Recently I finally found time to play my way through the single-player campaign of Modern Warfare 3 (MW3). As those who follow me on twitter know, I had been anticipating MW3 for a while now. Throughout the lead-in to the game’s release we had been treated to epic trailers showing the destruction of cities such as New York and Paris.
Given that I am currently trying to write about visions of urban cataclysm, playing my way through an interactive – if not immersive – rendering of such visions of urban violence had been on my to-do list for a while. (more…)
In a perceptive comment on the LSE-Saif Gaddafi affair, Richard Sennett notes that LSE director Howard Davies “didn’t create the problem of the dodgy donor – he succumbed to a structural danger that is built into the [UK] educational system.” To outsiders the LSE’s decsision to supervise Gaddifi’s PhD and take donations from funds he controls could appear either naive, underhand or worse. However, Sennett raises an important point that bears further consideration as it implies that we should expect more of these problematic funding arrangements in UK Higher Education in future. (more…)
Reflections on the future of social science in UK universities
I don’t usually comment on UK politics at martincoward.net. This is largely because I want the content on this site to reflect my particular research interests and activity. My expertise lies in the intersection of political philosophy and international politics. More specifically, my interests are in thinking about the inter-related topics of cities, security and political violence. I have therefore, largely confined myself to comments on these issues. However, as a politics scholar at a UK Higher Education (UKHE) institution, the nature and future of social sciences in UK universities is something I am both interested and invested in. (more…)
Reports of a 10 day traffic jam in China bring into sharp relief questions around the infrastructures of global urbanisation. This jam started on the 14th August1 and may last until September. Indeed, the Wall Street Journalreports that drivers on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway are ‘inching along little more than a third of a mile a day’. The Guardian interviews a driver that took 3 days to get through the jam. It makes the 2003 closure of the UK’s M11 by snowfall seem small by comparison. (more…)
Reports on the date the jam started differ with the Wall Street Journal referring to 13th August. ↩
Yesterday’s Guardian carries video and comment regarding the demolition of a Bedouin village in the Negev region of Israel. Neve Gordon provocatively refers to the razing of this village as ‘ethnic cleansing’, arguing that it is evidence of the state of Israel’s desire to ‘Judaise’ the Negev. The description of the demolition of residential structures and the uprooting of trees certainly indicates an attempt to prevent the Bedouin establishing a claim to territory that Israel regards as its own (and thus, following the logic of Zionism, as Jewish). Building is a primary way in which identity and territory can be linked since dwelling establishes a durable relationship between individuals and the place they reside in. Given that ethnic cleansing is defined by its assumed linkage of identity and territory one can understand how Gordon comes to his conclusion. However striking this claim might be, however, to my mind it obscures the deeper politics of administrative demolition in Israel.
Watching Bangkok burn1 over the last few days has been both disturbing and upsetting. The use of heavy armour against a predominantly civilian protest movement (segments of which have latterly turned to small arms and improvised weapons in its stand off with the government) has been a timely reminder of the forms of violence that could mark our urban future. In some ways it has exemplified dynamics already identified in the literature on urban warfare. The cycle of occupation, displacement and reoccupation that the army and redshirts have been engaged in looks a lot like the ‘pop-up armies and spatial chess‘ that Robert Warren detailed in 2002. (more…)
The ongoing disruption caused by volcanic ash has demonstrated some of the ways in which contemporary urban life is constituted by its infrastructures. Similar in many ways to Don DeLillo’s Airborne Toxic Event, the cloud from Eyjafjallajökull has reinforced the manner in which our sense of self is tied up in the things and circuits that keep us mobile and fed. (more…)
NB: This video has graphic images of killing. Viewers should exercise discretion. You Tube recommends that the video is not viewed by anyone under the age of 18.
I’ve been away for a couple of weeks and so have not been able to respond to the wikileaks ‘Collateral murder‘ video.1 Like many others I was initially struck by the way the video exemplifies the contemporary intersection of video-gaming, spectacle and warfare. Indeed, the uncanny resonance of the footage with the ‘Death from above’ mission in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare seem to invite the viewer to draw uncomfortable parallels. (more…)
Thanks to Nate Wright for alerting me to this video ↩
Narratives of fear & insecurity in this week's news: The dark web [http://t.co/ylCxsud9] and engineered bird flu [http://t.co/RruqlzMI] 1 day ago
And yet, here is Guardian saying "buyers would have little problem finding alternative suppliers" [http://t.co/9OHQHUml] is threat inflated? 1 week ago
Guardian predicts fuel shortages as UK petrochemical infrastructure supposedly compromised by bankruptcy and strikes [http://t.co/IkdgBUdW] 1 week ago
Modern Warfare 3 and the retreat from precision
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011Recently I finally found time to play my way through the single-player campaign of Modern Warfare 3 (MW3). As those who follow me on twitter know, I had been anticipating MW3 for a while now. Throughout the lead-in to the game’s release we had been treated to epic trailers showing the destruction of cities such as New York and Paris.
Given that I am currently trying to write about visions of urban cataclysm, playing my way through an interactive – if not immersive – rendering of such visions of urban violence had been on my to-do list for a while.
(more…)
Tags: AFPAK, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 3, MW3, precision, war, warfare, XBOX360
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