Stir #43

Interview — Carlo Invernizzi Accetti with Jonny Gordon-Farleigh

Why is there such dissatisfaction with democracy? Why does there appear to be so little difference between political parties? And why do politicians claim to represent ‘everyone’? In Technopopulism: The New Logic of Democratic Politics, political theorists Carlo Invernizzi Accetti and Christopher Bickerton contest many of the assumptions about the origins of the crisis of democracy, and argue that we need to move beyond the “simplistic idea that in the right ‘dose’ populism and technocracy can counterbalance one another.”

In this interview, we discuss the absence of ideological platforms in contemporary politics, why we need more mediation not less, and how the paradox of inclusion – claiming to represent ‘everyone’ – is actually anti-pluralist.

The role of AI in democratising the economy — Daniel Stanley

Worries about the rapid rise of AI are widespread, with even the founders of the companies profiting from the technology calling for safeguards to be put in place. Dealing with this is an urgent priority, but as the increasing presence of AI in our future economy becomes an ever more inevitable prospect, those working for more just social outcomes must also consider the opportunities that the technology might present. Daniel Stanley explores the actions needed to take advantage of these opportunities as they emerge, as well as how the undemocratic business models and extractive approaches to data of most major AI systems drive their most damaging externalities - and what we might be able to do to tackle this.

How to Save the City: A guide for emergency action — Paul Chatterton

In How to Save the City, out this month with Agenda Publishing, Paul Chatterton invites the reader to engage with the challenges of living and working in cities at a time when several conflating emergencies have become more pressing and connected. While the climate crisis is the most urgent, we also face deep social crises in housing, gender and race inequalities, the breakdown of our natural world, our energy consumption, and the deep ripples resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. These emergencies are playing out in acute ways in urban areas. The city has to change, but how and by whom? 

Democratic Business Series: Capital Gap – Financing the transition to a democratic economy — With contributions from Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation (GMCVO); Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Local Trust; Power to Change; Kindred