Our fifth episode opens at an ‘EcoArt’ performance night, held at the Working Men’s club in Bethnal Green. Showcasing how alienating the ‘hippy eco-warrior’ protest movement can be – with its drastic actions, and dramatic generalisations (“people power vs. corporate greed”) – we ask: why do some of us feel that extreme protest is the only option?
To investigate this, we follow the battle between a small group of claimants and the Oil and Gas Authority and start to uncover a seemingly symbiotic relationship between the government and the fossil fuel industry.
Which leads us to some uncomfortable questions: have corporations impacted our democracy, how did this happen…and were the hippies right after all?
Wendy is an American political theorist, who has held positions at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and The Program for Critical Theory at Berkeley university. In 2015, she published Undoing the Demos which was a major theoretical contribution to the study of neoliberalism. Brown describes neoliberalism as a furtive attack on the very foundation of democracy.
Wendy Brown also edited and co-authored several important works: Left Legalism/Left Critiques (2002; edited with Janet Halley), Is Critique Secular? Injury, Blasphemy, and Free Speech (2009; co-authored with Judith Butler, Saba Mahmood, and Talal Asad), and The Power of Tolerance (2014; co-authored with Rainer Forst).
Her latest work In the Ruins of Neoliberalism forms the basis of the next episode (6. They Want to Change Your Heart and Mind).
Guy is a British Economist and Author, with an interest in labour economics and equality. He’s currently the is the professorial Research Associate (and former Professor of Development Studies) at SOAS University of London, as well as being a founder of the Basic Income Earth Network, an international non-governmental organisation that promotes basic income as a right, with networks in over 50 countries.
Guy has written and edited books on labour economics, the commons, unemployment, social protection policy and, importantly for this episode: Rentier Capitalism. In his book ‘The Corruption of Capitalism’ he outlines a more accurate and up to date exposé of how our current economic and political system works.
Michaela is a lead researcher for the journalism outlet DeSmog. Before working at DeSmog reviously worked as a freelance researcher and as a podcast producer for the US Centre at the London School of Economics.
DeSmog was founded in January 2006 to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science and solutions to climate change. Their team quickly became the world’s number one source for accurate, fact-based information regarding global warming misinformation campaigns. Their research databases provide vital information on over 800 organizations and individuals responsible for spreading misinformation on a range of energy and science topics.
You can read her article on the North Sea below
Wendy on Democracy Works