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Uncharted Territories: Exploring the Edges of Culture, Science and Learning
No full textI am Grace Fisher, a final-year medical student at Warwick University and this year’s Reinvention editor. Working on this edition has been a privilege – not only because of the quality of the research submitted, but because of how clearly our authors embody the spirit of Reinvention. Each contribution, in its own way, challenges how we think about knowledge, inclusion and creativity in research.
Across the submissions this year, there is a shared willingness to question assumptions and to imagine something better – whether that is fairer assessment practices, more inclusive systems of support, or new approaches to technology, identity and belonging. What strikes me most is how confidently undergraduate researchers now occupy this space. Their work is not tentative or derivative; it is bold, critical and grounded in lived experience
Critical reflections on the super-exploitation of labour power, reproductive labour and the theory of value
Full text linkMarxist dependency theory puts the category of super-exploitation of labour power as the “essence of dependency”. However, this category is presented in most debates as fundamentally linked to so-called productive labour, carried out by a working class that appears to be male and white. The work of reproduction and care, essential in the (re)production of the labour force, carried out essentially by women and feminised and racialised bodies, is hidden in the analysis. In this article we propose to develop a critical reflection on this relevant category, recovering the debates coming from the field of feminism and in particular from Marxist feminism. We seek to explore this debate in the light of key discussions in the theory of value that allow us to fruitfully articulate productive labour with the so-called reproductive and care work
Exploring the complexity of GTAs’ co-teaching experience through zine-making: a collaborative self-study
Full text linkGTAs bring their own educational values into their teaching (Robertson & Yazan, 2022), making it important to examine factors shaping their instructional decisions. While some studies addressed identity tensions or peer support among GTAs, research on their co-teaching experiences is limited. This collaborative self-study investigates the evolving identities of two graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), one experienced, one novice, using zine-making as a data collection tool in a co-teaching context. Drawing on Zhuo’s (2024) conceptualisation of zine-making as a narrative inquiry method, we created our personal zines to reflect on our co-teaching experiences. The experienced GTA focused on how her teaching strategies shifted with different co-teachers and how these shifts shaped her identity over time. The novice GTA’s zine captured her first two co-teaching experiences, exploring how uncertainty, collaboration and mentorship shaped her emerging sense of self as a teacher. Upon completing our zines, we shared them through oral presentations, extending the narrative beyond the page and enabling dialogic engagement. Qualitative content analysis, one of the analytic approaches demonstrated in Zhuo’s (2024) study, was used to analyse both the visual-textual elements of the zines and the transcripts of our oral zine presentations. This process revealed four key themes in GTAs’ co-teaching, including identity negotiation, relational dynamics, emotional trajectory and key factors for GTAs’ learning. Specifically, it identifies trust, clear communication, mutual respect, and structured reflection as crucial factors in leveraging co-teaching for effective professional development of GTAs. The study concludes that zine-making offers a powerful, reflexive methodology for GTAs to articulate the complexity of their co-teaching experiences and the development of their professional identities. As such, this study adds to the emerging literature on GTA teaching and offers practical insights for programs seeking to optimise co- teaching models for GTAs’ professional development. Additionally, it proposes and demonstrates zine-making as an effective approach to researching GTAs’ experiences and identity
Civil society actors and practices for reshaping international cultural relations
Full text linkThis article examines the expanding role of civil society organisations (CSOs) and the ‘fourth sector’ in reshaping international cultural relations over the past fifteen years. The authors analyse bottom-up approaches that challenge traditional state-led cultural diplomacy, focusing on how CSOs operate beyond ‘methodological nationalism’ while resisting both globalisation pressures and exclusive national identity promotion. Drawing on examples from the Balkans and other regions—including Nomad Dance Academy, Krokodil literary festival, and Red/Crvena feminist organisation—the study demonstrates how civil society employs innovative strategies such as festivals, art residencies, knowledge transfer, and regional networking. These organisations prioritise the ethics of solidarity and care, often working to decolonise and de-Europeanise cultural relations. The research reveals that CSOs function as ‘counterpublic’ spaces, creating platforms for dissent and social change while fostering equitable cultural exchanges. Unlike traditional diplomatic approaches, civil society initiatives emphasise fairness, mutual enrichment of peripheries, and bringing marginalised voices to global attention, offering alternative frameworks for international cultural cooperation based on responsibility and solidarity
