Health and wellbeing

Jane Lewis, author of 'The Challenge of Controlling COVID-19', explains the failures to control the first wave of COVID-19, focusing on the test and trace system and the part played by longstanding structural problems in public health, as well as the government’s reactive, inconsistent and highly-centralised approach.…Read more

Bob Hudson, author of 'Clients, Consumers or Citizens?', writes that, on the face of it, the new NHS white paper’s recoiling from the primacy of competition and markets warrants a warm welcome. Yet reactions have been underwhelming because there is remarkably little detail on how this ambitious mission is going to work.…Read more

Jonathan Wistow follows up on his article from last year to explain how COVID-19 represents a certain continuity in the operation of the social contract established in response to it. He looks at state intervention, health inequality, the ‘chumocracy’ and private sector contracts. …Read more

Louca-Mai Brady explains the benefits of youth participation in health services, for healthcare professionals as well as youngsters themselves, and reports on the implications of COVID-19 on this youth voice.…Read more

Andrew Ryder and Nidhi Trehan, co-editors of 'Romani Communities and Transformative Change', discuss the recent report into the psychological effects of hate crime on Gypsies, Travellers and Roma in the UK.…Read more

As ‘Social Problems in the Age of COVID-19: Volume 2’ is launched, one of its contributors Bradley W. Williams charts some of the ways disabled people around the world are being hit hardest by COVID-19.…Read more

With just 1% of rapes successfully prosecuted, Angela Marinari explores the role of a different avenue for victims of sexual violence – restorative justice either with the abuser or those who enable the abuse.…Read more

In this two-part episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Rob Kitchin and Alistair Fraser, authors of 'Slow Computing', discuss the consequences of digital technologies, focussing on time acceleration and data extraction, and look at practical ways in which we can create more balanced digital lives, both individually and collectively.…Read more

Launching his new book ‘Cities and Communities beyond COVID-19’, Robin Hambleton calls for a harnessing of the response shown by local communities during the pandemic, in line with the theme of UN World Cities Day 2020.…Read more

Janet Batsleer and James Duggan, authors of 'Young and Lonely: The Social Conditions of Loneliness', call for a new way of thinking and talking about young people’s loneliness.…Read more