Samuel Jones
Researcher
Samuel Jones is a researcher at Demos. His research interests include culture and the arts, museums and galleries, creativity and the communication of ideas and knowledge through the cultural sector. In particular, he is interested in cross-cultural communications and the role of culture in international relations. In other work, he has focused on Global English and conversations. Recently, he has undertaken research in both the US and China.
- Cultural Diplomacy on the agenda Cultural Diplomacy was debated in the House of Lords yesterday, there's a full transcript of the debate, here. It's great to see the work being dicussed in this context and it follows Tony Blair's comments yesterday that 'culture in a globalised world is an important form of diplomacy'. continue reading on 7th March 2007 in Cultural Diplomacy
- Whipping up a perfect storm... Last year’s Demos report A Perfect Storm? predicted that there would be widespread cases of local authorities cutting back their cultural provision. Since then, Wandsworth has threatened to close Battersea Arts Centre and Walthamstow Museum, the William Morris Museum in Waltham Forest is under threat, Bolton is selling assets, and Southampton is discussing closing part of its museum service. continue reading on 6th March 2007 in A Perfect Storm Comments (3)
- We're all diplomats now... Today, we launched Cultural Diplomacy at the V&A in South Kensington. It argues for the importance of culture in the way that we relate to each other in the world today. As well as providing a medium through which we can relate to one another, culture is emerging a space in which those relations can be conducted. continue reading on 28th February 2007 in Cultural Diplomacy
- French Protest Over English Language 'We have nothing against the Brits or the American ... But we simply cannot accept that our language is reduced to a local dialect - we are protesting against this linguistic hegemony'. continue reading on 12th February 2007 in As You Like It
- Where's the ambiguity in this sentence? “This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.” continue reading on 5th January 2007 in As You Like It Comments (2)
- de Tocqueville, de Schmocqueville - conversation's not declining Alexis de Tocqueville once wrote of the 'strange unsociability and reserved and taciturn disposition of the English'. There's an article in this week's Economist looking at conversation in history that makes for interesting reading. continue reading on 20th December 2006 in Talk us into it
- Tales of Dearing do On the back of last week's Dearing report into language learning in schools, the UK's linguistic competence is back in the newspapers and, once again, we are reminded of the monoglot mire into which we could well fall. continue reading on 18th December 2006 in As You Like It
- Louder than Words I've been meaning to blog this for a little while. A couple of weekends ago, I went to a see an exhibition by the Birmingham artist, Barbara Walker. It's currently on show at the Unit 2 Gallery at London Metropolitan University. There are two reasons to go and see this show. First, the close draughtsmanship of the works reveals close observation and familiar care. As a result, they are deeply engaging and clearly very personal images. Scenes on the walk home,... continue reading on 1st December 2006
- Cultural Revolution in the 1990s ‘By the mid-nineties museum directors had figured out along with the rest of us that the worldwide system of production had radically changed with the advent of the PC, then the Internet' continue reading on 7th November 2006 in Culture Online
- Linguistic Diversity in India This is a really interesting article by Pratap Bhanu Mehta about the dynamics of politics and langauge in India. Actually, it makes some pretty salient points about language choice and politics generally. As debates about the dominance of English and linguistic imperialism proliferate and some countries take active and coercive steps to limit its influence, Mehta argues for 'the principle of non-coercion', a linguistic policy for which he praises Nehru. continue reading on 2nd November 2006 in As You Like It