James Harkin Email and Phone Number

I’m a London-based journalist, analyst and futurologist who writes about new ideas, new media, global social and geopolitical trends – and now Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London. I write for Harper’s magazine, Vanity Fair and GQ, and also contribute to The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, The London Review of Books, The Smithsonian magazine, Foreign Policy, The Economist, The Intercept, The Nation, and Prospect magazine. I also write books. My last futurological book, Niche, was about the problems which are going to face mainstream media, culture and politics in an age of ubiquitous new media and social fragmentation; it was published by Little, Brown around the world in March 2011, has been into translated into Korean, Japanese and Chinese and has become a best-seller in Taiwan. Between 1996 and 1999 I taught and lectured in British government, political theory and comparative politics (mainly PPE students) at three different colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1999, I exited academic life to work as an analyst of global social, political and technological trends (or 'futurologist') for think-tanks and agencies in New York, London and in continental Europe. For two years I also managed projects on changing new media and contemporary culture as an associate of the London think-tank Demos, and authored a number of Demos pamphlets, including Mobilisation: The growing public interest in mobile technology, and Eternal Youths: How the baby boomers are having their time again. Between August 2005 and October 2006, I wrote a column for The Guardian called BIG IDEA as well as interviews and essays, and before that I wrote a similar column for The Times. Between 2004 and 2009 I was Director of Talks at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.I also talk. I’ve lectured on the political consequences of the internet at the LSE, debated geo-politics and social media at the Edinburgh Books Festival, talked about the internet’s effect on contemporary culture at The Southbank Centre, keynoted conferences for everyone from The Economist to Shine to the Edinburgh International Festival. I’ve spoken about my books at The Edinburgh Book Festival (three times), The Hay Festival, The Bristol Festival of Ideas and a range of other international book festivals. For more information about me, visit jamesharkin.co.uk