Participatory Ideology: From exclusion to involvement
This is not a trick question. What is the link between recruiting a photographer at significant taxpayers’ expense to take cuddly, self-glorifying photos of a pet dog and a high level of successful appeals without precedent by disabled people against... More…
The Lockdown Anniversary Edition…
Anniversaries are dangerous moments. A year after the start of the first UK lockdown on March 23rd , many have noted an escalation of anxiety, as we reflect on the impact of individual griefs and ruptures to the social body.... More…
Avoiding the blame game: Reframing conversations on racialised health inequalities
Conversations about the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 felt by racially minoritised communities in the UK have also highlighted the pervasive and longstanding health inequalities they experience. Reports on COVID-19 by Public Health England and Independent SAGE highlight increased risk of exposure... More…
Beyond the academy: democratising user involvement in health & social care
This is a post about user involvement in the context of UK university research. All UK universities are currently finalising and submitting their impact case studies for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The REF is “the UK’s system for... More…
Domestic violence, homelessness & safe housing in the wake of coronavirus
Shelter, homelessness and public health As coronavirus took hold earlier this year, states across the world began to lockdown. We were told at various points, across multiple geographies, to protect ourselves and others by staying at home and practising physical... More…
Whose suffering matters to Rishi Sunak? Reduced foreign aid in a pandemic era
A billion-pound cut from the UK’s international development budget in his new spending review, reducing aid down from 0.7% to 0.5% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of the COVID pandemic is both short-sighted and ill-advised. More…
It was the worst of times, it was the BeSST of times
The stirring of medical students’ sociological imagination in 2020 Teaching sociology to medical students is challenging in the best of times. Marked by the global pandemic, last year was certainly the worst of times. Yet, as members of Behavioural and... More…
Pandemics and Colonial Indifference
Seeking perspective for our misleadingly named ‘unprecedented times,’ I re-read Albert Camus’ The Plague. Themes in the storyline of complacency, escapism, resignation, fear, heroism, altruism, heightened awareness of nature and death are reflected in the novel’s mainly male characters. The... More…
Tenacious hope
With widespread lock-down measures to counteract the spread of COVID-19 infection, the possibility of the world under a radically changed order proved fascinating. Despite the suffering of the pandemic, were we getting glimpses of a better world? Unpolluted city vistas,... More…
It’s time to trust hungry people
Carl Walker and colleagues make the case for food poverty as a public health emergency and call for concerted response from govt to inequalities only made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. More…
Pick a number, any number…
In the run-up to the 2019 general election, I wrote a piece about Boris Johnsons’ strategy for dealing with awkward interview questions. This outlined comment from Johnson himself, where he sketched his dead cat strategy. When faced with an impossible... More…
How to manage structural racism and inequality