What kind of ‘higher education’ is suitable for our age of polycrisis—accelerating climate change, economic turbulence, and global authoritarianism? Can universities unshackle themselves from the chains of financialisation, managerialism, and technocracy? Can care, imagination, collectivity, and autonomy be taught and learnt? In this conversation, Dr Michael Hrebeniak—founder of the New School of the Anthropocene—talks about his experiment in ‘counter-nihilism’. NSotA was founded as a ‘micro-university’ with a curriculum dedicated to addressing biopolitical emergency, climate justice, and the entanglements of a more-than-human assembly through the Arts and Humanities. Here, students and teachers collaborate and self-organise to acquire the skills necessary to be citizen-custodians of our planet.
This conversation considers the definition of witchcraft, its origins, history, and various manifestations of witches in history and literature. The speakers discuss the issue of the gender of witches, and how thinking about witches and witchcraft has changed over time. Witches are a global phenomenon, but the conversation concentrates on their European history. Emphasis is placed on the impact of the Reformation and the religious nature of many of the waves of witch persecution, including those of the English ‘witch-finder general’. Matthew Hopkins, the subject of a recent novel by A.K. Blakemore. The discussion shows how witchcraft was often thought of as a Satanic conspiracy, and that the widespread nature of persecution was possible because so many people, including those labelled as witches, shared this assumption. The history of witch persecution is discussed in terms of judicial processes and the history of the emotions.
The ‘just transition’ to net zero emphasises that climate action benefits are shared widely, including amongst those potentially disadvantaged. Sustainable home retrofit requires a collaborative approach that integrates community expertise, prioritises passive design complemented by appropriate technologies, and balances building, energy, and residents’ needs. This requires engaging communities and forming partnerships between professionals and communities. We report findings from a co-designed creative community engagement workshop by the London Research and Policy Partnership (LRaPP) and Retrofit Action for Tomorrow (RAFT) in 2023. LRaPP and RAFT members co-designed and facilitated inclusive creative participatory methods, to engage diverse communities to attend. Forty participants discussed the use of home retrofit to navigate the ‘just transition’ to net zero, addressing ‘real-world’ complexities. This workshop brought together different individuals to cross research–policy–practice boundaries and collectively generate co-produced priorities and solutions to tackle how retrofit could be used to navigate the ‘just transition’ to net zero. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
This article introduces the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing For Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition
While the transnational and translational ramifications of art song have started to attract attention in recent years, there is little critical understanding of the unique modalities in which multilingualism expresses itself in the genre. In this context, this article has a two-fold aim. Firstly, drawing upon scholarship both on art song and Multilingualism Studies, I map out what I call the linguistic regime of art song, defined by the multilingual competences expected of individuals active in the art song ecosystem (singers, composers, translators, coaches, audiences) and the hegemony of certain languages over others. Secondly, on the basis of an empirical experiment involving practice-led research in singing, I consider how engagement with songs in lesser represented languages might be encouraged, and how such engagement might help expand and/or challenge some aspects of the linguistic regime of art song.
