Based on Middle Managers as Agents of Collaboration by Paul Williams, this briefing covers policy recommendations around the role, behaviours and management practices of middle managers working in collaborative environments – complex settings that require cross boundary governance, management, policy and practice. Download the PDF here.   Middle Managers as Agents of Collaboration, by Paul Read More

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast we speak to Sam Wren-Lewis, author of The Happiness Problem: Expecting Better in an Uncertain World. In his book, Sam argues that the way we’re thinking about happiness in modern societies is wrong. We’re not seeing the bigger picture because we’re so focused on control and distracted Read More

Paul Stubbs is a UK-born sociologist and currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia. Here he looks at the work of Stuart Hall, and how John Clarke, author of Critical Dialogues: Thinking Together in Turbulent Times, built on this to guide us through spatio-temporal shifts in the UK and beyond, Read More

In this long read, Roger Brown, author of The Inequality Crisis: The Facts and What We Can Do About It, outlines causes of the Neoliberal turn and shows how it has created vastly increased and unjust social inequality. Crucially, he explains where we need to begin in order to reverse the tide. In November 1984, Read More

Previously published on the Policy & Politics blog. What do policy makers do? The question is important, because making policy engages a great number of people one way or another, and what they do they might do well or badly. Our standard answers are rather hazy, not least because policy making entails such great numbers Read More

Happy Open Access Week! At Bristol University Press and our imprint Policy Press we have long been supporters of responsible and fair Open Access (OA). We are proud of our positive relationship with the academic community we serve, and we want our authors’ work to gain as wide a readership as possible. OA fundamentally supports Read More

Sam Wren-Lewis talks about his book The Happiness Problem: Expecting Better in an Uncertain World.  He argues that we are thinking about happiness in the wrong way, but that by changing our approach away from control and towards understanding, we might have a chance of transforming society for the better.   The Happiness Problem by Read More

The term ‘crime’ may appear, at least at first glance, a rather simplistic concept in which particular images and ideas spring to mind. We often ask students to provide an example of what exactly constitutes a ‘crime’ and on almost all occasions responses include such criminal acts as serial murder, mass shootings, contract killings and Read More

John Clarke’s book, Critical Dialogues: Thinking Together in Turbulent Times, celebrates the productive possibilities of what he terms ‘thinking together’. His work can be used to challenge the idea of identity as singular, fixed and immutable – an idea in which people are assumed to have their own, unique, authentic identity, and to belong to Read More

Zoe Young, author of Women’s Work: How Mothers Manage Flexible Working in Careers and Family Life speaks to Jess Miles about work-life balance being an unattainable dream and how choice is an illusion for professional mothers. They discuss how policy and organisation change can make flexible working arrangements ‘work’ for women and families, and for Read More