Matthew Mabefam

Matthew Mabefam is currently a sessional academic and PhD candidate at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is also a visiting fellow at the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. His research focuses on the politics of international development and he interrogates the intricacies and paradoxes of development especially in the context of Africa.

The politics of silence and the precarity of political dissent

The politics of silence and the precarity of political dissent

By: Matthew Mabefam, Kennedy Mbeva

Yajo* lived in place that has produced some of the most brilliant, distinguished academics and professionals. In fact, it once had a flourishing democracy, producing some of the best theorists on state-formation. However, Yajo comes from a place with...

In

Past Issues

PRECARITY

Precarity’s paradoxical force unites us in a condition of fragmentation and isolation.

CRISIS

The change and ruptures in our personal and collective lives, still lingers.

THE UNIVERSITY

Excessive managerialism, neoliberalisation and casualisation are some of the main challenges that are threatening the viability and the values of the university today. Lina, Amber and Scott kick off ‘The University’ issue, introducing the core themes and questions.

BODIES

This issue of Demos explores the ways in which the body moves through the world – how it labors and loves, how it treads the duplicitous thresholds of legality, how it is radicalised, and eternalised, how it is corralled and transgressed.

STUDENT ACTIVISM

Today’s student activists ask themselves: “how did we get here?”, “where are we going?” and “how are we going to get there?”. Issue 7 of Demos Journal concerns itself with these questions representing the history, practice and form of student activism.

FUTURES POSSIBLE

Introducing Demos issue 6: the editors take a look into what it means to imagine the future.

RESISTANCE

Introducing Demos issue 5: the editors take a look into what it means to resist and affect change.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES

Introducing Demos issue 4: the editors take a look into what boundaries mean to Australian identity today.

VOICES FROM THE GRASSROOTS

As a sneak peak into our latest edition, the Demos Editors bring together voices on grassroots organising and activism at ANU, in the Canberra community, and from beyond.

ARTICULATING SILENCE

The Demos editorial team bring you a preview of some of the exciting pieces to come with an exploration into the many meanings of silence.

CREATING DEMOS

To introduce the exciting diversity of voices that make up the first edition of Demos Journal, we embark upon a reflection on the relation between democracy and creativity itself.