An education system gone astray

On 5 January, the government cancelled all GCSE and A-level exams in England for the summer 2021, following similar decisions by the devolved governments of Wales and Scotland. The announcement was greeted with an outcry by many pupils and their parents. The cancellations were called a ‘big disappointment’ by some, apparently potentially preventing students to reach their full potential and endangering their future career prospects (BBC, 5 January 2021). Why is it that many pupils and their parents are so unhappy about the cancellation of an enormously intensive set of exams? 

 

Beyond “Koyaanisqatsi”: Reimagining Civilization

There is an emerging view in the present crisis, illustrated in recently burgeoning commentary across the globe, expressing a realization that our present form of world order and civilization has brought humanity and “nature” into a great crisis, and that we must act radically to transform the foundations. In this guest post, Barry Gills argues that the combination, or “triple crisis,” of the three Cs – Climate, Capitalism, and COVID-19 – has brought forward a momentum to address the fundamental causes of this crisis.

 

Re-arranging the deckchairs of capitalist control: The departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain.

By Sunday, 15 November 2020 it was clear, Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain, two of Prime Minister Johnson’s key advisers were to leave the government (The Guardian, 15 November 2020). Commentators were quick to paint the Prime Minister as someone who was asserting his authority and started speculating about potential policy changes. Looking at the charade from outside the Westminster bubble, however, it becomes clear that this has little to do with policy, and is more about trying to steady a ship, which has gone completely out of control.

A crisis of their own making: Covid-19 and the pressure on Higher Education in the UK

Since the Conservatives returned to power in 2010, the ‘free market’ has also been increasingly introduced into Higher Education (HE) in the UK. A hike in tuition fees to £9000 per year as the dominant way of financing the sector plus the removal of the CAP, allowing universities to recruit as many students as they want, has fundamentally transformed HE. In this blog post, I will argue that it has also prepared the grounds for the current crisis with many British universities facing large shortfalls in income and potentially bankruptcy (The Guardian, 6 July 2020). 

Nature Strikes Back? COVID-19 and the limits to capitalist outward expansion.

In 2007/2008, the Global Financial Crisis, caused by financial market speculation related to home ownership and mortgages, spilled over into a global economic recession. The current coronavirus crisis too will result in a perhaps even more dramatic global economic crisis. Unlike in 2007/2008, however, many argue that this time it is not human error, which caused the crisis. Rather, we are dealing with a natural crisis unrelated to our capitalist economy. In this post, I will critically engage with this claim. 

Ecofeminism as Politics – a conversation with Ariel Salleh

In 2017, Ariel Salleh published the second edition of her book Ecofeminism as Politics: Nature, Marx and the Postmodern (Zed Books, 2017). In her outstanding engagement with multiple oppressions within the capitalist global economy, she convincingly argues that patriarchal oppression is inextricably internally related to the destruction of nature in capitalism’s relentless search for accumulating ever higher levels of surplus value. - The conversation that follows is an overview of the book, as well as offering some critical reflections.

Social Care under pressure: the problem of the for-profit sector

How we take care of seniors at a time in their life when they are most vulnerable and need the greatest support is an important public policy challenge. It also is a clear statement about who we are as a society. (McGregor and Ronald 2016)

Covid-19 and the related high number of deaths in care homes has revealed the shortcomings in the UK care home sector. While private companies reap large profits, the quality of care is often low and staff is poorly trained and lowly paid. I will argue that only the re-municipalisation of care homes can ultimately address the problems.