Alfred Machin
Biographic Data
| ID | 202209 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alfred Machin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alfred |
| FAMILY NAME | Machin |
| SIGNATURE | MACHIN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Agder |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3426-7630 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1926 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The turn to the imagination: Transformation, politics and limits
We are currently witnessing what we refer to in this Critical Exchange as ‘a turn to the imagination’. Across the academy and beyond, the concept of ‘imaginaries’is increasingly used to examine how the imagination is provoked, harnessed and dispersed to encourage or inhibit social, political, economic, technological and cultural transformation. Highlighting the need for critical reflection not only on the possibilities but also the limits of this…
Handbook of Environmental Political Theory in the Anthropocene
Contains fulltext : 317522.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
New materialism and the politics of climate action: A critical dialogue
Statues and Democracy: The Political Dynamics of Urban Assemblage
Although they often go unnoticed, the statues that stand in town squares and city parks around the world remain significant in contemporary societies. Statues are highly political artefacts that reflect and reproduce dominant sociopolitical narratives of the past and urban imaginaries of the present and can become the focus of celebration or controversy. This article argues that a statue forms part of an ‘urban assemblage’, comprised of a heterog…
The European Green Deal and the democratic imagination
Performances of Death: Hunger Strikes, Discipline, and Democracy
Hunger striking is a form of protest that escapes conventional forms of political participation. I argue that as a spectacular performance of death, the hunger strike not only draws attention to a particular cause or exert moral pressure on an opponent but can galvanize and strengthen a nascent political identity. Drawing on the example of the hunger strike of suffragette Marion Wallace-Dunlop, which I argue performatively constructed the identit…
Sustainable development discourse and development aid in Germany: Tracking the changes from environmental protectionism towards private sector opportunities
‘Sustainable Development’ can be understood as a widely used discourse that has become even more prominent since the publication of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in 2015. In this paper we analyze the way sustainable development discourse unfolds within the context of development aid in Germany by undertaking a discourse analysis of reports on development policy published 1973–2017 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Coope…
Introduction: Sustainability, Democracy and the Dark Sides of Civil Society
Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by ‘filling gaps’ and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabil…
Knowing Food: Sustainability Politics, Food Policy Councils and the Co-Production of Knowledge
As one of the major causes of climate change, there is an urgent need for a fundamental transformation of the food system. Calls for greater sustainability underscore the importance of integrating civil society and the local knowledge of citizens in this transformation process. One increasingly relevant organisation that can actively engage a plurality of actors from across civil society is the Food Policy Council (FPC). In this paper, we explore…
The nonhuman condition: Radical democracy through new materialist lenses
This Critical Exchange explores the nonhuman condition. It asks: What are the implications of decentering the human subject via a new materialist reading of radical democracy? Does this reading dilute political agency? Or should this be seen, on the contrary, as an invitation for new voices and demands to enter into democratic assemblages? How might engagement with the more-than-human disrupt or extend theories of radical democracy? In our introd…
Climates of democracy: Skeptical, rational, and radical imaginaries
How will the theories and practices of democracy fare in a climate changing world? Are conventional democratic institutions ultimately doomed or are they able to become more responsive to a changing climate? Is there a need to reimagine democracy and how might it be reimagined? This article reviews the different responses to these questions by distinguishing between three “political imaginaries” in which the relationship between climate change an…
Green European citizenship? Rights, duties, virtues, practices and the European Green Deal
Published in December 2019 by the European Commission, the European Green Deal (EGD) sets out the aim to transform the EU into a sustainable society in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use, so that there are no greenhouse gas net emissions by 2050. As the 'driving force of the transition' citizens are expected a play a key role in achieving this shift, by adopting sustainable consumption habits and changing their life styles and b…
Green democracy
