The last time a man named Charles sat on the English throne he first had to be saved by a tree from republican revolutionaries. When he was later installed as monarch, the annual celebration of this restoration of monarchy was named after that tree. The tree would also come to adorn the flag of the…

If you teach online you encounter the challenge of digital communications and “content” on an intimate basis. I have noticed that a large number of emails and time is spent on integrating – what I am calling – ‘digital machines’ in to use. Digital machines can be a spreadsheet used to organize some activity, they…

I found myself reconsidering earlier work that drew on Machiavelli and Gramsci’s insights on preparation and crisis. In Frédéric Keck’s book he compares how Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore respond to viruses. More precisely he unpacks the different techniques of preparedness and different forms of power these techniques emerge from. Keck effectively categorises how his…

According to evolutionary theory, as used by proponents of the modern synthesis of biology, the genetic transcript of each species determines who they are, what properties they possess and so what niche they are adapted to. Hence all organisms have a proper place they belong. The English word ‘belonging’ originated in the 11th-15th century with…