Demos Greenhouse
- Co-Designers Return For the first three weeks of this month myself, Hannah, Shawnee, Niamh, Matthew, Celia and intern James have been working in Lewisham, Bristol, and Knowsley. We have been working with young people and parents who live in these boroughs to design new services that will help NEET young people and parents who want to engage more in their children's education. We at Demos believe, and have been saying for quite a while, that people really can contribute to designing service solutions to the... continue reading 26th July 2007
- UNTO THE BEACH! (+sandy podcast) “Am I de only person, who still cannot ber-lieve, dat der is a beach in Bristaaahl!” It’s five o clock on Tuesday afternoon, and as the late afternoon sun bounces up off the Avon, Althea and Donna are shuddering out over the beach. Children enjoying the school holidays are digging holes and and making piles of sand around their parents, twenty-somethings and students are building up in huddles supping beer from plastic cups, pensioners lie back on deck chairs hiding their... continue reading on 26th July 2007 in Demos Podcasts
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The politics of national security (or how to spin by the new PM)
Yesterday Gordon Brown gave a statement on national security. It was a veritable shopping list of activities, initiative and policies. Most of them had been announced last week but it was wheeled out again yesterday for one reason. Today the Conservative Party will publish their national and international security policy review. Brown’s sharp piece of political maneuvering will leave Cameron and his national security adviser Pauline Neville Jones only a few recommendations to choose from. In his statement Brown was able to announce the creation of a unified border police (the centre piece of the Conservative's proposal), propose a £70 million pound fund for local communities to resist violent extremism and announce 2 further things the government should have done 3 years ago
continue reading on 26th July 2007 in The Public Value of Security - Miliband's starter for 10 In a speech to Chatham House the new foreign secretary, David Miliband has scrapped the FCO’s 10 priorities in favour of focusing on extremism, radicalisation and conflict on the one hand; climate change and the EU on the other; While calling for better coordination across the FCO and other departments on particular countries and challenges. continue reading on 20th July 2007
- I smoked dope at university... and I REALLY enjoyed it It's probably a good thing that politicians feel they can be open about their past drug use, but do they have to be quite so mealy mouthed in admitting it? There appear to be a couple of rules to the public dope fiend confession. First, you must only have smoked it a really long time ago, ideally in the 70s when everyone was a 'bit crazy'. Second, you must give off a sense of being mildly ashamed of your behaviour. Finally, you must NEVER suggest that you enjoyed it.Now let's be honest for... continue reading 20th July 2007 Comments (1)
- Food for thought There's a fascinating article in the Guardian today about Fish and Chips. It charts the progress of 'cheap and simple' dish to its new-found status as a gourmet dish. Plenty is bound up in the story of the fish and its relationship to the chip. As the article points out, the dish's changing status tells us a lot about changing consumption habits in the UK today. It can also tell us a good deal about the aesthetics of gentrification, a world in which 'scraps', formerly... continue reading on 20th July 2007 Comments (1)
- I don't believe it This to me is incredible. As in literally. I don’t believe how seriously it is being taken. I woke up this morning to the sound of Radio 4 explaining how the alchohol licensing laws look like they’ve failed. Then i listened further and realised that this is one study of one hospital. And then it occurred to me that this is 18 months into the change in the law. continue reading on 19th July 2007 Comments (1)
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You are not anonymous
At the home of former file-sharing service Grokster, you will find a stern reminder of the illegality of p2p content sharing - followed by a thoroughly sinister last couple of lines:
"YOUR IP ADDRESS IS xx.xx.xxx.xxx AND HAS BEEN LOGGED.Don't think you can't get caught. You are not anonymous." continue reading on 17th July 2007 in For Your Information - Building Cultural Literacy Last month, I spoke at a conference at Fudan University in Shanghai. The paper I gave was about the role of cultural providers like museums and the role that they have in building the skills in reading and interpreting cultures. You can download the paper here. continue reading on 17th July 2007
- Privacy on social networks Just read a story about Oxford University using Facebook to find evidence from their students' photos of banned post-exam partying. It follows lots of stories about employers using infomration they find on social network sites to inform their recrutiment decisions, or monitor their staff.One of Facebook's selling points is that users can set levels of privacy, limiting access to photos and the other snippets of information from their profiles to a specific group or groups. Is it as... continue reading on 17th July 2007 in For Your Information Private Lives? Comments (1)