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Does anyone know what’s real anymore?

Increasingly we are lost in a world of binary codes: zero or one, Republican or Democrat, black or white, female or male, good or bad.

Reclaiming conversation

Are smart-phones eroding authentic communication? A Q&A with Sherry Turkle

Looking back: 12 of Transformation's greatest articles

I'm leaving after three years at openDemocracy. Here are some of my favourite, must-read articles from writers to watch out for.

Gathering and assembling: Judith Butler on the future of politics

A new book from one of the world’s leading philosophers brims with ideas about gender, collective action and insecurity.

Olympians without nations: first-ever team of refugees heads to Summer Games

With 20 million refugees worldwide, the International Olympic Committee announces a new team to make the games more inclusive for people without a nation to call home.

This is why using 'they' as a gender pronoun is so important

The 'they' prounoun carries emotional weight, affirms others, and challenges our assumptions about gender.

Designer activism and post-democracy

For campaigners committed to transformational social change, the unscripted howl of celebrities is a weak peg on which to hang a movement.

Meet the sex workers using art to expose truths about the sex industry

Ahead of the opening of Sex Workers' Opera tonight, these arts activists are fighting the battle for hearts and minds.

The unbearable whiteness of science fiction

Speculative fiction is just as rooted in white supremacy as any other genre. When a transformative vision of racial justice shows itself, it's rooted in communities of color.

Happiness and children

Depression and anxiety are rising rapidly among young people: what’s going on?

Transforming the politics of makeup

Drag is everywhere. Drag is looks you created and looks you woke up with. At heart, the transformative nature of makeup is about allowing your curious self to flourish.

Who gets to be an artist? An interview with cultural theorist Hans Abbing

Just why are artists so poor? Hans Abbing explains. 

Stephen Fry and the importance of self-pity

Is it ok for victims of childhood abuse to pity themselves?

The erotic economy: it’s not what you think

If we stopped imprisoning our emotions in industrially manufactured profit centers, desire could become an engine of social transformation.

What’s the point of education?

Can creativity survive in the climate of fear and coercion that’s emerging in our schools? 

Why does happiness inequality matter?

According to a new report, income inequality isn't the only thing we should be concerned about.

Are eco-versities the future for higher education?

Transforming learning into a process of liberation sounds great, but what does it mean in practice?

COAL: the Vagina Monologues of climate change

Culture change takes us to some dark and painful places, yet art and music remind us that love and beauty are vital for social transformation.

How an underground hip hop artist and his book club threaten Angola's regime

This week 17 Angolan activists received jail sentences for participating in a book club. Here's why. Português

The environmental movement: a blockbuster in the making?

Stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things are the building blocks of transformation, but they have to be told wisely and well.

Can universities still provide a transformative experience?

At least for the purposes of surveillance and control, the possibility of being politically awakened by higher education is alive and well. 

Staying alive: Kate Bornstein gives the finger to cancer, suicide, and the gender binary

"Once you break down a huge fucking binary like gender, no other binaries seem to make sense": an interview with the much-loved trans author and artist.

Oradour-sur-Glane: “a place of endless mourning”

Europe’s collective amnesia about its human atrocities and refugee flows is becoming more pronounced. Here's why it’s vital to remember them.

Welcome to another year of transformation

Can the world be reconstructed through the fusion of personal and social change? We say yes, and here's what we're learning.

In Tripoli, young Lebanese defy a city’s violent reputation

Graffiti and other street art, music and collective action are tools to overturn mainstream media stereotypes.

Trans ™: how the trans movement got sold out

From Zoolander 2 to Brewdog, now being transgender is cool, corporations are co-opting the sexy bits to turn a profit. 

The poet and the flea

An exclusive extract from G. E. Gallas’ new graphic novel on William Blake.

What the Holocaust can teach us about the migrant crisis

A Kindertransport refugee reflects on genocide, and what it means in a Europe dealing with advancing Islamophobia and a 'refugee crisis'.

Why do people smear themselves with mud and then complain that they are dirty?

One proverb can capture the condition of a nation, and help people to move beyond their own self-oppression.

From Orlando to Suffragette: how feminist films transform their audiences

What propels a person to whole-hearted engagement in social change?

Why I choose Samuel Beckett over positive thinking, any day

A good way to move forward is to say what we really feel, and dispense with juvenile solutions.

We need to talk about PTSD

Using the hashtag #PTSDChat to spread the word, I paint the trauma of war veterans, rape survivors and first responders.

Say it like it is

We can’t live with other people and we can’t live with ourselves. (Video: 3 minutes).

Meet the dancers who are making refugees welcome

The Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants uses the arts to support refugees to make new lives - but government cuts mean it may be forced to close.

French secularism as failed social engineering

The principle of laïcité has become a demagogic tool to reinforce narrow judgements about French identity and discriminate against minorities. 

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