Continued from Sussex Stories 1 The interdisciplinary system For me, the most exciting thing about Sussex was that it had a unique interdisciplinary structure. 'Subject groups' like Sociology (what elsewhere were called departments) were spread across schools. There were five schools in the Arts and Social Sciences:...

See Contents and Introduction to this series. It was beautiful In the 2020s I bumped into an ex-colleague at the local swimming pool. She had been made redundant in some savage anti-education cuts at Sussex in 2012 and I had gone part-time by this point. We bemoaned the way the university (and universities in...

A few weeks ago, friend of the blog Nat Bennett wrote this article on lying to get jobs. It is strongly against lying, and the central thesis is that habitually lying is going to put you into a world where everyone is lying all the time, and every morning you wake up and think "Why am I surrounded by malevolent...

Growing up, my friends and I were in the unenviable position of being first language English speakers who were enamored by Western culture. The life of eleven year olds that read Eragon instead of playing football was isolated, to say the least. The main escapes we had in a world where we attended thousands of hours...

I. I turned 30 today. I've taken a few stabs at this post, and nothing came out feeling right. I wanted to write about Terry Pratchett, the writing process itself, programming, improv theater, career nonsense, direction, and all the other bits in life that warrant reflection. Normally I try very hard to try and...

A few weeks ago, I popped open the Y-Combinator application form and saw that one of the only things they ask for is a story about hacking a non-technical system. Well, I don't really have a reason to beg for money, lacking an unprofitable idea to beeline for an IPO1 with, but I did find myself really wanting to...

These are stories of my time working at Sussex University 1990-2024. PDF version here. Here's a list of the contents, and below that there's a brief introduction. Contents Introduction The early years 1990-98 Part 1 Interview and arrival From secretaries to co-ordinators Students, seminars, offices Admissions New...

Crossposted from The Loop 2023, under a Creative Commons licence. Socialist democracy includes but can go beyond the state, class, and socialism. It should overcome dichotomous thinking in favour of a pluralist socialism of diverse values, approaches, democratic forms, and levels of organisationCommunism, social...

Communism and freedom; Labour and socialism; class, gender, and inequality; race and migration; war, violence, and survival; love; and footballers. Normally I read some academic books on alternatives, socialism, environment etc but this year I was finishing off writing a book on those kind of things so it was all...

Crossposted with slight revisions from Transforming Society 2023.This blog is an introduction to themes from my book Alternative Societies. Alternative ways of living are less an escape from society and more a method for transforming it. We should learn from a global multitude of lived utopias, and scale them up to...

It is a cold Anzac day in Melbourne, and I am brooding. I've followed through on my commitment to interview in the tech industry without relying entirely on in-network referrals as I normally do (for a good reason - my network consists largely of the most competent people at mediocre companies!). It is dystopian out...

On dialogical education, what it is, more radical and less radical versions, putting it into practice, and whether it can be defended. I teach a course on Alternative Societies on the Sociology degree at Sussex University and this week we're looking at alternative education. One thing we cover is Paulo Freire and...