Grassroot Communities

The Power and Challenge of Grassroots Organisations in Community Development

Written by Elisa Garbil – 29.05.2025 Grassroots organisations have emerged as vital engines of change in communities around the world. These entities, often volunteer-led and deeply embedded in local contexts, deliver a broad array of services that formal institutions struggle to reach, from youth empowerment and mental health to housing, public health, and civic participation….

Ben Carpenter

Ben Carpenter

Ben is the Founder & CEO of Grassroot Communities, a Youth and Community worker, Educator, Environmentalist, and City Fellow. He’s passionate about supporting individuals, communities and organisations to be the changes they want to see. Grassroot Communities is an organisation that tailors and delivers school, youth and community work projects based on the wants and…

Episode 235: Grassroot Communities and Their Importance with Ben Carpenter

Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil This week we hope to gain an insight on Grassroot Communities and the challenges faced by underserved communities and the wider voluntary sector. In an era of rising inequality, political polarisation, and climate instability, grassroots organisations are becoming critical pillars of resilience, not just locally, but globally.  Today we explore…

online, extremism, apps, instagram, Facebook, google, linkedin, x, twitter

Mainstreaming Hate: How Right-Wing Extremism Became a Digital and Political Force

Written by Elisa Garbil – 22.05.2025 In recent years, right-wing extremism has evolved from fringe ideology into a persistent force that influences public discourse, political behaviour, and even policy. The transition from the margins to the mainstream hasn’t happened by accident. It’s the result of a complex interplay between online radicalisation, conspiracy thinking, and the…

Dr. Aaron Winter

Aaron Winter

Dr. Aaron Winter (BA Hons. York; MA Warwick, DPhil Sussex) is Senior Lecturer in Sociology (Race and Anti-Racism), Deputy Doctoral Director and Director of the Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities (CASEI) at Lancaster University. He previously taught at the Universities of Brighton, Sussex, Abertay and East London. His research is on the…

Episode 233: What Can Sociology Say about Right-Wing Extremism and the Mainstreaming of Racism and the Far-Right with Aaron Winter

Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil Today we are cutting through the noise to tackle one of the most urgent and uncomfortable realities of our time: how hate has gone mainstream. From anonymous forums to prime-time politics, far-right extremism is no longer a fringe threat — it’s a digital, cultural, and political force shaping our democracies. Dominic…

Interference in Orbit: Legal Ambiguity, Strategic Risk, and the Future of Space Governance

Interference in Orbit: Legal Ambiguity, Strategic Risk, and the Future of Space Governance

In an increasingly congested and contested domain, the question of whether interference with satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constitutes an act of war is no longer theoretical. The proliferation of satellite constellations, the strategic entanglement of civilian and military uses, and the rise of ambiguous state behaviour in orbit have created an unstable environment…

Kai-Uwe Schrogl

Kai-Uwe Schrogl

Professor Dr. Kai-Uwe Schrogl is the President of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), the global association of space lawyers from more than 50 countries on all continents. He served from 2014 to 2016 as chair of the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and was from…

Episode 231: Whether Interference with Satellites in LEO is Act of War with Kai-Uwe Schrogl

This week on The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Dr. Kai-Uwe Schrogl, one of the world’s leading experts on international space policy and the former Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Legal Subcommittee. In this critical episode, they explore the growing risks in Low Earth Orbit…

Armenia tension with Azerbaijan

Armenia: Between Russia and the West and the Complicated Dynamics of Peace with Azerbaijan

Recently, an apparent warning was issued to Armenia via the Russian Ambassador. OC Media reported that at the “East-West Confrontation: Ukrainian Dimension. Scenarios for the Future” conference in Yerevan, Sergei Kopyrkin, in reference to Ukraine, advised Armenia that the current situation there: Clearly demonstrates what can happen if a state abandons its own national interests…