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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.

Photo of Jakarta
by Sarah Bird  |  26th April 2021

Sarah Bird, Managing Editor, introduces the new Global Social Challenges Journal, a new, interdisciplinary, non-profit, open access journal, with a mission to question, explore and navigate our way through the social aspects of the challenges that face us.…Read more

A person behind glass with water droplets
by Robin Finlay and Peter Hopkins  |  20th April 2021

Robin Finlay and Peter Hopkins outline their research with women asylum-seekers and refugees in Glasgow and Newcastle, showing how COVID-19 has exacerbated their existing difficulties.…Read more

Graffiti of person hanging on to a floating heart
by Stephen Cook and Tania Mason  |  13th April 2021

Conversation around charities has become increasingly negative over recent decades. Stephen Cook and Tania Mason, authors of 'What Have Charities Ever Done for Us?', rebalance the debate by showing the breadth and depth of the contribution charities make.…Read more

school kids wearing masks

Michelle Jayman, co-editor of 'Supporting New Digital Natives', calls for pupils’ mental health and wellbeing to be at the forefront of education recovery strategies.…Read more

Tim Wakeman profiles some recent victories by Acorn Oxford, a syndicalist organisation fighting for tenants’ rights in one of the most expensive places to live in the UK, and argues that the Acorn model could be used on more or less any issue to bring change.…Read more

People standing in front of street art saying 'Repeal the 8th'

Kate Hunt and Amanda Friesen outline the ways both sides of Ireland’s abortion policy debate framed masculinity, in order to encourage men to vote, questioning whether this threatens to undermine broader emancipatory goals.…Read more

Strands of light
by Peter Beresford  |  15th March 2021

In this podcast, Jess Miles speaks to Peter Beresford about his new book, 'Participatory Ideology', why we need to change the way we look at ideology and how more of us can be included in its creation.…Read more

Protesters holding sign saying 'Women demand equality'
by Frances Galt  |  12th March 2021

Frances Galt, author of 'Women’s Activism Behind the Screens', traces the history of union activity on gender inequality in the film and TV industries and calls on us to learn valuable lessons from the successes of those in the past who fought for gender equality in the film and TV industries.…Read more

Irish flag painted on wood
by Mary P Murphy and John Hogan  |  5th March 2021

Mary C Murphy and John Hogan, editors of 'Policy Analysis in Ireland', consider how austerity since 2008 has deepened public service fault lines exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.…Read more

Fake grass
by Paul Graham Raven  |  16th February 2021

Paul Graham Raven reflects on the role of the Museum of Carbon Ruins, a speculative exhibition looking back on the present from a 2053 future in which we solved climate change. …Read more