A recurring feature of green movements is their emphasis on democracy, but what do greens mean exactly when they contemplate democracy? In this chapter, I delineate a green democratic imaginary that enables and shapes discussions of democracy between greens and is characterized by six dimensions: decentralization, inclusion, passion, participation, protest, and rupture. I highlight the connections and contradictions of these dimensions and their …
Corporealising a Healthy Democracy? Inequality, Bodies and Participation
Socio-economic inequality is associated with differentiated levels of health and poor health affects political participation; inequalities are embodied in political life. This contribution, focusing on South Africa, attends to the impact of exposure to environmental hazards and stigmatisation of unhealthy bodies on political participation. The corporealisation of a healthy democratic politics demands not (only) the inclusion of different bodies, …
Democracy, disagreement, disruption: Agonism and the Environmental State
Contemporary liberal democratic states seem to be headed towards inevitable environmental crisis. These states are locked into unsustainable practices and appear to lack the political institutions that could help them change path. Although there is broad social awareness of the problem of climate change, for example, this has not translated into robust environmental policymaking. Should democracy be regarded as a constitutive part of the ‘glass c…
Agony and the Anthropos
The Anthropocene diagnosis, in which humanity has become a disruptive geological force, indicates an irresolvable political paradox. The political demos is inevitably and necessarily bounded. The Anthropocene, however, heralds the anthropos—the globalized more-than-human identity. The anthropos challenges the maintenance of political boundaries, yet any robust response to ecological predicament must be underpinned by a decisive demos. This articl…
Democracy and Agonism in the Anthropocene: The Challenges of Knowledge, Time and Boundary
The diagnosis of a new geological epoch, The ‘Anthropocene’, has implications far beyond geological science. If human activity has disrupted the planet, then this diagnosis potentially disrupts socio-political conventions. This article assesses the implications the Anthropocene has for democratic politics, by delineating three challenges: challenges of knowledge, time and boundary. In contrast to the claim that democratic institutions are unable …
Changing the story? The discourse of ecological modernisation in the European Union
Over the last three decades, ecological modernisation (EM) has emerged as a powerful political discourse, in which economic growth, environmental protection and energy security are mutually reinforcing. Here, the trajectory of EM in the European Union is traced, using a discourse analysis of the seven Environmental Action Programmes. The discourse articulated in these documents points towards an encroaching ‘double depoliticisation’. First, polit…
Understanding Inequality: Social Costs and Benefits
Trusting the Climate: Catastrophe Vs. Stability
Deliberating Bodies: Democracy, Identification, and Embodiment
The significance of embodiment has long been overlooked in theories of deliberative democracy. Deliberation is characterized by inclusive and rational discussion that functions in an allegedly neutral and abstract space. This article draws attention to the bodies between which political interaction always occurs. Bodies have important yet unpredictable effects for political interaction and can extend or disorder the careful conscious conversation…
Mouffe, Merleau-Ponty and Others: The View from Somewhere
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAmanda MachinAmanda Machin is a lecturer at the Department of Politics and IR, University of Westminster. After being awarded a PhD for her thesis in political theory, she worked as a research fellow to develop ideas on environmental politics and radical democracy. Her book on the (lack of) politics of climate change has recently been published by Zed Books. Email: [email protected]
Negotiating climate change: Radical Democracy and the Illusion of Consensus
Climate change is the greatest challenge of the age and yet fierce disagreement still exists over the best way to tackle the problem or, indeed, about whether it should be tackled at all. In this original book, Amanda Machin draws on radical democratic theory to show that such disagreement does not have to hinder collective action; rather, democratic differences are necessary if we are to have any hope of acting against climate change
Decisions, disagreement and responsibility: Towards an Agonistic Green Citizenship
In recent explications of green citizenship, citizenship responsibilities are emphasised over citizenship rights. Too often it is assumed that deciding the content of these citizenship responsibilities and acting collectively in accordance with them is a straightforward matter of rational consensus. Using Mouffe's account of the political, this article argues that a rational and fully inclusive consensus is impossible. The inevitable conflict of …
Illness: A Collection of Poems
Changing the story? The discourse of ecological modernisation in the European Union
