Clodagh Harris

Participatory democracy and participatory research | European Political Science Review | Cambridge Core Participatory democracy and participatory research - Volume 17 Issue 3

☀️ Vol 17:3

Bridging the gap between #ParticipatoryDemocracy & #ParticipatoryResearch, the authors (🧵⬇️) ask what they can learn from each other, offering a critical reflection on how shared commitments of both fields can be realised. 🤔

#OpenAccess #PoliSky

JOINT STATEMENT ON GAZA FROM AFP, AP, BBC NEWS AND REUTERS “We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. “Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in warzones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. “We once again urge the Israeli authorities to allow journalists in and out of Gaza. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people there.”

BBC NEWS / AFP / BBC NEWS / REUTERS JOINT STATEMENT:

“We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families.

"They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering. "

‘We faced hunger before, but never like this’: skeletal children fill hospital wards as starvation grips Gaza For months Israel kept food shipments to Gaza far below starvation rations. Now the death toll is rising rapidly

A Palestinian mother in Gaza: “My children have become skeletal, skin and bone. Even the slightest effort makes them dizzy. They are asking for food, and I have nothing to give. I can’t lie and say I’ll bring them something when I know I won’t be able to.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Building wrap of Jabaliya camp in Gaza opposite Labour Party HQ reads "Protesting this isn't terrorism"

🚨 RIGHT NOW opposite Labour Party HQ in London.

We’ve turned their street into Jabaliya camp in Gaza. A genocide is happening, but the Labour government is supplying weapons, intelligence and diplomatic cover to the perpetrator. Protesting this is not terrorism.

There are Jewish people in my family, this is how we feel as well. God bless Mandy Patinkin!

“I'm only asking for a piece of bread... that's all," a 17-year-old boy at al-Shifa hospital tells the BBC, as food security body the IPC warns more than 1.5 million Gazans are at risk of severe malnutrition/ starvation.

Nearly 500,000 are considered to be facing “catastrophe.”

There is a real & present danger of these longterm derelict (historic) properties dropping debris onto Shandon street & causing an accident This is the reality of life in Cork city, the centre of #DerelictIreland, where crumbling buildings & decaying heritage has been normalised

There is a real & present danger of these longterm derelict (historic) properties dropping debris onto Shandon street & causing an accident
This is the reality of life in Cork city, the centre of #DerelictIreland, where crumbling buildings & decaying heritage has been normalised

Sans intervention immédiate, les derniers reporters de Gaza vont mourir 21 juillet 2025 L'AFP travaille avec une pigiste texte, trois photographes et six pigistes vidéo dans la Bande de Gaza depuis le départ de ses journalistes staff courant 2024. Avec quelques autres, ils sont aujourd'hui les seuls à rapporter ce qu'il se passe dans la Bande de Gaza. La presse internationale est interdite d'entrer dans ce territoire depuis près de deux ans. Nous refusons de les voir mourir. L'un deux, Bashar, collabore pour l'AFP depuis 2010, d'abord comme fixeur, ensuite comme photographe pigiste, et depuis 2024 comme principal photographe. Samedi 19 juillet, il est parvenu à poster un message sur Facebook: « Je n'ai plus la force de travailler pour les médias. Mon corps est maigre et je ne peux plus travailler ». Bashar, 30 ans, travaille et vit dans des conditions égales à celles de tous les Gazaouis, allant d'un camp de réfugiés à un autre camp au gré des bombardements israéliens. Depuis plus d'un an il vit dans le dénuement le plus total et travaille en prenant d'énormes risques pour sa vie. L'hygiène est pour lui un problème majeur, avec des périodes de maladies intestinales sévères. Bashar vit depuis février dans les ruines de sa maison de Gaza City avec sa mère, ses quatre frères et sœurs et la famille d'un de ses frères. Leur maison est vide de tout aménagement et confort, à part quelques coussins. Dimanche matin, il a rapporté que son frère aîné était « tombé, à cause de la faim ». Même si ces journalistes reçoivent un salaire mensuel de l'AFP, il n'y a rien à acheter ou alors à des prix totalement exorbitants. Le système bancaire a disparu, et ceux qui pratiquent le change entre les comptes bancaires en ligne et l'argent liquide prennent une commission de près de 40%. L'AFP n'a plus la possibilité d'avoir un véhicule et encore moins de l'essence pour permettre à ses journalistes de se déplacer pour leurs reportages. Circuler en voiture équivaut de toutes les façons à pre…

🚨BREAKING: The last journalists working for AFP in Gaza have said they can no longer work for the news agency.

They are out of energy and they are starving to death.

I have never seen a statement from a news organisation like it.

🧵

An unbearably sad statement from the Editorial Committee (SDJ) of the AFP news agency, please read:

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.
AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip… /1

Crow standing on a balcony railing with a churro

shout out to this crow who just dunked what seems to be a whole churro in the bird bath

Frank McCourt who died on this day 2009.

“Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.”

Nature’s masterpiece! Behold the beautiful Mandarin duck (Aix galericulata)

President Michael D Higgins to release album of poetry President Michael D Higgins is set to release an album of poetry later this year.

