Diary of a cough: meaning matters
I’ve had a cough for all of the year 2020. It started on January 1st, after sharing Christmas meals and their preparation with an explosively sneezing brother. In my family, we like to blame our infections on a particular person,...
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Coronavirus: how the current number of people dying in the UK compares to the past decade
The speed of the global spread of coronavirus is staggering. On March 5, Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical adviser, announced the death, in Berkshire, of the first UK patient to have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease associated with...
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Sociology in Action: The unfolding COVID crisis
The scale and rapidity of the global, national and local responses to the impact of COVID are daunting, making it risky to comment in real-time. It is difficult to grasp all the fast-moving implications for societies as the crisis develops....
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COVID-19 Gallery
As countries around the world go into lockdown because of COVID-19, we are devoting this weeks gallery to the ongoing crisis. This health crisis should, and will, have a massive effect on the future of the sociology of health and...
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University strikes: why they’re happening and what you need to know
The current 14 days of strike action follow eight days of strike action by academics in November and December 2019. After that, industrial action will continue with academics working to contract – this means they will be unable to cover for...
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International Women’s Day 2020 and UCU strike action
University and College Union members are taking strike action for two reasons, across four fights. Two of the key reasons are to resist unwise and unwelcome changes to the pension scheme to demand action on the degradation of work place...
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The Senior Management Survey: auditing the toxic universities
*** Cost of Living and the UCU Digital Picket: In light of the ongoing industrial action in UK Higher Education, we are supporting the UCU Digital Picket by only posting strike related materials during the period of industrial action. This week we...
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Gallery
What we have seen this week Scary cover time? WannaCry infected laptop. This was the ransomware infection that got into the NHS digital systems, because they were running old Windows 7 that had not been updated (currently displayed at the...
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A room without books…
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Marcus Tullius Cicero Reading books is good for our health. Particularly our mental health. Alongside improving literacy, knowledge about the world around us, emotional intelligence and providing relaxation, studies suggest...
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Gallery
We are trying something new on the ‘Cost of Living’ blog. Every other week we will be running a gallery of things we have seen, watched or read that are in some way related to health. Let us know what...
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Alcoholism Abandoned: what now for Scotland’s low income problem drinkers?
‘Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God’ Corinthians 6:10 Alcoholism is situated in a very particular place in relation to public opinion, health and social services and research. Though it is...
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Reasonable adjustments: work in the time of corona