Anarchist Essays
Brought to you by Loughborough University’s Anarchism Research Group (ARG), Anarchist Essays presents leading academics, activists, and thinkers exploring themes in anarchist theory, history, and practice. For more on the ARG, please visit https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ and follow us on Twitter at @arglboro
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Episodes
Monday Oct 04, 2021
Monday Oct 04, 2021
In this essay, Jim Yeoman explores the intersection of anarchism and cycling, through the case study of Amsterdam's Provo movement of the mid-1960s. Yeoman focuses on the portrayal of the group's White Bicycle Plan in the British magazine Anarchy, revealing conflicted attitudes to this eclectic example of direct action, with resonances in leftist attitudes to groups such as Critical Mass and Extinction Rebellion.
Jim Yeoman is an independent researcher, whose previous research has concentrated on the anarchist movement in Spain. His recent publications include his book Print Culture and the Formation of the Anarchist Movement in Spain (Routledge, 2019; soon to be released as a paperback with AK Press), and his introduction and annotation to Slava Faybysh's translation of Leopoldo Bonafulla, The July Revolution: Barcelona 1909 (AK Press, 2021). With Danny Evans, Jim co-hosts the radical history podcast ABC With Danny and Jim.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Sep 06, 2021
Monday Sep 06, 2021
In this essay, John-Erik Hansson examines how and why the 18th-century philosopher William Godwin has been portrayed – positively and negatively – as an anarchist by writers in the 20th century. In so doing, it sheds light on the ideological dynamics and possibilities implicit in the formation and circulation of an anarchist theoretical canon.
John-Erik Hansson is Lecturer in British History at the University of Paris. He recently authored two essays on Godwin’s children’s literature, ‘Through the Looking-Glasses: Godwin’s Biographies for Children’ (2021) and ‘William Godwin, Romantic-Era Historiography and the Political Cultures of Infancy’ (2020), in edited volumes. He is also co-editor of the Ideology, Theory, Practice blog.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Aug 23, 2021
Monday Aug 23, 2021
In this essay, Emma Brown Dewhurst discusses the relevance and importance of anarchist theory for reorientating Christian ethics, especially in relation to the theology of St Maximus the Confessor. Love as alleviating suffering, and vice as greed are discussed, along with some reflections on how churches should have more in common with anarchist interests than the oppressive states they have traditionally supported.
Emma Brown Dewhurst is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at Ludwig Maximilians Universität München, specialising in Greek Patristic and Byzantine Theology and its relevance for contemporary ethics. Their most recent publications are "The Absence of Sex and Gender in Early Byzantine Theology" and "On the Soul and the Cyberpunk Future: St Macrina, St Gregory of Nyssa and Contemporary Mind/Body Dualism", and on the topic of anarchism and theology: "To Each According to their Needs: Anarchist Praxis as a Resource for Byzantine Theological Ethics". Their twitter handle is @BrownDewhurst and they can also be reached through their personal website.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Monday Aug 09, 2021
Monday Aug 09, 2021
In this essay, Ruth Kinna discusses Peter Kropotkin's defence of communism. Exploring his idea of 'well-being for all' she argues that libertarian communism entails re-thinking economic principles and tailoring productive activity to mutual aid.
Ruth Kinna is a founder member of the Anarchism Research Group. She has taught a variety of courses in political theory and the history of ideas, including anarchism, at Loughborough University since 1992.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Jul 26, 2021
Monday Jul 26, 2021
In this essay, Jon Bigger sets out the case for an anarchist ‘exploration’ of the BBC TV drama Doctor Who.
Jon tutors in A-Level Government and Politics in the UK, regularly contributes to anarchist newspaper Freedom and can be found on twitter @DrJonBigger or at his website https://jonbigger.uk/
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
In this essay, about the islands of southern Vanuatu, which presents an alternative to the traditional Western Civilisation narrative, James Flexner explores the ways that a 5,000 year history of domestication, island colonisation, and agricultural practices contributed to the anti-hierarchical nature of Island Melanesian societies. Chiefly status in southern Vanuatu derived from mass gifting of agricultural surpluses during competitive feasting events, which limited possibilities for the establishment of permanent hierarchies.
James Flexner is senior lecturer in historical archaeology at the University of Sydney. He is a member of the Black Trowel Collective group of anarchist archaeologists. His books include Archaeologies of Island Melanesia (co-edited with Mathieu Leclerc, and Community-Led Research: Walking New Pathways Together (co-edited with Victoria Rawlings and Lynette Riley), which are both available as a free download/Open Access.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Monday Jun 28, 2021
In this essay, Sky Croeser reflects on her experience attempting to make anarchist interventions into university teaching, including teaching online. She suggests some ways in which university teachers might work to undermine hierarchies, rethink assessment, encourage collaboration, and help students to imagine radical change.
Sky Croeser lives and works on Noongar Boodja, and is Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University. Sky’s research focuses on understanding how people use and change the technologies of everyday life. You can find out more about her research and teaching at skycroeser.net
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/. You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday Jun 14, 2021
Monday Jun 14, 2021
In this essay, Lauren Golder looks at gendered interpretations of free love and sex radicalism through the life of American anarchist-feminist Voltairine de Cleyre (1866-1912). During the Gilded Age, anarchist men often interpreted free love as a path to personal fulfillment and sexual liberation, while anarchist women saw it as a way to achieve reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. De Cleyre believed that anarchist free love was women's best hope for freedom from patriarchal oppression, a position which was reinforced by her experience of unwanted pregnancy and encounters with misogyny both within and outside of the anarchist movement.
Lauren Golder teaches History and Gender Studies at Santa Monica College and Victor Valley College in California. Her research explores the intersections of American anarchism, gender, and intimate life, and she is working on a book tentatively titled Intimate Experiments: Free Love, Domesticity, and Feminism in the American Anarchist Movement, 1880-1920. For more information, see https://laurengolder.com/
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday May 31, 2021
Monday May 31, 2021
In this essay, Alexander Aston investigates the relationship between urban ecology, social cognition and the emergence of the Paris Commune of 1871. He considers how an anti-cartesian process-anarchism might inform strategies for social transformation by examining self-organising dynamics of people, artefacts, and institutions during the Commune.
Alexander lectures on Anthropology and Archaeology at Keble College, Oxford. His research explores how material culture shapes the evolution and development of human social cognition. His most recent publications are, How the Cycladic Islanders Found Their Marbles: Material Engagement, Social Cognition and the Emergence of Keros and Metaplasticity and the boundaries of social cognition: exploring scalar transformations in social interaction and intersubjectivity.
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
In this essay, Anders Sandström explores the history of accounting and argues for the need for accounting and bookkeeping also in a future anarchist economy without private capital owners.
Anders Sandström is a trained accountant with a degree from Uppsala University and the author of Anarchist Accounting (Routledge 2020).
Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. For more information on the ARG, visit www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/politics-international-studies/research/arg/ . You can follow us on Twitter @arglboro
Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Hear more at https://soundcloud.com/user-178917365
Artwork by Sam G: https://www.instagram.com/passerinecreations