President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, to release album of poetry www.rte.ie/news/2025/07...

Alex Kydd
Ocean, Nature & Travel Photographer

Democratic innovation for change: A participatory corrective to deliberative hegemony - Oliver Escobar, Adrian Bua, 2025 The world faces social, political, economic, and ecological crises, and there is doubt that democratic governance can cope. Democracies rely on a narrow set of ...

🤔 What's the point of democratic innovation? Can it address crurrent crises and build democracies for the future?
💡In this new article @adrianbua.bsky.social and I argue that the field needs to strengthen its change-making orientation and capacity. Open access 👉🏼 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sinéad O’Connor’s father: ‘I visit her grave every week. We have a conversation or I bring her up to date’ Seán O’Connor remembers Sinéad as sometimes cranky and on the edge, but he always had compassion for her

Sinéad O’Connor’s father: ‘I visit her grave every week. We have a conversation or I bring her up to date’
www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

I do legit forget that I'm an adult sometimes.

Kinda sad sometimes.

I still wanna think about what I want to be when I grow up.

Manatee on a mission (w a remora for a necktie) #manatee #manateesofcoralcity #speedytee #necktie #coral #coralhead #coralcitycamera #miami #portmiami #miamibeach #biscaynebay #coralcity

Illustration of a squirrel carrying a pile of books, walking towards a tree hollow full of books.

Me after saying I wasn't gonna buy any more books for a while

Coping with summer childcare a ‘dicey hodgepodge’ of annual leave and magnanimous grandmothers ‘It pains me to see another aspect of parenting where I feel I am letting my child down,’ says one parent

Coping with summer childcare a ‘dicey hodgepodge’ of annual leave and magnanimous grandmothers

An image of a geographical map orientated about 30° to the west of true showing Scotland, the Isle of Man and Ireland in close proximity. Place names are in Gaelic, and the text explains the development of the map in Gaelic, Irish and English: Colmcille The relationship between Ireland and Scotland is at the centre of this map, Tír Cholm Cille. It is an accurate map, and the arrow on the left points to the north. You can find out more about the placenames of Scottish and Irish Gaelic at www.logainm.ie, www.gaelicplacenames.org and www.placenamesni.org

Love this projection, the Colmcille Map from Foras na Gaeilge in Ireland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig in Scotland, centring the relationship between Ireland and Scotland - the land of Columba. Original here colmcille.net/wp-content/u...
#maps #gaelic

Painting of a fence line in a golden field with many wild flowers created in a semi abstract style

July Fields, 1959
by painter Joan Eardley #WomensArt

Una Mullally: Keir Starmer was quick to condemn Kneecap, but strangely silent on Moygashel There is something rotten about leveraging an expression of long-standing culture and tradition to deliver a contemporary declaration of racist hate

Una Mullally: Keir Starmer was quick to condemn Kneecap, but strangely silent on Moygashel

She was discarded in a septic tank 80 years ago. Her sister won’t rest until she’s buried | CNN When Annette McKay’s first grandson was born, she thought her mother would be over the moon. She had become a great-grandmother. Instead, it led her to reveal a secret she had buried for decades.

Thinking about all those connected to Tuam, waiting for their relatives to be found and buried.
www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/e...

📚New #OpenAccess article 'How can resilience of democratic procedures, processes & principles be improved?' in PSA journal @polstudies.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Calling all ladybird spotters: help fill in the picture on these charismatic little bugs Data on the species in the Republic is spotty, but that’s about to change

There are some 38 species of #ladybirds in Ireland. “But our knowledge in the Republic is still a bit, well, spotty."

You can help change that: If you see one in your town, submit your sighting to the national Ladybird Atlas 2025:
www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

#citizenscience

📣 Postdoc (75 %, 3 yrs) at @unigreifswald.bsky.social — start autumn 2025 on perhaps Germany’s most beautiful campus. Know someone with a PhD (or nearly done) in Political Science? ⬇️ #PolSci #Postdoc

ABSTRACT Just as political ecologists have critiqued narratives of ‘climate migration’ and ‘climate conflict’ for their implicit climate determinism, this article argues that scholars should move beyond climate-centric accounts of ‘climate emotions.’ To do so, I will critically analyze climate emotions scholarship through the lens of Feminist Marxist analyses of the ‘care crisis’ of neoliberal capitalism. By bringing these literatures together, this paper will demonstrate how emotional responses to ecological crises are conditioned and constrained by neoliberal capitalism’s exploitation of the emotional and caring capacities of workers (particularly women and racialized workers), which leads to the systemic production of burnout, apathy, and various mental health challenges. By deepening our analysis of the links between these crises and their shared capitalist roots, we will be in better position to develop strategies of socio-ecological transformation that can address what I call the ‘polycrisis’ of ecology, care, and mental health.

New article!

It’s not just climate: rethinking ‘climate emotions’ in the age of burnout capitalism by Michael J. Albert.

doi.org/10.1080/0964...