Because you’re worth it?
It can cure cancer, make you rich and even foster world peace, claim its advocates. But what proof is there, asks Ben Fine, that social capital has any benefits at…
Politics & Conflict
Book review: Raising Dust by Nicholas Rowe
This study of Palestinian dance provides a rare insight into the lives of the region's people, says Andrew Mueller
Lies, damn lies and Chinese science
The People's Republic is becoming a technological superpower, but who's checking the facts? Sam Geall seeks out the Chinese science cops
Aid wars
Mired in controversy from Afghanistan to Sudan, humanitarianism itself is in crisis. Susie Linfield surveys the battlefield
Book review: Neoconservatism by Justin Vaisse
Anatol Lieven assesses the past and future of an idea
Book Review: Secret Affairs by Mark Curtis
Did the British government collude with terrorists? Richard Wilson finds out
Who are you calling a fanatic?
Rationalists should think twice about using a term which has, in its day, been used to condemn those who struggle for freedom and equality, says Alberto Toscano
Of human greed: Laurie Taylor interviews David Harvey
A search for the reasons for the economic meltdown has prompted a turn back to Marx. Laurie Taylor meets the “dialectical materialist” geographer David Harvey who, 40 years into his…
Work ethics
When religious beliefs conflict with professional duties how do we decide what's fair? We asked Richard Rowson, the man who wrote the rules
Book review: Hamas by Beverley Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell & Hizbullah by Naim Qassem
When it comes to the two big Islamic political parties in the Middle East, should we fight or engage, asks Stephen Howe