Over the last three decades, ecological modernisation (EM) has emerged as a powerful political discourse, in which economic growth, environmental protection and energy security are mutually reinforcing. Here, the trajectory of EM in the European Union is traced, using a discourse analysis of the seven Environmental Action Programmes. The discourse articulated in these documents points towards an encroaching ‘double depoliticisation’. First, polit…
Democracy and Agonism in the Anthropocene: The Challenges of Knowledge, Time and Boundary
The diagnosis of a new geological epoch, The ‘Anthropocene’, has implications far beyond geological science. If human activity has disrupted the planet, then this diagnosis potentially disrupts socio-political conventions. This article assesses the implications the Anthropocene has for democratic politics, by delineating three challenges: challenges of knowledge, time and boundary. In contrast to the claim that democratic institutions are unable …
Democracy, disagreement, disruption: Agonism and the Environmental State
Contemporary liberal democratic states seem to be headed towards inevitable environmental crisis. These states are locked into unsustainable practices and appear to lack the political institutions that could help them change path. Although there is broad social awareness of the problem of climate change, for example, this has not translated into robust environmental policymaking. Should democracy be regarded as a constitutive part of the ‘glass c…
The nonhuman condition: Radical democracy through new materialist lenses
This Critical Exchange explores the nonhuman condition. It asks: What are the implications of decentering the human subject via a new materialist reading of radical democracy? Does this reading dilute political agency? Or should this be seen, on the contrary, as an invitation for new voices and demands to enter into democratic assemblages? How might engagement with the more-than-human disrupt or extend theories of radical democracy? In our introd…
Climates of democracy: Skeptical, rational, and radical imaginaries
How will the theories and practices of democracy fare in a climate changing world? Are conventional democratic institutions ultimately doomed or are they able to become more responsive to a changing climate? Is there a need to reimagine democracy and how might it be reimagined? This article reviews the different responses to these questions by distinguishing between three “political imaginaries” in which the relationship between climate change an…
Green European citizenship? Rights, duties, virtues, practices and the European Green Deal
Published in December 2019 by the European Commission, the European Green Deal (EGD) sets out the aim to transform the EU into a sustainable society in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use, so that there are no greenhouse gas net emissions by 2050. As the 'driving force of the transition' citizens are expected a play a key role in achieving this shift, by adopting sustainable consumption habits and changing their life styles and b…
Decisions, disagreement and responsibility: Towards an Agonistic Green Citizenship
In recent explications of green citizenship, citizenship responsibilities are emphasised over citizenship rights. Too often it is assumed that deciding the content of these citizenship responsibilities and acting collectively in accordance with them is a straightforward matter of rational consensus. Using Mouffe's account of the political, this article argues that a rational and fully inclusive consensus is impossible. The inevitable conflict of …
Deliberating Bodies: Democracy, Identification, and Embodiment
The significance of embodiment has long been overlooked in theories of deliberative democracy. Deliberation is characterized by inclusive and rational discussion that functions in an allegedly neutral and abstract space. This article draws attention to the bodies between which political interaction always occurs. Bodies have important yet unpredictable effects for political interaction and can extend or disorder the careful conscious conversation…
Knowing Food: Sustainability Politics, Food Policy Councils and the Co-Production of Knowledge
As one of the major causes of climate change, there is an urgent need for a fundamental transformation of the food system. Calls for greater sustainability underscore the importance of integrating civil society and the local knowledge of citizens in this transformation process. One increasingly relevant organisation that can actively engage a plurality of actors from across civil society is the Food Policy Council (FPC). In this paper, we explore…
The European Green Deal and the democratic imagination
Performances of Death: Hunger Strikes, Discipline, and Democracy
Hunger striking is a form of protest that escapes conventional forms of political participation. I argue that as a spectacular performance of death, the hunger strike not only draws attention to a particular cause or exert moral pressure on an opponent but can galvanize and strengthen a nascent political identity. Drawing on the example of the hunger strike of suffragette Marion Wallace-Dunlop, which I argue performatively constructed the identit…
Introduction: Sustainability, Democracy and the Dark Sides of Civil Society
Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by ‘filling gaps’ and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabil…
