Michel Foucault: Discourse

Michel Foucault: Discourse

Key Concept The idea of discourse constitutes a central element of Michel Foucault’s oeuvre, and one of the most readily appropriated Foucaultian terms, such that ‘Foucaultian discourse analysis’ now constitutes an academic field in its own right. This...
Private Security: Twin Indignities

Private Security: Twin Indignities

The privatisation of criminal justice practices is an affront to human dignity. When we are acted upon for profit as well as for justified ends, the proper link between coercion, rights, and authority is lost. Ministry of Justice proposals could mean that all...
Britain: The Empire that Never Was

Britain: The Empire that Never Was

Why Brexit is the culmination of a British national project which weaponises imperial amnesia and nostalgia. Brexit sold the country a dream; ostensibly a project built on anti-migrant sentiment, it also invoked delusions of grandeur, rooted in reanimating the...
Radicalizing Women’s Rights Internationally

Radicalizing Women’s Rights Internationally

The recent “burqa bans” in Austria and Quebec appear to be troubling legal manifestations of the rising tide of Islamaphobia in Europe and North America. The news coverage of the bans coincided for me with a bout of reflexive angst regarding the recent...
The Fallacies of Neoliberal Protest

The Fallacies of Neoliberal Protest

This post is an amended version of remarks read at a rally organized by Cornell University’s Black Students United (BSU) on September 23, 2016. Students gathered to protest the recent police shootings of Tyree King, Terence Crutcher, and Keith Lamont Scott. It is...