|
Yesterday the UK got a new prime minister - Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. UK academics provide some hard-hitting analysis. Matthew Flinders looks at Johnson’s brand as the loveable buffoon, reminding us that underneath the froth, he is often careless with others and not averse to playing fast and loose with the truth. It’s all terribly funny – until it isn’t. Richard Carr explores his brand
of populism.
The African continent is often depicted in unfavourable terms when it comes to democracy. But, argues Nic Cheeseman, this stereotype ignores the fact that the continent has some important things to teach the world about the conditions under which democracy can be built. This, at a time when democracy appears to be on the back foot in a range of countries across the world.
|
Pork barrel politics?
PA/Darren Staples
Matthew Flinders, University of Sheffield
Parliamentarians and party members have held their noses and voted in a man deeply unsuited to lead. Now the British public must live with their choice.
|
Move aside.
Shutterstock
Richard Carr, Anglia Ruskin University
We now have 'Believe in Britain' and 'Make America Great Again'. This language posits itself as inclusive, but in reality creates the space for Trumpian excesses.
|
Politics + Society
|
Nic Cheeseman, University of Birmingham
Africa's democracies have grown stronger during a period in which the world is backsliding on democracy.
| |
Jacob Nyarko, University of Cape Coast
The state in Ghana still justifies taking steps that amount to suppression of the media.
|
|
|
Energy + Environment
|
Julia Sigwart, Queen's University Belfast
When Julia Sigwart went looking for the scaly-foot snail – or Sea Pangolin – in the deep ocean, they were hard to find. Now they are seen as endangered from the prospect of deep sea mining.
| |
Baishali Bakshi, University of Minnesota
African countries need to take into account the effects environmental changes, like climate change, have on their ability to deal with food security, poverty reduction and lowering mortality rates.
|
|
|
Health + Medicine
|
Adam Taylor, Lancaster University
Evolutionary quirks found in the animal kingdom protect against common diseases.
| |
Juliet Pulliam, South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling & Analysis (SACEMA) ; Jonathan Dushoff, McMaster University
Applied Epidemiological Modelling has enormous potential to improve how decisions are made about public health in African countries.
|
|
|
