taCity

  • In Praise of the Pub Crawl

    Monopoly Pub Crawl Route: Taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/8mjd27/we_did_the_monopoly_pub_crawl_for_my_stag_do/ In the emotionally-draining, exploitative and burn-out fuelling drudgery of modern urban capitalist life, there are decreasingly few means of escape in which new spaces of the city are explored unintentionally, and new social connections can be forged. Within this urban hellscape though, a…

  • Advertising, Desire and post-capitalism

    Kylie Jenner’s infamous Pepsi ad, that was pulled after a public outcry that it trivialised the Black Live Matter protests in 2017 Advertising shits in your head. It permeates every aspect of our waking (and perhaps soon, non-waking) lives, manipulating our innermost desires, and shaping our perception of what we…

  • What is an Academic-Activist?

    An activist-academic, as the literature outlines, at its most basic is a scholar who actively engages in social and political issues while pursuing academic research and teaching. Much of this literature stems from the radical continental philosophies of the 60s and 70s, Paulo Friere’s ‘Pedegogy of the Oppressed’ is perhaps…

  • Just Stop Oil at the Snooker

    Did you see this protest last night by Just Stop Oil at the Snooker? If not, here is the BBC coverage, or watch below. You probably didn’t see it because you don’t watch snooker, but I do, I love it. And listening to the players & commentators, and reading social…

  • From Below (2022)

    A quick post to say that our feature-length documentary film produced as part of the recent AHRC-funded research project on mutual aid in the pandemic is now available for FREE online. Entitled ‘From Below’, and directed by the brilliant Matthias Kispert, the film speaks of how people and volunteers mobilised…

  • What is a General Strike?

    There’s been a lot of talk about a General Strike, but what exactly does that mean? And why are they important?

  • Avatar: The Way of the Water review – tired climate clichés distract from Cameron’s vision

    It’s been 13 long years since we last visited the planet of Pandora. During that time back here on Earth, we’ve seen huge tumultuousness: economic crises, the rise of populist politics, a deadly global pandemic and a growing climate emergency. But on Pandora, very little has changed. The main hero…

  • Walking the Edge: The interstitiality of the Blackwater Valley Path

    I’ve lived in the Blackwater Valley area for nearly a decade now, and as a keen runner and walker, I have frequently come across the wayfinding infrastructure of the Blackwater Valley Path. It became one of those ritualistic things whereby I would mentally log that I needed to research the…

  • CfP RGS-IBG 2022 – Food for thought: The political potentiality of mutual aid food provision networks

    August 30th – September 2nd 2022, Newcastle University Sponsored by the Social Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) and Food Geographies Research Group (FGRG). Organisers: Oli Mould, Jenni Cole and Adam Badger (Royal Holloway, University of London) Of the many horrific outcomes of the coronavirus disaster, the wellspring of mutual aid…

  • Three strikes and they’re out: why we need to get the vote and strike!

    It’s Groundhog day. Again. Next week, UCU staff are balloting for strike action that, if successful, would take place before Christmas. We’ve been on the picket line twice in the last 3 years, and still, we have seen no progress in bettering working conditions and stopping the decimation of the…