On Wasting Time

By Claire White In France, the turn of the millennium ushered in a bold, and controversial, act of legal reform that sought to reshape the French citizen’s working life: the introduction of a 35-hour working week. For many, the law…

Cover image for A Process Philosophy of Signs by James Williams

Behind Red Doors – Signs, Process and the Political

In January 2016, a scandal broke out in the UK when the Times reported that asylum seekers’ homes could be identified by distinctive red doors, making them vulnerable to attacks. Coincidentally – but not where signs and the political are concerned – A Process Philosophy of Signs opens with an account of threatening identification on doors.

Nancy in Love

‘It is possible that one day I will no longer love you, and this possibility cannot be taken away from love – it belongs to it. It is against this possibility, but also with it, that the promise is made, the word given.’ – Jean-Luc Nancy

Fitting Nowhere

Written by Ghada Karmi, this extract is one of a hundred featured in Being Palestinian: Personal Reflections on Palestinian Identity in the Diaspora, edited by Yasir Suleiman. Now available in paperback for £16.99.  For most of my life, being Palestinian has been…

When conservation is not enough

By Dominic Hinde In its nine years in power, Scotland’s Scottish National Party (SNP) government has sought to redefine many areas of how the country is governed. In many fields, from healthcare to education, the party has attempted to create…

Varun Uberoi - author photo

Multiculturalism Isn’t a Dirty Word

David Cameron has been avoiding the m-word. In his recent speech about extremism, the word ‘multicultural’ was noticeable by its omission for two reasons. First, Cameron said that Britain was a ‘successful multiracial and multi-faith democracy’ and a term like…

Politics – An Extract from The Badiou Dictionary

The problem of how philosophy is to approach the word politics is especially difficult, as it is itself a stake of political struggle and thus steeped in equivocity. The question of just who is and who is not considered political, and what objects are part or are not part of political consideration, is itself always intrinsic to politics. Philosophy thus encounters the word politics as inherently equivocal or, in Badiou’s terms, as a ‘split word’.

Finding offence

How are we to assess the impact of activities (e.g. words, songs or gestures) associated with sectarianism in contemporary Scotland? In the increasing absence of easily attributable effects such as crimes or disorder, or blatant forms of discrimination in the…