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.
Helena Liu, author of Redeeming Leadership, explains why we must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anti-racist feminist communities and join their struggles for life beyond imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist and patriarchal oppression.…Read more
Alison Shaw, Chief Executive of Bristol University Press, looks at how university presses can make a real difference to scholarship, to the translation of ideas, and to policy, practice and cultural change.…Read more
Following the tragedy in Essex last month, where 39 people were found in a lorry container, Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, examines the complex issue of migration. Migration is not a new phenomena and nor are the immigration polices that try and restrict migration or those that make the lives Read More
In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast we speak to Sam Wren-Lewis, author of The Happiness Problem: Expecting Better in an Uncertain World. In his book, Sam argues that the way we’re thinking about happiness in modern societies is wrong. We’re not seeing the bigger picture because we’re so focused on control and distracted Read More
In this long read, Roger Brown, author of The Inequality Crisis: The Facts and What We Can Do About It, outlines causes of the Neoliberal turn and shows how it has created vastly increased and unjust social inequality. Crucially, he explains where we need to begin in order to reverse the tide. In November 1984, Read More
The term ‘crime’ may appear, at least at first glance, a rather simplistic concept in which particular images and ideas spring to mind. We often ask students to provide an example of what exactly constitutes a ‘crime’ and on almost all occasions responses include such criminal acts as serial murder, mass shootings, contract killings and Read More
Over the last year, the urgency of immediate action to prevent climate change has ascended social, personal and political agendas. Undoubtedly, one reason for this can be summed up as ‘The Greta Thunberg effect’. In one year, since August 2016, this 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl has inspired schoolchildren in five continents to be vocal in drawing Read More
Today there is too much hot air amongst our political leaders and not enough action. Climate disruption is tearing the planet apart in ways that have been entirely predicted, yet for which we remain basically unprepared. Climate change continues to be the most significant and urgent matter of our time. Global warming is not ‘natural’. Read More
With climate change once again making headlines around the world, and the global climate strike this Friday, how do we, as ordinary people, make sense of what’s happening and why does this matter? Kristina Diprose, one of the authors of Climate Change, Consumption and Intergenerational Justice: Lived Experiences in China, Uganda and the UK has Read More
With the Global Climate Strike starting on Friday, this week we’re bringing you articles on climate change from Bristol University Press authors. Here, Sarah Nash, author of Negotiating Migration in the Context of Climate Change, explains the need to disentangle the relationships between phenomena such as human mobility and climate change in order to bring Read More