Seán Hanley
@drseanhanley
Assoc Professor in Comparative Central and East European Politics, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Personal take on politics, Eastern Europe and suburbia.
You could try the excerpt in this Peter Mair curated collection of the classics - not sure if part of Oxford’s digital collection- but well chosen/ edited / as you’d expect from Mair.
Binface sites have unleashed a torrent of anti-Farage memes, some with little to do with the intergalactic space warrior. Here one with anti-Putin theme. I guess this is all about mobilising the base and creating micro-publics. I wonder if the Binface subcultures will endure in some form.
He may not quite be on course to win Clacton - though I expect a big vote - but Count Binface fan pages have been generating a rich stream of anti-Reform memes - this one amused me.
Always had a thing for futures, foresight & scenarios, so naturally ended up at Other Worlds at the Barbican. Thought-provoking stuff: an 8-billion-person mega-city, planetary rewilding, & vast carbon-removal infrastructure. Fascinating, but couldn’t decide if a utopia or eco-authoritarian dystopia.
This strange but intriguing bit of counterfactual history and geography is circulating. The mind boggles. Would you say Servus or G’day?
. @aliz-toth.bsky.social our next speaker points out how Orbán’s patronage networks failed to deliver. Check out her EUROPP blog for more on this.
Paul Fox, former UK ambassador to Hungary and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at @uclssee opens up our roundtable on the results and consequences of the recent election - expect across the board change and reset in European relations.
Great little exhibition of posters from 1989 in the European Commission’s London Representation. Runs till 30 April. Free.
Great discussion on citizens, parties and democracy following showing of Million Moments documentary about Czech pro-democracy movement with director Amálie Kovářova and MM activists Petra Kawiková Pojerová and Jiří Jakub Zévl. Jesse Barton-Hronešová @uclssees.bsky.social ) chairs.
asked the AI “If the Comparative Method was a noble house, what would its coat of arms be?”. Good job.
Charity shop find. This board game variant on the capitalist classic seems appropriate Xmas entertainment in the age of Trump and Musk. Although I think it’s a reboot of the early 20th century radical original “The Landlord Game” which - political economy types help me out - promoted Georgism?
Prof Ruda Sil advocates for Comparative Area Studies @uclssees.bsky.social Much lost to narrow concepts of generalisability and rigour he says.
Asked my students who could lead an East European style anti-establishment personality driven centrist populist party in the UK? They were unimpressed with my suggestion that Prince Harry could like Bulgaria’s Simeon II in 2001 to do the job and sensibly suggested David Beckham instead.
A supplement to your compulsory company training - courtesy of @privateeyenews.bsky.social
Žádné velké překvapení – podle Volební kalkulačky bych, kdybych mohl volit v Česku, volil Piráty. Jsem přece (alespoň podle dcery) ‚chin-stroking centrist‘… :)
Sculpture at Goodwood Art Foundation near Chichester has something of a brutalist Soviet vibe. Juxtaposition with rolling Sussex countryside is intentional.
Spied this intriguing product promoting UCL’s bicentennial. The “properties” seem to be events in the institution’s 200 year history.
Mayor of Sussex? Sprawling county/-ies with all kinds of different localities. Total lunacy. Pointless piece of centralisation intended to benefit governing party and Tories with little change in service delivery.
Well, surely a sign that you’ve made it as a populist (ex-)academic when Private Eye makes you a figure of fun.
The wooden airship (“Gulliver”) at Prague’s Dox gallery really isthe coolest thing. Pure Jules Verne.
Not much sign of an election campaign getting underway, but the Czech media is already worrying that the election will be stolen - not clear how and by whom since populist forces seem on course for a big victory without any manipulation or stealing needed.
Vždycky se mi líbilo, že české graffiti má takový zvláštní filozofický nádech.
“ From a distance, it looked a bit like a bitcoin wallet.” Cartoon on scandal rocking the Czech government. It’s really not a good idea if you’re the minister of justice to accept a donation to public funds of £30 million in crypto currency from a guy with a drug darkmarket conviction.
I donated £10 for this cake at the Ukrainian community stall at our local Village Day and I bloody well intend to enjoy it.