The Sussex occupation and the privatisation of university education

The outsourcing of campus services is part of a wider process where UK universities are becoming more like businesses. Private companies are moving into the sector, facilitated by government. This is to the detriment of employees, campus community and collective dialogue. Privatisation is spreading to academia, and learning is becoming less about social benefit and the value of education, and more about what’s commercially profitable. This will change the shape and content of the curriculum

Miliband's mistake on migration

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Austerity, globalisation and alternatives

This article argues that austerity is not necessary or externally determined. It is an active class project and an ideological choice of elites and the powerful. There are alternatives to austerity. One is based around equality and economic and social rights. Others involve the restructuring of work to a society based on less paid work, and freedom of movement in a global society of open borders. These would help counter austerity and have benefits of their own

Alternative societies

A distinctive characteristic of sociology is that it’s a critical discipline. But a question that criticisms of society imply is - what’s the alternative? This lecture will look at alternative societies implied by criticisms of existing ones. What is the role of utopianism? After the collapse of socialism in the late 20th century and the spread of capitalism and liberalism, is communism an alternative? Can we envisage a world with much less work, or no borders in the way of free movement? What alternative types of living are possible, economically, socially, educationally, politically, ecologically and that overcome divisions of class, gender and race

The sustainable society

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Why anti-outsourcing is back at Sussex University

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Why the UK should have open borders

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Is slow what the slow university's about

This is the first of a trio of posts about the Slow University that started life as presentations in a seminar at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Durham University. In it, guest blogger Luke Martell, argues that we shouldn’t fetishise speed at the fast university. This distracts from what’s behind it. And we should ask whether slow is what the slow university’s really about

The marketisation of our universities: economic criteria get precedence over what’s good in human terms

Business criteria, not education or the public good, drive what marketised universities do, writes Luke Martell. Universities are restructuring for the new era, ploughing money into marketing and glitzy buildings, designed to appeal to applicants as much as function for those that use them. It’s a revolution in what the university’s about, and a counter-revolution is needed

Medienshow ohne Substanz? New Labour’s Dritter Weg

In May 1997 the British Labour Party swept into power with a majority which exceeded all expectations. Many ommentators in the 1980s had written off Labour's chances of governing again. Yet they were elected with more votes and more seats than they had ever won before. Nearly four million more people voted Labour than Conservative. Labour won 418 seats as against 165 for the outgoing Conservative government. On the left and centre of the political spectrum there was euphoria. An eighteen year era of neo-liberal government had come to an end. Many ordinary people were glad to see a divided, scandal-ridden, incompetent and out of touch Conservative government removed. A new government promising a more compassionate communitarianism and radical constitutional reform, a high priority for education and health, with a young, modern dynamic leader and realistic, achievable policies had arrived1. In government New Labour, in its own words, 'hit the ground running'. It was wellprepared and quickly introduced a packed programme of measures. Throughout Europe politicians were closely examining Blair's revisionist 'Third Way' to see what could be learned. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, elected weeks after Blair, and the Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alemo, were seen not as Blairites but as more traditionally social democratic or Left-wing. Schröder, elected nearly 18 months after New Labour, used Blair's ideas a lot more and was keener to be associated with him, although Oskar Lafontaine is, like Jospin, more traditionally social democratic in his rhetoric. The Dutch Social Democrats were seen by many as forerunners to New Labour. In the 1998 Swedish elections politicians from different parties competed to compare themselves with Tony Blair. By 1998 there were social democrats or others on the Left in government throughout Europe - in countries such as Britain, Germany, France, most of Scandinavia, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Holland and the Czech Republic. After two years in government and the opening up of debate on the ideology, policies and practices of Britain's New Labour government, what does New Labour amount to and what do the critics have to say? As a fairly traditional socialist who believes in redistribution and greater equality I started a few years ago to examine New Labour expecting to be sympathetic to many of Blair's critics. A number of them do have strong, insightful things to say and there are limits to Labour's politics. Yet closer examination of New Labour led me to conclude that many of those criticisms also misunderstand New Labour or miss its merits