Theatricalizing the National Housing Crisis in Mike Bartlett’s Game and Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
William C. Boles

AbstractSince the start of the new millennia, the words ‘national crisis’ have not been far removed from many of the plays on the British stage. The aftermath of 9/11 and the British government’s decision to aid George Bush’s Middle East invasion plans sparked plays by David Hare, Roy Williams, and the Tricycle Theatre’s The Great Game as well as verbatim theatre pieces. The Great Recession unleashed works by David Hare (again), Laura Wade, and Lucy Prebble, among others. The increasing threats of floods across Great Britain and Europe placed the crisis of climate change front and centre in plays by Mike Bartlett and Steve Waters. The housing crisis, while not as provocative a theatrical topic as the ones above, has also inspired theatrical responses, including Mike Bartlett’s Game and Philip Ridley’s Radiant Vermin, and these two works are the focus of my paper. More specifically, I will examine each playwright’s focus on the role of the homeless in regards to the housing crisis. Interestingly, both playwrights posit that the victimization of the homeless is the crucial solution to not only solving the housing crisis in Britain, but also maintaining the status quo of Britain’s affluent population.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisha Liu ◽  
Alexander Kuo ◽  
Jose Fernandez-Albertos

Abstract How did the great recession affect policy and partisan preferences in the most afflicted countries? We theorize the role of a previously under-emphasized source of preferences: the size and scope of one’s exposure to other individuals who have been exposed to the crisis. Contact with others who have economically suffered should be an additional channel for the crisis’ effects on policy preferences. We gathered data during the recession from a crisis-hit country, Spain, to measure the size of the respondent’s social networks in different ways and the impact of the crisis upon them. We also measured a battery of policy and political preferences (support for austerity, the euro, supranational institutions and new parties). We find strong associations between support for anti-status quo policies and anti-establishment parties and exposure to economic suffering within one’s social networks in ways that enrich our understanding of the process of preference formation in times of crisis.


Author(s):  
Stefan Homburg

Chapter 6 examines real estate as a neglected feature of actual economies. It begins with an empirical overview demonstrating the preeminent role of land as a part of nonfinancial wealth. Whereas many macroeconomic models represent nonfinancial wealth by a symbol K that is interpreted as machines and equipment (if not robots), the text makes clear that such items are of minor quantitative importance. In contemporary economies, nonfinancial wealth consists chiefly of real estate. This is the proper reason so many analysts conjecture a link between house prices and the Great Recession. Changes in house prices (primarily changes in land prices) operate on the economy through their influence on nonfinancial wealth. Nonfinancial wealth affects consumption directly and investment indirectly since it relaxes or tightens borrowing constraints. Building on the results obtained in previous chapters, the text studies housing manias and leverage cycles and relates its main findings to US data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Cavaliere

The benefits of full ectogenesis, that is, the gestation of human fetuses outside the maternal womb, for women ground many contemporary authors’ arguments on the ethical desirability of this practice. In this paper, I present and assess two sets of arguments advanced in favour of ectogenesis: arguments stressing ectogenesis’ equality-promoting potential and arguments stressing its freedom-promoting potential. I argue that although successfully grounding a positive case for ectogenesis, these arguments have limitations in terms of their reach and scope. Concerning their limited reach, I contend that ectogenesis will likely benefit a small subset of women and, arguably, not the group who most need to achieve equality and freedom. Concerning their limited scope, I contend that these defences do not pay sufficient attention to the context in which ectogenesis would be developed and that, as a result, they risk leaving the status quo unchanged. After providing examples of these limitations, I move to my proposal concerning the role of ectogenesis in promoting women’s equality and freedom. This proposal builds on Silvia Federici’s, Mariarosa Dalla Costa’s and Selma James’ readings of the international feminist campaign ‘Wages for Housework’. It maintains that the political perspective and provocation that ectogenesis can advance should be considered and defended.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 47-75
Author(s):  
Wioletta Pawska

The Right of Minors to Freedom from Gambling and Internet andGaming Addition The aim of the article is to highlight the dangers of gambling and Internet and gaming addiction of minors and young persons. The author is convinced that in the absence of positive legislative changes and if creators of games engaging young persons in gaming are not punished, children will not be safe in the online environment. There will not have any other lives than those in the games they play. Additionally, the most important thing is the role of the parents, guardians and teachers. They should talk to children about the problem, show them the dangers and organise better their free time – in an educational and carefree way. In accordance with the obligatory rules of custody, they should ensure them suitable development, safety and a sense of belonging. The teachers ought to support these activities. Summarising, if the status quo continues to be tolerated, minors and young person’s will be deprived of carefree life and suffer from harm and even sudden deaths. The author is sure that parents and children do not give enough attention to that and we should not take away from young person’s the joy of simple things letting them play in the Internet instead.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Cóndor

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was a loan modification program introduced in 2009, in the U.S., to assist highly indebted homeowners with avoiding foreclosure. This program also encouraged private lenders to offer more sustainable modifications. This paper studies the role of HAMP in preventing higher foreclosures rates during and after the Great Recession, in the context of a general-equilibrium heterogeneous-agents model with two types of households (Borrowers and Savers), uninsurable idiosyncratic risk, and both private and HAMP modifications. The main result is that, without HAMP, the peak in the foreclosure rate could have been 50% larger (3.2 percent vs 2.2 percent in data).


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