Highlights of 2015

Dear Readers,

Thanks for reading our posts and for following us on twitter. Also thanks to the many guest authors who have blogged for us over the last year. We hope you all have a merry break over Christmas and a very happy new year.

Over the last year we have posted a diverse range of articles and here is our own selection of the blog’s highlights for this year.

Image: True Value from Thomas Hawk Flickr photo stream

‘Economising the social; a comment on the utility of social value’ by Ewen Speed – There is a prevailing policy imperative to produce evidence about the social impact of public spending but rather than bringing social values to economic decisions, seems to bring economic logic to social decisions, often with negative consequences.

Image: 1964… Peter Sellers as ‘Dr Strangelove’ from James Vaughan’s Flickr Photostream

‘We are all Dr Strangelove now’ by Simon Carter – What has sociology to offer on debates about humanities future? Movement in the doomsday clock and work on the Fermi Paradox have made questions about humanities survival urgent.

Image: Waterloo tilt shift #4 from Scott Davies Flickr Photostream

‘Declining health outcomes, rising health inequality and extreme economic inequality’ by Danny Dorling – Many measures of health outcome in the UK are now deteriorating while wealth inequalities are rising – these are linked not coincidental events.

Image: Wave from the.Firebottle Flickr photo stream

‘Alan Kurdi’ by Hannah Bradby – The impact of the images of Alan Kurdi suggests a shift in public attitudes to migrants. It remains to be seen if this reflects deeper social changes.

Image: ‘Chemo’ from Ryan Ozawa’s Flickr Photostream

‘Money, Death, Pain and Politics’ by Charlie Davison – Who’s who and what’s what in the war over cancer drugs – how are decisions about potentially lifesaving chemotherapy made?

Image: ‘you ask me if I’m okay? I hope this is a joke?’ from biebergasmique’s flickr Photostream

‘Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in Crisis’ by Adam Fletcher – There’s been more bad news recently about the state of young people’s mental health. Early intervention is essential to reverse these trends.

Image: Sunset @ Punta Umbría (Huelva), Spain from CrashSunRay2013’s Flickr Photostream

‘Why do older British ex-pats trust Spanish health care?’ by Judy Green – British ex-pats seem to trust Spanish healthcare despite of often not speaking the language. Why this is?

Image: Humans (2015), AMC (United States), Channel 4 (United Kingdom)

‘‘Humans’, Healthcare Cyborgs and the Quantified Self’ by Lesley Henderson – The TV drama ‘Humans’ shows a world where cyborgs can be purchased as domestics helpers but what does it tell us about digital healthcare?

Image: Stress from Giuseppe Savo Flickr Photostream

‘A Crisis in GP care: greed, funding or ideology?’ by Sasha Scambler – Surveys have reported a GP crisis. The question is whether this caused by greed, underfunding or the stress of working under an oppositional government ideology.

Image: Stress from Giuseppe Savo Flickr Photostream

‘The Paradox of Stigma in Mental Health: Germanwings Flight 9525’ by Danny Taggart – What does the tragic loss of Germanwings Flight 9525 tell us about how we continue to struggle to talk coherently about mental illness in the UK?

Image: • • • Happy • • • from David Robert Bliwas Flickr Photostream

‘Making space for activity’ by Catherine Will – What’s the politics of trying to get people to be healthier by increasing their activity?