The fortune of cricket in India, perhaps unlike anywhere else in the cricketing world, is closely allied with its identity as a nation

The Truth concerns a lot more than scientific platitudes: all sorts of figures have laid claim to knowing the truth about the human condition and their societies, from novelists and journalists to campaigners and politicians. In fact, one of the most important things about putting forward new ideas and persuading others is that no particular credentials are necessary.

The idea that we could and should change the world was the stuff of politics in the past, and students’ or workers’ radicalism expressed this in a radical form. Today that politics has lost its meaning, and all that’s left for so-called radicals is to call for a more extreme version of what ‘politics’ is about today. The form is still there, but the content has changed.

In order to develop a more incisive critique of contemporary society, it is necessary to consider not only the particular nuances of the financial economy, but also the broader historical context, and the relationship between capitalism and wider social and political forces.

This essay defends the material basis of progress and the right of developing countries to undergo development, and finally argues that material development offers the only way to avoid the environmental disasters that we are constantly warned are just around the corner.

When it comes to thinking about culture and artworks, torn between a multiculturalist melange and celebration of cynicism, the problem seems not to be we don’t know who artworks or culture belong to, more that we want nothing to do with the whole lot of them.

Both the fetishisation of strong leadership and the reaction against it stem from a one-sided focus on leaders as personalities, and neglect of the other side of the relationship. Leadership is a relationship, not merely a personal quality.

The language of contemporary politics is packed full of jargon. It stands in for real political discourse and debate but is no substitute. In its place we need to rehabilitate rhetoric: language designed to convince others of the rightness of our propositions.

There is an assumption that people in general are increasingly vulnerable and in need of ‘support’. In this sense, the adoption reforms are a product of a wider ‘cultural’ problem – not in the ethnic or anthropological sense, but with regards our political culture and the ideas that it tends to generate.

We are now a nation obsessed with our bowels and bumpy bits, indulging in the guilty pleasure of a meat-feast pizza then seeking penance with the cholesterol kit. But why should it follow that a healthier population must be more obsessed with health?

The growth of identity politics means that instead of the universal claim for negative liberty, all minority groups are now encouraged to fight their corner for their piece of the recognition pie. In one fell swoop, such policies not only fix people into categories which are themselves restrictive, but also isolate groups from wider society.

By emphasising the recovery and naming of bodies, what becomes of the unnamed dead? Who takes responsibility for those whose remains will not only never be recovered and identified but will never be missed? Does the emphasis placed upon ‘our’ dead by forensic science dilute or obstruct sympathy for the death of ‘others’?

An adequate approach to the relationship between theory and practice would acknowledge the value of the many kinds of intellectual contributions that get called popular philosophy, without over-egging their importance or dismissing them as philosophy lite.

Two students from Barton Court Grammar School in an email head-to-head on whether man or machine should be exploring space in the twenty first century

Although the interwar years of Weimar Germany and 1960s Britain appeared to be golden moments for anti-establishment mirth, it is easy to miss the insubordinate heart of satire that is still beating as strong today, as thoughtful humour is so often social critique by stealth.

The plausibility of evolutionary psychology rests on the question of whether psychological attributes are analogous to anatomical structures in their origins and in their functioning. If not, it is a mistake to explain them in terms of evolutionary theory which explains physical, anatomical features determined by biological mechanisms.

What both Republicans and Democrats fail to grasp is that international legitimacy of the kind that caused the West to accept American leadership after World War Two must derive, ultimately, from domestic politics. International legitimacy cannot be restored solely through actions in the international sphere.

Disenchantment with the elitism of European politicians and institutions may lay the basis for a more positive reassertion of popular control over political decision-making at the national level. This would mean recognising that the problems of European integration are only magnifications of problems whose origins lie at home.

Counter-intuitively, in a world of often disconnected and atomised individuals, alcohol can play a part in bringing communities back together again.

A recent survey suggests the Western public may be less worried about the rise of China than the ‘China-bashing’ media suggest, and more optimistic about its future development.

The end of Left and Right, if it has occurred, needs to be taken seriously. It amounts to no less than the collapse of a way of looking at, and doing, ‘politics’.

We need to be less concerned about when is the right age for children to start reading, and how, and much more worried about what counts as being great literature, in having real standards that children can aim at.

Don Eales recalls the political power of popular song, and asks where the voices of challenge and dissent are today.

