In this paper we document the rapid growth of the British men's ‘lifestyle’ magazine market and explore its significance in terms of men's changing identities and gender relations. By drawing on focus-group discussions with men of different class, age, and regional and ethnic backgrounds, we contrast two ways of thinking about these magazines. The first employs a distinction between ‘surface’ and ‘depth’, and suggests that the magazines signal only superficial changes in contemporary masculinities. The second approach identifies a series of discursive repertoires on which men draw in ‘making sense’ of the magazines. Four such repertoires are highlighted, which involve notions of ‘honesty’, ‘naturalness’, ‘openness’, and ‘harmless fun’. The analysis suggests that although some respondents saw the magazines' commercial success in terms of a backlash against ‘feminist extremism’ and ‘political correctness’, most denied their wider political significance. We conclude that the magazines provide their readers with a form of ‘constructed certitude’ that represents a commodified response to men's current gender anxieties.

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The article seeks to ask some ‘political’ questions in respect of the recent publishing success of men’s lifestyle magazines. What implications does the mass popularity of such magazines have for the social construction of masculinity, and how might we account for their success among young men? In particular we focus upon the content of the magazines, and seek to understand what is genuinely ‘new’ about them. In this respect we discuss the magazines’ visual nature, their focus upon heterosexual relationships and their use of irony and cynicism. We conclude that a ‘political’ reading of the magazines would mean that they are the cultural response to social change, rather than a backlash to feminism or harmless fun.

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This article seeks to critically debate the subpolitical potential of the Transition Movement. As a relatively new social movement the Transition Movement seeks to promote a genuinely engaged form of citizenship from below. This is a radical social movement that is at odds with the current neoliberal consensus. Here I look at the key aims and intellectuals associated with the movement and seek to review the idea of localization in the context of the critical literature on globalization. However by engaging in ideas of cultural citizenship and, most crucially, critical pedagogy I seek to draw attention to both the positive and negative features of the movement. In particular I review the effectiveness of the Transition Movement through notions of cultural democracy and consider the extent to which it is able to promote critical border crossing.