Research Cafe: The Strange Death of Political Leadership

Two years into the Labour government, just like the dramas that bedevilled their Conservative predecessors the main question revolves again around political leadership. Instead of a focus on the ins and outs of Westminster drama, in this talk we’ll be taking a step back  to consider the problem of politics from two contradictory standpoints. A journey through the work of Antonio Gramsci and the stress his work placed on political and moral leadership, and the provocations of Jean Baudrillard, the self-styled intellectual terrorist for whom politics was a simulation and, therefore, ultimately meaningless. Join Senior Lecturer in Sociology Phil Burton-Cartledge  in trying to find a way through the paralysis British politics finds itself in.

Free Entry. 7:00pm start.