Political geographer Fabrizio Eva highlights the gap between the principles of inter-state relations (as espoused by the United Nations and the so-called ‘International Community’) and their actual practice, suggesting that the critical stance of anarchist geographies provides a good perspective to better understand ‘International Relations’. The article traces the links between ‘classical’ and contemporary anarchist geographies, before offering an analytical procedure informed by an anarchic critical approach to Geopolitics.
Anarchist Academics and Peer Review
Anarchists in the academy are forced to work within (or around) numerous structures and processes that are antithetical to their principles and ideals. However, not all these institutional trappings are equally problematic, and Judith Suissa argues here that peer review is one aspect which can function in keeping with the main principles of anarchism (even as this process is increasingly distorted by marketised ideologies).
The Sparrows’ Nest Anarchist Library and Archive
The Sparrows’ Nest has been documenting and sharing the history of anarchist movements for ten years. Jim Donaghey paid the Sparrows a visit at their library and archive in Nottingham, UK, to talk about their work and the importance of making anarchist history available to all. The article contains an audio stream of the interview (11m 38s), a full transcript, a series of images of the Nest, and information on their archived collections.
Notes on an Anarchist Pedagogy
Critical pedagogy challenges us to consider education as ‘the practice of freedom’ – but this freedom is being squeezed out by neo-liberal reforms, not least in Trump’s America. Ron Scapp asks if an ‘anarchist pedagogy’ can stand as a bulwark against rigid and marketised education practices.
Long live the House of the Black Gecko!
Casa da Lagartixa Preta “Malagueña Salerosa” (The House of the Black Gecko) has been housing anarchist (and related) activisms in São Paulo, Brazil for fourteen years. An activist from ABC Ativismo shares a potted history of the space and an overview of its wide-ranging activities.
Ativismo ABC and Casa da Lagartixa Preta “Malagueña Salerosa”
New Blog Article on Combating Casualisation at Universities
Steven Parfitt points to the prominence of casualisation among the myriad issues highlighted on picket lines in the recent UK university strikes. By looking back to the examples of the Wobblies and the Knights of Labor, he suggests lessons we might learn for organising precarious workers today.
The UK University Strike: Pensions, Precarity and Learning from History
In Memory of Harold Barclay
Harold Barclay passed away peacefully a few months ago in December 2017. In this article Nathan Jun identifies some of Harold’s contributions to anarchist anthropology, and Jane Barclay, Harold’s wife, has kindly allowed us to reproduce her obituary of Harold for our blog readers.
New blog article by Brian Martin
AnarchistStudies.blog brings you another new article:
Jonathan’s Haidt’s The Righteous Mind differentiates between the ‘gut reactions’ of liberals and conservatives and argues that this shapes their political outlooks. Brian Martin takes a Kropotkinite tilt at Haidt’s six ‘moral foundations’ and assesses their implications for ‘human nature’ in anarchist political philosophy.
New blog articles
AnarchistStudies.blog is pleased to bring you our first two blog articles.
Anarchist geographer Simon Springer, takes hollow cries of ‘Left Unity’ to task, and asks why David Harvey is so afraid of anarchists:
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Anarchist? Rejecting Left Unity and Raising Hell in Radical Geography
And Manuel Lozano provides an extensive analysis of the Catalan Independence struggle from an anarchist perspective:
Nausea within the smokescreen. Profiteering the Catalan independence
AnarchistStudies.blog
AnarchistStudies.blog aims to bring you regular bursts of comment and critique related to anarchist activism, anarchist academia, and the wider world as viewed through an anarchist lens. Rooted in our association with the Anarchist Studies journal, the blog has the advantage of rapid publication and functions as a platform to share opinion and host critical debate.
To contribute, contact Jim Donaghey: j.donaghey@qub.ac.uk