Sociology

In this policy briefing, Heather Buckingham, author of 'A Taste for Change' examines how more than 2.5 million people in the UK lived in households that used a food bank in 2024–25. This highlights the urgent need to tackle poverty, improve access to secure, fairly paid work and strengthen social security so that everyone can afford the essentials…Read more

Can we create a world where food banks are in the past and everyone can afford the essentials? In this discussion with Jess Miles, Heather Buckingham explains the importance of believing that everyone matters and making sure that everyone can live a healthy life without shame or stigma.…Read more

Helen Keane, David Moore and Mats Ekendahl argue that Andy Burnham’s celebration of pubs and moderate drinking highlights a tension between alcohol’s genuine social benefits and the increasingly dominant public-health focus on its harms, which can overlook class and gender inequalities and the value of community and pleasure.…Read more

Aisha K. Gill argues that London's response to group-based child sexual exploitation should focus on improving evidence, identification, and protection for all victims rather than fixating on offender ethnicity.…Read more

Sandra Duffy argues that the EHRC’s new guidance, following the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, effectively excludes trans people from equal participation in public life by restricting access to gendered spaces and forcing segregation, which the author says undermines their rights, dignity, and safety.…Read more

Lee Gregory, Eleanor Formby and Peter Matthews discuss how Scotland's rights-based social security system has improved the experiences of many LGBTQ+ claimants, while persistent discrimination and weakening political support continue to undermine genuine equality.…Read more

Will Snell, author of 'The Fair Necessities', examines how extreme wealth, exemplified by a trillion-dollar fortune, is rapidly widening inequality, with largely unearned and extractive wealth growth that harms economic growth, social mobility, democracy, and the environment.…Read more

The policy briefing highlights that, amid widespread UK food insecurity, food banks provide varied short-term support but lasting solutions require stronger social safety nets and measures that address the root causes of poverty.…Read more

Drawing on research for 'Cracking the Class Code', Lee Elliot Major and Anne-Marie Sim argue that success in elite workplaces is shaped not only by talent and hard work but also by hidden class-based cultural norms that influence who is seen as credible, authentic and deserving of advancement.…Read more

Independent Bookshop Week’s 20th anniversary highlights how bookshops like the Arnolfini Bookshop have evolved into vital cultural spaces that foster reading, creativity, community, and the exchange of ideas. #IDW26…Read more