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.
Sondra Barringer, Erin Leahey, Misty Ring-Ramirez and Karina Salazar outline the results of their study into how committed US universities really are to interdisciplinary research. …Read more
Tamantha Stutchbury and Sharon Robinson profile the University of Wollongong’s Global Challenges Program, a relatively new way of bringing together the disciplinary expertise needed to solve complex problems.…Read more
In this episode, Jess Miles speaks with Carol Rivas and Ikuko Tomomatsu about their special issue of 'Evidence & Policy' - 'The many faces of disability in evidence for policy and practice: embracing complexity’.…Read more
Ana Cecilia Dinerstein presents her 'Women on the Verge' network of female scholar–activists around the world, which showcases advances in the feminist resistance to violence against women.…Read more
In this episode, Rebecca Megson-Smith talks to Eben Kirksey, author of 'The Mutant Project', about the work of Dr. Jiankui He, who created the first genetically modified babies, and the moral dilemmas this work has since raised.…Read more
In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Kirstine Szifris, author of ‘Philosophy Behind Bars’, about how philosophical thinking can be a way to encourage and enable growth and development in prison.…Read more
Tim Bodley-Scott and Ersel Oymak discuss how important strategic alliances are between universities, industry, government and civil society in addressing the world’s challenges and in the drive towards the UN SDGs. …Read more
Daniel Briggs, Luke Telford, Anthony Ellis and Anthony Lloyd explain why Social Science has such a crucial role in responding to the pandemic, thinking critically about the changing relationship between states and citizens, tracking the impact of inequalities, and making sense of the new world. …Read more
Toni Prug, Paško Bilić and Mislav Žitko explain why it doesn’t make sense to challenge tech companies’ monopoly in the name of perfect competition.…Read more
Mark Pendras and Charles Williams consider what the COVID-19 effect will be on urban configurations, as health anxieties and working from home norms cause demographic shifts to secondary cities, compounding gentrification and displacement.…Read more