The Oxford Conservative Thought (OCT) Reading Group is a non-partisan group devoted to academic exploration of small-c conservative political thought.

We welcome, and actively encourage, viewpoint diversity and constructive engagement across ideological divides (all good-willed participants are welcome!)

Each week we read one assigned text, and we recommend more for anyone who is very keen!

You can view our reading list here: ---> https://bit.ly/OCTMT25

Week 1 focuses on conservative attitudes to change.

Join us for a day of presentations from various speakers, some will be online and others will be with us in person at Oxford. All are welcome. If you can't attend in-person, you can register to join through ZOOM. For the full programme of talks, please see The Sudanese Programme's website. We look forward to you being with us. Speakers:

Dr Harry Cross, From a Siege Economy to a War Economy: The Legacy of Debt and Sanctions
Daniel Hupet, Peace on our Lips in South Sudan

Primary: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974), Chapters 10 - 12

Supplementary: Murray Bookchin, ‘Utopia, Not Futurism’ (1978); Cathy Levine, ‘The Tyranny of
Tyranny’ (1979); Le Guin, ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ (1986)

Primary: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974), Chapters 3 & 4

Supplementary: ‘A Report for the People of Anarres from Planet Earth’ (2016); Murray Bookchin,
‘Spontaneity and Utopia’ (1968)

Primary: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974), Chapters 13 & 14

Supplementary: Cindy Milstein, ‘Gesturing toward Utopia’ in Anarchism and Its Aspirations (2010); Le
Guin, ‘The Operating Instructions’ (2002)

Primary: Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974), Chapters 8 & 9

Supplementary: Emma Goldman, ‘The Individual, Society and the State’ (1940); Paul Goodman, ‘I don’t
want to work, why should I?’ in Compulsory Miseducation and The Community of Scholars (1962)