Discrimination and Cultural Policy: Between Cultural Rights and Cultural Capital
Full text linkDiscrimination is often viewed as an individual attitude or a social issue, effectively addressed through the application of rights-based codes of conduct or a legal framework of rights implementation. Its ‘cultural’dimension has often remained insignificant, secondary or just underexplored. This article proposes that discrimination should also be understood as a cultural phenomenon, a response to which should involve cultural policy. Such policy, it is argued, could enhance certain rights that, in turn, could become axiomatic for a fuller legal comprehension of discrimination. Iteratively, this could then form the basis for further policy-based responses. A secondary register of this article takes the form of a proposal that rights-based cultural policies, to be effective, require an attention to cultural capital. By interconnecting the (contested) concepts of cultural rights, discrimination, and cultural capital, we will propose how cultural rights-based policy can serve as a more strategic response to discrimination, advancing the current impasse in our policy understanding of the phenomenon. Drawing on the legal foundations of cultural rights as a dimension of human rights law, this study both challenges Pierre Bourdieu’s conventional view of cultural capital and use it in a way that provides opportunity for the integration and coordination of human rights, anti-discrimination and cultural policies, strategically enhancing all these areas. The article’s conceptual approach will hopefully also provoke a new theoretical and practical impetus to research rights-based cultural policy itself, which might facilitate a comprehensive response to discrimination beyond the current legal measures that promote diversity, equity and inclusion
The National Centre for Research Culture at the University of Warwick: Vision and current activities
No full textIn recognition of the need for collaboration to effectively address recognised research culture challenges, the University of Warwick established the National Centre for Research Culture in 2023. The Centre aims to bring together organisations and individuals involved in the funding, regulation, production and dissemination of research to share ideas and best practice, coordinate our collective effort, and serve as a long-term, stable hub for knowledge curation, training and innovative research into research culture. This paper describes the background to the establishment of the National Centre for Research Culture, the initial structure of and vision for the Centre, and the activities carried out in its first 18 months of operation
Care Crisis, Anti-Gender Authoritarianism and Feminist Possibilities
Full text linkThe care crisis, erupting at the height of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, exposed the female body and care labour as critical sites for system management. Anti-gender authoritarianism, through increased violence and patronage of a traditional patriarchal gender order, is on the rise globally, seeking to keep women in ‘their place’. How can feminism, which has so far pursued a liberal approach of integrating into mainstream society, confront this transgression? Guided by this question, the article probes into the patriarchal division of labour, which is at the heart of the care crisis and anti-gender authoritarianism; assesses gender mainstreaming for its capacity to deliver equality; and ends with a reflection on feminist possibilities for emancipatory praxis in responding to the new challenges
Editorial Human Rights in an Age of Populist Authoritarianism
Full text linkWith the founding of the United Nations (UN) in 1945 and the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) by the UN in 1948, it appeared that liberal conceptions of human rights were fundamentally embedded in mainstream politics at a global level. This of course had come on the heels of the devastation of two World Wars that had torn to shreds any notion of civilisational superiority of the West. At the same time, decolonization movements across Africa and Asia were challenging Eurocentric notions of ‘the human’ and ‘rights’, and fought for and won a more universal concept of human rights (Sahgal, 2012; also see Sahgal in this issue).
Today, however, the consensus has frayed
Are Private Brands Morally Inferior to National Brands?
No full textThis paper investigates the moral distinctions between private brands (or private labels) and national brands within the context of economic, sustainability and innovation impacts. Private brands, owned and controlled by retailers, increasingly dominate the market, raising ethical concerns. Key areas of analysis include economic effects on consumers and producers, sustainability practices and the ethical implications of innovation and image copying. The findings suggest that private brands are morally inferior to national brands due to their detrimental impact on sustainability and innovation. The paper concludes with proposed political interventions aimed at mitigating these ethical issues, highlighting the need for more stringent regulations to ensure fair practices and enhance sustainability within the industry