Professor James Woudhuysen argues that an Olympics ‘Win/Win’ won’t work

Despite using no words, instrumental music speaks volumes. A simple jig makes people dance in delight and a melancholy melody reduces people to tears; union songs, hymns, football chants and even the national anthem bring people together with shared values, ideas and aims; and everybody has their own special songs.

In the early 1970s Michael Young edited and contributed to Knowledge and Control: New Directions in the Sociology of Education. This proved to be a hugely influential, perhaps defining, work within the field.

The West has a great legacy that emphasises not centralised power, but decentralisation, subsidiarity, federalism. This is the legacy of cherishing individual liberty, a very precious contribution to the world, and one I would like to emphasise.

Critics of tests and examinations - apparently forces of good in a heartless world - are everywhere. They claim that children are ‘over-tested’ because they face national tests at ages 7, 11 and 14, followed by further national examinations at 16 (GCSEs), 17 (AS-levels) and 18 (A-levels or ‘equivalents’).

There has been much debate over the past two decades about the relationship between the curriculum and values. Primarily this has been driven by a crisis of confidence in the value of subjects themselves.

The holy grail of modern neuroscience is to unravel the mechanics of consciousness and explain the machine that gives rise to the mind. The new science of the mind promises to uncover the biological basis for many aspects of the human character and potentially to know our thoughts better than we know them ourselves.

As a lover of documentaries and films generally, I believe the answer to the question can films change the world is unequivocally ‘no’.

There has been much academic and public discussion over the past few years over the idea that the process of secularisation, witnessed over the past century or two, may have come to an end. How do you understand the secularisation thesis and do you think it still holds true?

The launch of the Academics For Academic Freedom (AFAF) statement of academic freedom (available at www.afaf.org.uk) led to some interesting debates. The most curious responses came from a small number of individuals who were reluctant to sign.

One of the most startling features of the culture surrounding modern parenting is the tidal wave of advice parents can expect to receive about what is best for their children. Where in the past ‘muddling through’ was perfectly acceptable, today the job of raising children is understood to be too important to leave to parents. Instead, the government, and a bevy of interested parties, are on hand to enable and ‘support’ Good Parenting.

In a recent essay, Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger, academic and commentator on globalisation Arjun Appadurai comments on how the West is increasingly dominated by a fear of the lone bomber with explosives strapped to their chest.

Developing the broadest possible understanding of religiosity, this paper argues that this dichotomy is actually disorientating us from possibly profounder ones.

MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chain stores. Such a perversion of a pivotal text appears glib, but this is not the intent.  I invite readers to comprehend its meaning in the context that its original author, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, intended.

Is the iPod eclipsing the inner voice? Rather than stifling internal monologue, listening whilst moving through the city can be a welcome supplement to an urban identity in flux.

Debating Matters showcase debate: “Books should remain the essence of public libraries”

Why is scientific expertise and science itself so often regarded with suspicion while nonsense about science and nonsense passing itself off as science seems to be having an increasingly easy time of it?

Discussion on Africa’s prospects, possibilities and priorities rarely treat this vast continent as a place populated by smart, aspirant individuals capable of delivering progress and prosperity.

‘A scar on the conscience of the world’ is Tony Blair’s description of Africa. There you have the miserable morality tale in a nutshell: angst-ridden Western politicians wringing their hands over the unholy alliance of corrupt African governments in league with greedy multinationals while the disease-blighted, fly-addled masses starve.

The Golden Age of Hollywood evokes nostalgic images of a time when film stars were larger-than-life characters whose on-screen presence was breathtaking and awe-inspiring; a time when the film studio was were dreams were made, and the cinema a place where people shared them.

Is there any room left for poetry that is purely for pleasure? The answer seems to be yes, based on quick reference to the fact that poetry is by definition the most aesthetic of all literary genres, and hence is nothing but pleasure.

‘I teach a class called “Everyone Can Draw”’, an American artist once told me glumly. ‘It should be called “Not Everyone Can Draw Well”.’

The time is ripe for a complete rethink of what ‘diversity’ means. How can it be encouraged in the visual arts in order to challenge the assumptions currently made about people from ethnic minorities in the sector?

Great music, pop music: two almost self-contradictory ideas. One can only deplore this fallacious dichotomy, which sets great music, often defined as classical music, at loggerheads with pop.

As Brucie and co hit our screens again this autumn with family favourite Strictly Come Dancing, just watch your tippy-toes don’t get trampled on by the stampede of policy pundits rushing to grab a piece of the sequin-flashing action.

Should art change the world? I take this to mean, should art improve society? If that is its meaning, the question shows we all have the managerial state in our bones like syphilis.

