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.
Thomas Swann, author of 'Anarchist Cybernetics', discusses what social media used to be like for activists, how that has changed and why we need to take back control of our technology.…Read more
Keith Dowding talks through the arguments in his book, It's the Government, Stupid, including looking at individualism, choice, and how governments have passed blame and responsibility onto citizens during COVID-19.…Read more
Sarah Jane Brubaker and Brittany Keegan discuss the parallels between the causes of sexual harassment and other forms of oppression, such as racism and discrimination, and how recommendations for how to address these issues can be more widely applied.…Read more
Danny Singh, author of 'Investigating Corruption in the Afghan Police Force', discusses police corruption and how its setting in a war-torn environment, such as Afghanistan, is often complex.…Read more
Alison Shaw, Chief Executive of Bristol University Press, reflects on the selection of the Press as a finalist for the University Press Redux Sustainability Award and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals resonate with our mission and organisational goals as a publisher.…Read more
Leigh Gardner and Tirthankar Roy, authors of 'The Economic History of Colonialism', examine the relationship between colonialism and economic development, and challenge the assumption that the way colonial governments worked, and the effects that they left behind, had more to do with the aims and capacities of European states than with the regions they ruled over.…Read more
John Morrissey, Associate Director of the Moore Institute for Humanities at the National University of Ireland, Galway, explores the flimsy construction of neoliberalism and argues that now is the time to take stock of what an economy is actually for.…Read more
The foreword by Albie Sachs to 'International Human Rights, Social Policy and Global Development Critical Perspectives', edited by Gerard McCann and Féilim Ó hAdhmaill.…Read more
FREE TO DOWNLOAD: ‘Police Homicides: The Terror of “American Exceptionalism”’ by Robert Aponte and Hannah Hurrle from the forthcoming Agenda For Social Justice. Find the link in this piece with an introduction from Glenn W. Muschert, co-editor of the book. The chapter clearly defines the problem of police violence, provides evidence for its nature and extent, and lays out practical and feasible solutions which, if followed, would reduce the extent and severity of police violence.…Read more
Tina Sikka discusses the disproportionate way COVID-19 is impacting Black and other minority ethnic communities, and how we have to make sure these statistics are not used to perpetuate erroneous assumptions about innate group differences.…Read more