The City Politics Podcast The City Politics Podcast

On the 31st of October, world leaders converged on Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference, colloquially known as COP26. Here it is hoped that an agreement can be reached to help avert the worst effects of the climate crisis. However, given the history of soft targets and inaction on climate change there is air of scepticism that COP26 will live up to the moment.

As awareness of the climate emergency grows more people seem to be willing to take actions that push the boundaries of political protest in liberal democracies. In the UK groups like Extinction Rebellion and Insulate UK have taken to disrupting roads, public transport, and business.

Today we will give you the City view on the climate emergency and civil disobedience.

Our guests are Bill Scheuerman, The Rudy Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Indiana University, and Guy Aitchison, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at the University of Loughborough.

In April 1914 while witnessing the Paint Creek Mine War in West Virginia, Ralph Chaplin penned the song ‘Solidarity Forever’, inspired by the collective efforts of striking workers. From these beginnings the song spread as an anthem for organised labour across the world. Solidarity is a central concept in politics animating resistance to Communism in Poland, the struggle for women’s rights, and the fight against apartheid. To say nothing of the day-to-day practice of supporting our friends and neighbours in our communities. But what does solidarity actually mean?

Today we will give you the City view on solidarity.

Our guests are Patrick Diamond, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at Queen Mary, University of London, and Lise Butler, Lecturer in Modern History at City, University of London.

On May 26, 2021 Uber, one of the most prominent representatives of platform capitalism and engine of the gig economy, recognised the GMB union as representing its drivers after the UK Supreme Court ruled that they were workers and not independent contractors. This was a win for organised labour. But as COVID reshapes the workplace and platforms become an increasingly prominent part of the economy, what will work look like in the future?

Today we will give you the City view on the future of Work.

Our guests are Melanie Simms, Professor of Work and Employment at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, and Jamie Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in Management in the Faculty of Business and Law at the Open University.

On June 28, 1969 The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, was raided by the NYPD. A crowd gathered outside the bar and tensions escalated. There are differing account of what happened next, but before long a riot broke out. For three nights members of the community fought the police in the streets of New York City. It was a watershed moment for LGBT rights in the United States.

A year later the riot was commemorated by the first gay pride marches in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. From there they spread across the world.

In honour of Pride Month we’ll give you the City view on LGBT politics, rights and history.

Our guests are Koen Slootmaeckers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics at City, University of London, and Chris Parkes, Lecturer in International and Global History at King’s College London.

On 20 January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden placed his hand on his family’s Bible and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. He assumed office in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th insurrection, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has hit America harder than many other nations, facing a polarised senate, and indeed a polarised country. What has he done so far? And what does it mean for America and the world?

Today we will give you the City view on Biden’s first 100 days.

Our guest is Lora Anne Viola, Professor of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin.

(Just a little note: We cover domestic issues up to 42:49. We then move to international affairs.)

On 28 October 2017, a user known as “Q Clearance Patriot” posted on the /pol/ board of 4Chan claiming that then President Trump was preparing for the mass arrest of a cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles that secretly run the American government. The Q-Anon conspiracy theory then metastasised across social media and the world, culminating in the January Insurrection which was replete with QAnon iconography.

The spread of conspiracy theories into mainstream politics has raised concerns about the resilience of liberal democracy in the post-truth era.

Today we will give you the City View on conspiracy theories and democracy.

Our guests are Annemarie Walter, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nottingham, Hugo Drochon, Assistant Professor in Political Theory at the University of Nottingham, and Alfred Moore, Lecturer in Political Theory at the University of York.