Project CHANGE (Curating a Human-centred Approach for net zero: Gamifying Energy-behaviour) investigates how gamification can support public engagement in domestic energy retrofit and encourage sustainable behaviours. It introduces a prototype strategy-based simulation game that enables players to explore retrofit options, behavioural choices, and co-benefits within a risk-free, interactive environment. The paper outlines the development of the game, including its theoretical foundations, systems-based design, and user-centred methodology. The architecture integrates dynamic simulations [such as weather, NPC (non-player character) behaviour, and financial modelling] to illustrate how everyday decisions influence energy use and well-being. Initial findings from internal testing and a small-scale public trial indicate that gamified experiences can improve understanding of retrofit processes and increase perceived agency over household energy use. The paper also reflects on usability challenges, accessibility considerations, and constraints arising from limited resources and sample size. Overall, Project CHANGE demonstrates the potential of serious games as part of a broader toolkit for supporting systemic sustainability education and behaviour change. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
Climate justice recognises climate change as a global chain of cause and effect in which those most affected are often not those responsible for, or benefiting from, its drivers. Meaningful involvement of citizens and diverse stakeholders is therefore critical for assessing the socio-environmental impacts of development interventions that may impede justice, as well as identifying vulnerabilities. This article presents the development of a multi-stakeholder climate justice game based on dilemma-focused case studies, designed to build sustainability impact assessment skills within community settings. While emphasising the educational value of the game and its pilot application in postgraduate education, the paper also highlights persistent gaps in translating learning into policymaking and decision-making. It outlines key elements of game design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and approaches to assessing socio-ecological risks. By integrating the Sustainable Development Goals and adopting a value-pluralistic lens, the game broadens participation and evidence use, demonstrating its potential for democratic deliberation and advancing just transition debates. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
This article reports key findings from a pilot project to design, develop, and test an intervention aimed at increasing perceived organisational support among television freelancers. The initiative is a response to a problem rooted in this sector’s model of employment: the television industry has become dependent upon a skilled but contingent workforce who report feeling unsupported and isolated in a work environment characterised by instability and insecurity. The article draws from organisational support theory and explores the utility of the concept of perceived organisational support
The Editors introduce the first issue of Volume 14 of the Journal of the British Academy
Delivering sustainable and affordable housing for low-income communities remains a major challenge amid housing shortages, energy insecurity, and net-zero transition pressures. In South Africa, adoption of net-zero housing is limited by regulatory, financial, and social barriers, highlighting the need for stronger policy integration and technological innovation. This study develops a community-driven, scalable net-zero housing model integrating Community-Based Participatory Research with innovative construction techniques. Africa’s first net-zero affordable housing prototype, the Sustainable Innovative Affordable House (SIAH-NZ), was implemented to demonstrate real-world feasibility. Performance assessments show a 97 per cent reduction in operational carbon emissions, an 82 per cent reduction in life-cycle costs, and a three-day construction period using prefabricated monolithic panels. Post-occupancy surveys indicate strong community acceptance, with 90 per cent of participants willing to adopt net-zero housing if financial support is available. The study highlights policy pathways for scaling net-zero housing through regulatory reform, financial incentives, decentralised renewables, and localised decision-making, offering a replicable blueprint for equitable, climate-resilient housing. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level (Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration of 1992). Public participation is essential to sustainable development and good governance. Access to environmental information, empowered by legislation, involves citizens in decision-making. Legislation on public participation for the protection of the environment plays a crucial role in ensuring that communities, stakeholders, and individuals have a say in environmental decision-making processes to achieve net-zero goals. Translating legal frameworks into community engagement remains challenging. Using The Green Planet AR Experience as a case study, this research applies a community engagement model to assess the role of augmented reality in encouraging participation. The findings suggest that embodied multisensory engagement enables participants to become co-creators of environmental experiences, potentially deepening their brand connections. This research demonstrates how immersive technologies can inform environmental governance through community co-creation. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
This work presents the development of an educational ecology-focused card game created in collaboration with a grass-roots community group. Employing a participatory action research (PAR) methodology, the group gathered and analysed data on public attitudes towards climate change and card games to inform the design of the game. Key findings revealed a general awareness of environmental change but a limited understanding of its causes. Additionally, the public expressed a positive attitude towards both card games and education through this medium. Building upon these insights, the group designed a card game that explores climate change and pollution threats to a marine ecosystem. The PAR approach was found to be effective in designing a card game through community-led dissemination of results and decision-making. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘Participatory Engagement and Game Playing for Achieving Sustainable Net-Zero Transition’, edited by Jing Zhao, Eirini Gallou, and Ievgeniia Kopytsia.