Corporealising a Healthy Democracy? Inequality, Bodies and Participation
Socio-economic inequality is associated with differentiated levels of health and poor health affects political participation; inequalities are embodied in political life. This contribution, focusing on South Africa, attends to the impact of exposure to environmental hazards and stigmatisation of unhealthy bodies on political participation. The corporealisation of a healthy democratic politics demands not (only) the inclusion of different bodies, …
Trusting the Climate: Catastrophe Vs. Stability
Biological Facts and Social Realism
Darwin's Theory Applied to Mankind
Illness: A Collection of Poems
Decisions, disagreement and responsibility: Towards an Agonistic Green Citizenship
In recent explications of green citizenship, citizenship responsibilities are emphasised over citizenship rights. Too often it is assumed that deciding the content of these citizenship responsibilities and acting collectively in accordance with them is a straightforward matter of rational consensus. Using Mouffe's account of the political, this article argues that a rational and fully inclusive consensus is impossible. The inevitable conflict of …
Negotiating climate change: Radical Democracy and the Illusion of Consensus
Climate change is the greatest challenge of the age and yet fierce disagreement still exists over the best way to tackle the problem or, indeed, about whether it should be tackled at all. In this original book, Amanda Machin draws on radical democratic theory to show that such disagreement does not have to hinder collective action; rather, democratic differences are necessary if we are to have any hope of acting against climate change
Mouffe, Merleau-Ponty and Others: The View from Somewhere
Additional informationNotes on contributorsAmanda MachinAmanda Machin is a lecturer at the Department of Politics and IR, University of Westminster. After being awarded a PhD for her thesis in political theory, she worked as a research fellow to develop ideas on environmental politics and radical democracy. Her book on the (lack of) politics of climate change has recently been published by Zed Books. Email: [email protected]
Deliberating Bodies: Democracy, Identification, and Embodiment
The significance of embodiment has long been overlooked in theories of deliberative democracy. Deliberation is characterized by inclusive and rational discussion that functions in an allegedly neutral and abstract space. This article draws attention to the bodies between which political interaction always occurs. Bodies have important yet unpredictable effects for political interaction and can extend or disorder the careful conscious conversation…
Understanding Inequality: Social Costs and Benefits
Trusting the Climate: Catastrophe Vs. Stability
Agony and the Anthropos
The Anthropocene diagnosis, in which humanity has become a disruptive geological force, indicates an irresolvable political paradox. The political demos is inevitably and necessarily bounded. The Anthropocene, however, heralds the anthropos—the globalized more-than-human identity. The anthropos challenges the maintenance of political boundaries, yet any robust response to ecological predicament must be underpinned by a decisive demos. This articl…
Democracy and Agonism in the Anthropocene: The Challenges of Knowledge, Time and Boundary
The diagnosis of a new geological epoch, The ‘Anthropocene’, has implications far beyond geological science. If human activity has disrupted the planet, then this diagnosis potentially disrupts socio-political conventions. This article assesses the implications the Anthropocene has for democratic politics, by delineating three challenges: challenges of knowledge, time and boundary. In contrast to the claim that democratic institutions are unable …
Changing the story? The discourse of ecological modernisation in the European Union
Over the last three decades, ecological modernisation (EM) has emerged as a powerful political discourse, in which economic growth, environmental protection and energy security are mutually reinforcing. Here, the trajectory of EM in the European Union is traced, using a discourse analysis of the seven Environmental Action Programmes. The discourse articulated in these documents points towards an encroaching ‘double depoliticisation’. First, polit…
Democracy, disagreement, disruption: Agonism and the Environmental State
Contemporary liberal democratic states seem to be headed towards inevitable environmental crisis. These states are locked into unsustainable practices and appear to lack the political institutions that could help them change path. Although there is broad social awareness of the problem of climate change, for example, this has not translated into robust environmental policymaking. Should democracy be regarded as a constitutive part of the ‘glass c…
Green democracy
A recurring feature of green movements is their emphasis on democracy, but what do greens mean exactly when they contemplate democracy? In this chapter, I delineate a green democratic imaginary that enables and shapes discussions of democracy between greens and is characterized by six dimensions: decentralization, inclusion, passion, participation, protest, and rupture. I highlight the connections and contradictions of these dimensions and their …
