Whose side are we on? Reflections on the FHSI book prize shortlist
Four excellent recent books, all shortlisted for the FHSI Book Prize shortlist, illustrate different approaches to the question of who we write for. Howard Becker’s 1967 call for sociologists to be on the ‘side of the underdog’ was not advocating...
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…
Critique, culture and crisis
Who needs critical social science in a crisis? For those working overtime to save lives and keep society going in extremis, critical scrutiny and debate appear as unhelpful carping from the sidelines. This was implied recently by one leading researcher,...
More…
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....
More…
Promoting health without promoting stigma?
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is again under fire for its campaigning on obesity. There was a lot wrong with their most recent posters, which equated obesity with smoking as a cause of cancer. The debates that followed highlighted the vital...
More…
Urban Nature
There has been a resurgence of interest in the need for more green space in our cities. Being near nature lifts the mood, and there is hard evidence of the positive mental health effects of time spent with nature. However,...
More…
Falling out of love with the car?
Have we reached ‘peak car’? Many pointers in the UK and internationally suggest we have. There’s been a slow down, even a reverse, in our love affair with the private car. On average, those of us in high income countries...
More…
A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer
There are perhaps as many cancer stories as people with cancer. There are also many ways of telling them – but a musical is one of the more risky. A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer is described as...
More…
On bulls, men and risk
Pamplona’s festival of San Fermín is best known for the encierro, or Running of the Bulls Each morning, six fighting bulls are run through the city streets on their way to the bull ring. With them run six steers and...
More…
Going Private
Should we worry about the rise of fee-for-service general practice? Paying for GP services is back in the news. New models of private health care are being launched, and commentators are calling for NHS patients to make co-payments to visit...
More…
Public Health and the problem with class