Global social challenges

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

In a world marked by political and economic uncertainty, debt appears to be a constant, an enormous dark cloud weighing upon our lives. We are always in debt, struggling to make ends meet, maintain repayments, and balance the books. In the wake of financial crash of 2008 debt was big news and many imagined the Read More

In their ground-breaking book, The Economics of Arrival, Katherine Trebeck and Jeremy Williams argue that, although everyday economics tells us there is no such thing as enough growth, we have, in fact, ‘arrived’. Economic growth has already brought unrivalled prosperity for GDP-rich countries; we have enough. The challenge is now to make ourselves at home Read More