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Literature

A collection of 507 articles

Welcome ‘Think Like a Commoner’, Second Edition!

About a year ago, some folks in Bangkok reached out to me. Hans van Willenswaard and his wife Wallapa wanted to translate my book Think Like a Commoner into Thai and publish it. Hans is the founder of the Innovation Network International in

The Great Decoupling: Not more, but better part 3

In the two previous articles, I have given a big picture of agriculture developments from a production and economic perspective. My main point is that the development of the agri-food system has been driven by four mega-trends (or mega-driv

Celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: 'I have always longed to be known'

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the themes of her new novel, Dream Count: "I wanted to write about women's lives. And the reality of it is that for many women, the men in their lives in some ways, shape their lives."

Electricity is more dangerous than you think

Alternating current or AC electric fields are invisible, physical fields of electromagnetic radiation that are present if there is electricity available. The electricity doesn’t have to be used, just available to be used. In the following, Dr.

Seeing My Settler Ignorance in the Mirror of This Moment

This essay is excerpted with permission from Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair, by Hilary Giovale. (Green Writers Press, 2024) A decade ago, I sat on the floor of my living room in Flagstaff, Arizona with a new friend named Marie Gladue.

Larder

One of the key practices on this Earth takes place every day before the store cupboard, and this extract, about the cherry plum tree, records the moment, one late summer’s day in Oxfordshire, when I shifted my allegiance from the city larder to the wild. I did not look back.

Dougald Hine: “Reimagining the Cultural Narrative: Art and Storytelling for Systemic Change”

(Conversation recorded on November 12th, 2024) Show Summary In today’s modern era, the overwhelming flood of information that constantly flows our way can leave us feeling disoriented, lost, and powerless. Even science – our most trusted source of truth – can be taken out of context to fuel division and distort

Planting Seeds

The Gathering Fire

On this first Halcyon Day two years ago I began a year-long creative Dark Mountain workshop called ‘We Walk Though the Fire’ that revolved around the eight ceremonial fires of the solar year.

The Wild Chatbot

“The first thing you need to know about this book … is that it asks you to suspend both belief and disbelief.” — Dorothy Coccinella Ladybugboss1 There are friends you can count on to surprise you. Like the time Vanessa called to ask if I would be the voice of Hospicing Modernity.

Juice: Review

The recent burgeoning of dystopic future and climate fiction (or ‘cli-fi’) in film, TV and literature reflects the current direction of travel for the world and the rising anxieties accompanying this. Many different timeframes, settings, nations and contexts have been explored as part of this cultural phenomenon and one particular

Future Natures: On Seeing Commons through Popular Genres

In academic research about the commons, few scholars are as venturesome in their creative approaches than the scholars and researchers associated with the Centre for Future Natures, at the University of Sussex in England. Led by anthropologist and research fellow Amber Huff, Future Natures explores “ecologies of crisis, commons, and

Ecology of Fear: Mike Davis’ history of LA and natural disaster is re-read whenever fire rages in California

In this month’s massive Los Angeles fires, so far 24 people have died, thousands of structures have been destroyed and approximately 16,308 hectares have been burned. The fires are already among the most destructive in California’s recorded history. And as happens when major fires erupt in Los

Review: In the Drift by Michael Swanwick

In the Drift By Michael Swanwick Original edition: Ace Science Fiction Books, Feb. 1985, 184 pp. Reissued in various print and ebook editions. Michael Swanwick’s 1985 novel In the Drift takes place in an alternate reality in which the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident—rather than remaining a

Working from First Principles: ‘Parable of the Sower’ (Octavia E. Butler, 1993)

Jan 8, 2025 3 min read in Philosophy Literature