Manifesto

Academia is an elitist household. We are promised access to it through means of higher education, selecting modules, reading papers and gaining foundational insight into the ideas of philosophers and theorists. Paywalls deny us physical access to academic content which, in its pretentious complexity, alienates us from our own lived experiences.

We have started De Flore to overcome these barriers and make social commentary more accessible.

This is our manifesto.

We believe in providing a space where ideas can be discussed and a discourse can be held on the topics we, as socially involved people, deem important.
We aim to deconstruct elitist language and follow the pursuit of attainable social criticism.
We want to celebrate that valuable explorations and ideas are not limited to the structures of academia but can take a variety of forms. Therefore the platform will be composed of three features:
1. Original work that is socially critical including, but not limited to, articles, poetry, music, short stories or visual art.
2. Work completed during formal education that authors are particularly proud of, such as coursework, research and dissertations.
3. Finally, De Flore will publish accessible introductions to social and political theory on a weekly basis.
We align ourselves with a socialist, intersectionally feminist and leftist viewpoint. While routed in ideas of Marxism and radical Feminism, we do not align with any specific thought, theory or author. We do not believe in the idealisation of individuals but take on a multitude of ideologies.
Within De Flore's ideology, we take on a constructivist stance. We believe that gender, race, class and sexuality are socially constructed, often in support of oppressive power structures. Our aim is to gain an understanding of the ways these categories have been created, the nature of their existence and how we can overcome the prejudices held within them.
This being said, we desire to create a space in which individuals feel comfortable presenting their thoughts whether or not these directly agree with our alignments. De Flore is a space for discussion, disagreement, education and accountability as we, and society itself, are ever-learning and ever-growing.

De Flore Zine

6th July 2022