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.
Kris Clarke shatters the Nordic myth of egalitarian, inclusive and progressive societies. As trust in the Finnish welfare state plummets, some social workers are at the forefront of reimagining what a caring society could be.…Read more
Racial justice is never far from the headlines, but, although the ideals of the legal system such as fairness and equality seem allied to the struggle, campaigners have been all too often let down by the system. In this episode Jess Miles and Bharat Malkani talk through cases like those of the Colston Four and Shamima Begum to explore this paradox and establish where change is possible.…Read more
Scott Timcke considers the impact of AI systems on democratic politics, as our lives become managed experiences optimised for efficient data extraction, and our social relations mediated by computer engineering.…Read more
Jeffrey Ian Ross explains why convict criminology, where incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals are given a voice, might change the status quo and improve the criminal justice system. …Read more
Sophia Seung-yoon Lee explains why South Korea is an important case study for examining ‘melting labour’ – the increasingly blurred lines between formal and informal roles in the jobs market.…Read more
Gerardo Arriaga reminds us that the Academics Stand Against Poverty manifesto audit will scrutinise parties’ policies on poverty, climate change and gender equality in the run up to the UK election.…Read more
In this episode, George Miller talks to the author of What are Prisons for?, prison inspector and visiting professor of law at Oxford Hindpal Singh Bhui, about why we lock so many people up.…Read more
Zach Roche, author of Thriving Beyond Debt, gives an insight into what the experience of bankruptcy and insolvency is like. No wonder it’s an option most people will not consider. …Read more
Hindpal Singh Bhui of HM Inspectorate of Prisons looks back at the politics of imprisonment, at the disproportionate numbers of minority ethnic prisoners, and the role prison played in replacing slavery as a means of controlling Black people.…Read more
Katie Schmuecker, Principal Policy Advisor at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, calls on politicians to stop ignoring poverty, and to come up with a plan for reducing hardship – otherwise the grim records will keep on coming and storing up problems for the future. …Read more