A few people have discussed doing something like this over in the activism thread and I said I would get the ball rolling. I think the idea was that we would have a general left book/reading/discussion group with a fairly low level of commitment but the exact format hasn’t been determined.
I would like to be involved
I would not like to be involved but feel the need to register my preference in a poll
0voters
FORMAT
Do it on the forum
Do it on a video call
Do it on the forum and on a video call
Do it by PM
Do it by PM and a video call
Other
0voters
FREQUENCY
Once a week
Once a fortnight
Once every three weeks
Once a month
other
0voters
FACILITATION
Don’t have a facilitator or discussion leader
Rotate facilitation
Elect a facilitator
0voters
CONTENT
One book length text per discussion. We would probably have some suggseted books and polls to decide which ones to read.
A short list of optional readings per discussion based on a theme e.g. labour movements, crime and justice, queer theory, Marxism, borders. We would probably put together a short programme together.
Would be really intersted in getting involved but have so little headspace for reading at the moment - I dont’ want to be that guy at book group who never reads the book.
I am really up for this but whether or not I’ll be abel to participate in all of them is another matter, I’m really behind with a lot fo academic reading at the moment so that’s my priority at the moment but I’ll try my hardest to make time for this too.
Been wanting to do something like this for a while. There’s a local socialist reading group that I was going to take part in this month but I read all the material and it was really really dry Scottish constitutional theory so I never bothered turning up for the chat.
sounds good. maybe a shared google doc is a good place to start, put down the headings you have listed here, people can add other ones too, maybe an extra space for links to any material people have read and recommend or were intending to read but weren’t sure what particular theme it should go in, and we could see if there are any further themes that develop naturally from that. give that a couple of days for people to add stuff and then maybe someone can organise it a bit and then vote (or agree some other way) on what theme/readings to do first.
Also maybe one longer reading/book is OK per 3 week discussion?
Could a theme be a particular recent historical event/set of events/political movement etc. Just as an example two books I read recently both referenced the Arab spring in Bahrain and interpreted it in completely different ways and that made me think, I really would like to read up on Bahrain’s recent history, As a way of contextualising things like geopolitics and oil, the UK’s role in domestic affairs of Arab states, the blue arms trade, and the rise of sectarian politics in the Middle East.
I guess I find extracting social and political theory from contextual situations easier than going straight in to the abstract theory.