Niki Seth-Smith

In fact there’s a new wave of interest in creating ritual spaces and practices like these that are designed to meet the challenges of the 21st century. They’re not modelled on any particular faith but draw on an eclectic range of religious, magical and secular healing traditions.

With borders hardening around the world, more people than ever are taking on the slippery, often tortuous challenge of proving their relationships to the authorities, which often boils down to having their love recognised as legitimate by the state. I’m one of them, or fear I soon will be.

Detroit was the cradle of Fordist capitalism and the American dream. Then it became their grave. But now, amidst the ruins, something is moving. Is there an end to the city’s decline?

Why does Sennett, a professor both at New York University and the London School of Economics, see Britain, not America, as the new homeland for the social left? Ironically enough, he pointed to our language, much mocked by Americans for its stumbling timidity. We Brits are much better, it seems, at ‘subjunctive expression’, one of the three key co-operative skills…While Americans are experts at declarative expression (“I believe X, Y and Z”), the British with our “perhaps”, “I think”, “it might be” create a space for communication that in turn encourages the second ‘dialogic’ skill: that of listening not to the words, but the intention behind them. The third co-operative skill singled out as key is the ability to empathise.