Pod­cast

This episode explores polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary con­flicts in Ethiopia and more broad­ly, in the Horn of Africa. Why has Ethiopia’s process of democ­ra­ti­za­tion erod­ed in recent years? And what is the wider impact of such demo­c­ra­t­ic back­slid­ing on African region­al pol­i­tics? Lis­ten to hear how shift­ing glob­al geopo­lit­i­cal bal­ances are…

This episode explores envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice and the democ­ra­ti­za­tion of law. What does it take to turn the law into some­thing that ordi­nary peo­ple can use to pro­tect them­selves? And how can putting the pow­er of the law into the hands of the peo­ple sup­port pro­gres­sive eman­ci­pa­to­ry pol­i­tics? Lis­ten to hear…

This episode explores human rights in rela­tion to Russia’s full-scale aggres­sion on Ukraine. How do account­abil­i­ty gaps play a role in restora­tive jus­tice? And what are effec­tive approach­es for doc­u­ment­ing loss­es and war crimes so they can be brought to court? Lis­ten for an analy­sis of the cur­rent war in…

This episode explores con­tem­po­rary fears about the decline of democ­ra­cy. Is the cur­rent down­ward spi­ral actu­al­ly part of a rhyth­mic oscil­la­tion of democ­ra­cy? And giv­en its cen­tral­i­ty to mod­ern polit­i­cal life, can democ­ra­cy real­ly be erad­i­cat­ed? Lis­ten to hear about how the chang­ing forms of the demo­c­ra­t­ic project must be…

This episode explores the con­cept of tech­nofeu­dal­ism and the role of dig­i­tal plat­forms in gov­ern­ing the lives of indi­vid­u­als. How has the cloud cre­at­ed a feed­back loop that removes agency from those who pro­duce data? And what are the effects of tech­nofeu­dal­ism on demo­c­ra­t­ic pol­i­tics? Lis­ten to con­sid­er what democratic…

This episode explores the pit­falls of under­stand­ing cap­i­tal­ism as a mere­ly eco­nom­ic sys­tem. How does this nar­row con­ven­tion­al view obscure dis­tinct sources of non-eco­nom­ic wealth? And what is revealed by exam­in­ing cap­i­tal­ism instead as a social order includ­ing aspects of expro­pri­a­tion, domes­tic labor and deple­tion of nature? Final­ly, why must…

This episode explores Aus­tri­an his­to­ry and pol­i­tics, look­ing to lessons of the past to under­stand the future of democ­ra­cy in the coun­try. What might grow­ing sup­port for right wing nation­al­ism mean for Aus­tria? And how does the coun­try’s neu­tral­i­ty play a role in rela­tion­ships with exter­nal pow­er in the EU…

This episode explores Poland’s recent elec­tion results and their sig­nif­i­cance as a turn­ing point in democ­ra­cy in Poland. Will this elec­tion mark the end of an illib­er­al peri­od in the coun­try? And might it be the start of a pro­gres­sive wave sweep­ing across Europe? Lis­ten to hear an analy­sis of…

This episode explores grass­roots utopi­an prac­tices and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Odyssey project, which recent­ly con­vened in Athens. Build­ing upon the notion of “demo­icra­cy” in the Euro­pean Union – the ide­al of a union of peo­ple that gov­ern togeth­er, but not as one – the con­ver­sa­tion inves­ti­gates col­lec­tive access to polit­i­cal decision-making…

This episode explores the notion of “demo­icra­cy” in the Euro­pean Union – the ide­al of a union of peo­ple that gov­ern togeth­er, but not as one. What might plu­ral­iz­ing democ­ra­cy look like? And do recent exper­i­ments war­rant opti­mism in cit­i­zen assem­blies? Lis­ten to hear about emer­gent new mod­els of transnational…

This episode explores Chi­na’s thin­ly veiled projects of expand­ing glob­al influ­ence. Does Chi­nese con­trol of crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture and eco­nom­ic sup­ply chains threat­en Europe’s auton­o­my? And how can democ­ra­cies counter the glob­al spread of Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty ide­ol­o­gy? Lis­ten to hear about Chi­na’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties to polit­i­cal protest and why many Chinese…

This episode, record­ed live at the 2023 Alp­bach Forum in Tirol, Aus­tria, explores why eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ties have increased over recent years and how such strat­i­fi­ca­tion is detri­men­tal to democ­ra­cy. What has been learned through past and cur­rent crises? And how might the green tran­si­tion play a role in the future?…

This episode explores illu­sions about Chi­na’s ambi­tions relat­ed to expand­ing mil­i­tary and eco­nom­ic pow­er. How have such illu­sions been per­pet­u­at­ed by Ger­mans and Euro­peans in order to main­tain prof­it for com­pa­nies? And what does a real­is­tic assess­ment of Chi­na’s cur­rent ambi­tions of glob­al eco­nom­ic dom­i­nance, mil­i­tary might and tech­no­log­i­cal supremacy,…

This episode explores for­mer Peru­vian Pres­i­dent Alber­to Fuji­mori’s pop­u­la­tion con­trol pro­grams and how eugenic prin­ci­ples have led to the force­ful ster­il­iza­tion of women belong­ing to var­i­ous indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties. What role do for­eign gov­ern­ments and inter­na­tion­al donors play in the racial­ized pol­i­tics of pop­u­la­tion con­trol, and how have vio­la­tions of women’s…

This episode focus­es on com­par­isons of soft author­i­tar­i­an regimes and the phe­nom­e­non of auto­crat­ic legal­ism. How do the uses and abus­es of law play a role in dis­man­tling lib­er­al democ­ra­cy from with­in and cement­ing author­i­tar­i­an rule? Lis­ten to hear how coun­tries includ­ing Turkey, Hun­gary and the Unit­ed States are using…