“Reclaiming Utopia”

An Introduction to the Project of Challenging the Financial Imagination

Dithering between the naiveté of techno-utopias of a fully-automated post capitalism, and the banal indulgence in bureaucratic ‘utopias of rules’, utopian thinking today seems to offer meagre hope for articulating and enacting radical futures. Meanwhile, in the world of financial markets, a formidable imagined future is being methodically produced. Fictional ...
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White Supremacy, Fear and the Crises of Legitimation

Reflections on the mistrial in the murder case of Walter Scott and the election of Donald Trump

We are, however, likely to miss the importance of this decision if we do not connect it to another jarring day: November 9th. Many of us woke up (some of us never slept) to the announcement that Donald J. Trump would be the 45th president of the United States. Given ...
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Summer of Our American Discontent

New Hearts and Racial Divides

On July 12, 2016, in the midst of another American summer wracked by racial unrest, police brutality, protest, and violence, President Obama addressed the nation from Dallas, Texas, during a memorial service for five police officers slain in the line of duty and urged Americans to “reject despair” and to ...
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Summer of Our American Discontent

The 1@1

National Minute of Silence for Women’s Equality

On 11/9, I felt physical pain. I'd lived through Reagan, and Bush ...and Bush... so, it wasn't a Republican win that squeezed my stomach with icy fingers. It was the vertiginous plunge of the elevator just as the doors were about to slide open onto full equality, the hurtling backward ...
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The 1@1

“Post-Truth,” And “Social Research”

Oxford English Dictionary’s word of 2016

What happens when facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief? This phenomenon is known as “post-truth,” a term that was named word of 2016 by the Oxford English Dictionary. When false news is seen as credible and the metrics of prediction have ...
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“Post-Truth,” And “Social Research”

Cuba Mourns Fidel, Maybe

Reactions on the ground in the aftermath of the leader’s death

For nine days there was no alcohol sold on the island. Cuba is not a dry country, but it became one in mourning Fidel. “There was absolutely no alcohol being sold, not even to tourists,” Jenni, a visiting student from a US college on a study abroad program told me. ...
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Cuba Mourns Fidel, Maybe

I think… I don’t think… I really think…

The curious life of gender in the election of Donald J.Trump

On October 24, 2016, Carol Gilligan hosted a panel discussion at The New School titled “Election Game Changer: Is Gender the Explosive issue?” With election day fast-approaching, Gilligan and her fellow panelists, Wendy Puriefoy, Janet Reitman, Esther Franke, and Ali Shames-Dawson, engaged in a lively exploration of the political landscape ...
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I think… I don’t think… I really think…

Trump Calls Killing Addicts, “Right Approach”

Philippines President Claims Trump Endorsed His Violent Anti-drug Campaign

Donald Trump’s inviting Rodrigo Duterte to the White House adds to the growing list of victimized, marginalized groups endangered by the incoming administration. Amongst the many targets of his bigoted, xenophobic, racist, ableist, and misogynist assaults, drug addicts, too, may now find a place. The President-elect’s alleged endorsement of the brutal ...
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Trump Calls Killing Addicts, “Right Approach”

Utopias of the Surface

Nothing is really visible, not even in the noon sun’s blinding reflection on the shimmering sea. A magical time, when gods appear. -Claudio Magris, A Different Sea Almost every day, I walk a few blocks west from my apartment to the Hudson River. This is one of the few places where the ...
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Utopias of the Surface

The Lady in the Van (2015)

Movie Review

“One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation.” Mary (or is it Margaret?) Shepherd was a pianist. And then she was a nun. And then… well, it’s not clear just what happened next. But by the time we meet her, in Alan Bennett’s ...
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The Lady in the Van (2015)

Borders and the Politics of Mourning

A Response in a Post-Trump World

It seems an understatement to emphasize the timeliness of the recent edition of The New School’s journal Social Research on “Borders and Politics of Mourning,” edited by Alexandra Délano Alonso and Benjamin Nienass. The title takes on a whole new meaning in the aftermath of the US election. The politics ...
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