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.
Emma Moormann, Anna Smajdor and Daniela Cutas discuss epigenetics and ask, if environmental factors can influence our gene expression and cell functioning, who is responsible for protecting our health? …Read more
Maaike Matelski, author of 'Contested Civil Society in Myanmar', considers the Spring Revolution resistance movement in Myanmar, three years on from the military coup.…Read more
Anton McLean, author of 'Educational Collateral Damage', examines why socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils continue to get a poor deal.…Read more
Sam Illingworth, author of 'Poetry and Pedagogy in Higher Education', shows how poetry can play a pivotal role in shifting public discourse towards a common ground amid the other less palatable Ps of populism, polarisation and post-truth. …Read more
In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Nigel Thrift, author of 'The Pursuit of Possibility: Redesigning Research Universities', about research universities and what makes them different.…Read more
Emre Eren Korkmaz, author of 'Smart Borders, Digital Identity and Big Data', considers the use of ‘smart border’ surveillance technology tested on Palestinians for many years and now used in the war on Gaza. …Read more
Britain’s current postracial perspectives are facile so we need to reconceptualise critical race theory from a British standpoint. In this episode, we talk about postracialism and colourblind narratives with Paul Warmington.…Read more
Heidi J Larson and Alexander H Toledo look at how declining public trust in institutions and in each other is affecting vaccination take-up and organ donation. …Read more
On Davos day 5 as the government hinted at tax cuts to come, Gerry Mitchell, co-author of 'Uncomfortably Off', reveals they are way out of step with the public and suggests that there is a clear public preference for a wealth tax over other types of taxation, even among Tory voters and the wealthy themselves.…Read more
Richard Joy seeks lessons from the COVID-19 Inquiry for climate change policy making. Let’s not let anyone say in 20 years’ time that they should have twigged much earlier. …Read more