Corporealising a Healthy Democracy? Inequality, Bodies and Participation
Socio-economic inequality is associated with differentiated levels of health and poor health affects political participation; inequalities are embodied in political life. This contribution, focusing on South Africa, attends to the impact of exposure to environmental hazards and stigmatisation of unhealthy bodies on political participation. The corporealisation of a healthy democratic politics demands not (only) the inclusion of different bodies, …
Climates of democracy: Skeptical, rational, and radical imaginaries
How will the theories and practices of democracy fare in a climate changing world? Are conventional democratic institutions ultimately doomed or are they able to become more responsive to a changing climate? Is there a need to reimagine democracy and how might it be reimagined? This article reviews the different responses to these questions by distinguishing between three “political imaginaries” in which the relationship between climate change an…
Green European citizenship? Rights, duties, virtues, practices and the European Green Deal
Published in December 2019 by the European Commission, the European Green Deal (EGD) sets out the aim to transform the EU into a sustainable society in which economic growth is decoupled from resource use, so that there are no greenhouse gas net emissions by 2050. As the 'driving force of the transition' citizens are expected a play a key role in achieving this shift, by adopting sustainable consumption habits and changing their life styles and b…
Performances of Death: Hunger Strikes, Discipline, and Democracy
Hunger striking is a form of protest that escapes conventional forms of political participation. I argue that as a spectacular performance of death, the hunger strike not only draws attention to a particular cause or exert moral pressure on an opponent but can galvanize and strengthen a nascent political identity. Drawing on the example of the hunger strike of suffragette Marion Wallace-Dunlop, which I argue performatively constructed the identit…
Sustainable development discourse and development aid in Germany: Tracking the changes from environmental protectionism towards private sector opportunities
‘Sustainable Development’ can be understood as a widely used discourse that has become even more prominent since the publication of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in 2015. In this paper we analyze the way sustainable development discourse unfolds within the context of development aid in Germany by undertaking a discourse analysis of reports on development policy published 1973–2017 by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Coope…
Introduction: Sustainability, Democracy and the Dark Sides of Civil Society
Civil societies play an important role not only in supporting government efforts on sustainability by ‘filling gaps’ and raising social awareness, but also in pioneering new practices and disrupting particular governmental or corporate strategies, as well as engaging and empowering previously marginalised individuals and groups. Yet civil society is not always a champion of sustainability nor of democracy; these actors may of course also destabil…
Knowing Food: Sustainability Politics, Food Policy Councils and the Co-Production of Knowledge
As one of the major causes of climate change, there is an urgent need for a fundamental transformation of the food system. Calls for greater sustainability underscore the importance of integrating civil society and the local knowledge of citizens in this transformation process. One increasingly relevant organisation that can actively engage a plurality of actors from across civil society is the Food Policy Council (FPC). In this paper, we explore…
The nonhuman condition: Radical democracy through new materialist lenses
This Critical Exchange explores the nonhuman condition. It asks: What are the implications of decentering the human subject via a new materialist reading of radical democracy? Does this reading dilute political agency? Or should this be seen, on the contrary, as an invitation for new voices and demands to enter into democratic assemblages? How might engagement with the more-than-human disrupt or extend theories of radical democracy? In our introd…
Handbook of Environmental Political Theory in the Anthropocene
Contains fulltext : 317522.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)
New materialism and the politics of climate action: A critical dialogue
Statues and Democracy: The Political Dynamics of Urban Assemblage
Although they often go unnoticed, the statues that stand in town squares and city parks around the world remain significant in contemporary societies. Statues are highly political artefacts that reflect and reproduce dominant sociopolitical narratives of the past and urban imaginaries of the present and can become the focus of celebration or controversy. This article argues that a statue forms part of an ‘urban assemblage’, comprised of a heterog…
Political science (22 works) · Law (21 works) · Politics (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (15 works) · Democracy (12 works) · Environmental ethics (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance (9 works) · Economics (8 works)