Global social challenges
There are multiple interlocking crises currently gripping the planet. Significant threats and dangers lie ahead of us, but so do opportunities, as new ways of being, thinking, and doing emerge.
This stream of Transforming Society is a space for exploring the complexities of the global social challenges across disciplines and fields. It seeks to build and share the knowledge needed to shape a fairer world, across and for the global south and north, hoping to foster dialogue between academics, practitioners, policy makers and the wider public.
Gurminder K. Bhambra, editor of 'The Modern World After Colonialism', draws on Chinua Achebe’s insight to argue that dominant social-science narratives overlook colonial histories, and that re-centering empire is essential to rethinking modernity.…Read more
Dominic Hinde, author of 'Journalism in the Anthropocene', argues that coverage of leaders like François Hollande reveals how journalism fragments climate change into isolated stories instead of treating it as the context shaping all reporting.…Read more
Pushkala Prasad, author of 'Capitalism’s Dark Complexion', argues that capitalism has always been deeply racialised, exploiting Black and Brown bodies, from chattel slavery to modern e-waste labour, while disproportionately enriching White populations.…Read more
Justine Grønbæk Pors, author of 'Inherited Time', argues that democracy must be lived and practised in schools, and that contemporary education policy’s focus on performance has erased earlier democratic traditions whose “ghosts” still offer vital lessons for renewing democracy today.…Read more
In this Transforming Society podcast episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Lord Peter Hain about why liberation and independence movements are so often betrayed when their leaders get into power.…Read more
George Miller speaks to Patricia Shamai about why nuclear weapons have drifted from public consciousness since the 1990s.…Read more
International Migrants Day underscores that migrants are essential to the UK’s economy and public services, yet are scapegoated for hardships actually caused by financialisation, corporate exploitation and elite-driven populism.…Read more
In this Transforming Business podcast, Martin Parker speaks with Kathleen Riach about her groundbreaking 10-year longitudinal study that offers fresh theoretical and empirical insights into how ageing is experienced in the workplace.…Read more
True crime is a huge cultural industry, yet behind its stories lies real victims and uncomfortable ethical implications. In this podcast, Richard Kemp speaks with Ian Cummins and Martin King about the impact true crime has on society.…Read more
In this episode of the podcast, N.J. Enfield joins George Miller to discuss 'What Is Truth For?' — a book that sees truth not as a battlefield but as a shared practice of collaboration, error correction and trust.…Read more