social-science

The Two Solitudes introduces a new socio anthropological distinction between two fundamentally different forms of human isolation: vertical solitude and horizontal solitude. Vertical solitude refers to the historically recognised isolation of leaders, commanders, visionaries, and elevated figures whose displacement from ordinary social experience occurs through hierarchy, responsibility, or power…

This monograph develops a unified theoretical framework within the Equilibrium Ledger Research Programme for understanding the institutional processing of cognitively divergent individuals whose output exceeds what surrounding institutional systems can stably accommodate. Through a sustained parallel analysis of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Alan Mathison Turing, the work argues that inst…

This monograph examines how elite institutions convert inequality into procedural architecture through administrative processing systems rather than explicit exclusion. Drawing on institutional sociology, disability studies, legal analysis, and empirical institutional documentation, the work introduces the Turing Theory of institutional cognition and the concept of institutional bifurcation, desc…

Netanyahu’s joint war with the US began with talk of regime change in Tehran but may leave him with few strategic gains Middle East live – latest updates When Donald Trump launched a pre-emptive war on Iran with Israel in February, many in the country hailed the campaign as the crowning triumph of Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and diplomatic career. Three months on the regime is still in power i…

_Psycho-Cosmocide Studies, Kurumbi Wone Working Paper Series No.11, (2026)_. 2026This paper develops the Eight Atlases of Human Existence as a theoretical framework within the Psycho-Cosmocide paradigm — a decolonial philosophy concerned with the systematic destruction of indigenous cosmologies, consciousness, and existential architecture under colonial domination. The eight atlases — Physical/Ma…

BackgroundThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities emphasizes individual rights and autonomy. However, certain restrictive practices in support services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may limit these rights and undermine autonomy. Structural practices are a type of restrictive practice usually defined as blanket rules or prohibitions that affect…

Modern democracy does not usually collapse in a single revolutionary moment. More often, it erodes recursively: institution by institution, exception by exception, tolerated compromise by tolerated compromise. The danger begins not merely when corruption exists, but when corruption becomes structurally expected, selectively ignored, and psychologically normalized. A democracy may survive constitu…

Civilizational Constraints are the sixth primitive of Generative Worlds Architecture. They specify the structural conditions that regulate large scale coordination among observers. Civilizational constraints are not social norms, not cultural rules, and not institutional policies. They are structural regulators that determine which civilizational architectures are admissible, which can stabilize,…

Fifa approached Mexico after US declined to host Iran squad despite it playing group games in the United States Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum , said on Monday her government agreed to allow the Iranian national football team to stay in Mexico during the World Cup , adding that the United States did not want to host the team. Sheinbaum said football’s governing body Fifa approached her gov…

Vociferously anti-Turkish party doubles its number of seats although mainstream parties didn’t see vote crumble as predicted An anti-immigrant far-right party, inspired by Greece’s defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, has made the biggest gains in parliamentary elections in Cyprus. The group, which has pushed for the closure of checkpoints on the ethnically split island and is vociferously anti-Turkish,…

We saw it when Russia jailed members of Pussy Riot, and again when the US overturned Roe v Wade: misogyny is a powerful political weapon. Let’s focus on fighting it, not ‘understanding’ it In preparation for interviewing Pussy Riot’s Maria “Masha” Alyokhina at the Charleston festival, I was reading her new memoir, Political Girl . I thought I remembered the group’s origin story pretty well – in 2…

Ciaran Martin says Reform UK leader’s allegation over Guardian report on £5m gift ‘entirely unsubstantiated’ Nigel Farage’s claim that a Russian hack was behind a Guardian report on the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire has been described as “without any merit” by a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre. Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the agency, which is part…

Nick Moss , Derrick Joad and John Wilkinson respond to an article by Sacha Hilhorst on why voters are turning to the party Sacha Hilhorst is right to highlight the fact that many Reform UK voters are disillusioned with the political status quo because their lives are ever less secure ( I’ve interviewed Reform UK voters – and they’re much more progressive than you might think, 18 May ). The issue …

Prof Mark R Sanderson says the council is Britain’s most effective instrument of soft power and should be funded properly, not hollowed out The hollowing out of the British Council across Europe should alarm anyone who cares about the UK’s standing in the world ( Soft power sell-off: anger as British Council announces sale of historic Madrid building, 22 May ). For decades, it has been one of Bri…

Region adapting to diminished US power after Washington fails to land knockout blow on Tehran or safeguard allies Middle East crisis – live updates The shock of the Iran war and its fallout has driven rivals in the Middle East to get behind a peace deal, pushing the Trump administration to accept a tentative agreement in the face of furious opposition from Israel and its supporters in Washington.…

AI may increase the technical capacity of complex societies without increasing human freedom. If AI becomes core infrastructure for production, allocation, administration, and knowledge work, then the central political question is not simply how powerful the technology becomes, but who owns and governs it. Under concentrated ownership, automation may weaken labor’s bargaining power while preservi…

Before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took his great big American road trip, Mikah Meyer did it first.  Meyer is a travel writer and blogger. In 2019, he became the first person to visit all of the National Park Service sites in a single journey — over 400 in total. The full list includes national monuments, […]

The Cost of Safetyism What we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard. When I was 11 and 12, I’d ride my bike to meet friends at the local sandlot baseball field 1.5 miles away, or to a friends house to go play pickup football in the street. When I was 14, I’d go on 10+ mile runs, exploring every bit of road, sidewalk, and path I could find. Exploration was a rite of passage. Today…

Vicki Hutton highlights the ethical challenges and uncomfortable moral dilemmas about the welfare of these sentient beings by focusing on the inner lives of rescued individuals.

The twists and turns in this saga are bewildering, but Donald Trump appears to have the cards stacked against him For those following the crisis between the US and Iran, the past few days have been bewildering. On Friday, the six-week-old ceasefire seemed doomed. Donald Trump skipped his son’s wedding to remain in the White House and was reportedly contemplating renewed military strikes on Iran. …