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.
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
Hartley Dean, author of 'Understanding Human Need', explores what it means to be human and whether we need to reframe what human need means.…Read more
Chris Gilleard and Paul Higgs, authors of 'Social Divisions and Later Life', show that COVID-19 is like a magnifying glass, amplifying but not fundamentally altering the chronology of life and death nor the impact of social divisions. …Read more
Laura Dean, author of 'Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia', discusses whether current human trafficking policies are effective, and how they might be improved. There is an accompanying policy briefing to this piece. …Read more
Based on Diffusing Human Trafficking Policy in Eurasia, by Laura Dean, this briefing covers key messages and policy recommendations around human trafficking policies in Eurasia.…Read more