Babylonian astral science of the 1st millennium BC was a multi-faceted practice including detailed and systematic astronomical observation, the development and use of various computational methods for predicting the positions and phenomena of the sun, moon, and planets, descriptions using simple numerical schemes of regular changes in the celestial realm, and various forms of astrology. Despite the detailed study of these practices over the past 150 years or so, historians of science remain divided as to whether Babylonian astronomy should be classified as a ‘science’. Specialists of Babylonian astronomy and astrology uniformly agree that it is science, whereas some non-specialists argue that science is a uniquely Greek invention. Much of this disagreement comes down to the question of whether Babylonian astral science is ‘theoretical’ or (merely) the fitting of numbers to empirical data. In this paper, I explore whether we can identify ‘theories’ within Babylonian astral science and if so where these are to be found.
This article discusses the phenomenon of transnational kleptocracy and explains how kleptocrats and oligarchs have been welcomed in rule-of-law settings. The paper summarises a large body of research, including our recent book, Indulging Kleptocracyprofessional indulgences
Historically, the lived experiences, particularly the sexual lives, of single women have been overlooked and marginalised within African feminist discourse. Early African feminist movements prioritised pro-heterosexual marriage and natalism, often sidelining women who did not conform to these norms. This article examines the sexual lives of single Shona women in order to complicate the understanding of female sexualities, desires, and pleasure, particularly how women challenge and dismantle the intertwined systems of heterosexuality and patriarchy that shape heteropatriarchal Shona cultures. This study is grounded in ethnography, using methods of life story interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation. Ultimately, this paper argues that single women’s narratives especially disrupt dominant epistemologies, contest disparaging perceptions of unmarried women, and challenge stereotypes and patriarchal and religious norms by asserting sexual autonomy, redefining personhood beyond marriage, and resisting societal control over their bodies and desires.
This paper examines whether artificial intelligence industry developers of large language models should be permitted to use copyrighted works to train their models without permission and compensation to creative industries rightsholders. This is examined in the UK context by contrasting a dominant social imaginary that prioritises market driven-growth of generative artificial intelligence applications that require text and data mining, and an alternative imaginary emphasising equity and non-market values. Policy proposals, including licensing, are discussed. It is argued that current debates privilege the interests of Big Tech in exploiting online data for profit, neglecting policies that could help to ensure that technology innovation and creative labour both contribute to the public good.
Voice identity conversion and cloning technologies use artificial intelligence to generate the auditory likeness of a specific human talker’s vocal identity. Given the deeply personal nature of voices, the widening availability of these technologies brings both opportunities and risks for human society. This article outlines key concepts and findings from psychological research on self-voice and other-voice perception that have a bearing on the potential impacts of synthetic voice likenesses on human listeners. Additional insights from speech and language therapy, human–computer interaction, ethics, and the law are incorporated to examine the broader implications of emergent and future voice cloning technologies.
This article introduces the Thematic Collection ‘Decolonising Gender Knowledge in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Insights and Theoretical Innovations from Early Career Researchers’, edited by Alicia Bowman, Evelyn Garwe and Juliet Thondhlanacomplete epistemic freedom
Corruption, a profound ethical failure, disproportionately affects women and girls, exacerbating existing inequalities and leading to gender-specific repercussions, such as increased vulnerability to gender-based violence, disruptions in essential services, and deepened levels of poverty and unemployment. Recognising the moral imperative to address this injustice, this paper examines the case of state capture in South Africa to explore the gendered impact of corruption on women and girls. Drawing on evidence from the Zondo Commission Report, and other archival data, and employing Tamale’s Afro-feminism as a philosophical framework, alongside Ubuntu and the Ethics of Care as guiding ethical frameworks, this article provides critical insights and offers actionable recommendations for stakeholders dedicated to promoting the well-being and flourishing of women and girls. This article is published in the thematic collection ‘Decolonising Gender Knowledge in Sub-Saharan Africa: Empirical Insights and Theoretical Innovations from Early Career Researchers’, edited by Alicia Bowman, Evelyn Garwe and Juliet Thondhlana.
