G20: The Future of Global Society

In terms of political debate, the G20 conference has been billed as a confrontation between Anglo-American free market capitalism and Franco-German social democracy. While the British and Americans want to re-capitalise the financial system and save the banks, whose initial irresponsibility was based on the free market ideology of the Thatcher-Reagan political era, the French and Germans want to concentrate on regulation in order to control future financial speculation. Unfortunately, from the British and American perspective, the effects of this regulatory policy would be to restrict the entrepreneurial scope of the city, cool the global economy, and limit the possibility of future growth. But while the British and Americans are concerned to ensure the possibility of future economic growth, and remain wedded to the neo-liberal theory that understands economic freedom as the essential public good, the French and Germans recognise that the problem of unfettered economic freedom is social fragmentation and disintegration.

We know that these effects have been produced by the current economic downturn: UK unemployment has reached 2 million, house repossessions are on the increase, and despite zero interest rates social insecurity has become the norm for the majority of the population. But what is worse is that British and American efforts to re-capitalise the financial system in the name of economic freedom and the public good will no doubt have further negative effects on social security, precisely because the enormous expenditure of public funds on the financial sector will require cuts in public services, such as health, education, and welfare. Although British and American policy makers are clearly willing to sacrifice public services to the market because they are invested in ideas of the individual and individual responsibility, it is clearly not acceptable to the French and Germans who are attached to the notion of the social state and the idea of social responsibility.

While it may well be necessary to stabilise banks in order to reboot the economy and encourage lending, the British and American approach to limit reform is based on the desire to repair the current neo-liberal system and restart the credit society based on individual speculation. This attachment to individual speculation applies to everybody from the man or woman in the street, who is encouraged to buy now and pay later, to bankers, who have spent the last twenty years speculating on the markets and inventing complex financial instruments called derivatives based entirely on the buying and selling of insurance and debt. It is this political-economic system that both invented the contemporary global economy and caused its rapid collapse over the course of the last twelve months. Given the connection between the credit society and processes of high-tech globalisation, which have been more or less entirely based on globalised communication and financial networks, it may appear that Franco-German plan to regulate financial trading will somehow limit or roll back globalisation and result in the emergence of a proliferation of national protectorates.

But surely there must be some middle ground between free market neo-liberalism, which abandons the individual to the whims of the invisible hand of the global economy, and national protectionism, whereby states close their doors to processes of globalisation for fear of the negative effects of market turbulence on society? But is this really a choice? It may be that there is really no choice between these two options because, as the Chinese have recently discovered, it is not possible to decouple from the global economy. Regardless of whether or not a particular nation state wants to participate in processes of globalisation, it cannot escape the reality of the contemporary global condition, including the global economy. It is clear that the French and Germans know that decoupling is not an option. However, it is also clear that they have no intention of contributing to restarting the consumer boom, which is frustrating for the British and Americans who know they cannot re-boot the neo-liberal economic system on their own. What, then, is the Franco-German plan?

Since national decoupling is not possible, the Franco-German approach is based on a view that what is required is a global or at least integrated multi-national response to financial regulation. Whether or not this view succeeds, and results in the emergence of the new form of social globalisation, is probably more or less reliant on whether Obama remains true to his utopian promise to deliver change. I think this shift to a more socialistic brand of globalisation is unlikely to come from Gordon Brown, simply because he clearly understands economy better than he does society, meaning that what is likely to make or break a global new deal at the G20 conference is Obama, and his courage to advance a more socialistic brand of Americanism comparable to that of FDR and abandon the neo-liberal robber baron capitalism of Bush II.

G20 Summit: this is important...

The G20 summit in London is about to kick off. You can explore what the blogosphere thinks about these discussions by logging into the G20 Voice page at http://www.switchnewmedia.com/clients/G20Voice/live.htm

Learning Support Team project hailed as model of Best Practice

A snapshot of the work carried out by the Learning Support team within the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is currently being featured as a model of best practice on the LLiDA's (Learning Literacies in a Digital Age) wiki. The LLiDA wiki is a collection of learning literacies being employed in FE and HE sectors in the UK.

The Team’s featured project, entitled ‘i-guides: Byte-sized pockets of information’, features a series of electronic study skills and academic guidance booklets aimed at humanities and social science students. The guides are currently hosted on posterous and are a spin-off from K:LEarn, the Learning Support Team’s main learning space and study skills support network pages on the KLE.

The Learning Support Team provides study skills advice and academic guidance. This covers a variety of topics but common concerns that students have include essay planning, essay writing, exam revision, exam performance, time management, research skills, academic confidence and doing a dissertation. The provision is faculty based and open to any student who studies within humanities and social sciences so is available to all Sociology and Criminology students. As part of this work, they run workshops, hold one-to-one appointments and develop and maintain a range of study skills resources online via the K:LEarn. The team comprises of Verity Aiken and Claire Fox. You can find their details and learn more about their work on the learning support blog at www.humsslearningspace.blogspot.com

You can view the acclaimed entry on the LLiDA wiki pages here:

http://www.caledonianacademy.net/spaces/LLiDA/index.php?n=Main.BestPracticeExamples

If you have any questions about the project, or would like to know more about the Learning Support Team’s work please email v.aiken@keele.ac.uk

Criminology 'Study abroad' students win photography awards

Two Keele Criminology students recently won prizes in the second annual Study Abroad Photo Awards. The awards, for photographs taken while the students were abroad participating in th Study Abroad Scheme, were presented at an awards ceremony held at Keele Hall.

Students returning from their trips attended the event and shared experiences of their time abroad over drinks. Professor Ray Cocks, Chris Pike (Director of Quality Assurance), Keele's Alumni Officer John Easom and Keele Study Abroad Alum, Layla Laurenson-West, had selected twelve images that best captured the study abroad experience from over 80 entries. Guests at the event then voted for their top choices, with third year Criminology and English student Kathryn Vanhinsbergh's picture "Adelaide Heat Wave" winning 1st prize. Kathryn had visited Flinders University, Adelaide for her Study Abroad experience and her picture captured a seaside sunset and students enjoying the moment. Third year Criminology and Philosophy student Rasal-Mutu Sesay's "Sunset Over the Horizon" was a close second.

The study abroad opportunity is available to all Second Year Criminology students who have achieved marks averaging 55 or above and is also available to Sociology students. Keele’s Study Abroad programme lets students swap a semester of their second year for a semester studying at one of our partner universities. For Criminology, these include very popular destinations in the USA, Canada and Australia. In recent years, Keele Criminology students have visited the University of Ottawa, Flinders University, Dalhousie University, University of Southern Maine, University of British Columbia, Griffith University, Colorado State University, Edith Cowan University, University of Guelph, York University, University of Windsor, and Loyola University.

It is not necessary that students speak a foreign language as all partner universities provide teaching in many subjects in English and offer language courses in the summer prior to you starting your studies.

The Centre for International Exchange and Languages holds a Study Abroad Fair for students at Keele each November so that you can find out more details. The fair is always attended by Keele students who have previously taken part in the exchange programme and there is also the opportunity to speak to students who are visiting Keele as part of their exchange. A Study Abroad Adviser also attends to help students to prepare for their semester abroad and she is available throughout the year to answer queries.

If you would like to know more about Study Abroad opportunities in Criminology email j.p.hardie-bick@appsoc.keele.ac.uk .

If you would like to know more about Study Abroad at Keele generally click here.