Compassion and Solidarity
Is there more anger in the news than usual? Ala Sirriyeh, 2018. The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy. Bristol: Bristol University Press. xiv, 208 pp. Boris Johnson’s inflammatory language at the first session of the UK’s Westminster parliament after its... More…
The Social Construction of Dental Fear
Fear of the dentist is one of the most common fears across Europe and North America. Recent research in the British Dental Journal suggesting that over 50% of the UK population claim to be anxious about visits to the dentist,... More…
Political Suicide
Last week it was #WorldSuicidePreventionDay – social media was awash with supportive messages being thrown into the ether for whoever might see/need them, or to virtue signal. We are told it is ok not to be ok, that we should... More…
Cool to Care?
Social Change, the Climate Emergency, and the ‘Snowflake Generation’ The idea that it’s ‘cool to care’ and the recent rise of ethical consumerism in the UK has been driven by ‘Millennials’. But is ‘cool to care’ simply a reworking of... More…
Predictive Genetics For All – Minister Hancock’s big idea
The future of the NHS is in prevention rather than cure. And the mass application of genetic profiling can bring that about say Health Minister Hancock and his new best friend…. There are big changes afoot in terms of the... More…
Health Visiting and the MMR: a matter of mutual decline
The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is reported to be concerned about the falling level of Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccination in the United Kingdom. The country has now lost its measles-free status, just three years after this was recognized... More…
Anti-stigma campaigns in mental health: what gets left out?
Over the past two decades, stigma for people with mental health problems has become an increasing concern for researchers, practitioners, service users and politicians. This has led to several international government funded campaigns to increase public awareness of the realities... More…
Atalanta the Greek Amazon: revisioning gender equality in STEMM
In a previous blog in 2015, commenting on the film ‘Suffragette’, I compared the situation for women in science depicted in the film with modern times. One of the main characters, Edith, was a qualified pharmacist but had been denied... More…
Doctors as border police: what happened to ‘first, do no harm’?
Building trust and acting in the patient’s best interests are guiding principles of medical practice. This is especially true when caring for vulnerable and marginalised people, such as undocumented migrants. They often delay going to the doctor and find it... More…
The Fragility of the Enterprise
I’m at a medium-sized conference, one I’ve attended several times before and I am in a deep depression*. An anthropologist I don’t know is looking at me, intently. She has just told me that she’s especially interested in what I... More…
Nudging behaviour is ineffective, naïve and unethical
Interventions to ‘nudge’ people into desirable behaviours have become popular with policy-makers internationally. In the UK, the Behavioural Insights Team – established under former premier David Cameron – are prolific nudgers, designing (amongst many others) inputs to reduce meat consumption, protect... More…
The myth of sudden ‘No-deal’ food shortages