Open Democracy is an independent global media platform covering world affairs, ideas, and culture, encouraging democratic debate.

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Growing up an adoptee of mixed heritage in Britain, Kamila Zahno was too Black for the adoption agencies but not Black enough for the political campaigners.     ​

Emma Powell

When black is not the only colour

Want to invest some spare money in property? Think that makes you a risk-taker? Maybe it just makes you a member of the bourgeoisie leeching off the work of others. Andrew Sayer, writing in Open Democracy, argues against unearned income.

Nick Camm

Is unearned income acceptable?

It is the last of the world’s major illnesses to be so poorly understood. Naomi Whittingham, writing in Open Democracy, tells of her struggle living with ME. 

Sharon Bott

Severe ME left me in a world of pain and darkness. 26 years on, why is it still so poorly understood?

People who rely on government support to survive are often depicted as lazy and therefore less valuable to society. Margaret Somers and Fred Block make a plea for a different vision, one where cruelty isn’t the key to prosperity. 

David Riley

Is cruelty the key to prosperity? 

Online political discussions are often quagmires of insults and memes, but they can sometimes reveal new political trends. Chenchen Zhang looks at the term ‘white left’, an insult used by many Chinese netizens.

The curious rise of the ‘white left’ as a Chinese internet insult

The place of personal values in a secular democracy has long been the source of debate—is it better to agree or to be honest?

Molly Ward

Don’t mention Jesus! Why excluding beliefs from the public sphere is mistaken

Harvesting data sounds wrong! Whereas personal data sounds like something worth protecting. Elinor Carmi, writing in Open Democracy, investigates the language and ethics of data collection: what does ‘privacy’ really mean online? Is it fair that we want to keep our personal data personal? 

Whose data is it anyway?

In 2017, Netflix released Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution, a film exploring how pop culture shapes young people's beliefs about gender, sexuality and violence in the US. But is it an honest portrayal of reality, or does it have a hidden agenda? Claire Provost and Lara Whyte, writing in Open Democracy, expose the ‘Christian fundamentalists’ behind the film.

Revealed: the US ‘Christian fundamentalists’ behind new Netflix film on millennial sex lives

Can dialogue free us from fear and pain? Perry Dougherty, writing in Open Democracy, highlights the importance of giving a voice to our experiences when healing from trauma.

Ashley Klanac

#MeToo, dialogue and healing

How much does religious thinking contribute to our understanding of human rights?

For secular beliefs to hold sway, their authors must often deploy the language of religion. Jenna Reinbold, writing in Open Democracy, explains how myth was central to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Seeing the myth in human rights

A casual observation of a busy street will offer up a million different narratives for how each and every person got there. Paul Tritschler, writing in Open Democracy, emphasizes the importance of storytelling for empathy and social understanding. 

Empathy: why stories matter

By virtue of being a business owner, the academic Karl Widerquist has a basic income on top of his already generous salary. But he doesn’t think that it is particularly fair. Here, he laments a system that often rewards people more for owning things than for actually doing things. 

Karl Miller

My own private basic income

A good government is an effective one. There’s no point appealing to the highest values of democracy if you can’t get anything done. Stein Ringen, writing in Open Democracy, argues that Machiavelli’s controversial 16th century demands for an effective government are still relevant today. 

Michael Bott

Was Machiavelli a democrat? Is he relevant today?

What happens to a country's sex workers during a military conflict and economic crisis?

Ukraine: Sex work in times of war

With our data being hailed as the world’s most valuable resource, companies are scrambling to exploit it and, by extension, us. Luca Belli, writing in Open Democracy, suggests that when governments fail to protect our right to network self-determination, we must do it ourselves. 

Gary Furlong

The scramble for data and the need for network self-determination

Most of us spend a huge proportion of our lives working. Yet the sociological study of workplaces has declined. LSE fellow, Jamie Woodcock, writing in OpenDemocracy, recounts his six months undercover in call centres, researching how workers are subject to constant watch, psychological pressure, and what they do to resist. 

Jonathan Booth

End of the line: surveillance, precarity and resistance in the call centre

In August 2015, Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleg Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison as part of a fabricated terrorism investigation by Russian security services. He was tortured in the process, and is currently serving his sentence in Labytnangi in Russia’s Yamal-Nenets region.

Three Stories by imprisoned Ukrainian writer and filmmaker Oleg Sentsov

Could Bruce Springsteen save the American political left? Lasse Thomassen looks at how the Born in the USA star provides a model for politicians to re-cast national identity in a progressive light. 

What Bruce Springsteen can teach us about identity politics

Can our interactions with animals become commodified? What do cat cafes tell us about loneliness and relaxation in a time of liberalism. Lorraine Plourde, writing for OpenDemocracy, journeys to post-economic bubble Japan to explore the healing industry there.

Why do people go to cat cafes? Loneliness and relaxation in a time of neoliberalism

Hate picks no sides—it merely fills the gaps left by broken communication. Increasingly, thanks to the internet, we can reinforce our world views through the interactions we have online. Mana Farooghi, writing in Open Democracy wonders whether there is a solution to this growing state of disdain.  ​

Penny Andrews

The internet can spread hate, but it can also help to tackle it

The filter bubbles are moving offline. It’s not just social media platforms that are keeping us from coming into contact with challenging ideas. Antonis Vradis, writing in Open Democracy, suggests that echo chambers can also take on social and geographical dimensions. 

Malk Williams

Don’t call it an echo chamber – it’s a spatial contract

France has seen increasing jihadi attacks over the past few years, and people have been debating the cause for this. Novelist and award-winning journalist Johann Hari, writing in Open Democracy offers us a different view – and shows us that there may well be a connection between France’s “war on drugs” and the growing jihadism; and that there is an alternative means of tackling the problem.

‘A training in violence’: the connecting line between France’s ‘war on drugs’ and jihadism

Capital punishment is still prevalent in many countries around the world, including the USA. Kirsten Han writes in Open Democracy about the mandatory death penalty in Singapore, about how it expected a boy to die for a mistake he made when he was just 19 years old, and wonders whether capital punishment really serves the purpose it claims to.