Citizenship education is failing to engage young people in politics and is undermining their education.

A friend of mine went to meet a stranger recently. Only, this person wasn’t really a stranger at all. They had already spent hours together on a social networking site. Judging by her messages, picture and blog, my friend felt confident that she would be likeable… perhaps even lovable. Yet he was also anxious and unsure.

Being ‘well-travelled’ has traditionally been considered a positive attribute, along with characteristics such as being ‘well-read’.

Marilyn Monroe is said to have had a thing for Albert Einstein. Sadly, it is unlikely they ever met.

Dear Alan, I know that you are a keen advocate of Labour’s ethical activism. However, I think that ethical or moral frameworks do not necessarily make a good guide for political policy-making.

The Guardian sketchwriter Simon Hoggart has often commented that the way to tell if a statement is mere motherhood-and-apple-pie or a serious pronouncement is to see if anyone could conceivably hold to its opposite.

In July, ahead of the Queen’s speech and the housing green paper, the newly-installed prime minister Gordon Brown announced with great fanfare that three million new homes would be built by 2020. This comes not a moment too soon.

Norman Lewis substitutes the myth of the ‘digital native’ with the parable of the ‘indoor child’; neither narrative fully accounts for the complex, multi-faceted, relationship that exists between young people and new technology, argues Robin Walsh.

In his preface to Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that France’s brutal efforts to suppress self-determination in the Algerian War in the name of civilisation was ‘the strip-tease of our humanism…

Job done. The global economy requires it; readers and advertisers demand it; professional journalists do their damnedest to meet and even create demand; and somehow the re-design is completed (almost) on time, the circulation figures don’t fall that far, and the paper we routinely put to bed still has some exciting stories in it.

Centre-screen, a lion is basking in the sun. Three young cubs tumble, prowl and pounce around him - play-hunting, play-fighting, and occasionally launching themselves at their father, until he loses patience and brushes them away with a mighty paw.

Maria Grasso: What is your understanding of the idea that we now live in a period which is characterised by the ‘end of ideology’?

A month after a rain-drenched rally of 15,000 in Trafalgar Square on 7 May 2007, the Strangers into Citizens campaign ‘is growing faster than its sponsors dared hope’, according to the Observer (Cohen 3.6.2007).

The modern world is damaging children. They are cooped up inside - impassive and apathetic, and unable to create their own fun and entertainment.

‘We are armed only with peer reviewed science’, declared the banner at the head of the Climate Camp march along the proposed route of the third runway at Heathrow in August. And in one sense they were - literally.

What substance is there to the notion of widespread popular political disengagement from politics in established democracies?

Slackers, disengaged, alienated, disenfranchised? However you look at it, the general consensus seems to be that there’s trouble afoot amongst the young’uns of Britain today.

From hand-me-down clothes to the reuse of scrap metal, people have recycled throughout history. However, it was usually poverty that forced people to ‘make do and mend’.

The question is not whether ethical shopping can ‘save the world’. In itself, of course, it cannot.

The countdown to the upcoming American presidential election in November 2008 has started early. Way early, with prospective candidates from both major parties taking part in debates, raising money and travelling the country since the spring of 2006.

For many, 2007 will mark the year that the New Labour autocrats finally achieved their greatest coup; forcing people by law - with threatened legal sanction - to be healthier.

I am against the ‘war on terror’. I do not think our governments should attempt to mobilize society, its citizens, resources, and political ideas to ‘fight’ terrorism.

Student politics has never existed in a bubble. It has always been a reflection, or a reaction to, what is happening at the level of national politics and in broader society.

In the 1997 general election, New Labour’s manifesto included a rather peculiar statement.  Apparently their pledge to connect schools to the internet made them the ‘pioneer of new thinking’.

The quick answer to this question would be: ‘No, ICT is not transforming learning, it never has and it never will.’

Technology, we are frequently told, is fundamentally transforming education.

There is little doubt that digital technology constitutes an important dimension of childhood.

The increasing use of moral rhetoric in modern political debate can in part be attributed to a reworking, begun in the mid-80s but taken to new heights by Blair and his allies, of the way in which the Labour party develops and delineates public policy.

Many Western commentators agree that the challenges facing China are numerous and varied, but focus particularly on the environmental and social threats from rapid development.

Competitive sport in schools has been on the decline since the eighties. Traditional sports are increasingly taught and played outside of schools in clubs.

As more infants survive their birth, and as we all grow and develop better, live longer and healthier lives, and maintain various physiological functions longer and longer into old age, we become more anxious about our health.

