In the news
For the last six months, a giant banner emblazoned with ‘to love is to act’ has become our travel companion. It’s been at a parent activist meeting in a disused café in Kentish Town and in a British Legion hall in Bath. It’s been up the M4 to Cardiff, and it’s made its way across Read More
Sam Wren-Lewis looks at the General Election from the point of view of political psychology, revealing how the problems of democracy and happiness have more in common than you think.…Read more
After a year characterised by political uncertainty, one thing that seems clear during this election campaign is that the two largest parties have their work cut out to build enough support to achieve a clear majority. British politics is experiencing an unprecedented level of fragmentation. Traditional divides along the lines of class are blurring, as Read More
In his new book, Social Innovation: How Societies Find the Power to Change – out today – Geoff Mulgan shows how social innovation offers a comprehensive view of what can be done to solve the global social challenges we face. This extract highlights the importance of public perceptions of government and how they should be working Read More
Today is the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women which marks the start of 16 days of activism to end violence against women. With international events raising awareness about the impact of sexual violence, it’s a good time to think through how the dominance of ‘trauma’ might actually hide the full extent Read More
After decades of shortages of affordable housing, spiraling house prices and rents and lack of effective action on homelessness, how likely it is at that a Brexit dominated General Election will change anything? The political storm over Brexit has given the impression that Brexit will be a game changer for the economy. If there is Read More
Following the tragedy in Essex last month, where 39 people were found in a lorry container, Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, examines the complex issue of migration. Migration is not a new phenomena and nor are the immigration polices that try and restrict migration or those that make the lives Read More
The extract below from Peak Inequality, published in 2018, sums up the conclusion to that book and remains pertinent today. Jeremy Corbyn, like all of us, may have many faults, but he also epitomises both something that is fundamentally decent and the possibility for change. It is significant that elections are held in December in 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


