sobre el proceso y la paradoja en Temor y temblor

Despite being impossible to explain a paradox, this work attempts to make sense of what it means, and what Abraham believes ”by virtue of the absurd”. First of all, various interpretations of renowned authors will be summarized. Then, some guidelines set by Friedrich Schelling will be followed, such as his philosophy of the process and his vision of time, and set by Immanuel Kant, such as the antinomies raised in the Critique of Pure Reason, his attempt to think beyond the possible limits to finite human beings, leading to the paradox and to a special conformation of a free agent. Finally, based on those foundations, I will present my own interpretation of Abraham’s faith and some conclusions from it.Aunque es imposible explicar una paradoja, este trabajo trata de dar sentido a lo que ella significa y a lo que Abraham cree “en virtud del absurdo”. Antes que nada, se resumirán diversas interpretaciones de reconocidos autores. Luego, se detallarán algunos lineamientos marcados por Friedrich Schelling, como su filosofía del proceso y su visión del tiempo; y por Immanuel Kant, como las antinomias planteadas en la Crítica de la razón pura, su intento de pensar más allá de los límites posibles para los seres humanos finitos, lo cual conduce a la paradoja y a la conformación especial de un agente libre. Finalmente, a partir de estos fundamentos, expondré mi propia interpretación de la fe de Abraham y algunas conclusiones a partir de allí