The simple answer is yes. To take just one sport, rugby union, Britain has four separate countries each with its own competitions.

It is by now a received truth that the world, or at least a good portion of it, is in the grip of an unprecedented obesity epidemic which threatens a health catastrophe.

Affluence endows us with two new powers. The first is the potential to remove poverty (if some have more than enough, then we can begin to move to a situation where all have at least enough); the second is the removal of necessity from our choices in the marketplace.

For almost three decades, routine behaviours such as shyness, solitude, and defiance have been classed as symptoms of full-fledged disorders, with names as overwrought as ‘social anxiety’, ‘avoidant personality’, and ‘oppositional’ disorder’.

In suggesting that we cycle and recycle, save on the odd polythene bag, and forgo our holidays abroad, there are many environmentalists who – whilst concerned about the effects of carbon production on global warming – do not consider the real state of energy production worldwide.

Britain has finally run out of prison cells. We are only days away from prisoners having to share the local nick with PC Plod, but it would be wrong to think that this has come about because the courts have finally given up on community sentencing or rehabilitation more generally when it comes to punishment.

Rather than furthering the social engineering and equal opportunities agendas of New Labour, skills-based curricula merely serve to further entrench the class divide leaving those FE students I teach forever where they started: near the bottom of the pile.

Seventy five years after Donoghue v Stevenson there are still many negligence claims that succeed because the defendant has been at fault in the meaningful sense then envisaged by the House of Lords. But grafted onto this tort are an ever increasing number of claims that claim to be fault based but which in reality have nothing to do with Lord Atkin’s ‘general public sentiment of moral wrongdoing for which the offender must pay’.

Although we live in an increasingly snippet-driven society, there’s still an appetite for big fat stories, as the success of the blockbusters by JK Rowling, Dan Brown and so many others attests. Research commissioned in 2001 by Arts Council England into attitudes towards the short story suggested that readers have a bias against small books and believe Real Literature should take a while to consume.

The much vaunted programme of debt cancellation, rubber-stamped at the G8 summit in Gleneagles in 2005, provided no new money or impetus for development for poor countries. Instead, it has helped to entrench Western control over the developing world and has written real development off the agenda.

Nature brings hurricanes, floods, droughts, famine, pestilence, earthquakes and wildfire. It has long been known that the life of man outside of society is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’. Through building civilisation we fought off the worst of nature’s depredations, and at long last found ourselves in a position to appreciate its beauty. But now we have a new line of thinking, arguing that the building of civilisation is the problem rather than the solution.

The danger of the men’s health project is that, in disparaging masculinity, it risks endorsing a wider diminution of human subjectivity

Rather than engaging in a New Labour imposed debate about what it is to be British, a far more important debate is why we tolerate such banal chatter from politicians who are supposed to represent us.

What is so insidious about the logic of surveillance today, then, is that it doesn’t emanate from the top-down. It has also pervaded much of society from the bottom-up, mediating the ways in which we choose to interact with each other.

To find that films have already ‘changed the world’, even in the vernacular sense of socio-political transformation implied by the question, you need look no further than, say, Kieslowski’s A Short Film About Killing. There is perhaps a deeper point to be made, though, about what the moving image can have to do with change. It’s not that films have changed the world, it’s that they are the world, or at least part of it.

Organic farming is an irrational system of agriculture. It imposes upon itself a set of rules which reduce productivity while producing none of the claimed benefits in terms of environmental improvement, nutrition or safety. It is, literally, a waste of time.

No one could argue that design and technology does not help society transform itself. However, today the content of the transformation is arguably not as bold, innovative and challenging as is sometimes supposed. This is not due to a lack of available tools, techniques and materials, but rather a lack of imagination.

Even if ebooks come to dominate, they will not signal the death of reading. Rather, they will simply add another, enriching layer to the human drive to communicate. It is a process we have been enhancing for millennia.

Over the past few years, the airlines, as well as the travel industry as a whole, have increasingly come under attack from several quarters – environmentalists, the media and so on – for their putative role in global warming. But some simple facts can show these claims to be inflated and often false.

Speculation on the future of the printed and bound book has ebbed and flowed with each technological innovation since the phonograph. Now it is the turn of electronic media to lay claim to a printless future. But whereas previous forms such as film, radio and television have sometimes been cast as rivals to print, the claim inspiring the current round of hype and foreboding is that emerging technology will upgrade the written word. Ebooks offer features traditional books cannot.