African Postcolonial Modernity: Informal Subjectivities and the Democratic Consensus by Sanya Osha (2014, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 262 pp.) ISBN: 978-1-137-44692-3)

Sanya Osha’s desire to encapsulate the diversity of Africa’s peoples, their problems and the possible approaches to those problems, makes this collection of essays on a wide variety of topics a stimulating and informative book, but one which is difficult to review. The author himself noted in a personal email to this reviewer that “Africa is a problematic subject thematically. It is too big, heterogeneous and contentious to enable a unifying theme in the realm of politics, history and culture”. Instead, he said, he “wanted to project a sense of this heterogeneity and peculiar variety regarding the African condition.” This of course could be said of every continent, but a number of features emphasize the special difficulties of dealing with Africa as a unified subject for study

\u27Populism\u27: an empty signifier used to discredit the movement for social change

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the words \u27populism\u27 and \u27populist\u27 first came into use in the late nineteenth century United States, as a description of the politics of the People\u27s Party.[i] This initial phase of the term\u27s use is one of the few times in its history when it has not been an empty or floating signifier, a term coined by Claude Levi-Strauss in 1950[ii]. In simple terms, this refers to a word, phrase or symbol which contains no intrinsic meaning, but to which a range of meanings may be attributed by different speakers.[iii] [i] Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (2002) Oxford University Press, 2286 [ii] Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1987) Introduction to Marcel Mauss, London: Routledge, 63-64. [iii] Chandler, Daniel(2017) Semiotics for Beginners available in full at http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem02a.htm

Book Review Chaos & Caliphate: Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East by Patrick Cockbur

Not so long ago, Syria, Iraq and Libya were peaceful if repressive countries. Now each has descended into war, while the entire region of the Middle East and North Africa is racked by instability and violence. This has largely been brought about by western interventions which were either ill-considered or ill-motivated. Patrick Cockburn’s book covers the whole of the century up to 2015, during which he has somehow survived as a Middle East correspondent for the (UK) Independent newspaper. This is a horrifying yet gripping account of those years, made up of his on-the-spot reports from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, sewn together by later observations on the way events have unfolded since. Unreservedly recommended for any student of the MENA region or of why wars happen

Corporate Europe: How Big Business Sets Policies on Food, Climate and War by David Cronin London: Pluto Press, 2013. 216 pp. (ISBN: 9780745333328)

David Cronin’s book is based on years as a journalist in Brussels looking at the way in which the European Union’s institutions really work. This reviewer spent thirteen years working at the European Parliament and, before that, five years sharing his time between academe and work as an advisor to a Member of that same Parliament. Cronin and I have come to very much the same conclusions. If our analysis is not largely reflected in that of the vast majority of academic ‘experts’ on the European Union, it has become almost ubiquitous out there on the streets and in the workplaces of Europe. The European Community may have been founded, in part at least, for its ostensible purpose of preventing a return to the warlike past. As the European Union, however, it has been hijacked by corporate interests which have sought to institutionalize a particular form of the capitalist system, a hyper-exploitative form which has been called ‘neoliberalism’. In this, as Cronin demonstrates in page after page of solid evidence, they have largely succeeded

Confronting Capitalism: Traditional Movements & Alternatives

Capitalism has developed into a dangerous hindrance to any possibility of human progress, if ‘progress’ is defined not by the availability of ever more impressive gadgetry, but by a reduction in poverty, the spreading of prosperity and the conservation of a livable environment. Clearly, the left project in the 20th century was partially successful in raising living standards, and access to basic services such as health care and education in developed countries and for many elsewhere. However, these achievements are now under threat. Moreover, the broader capitalist narrative states there are no alternatives to this system and any endeavor that focuses on the common good or collective action as an organizing principle for society is undemocratic, unnatural and foolishly utopian and will not work. Thus, our goal in preparing this paper is to propose ways in which both traditional and novel forms of organization might be employed in the struggle to replace capitalism with a more equitable system, one which does not rely on the exploitation of working people and the destruction of the environment

Community Attitudes Toward Early-Release Offenders Under AB 109

The purpose of this study was to examine community attitudes towards ex-offenders released in San Bernardino under AB 109 on subjects that would likely impact the ex-offender reintegration process. Past research has shown that a community’s willingness to employ and offer social support to ex-offenders has a substantial impact on their probability of re-offense. This study focused on individuals whose roles in the community give them greater influence over ex-offenders. A total of 11 community members participated in this qualitative study. Of the 11 respondents, 4 were employers, 4 were social service workers, and 3 were community center workers. Respondents participated in verbal interviews that explored their prior knowledge of AB 109, past interactions with ex-offenders, and their views related to ex-offenders on community safety, reform, employment, social support, and the severity of an offender’s crime. Unanimous agreement that ex-offenders should be able to compete for employment provided they have job skills, but varying levels of willingness to hire or work alongside ex-offenders was the study’s most substantial finding. All respondents also reported having at least 1 prior relationship with an ex-offender. Community members also expressed varying opinions on the impact ex-offenders have on safety, but unanimously agreed that they need social support after release. These findings indicate that San Bernardino community members have high levels of familiarity with ex-offenders and believe they iv should have a chance to become productive members of society, but that many community members want to avoid personally interacting with ex-offenders due to safety concerns