We have written a paper on the salience of ‘muckraking sociology’ in the era of COVID which has (1) been rejected by a mainstream sociology journal, in part because it apparently doesn’t publish ‘polemical pieces’, and (2) returned to us with a request for a second set of revisions by a specialist health sociology journal,… Read More »
Today my co-authors and I have withdrawn a manuscript under consideration in a well-regarded international journal. We were invited to make a second set of revisions to a paper on ‘muckraking sociology, the NHS and COVID’, but felt that to agree to yet more revisions/compromises would be a step too far, not least in a… Read More »
As someone who retired eight years ago I have been managing the transition to the complete lack of relevance of my CV. Ok, I still publish stuff and I keep an updated note on my website of my publications (www.grahamscambler.com), but I appreciate that these are no longer a matter of institutional significance or consequence.… Read More »
Bearded Tits Hanging close from the laburnum tree Is a supermarket for birds tame enough To flutter close, make their inspection Of special offers, and if they appeal Peck at the peanuts or spheres of fat. A pair of bearded tits have set up home In the box above our garden table And… Read More »
My terminology to describe the phase of capitalism that started circa 1970 has been tweaked over time. I started by referring to ‘financial capitalism’, which was certainly ok, then ‘financialised capitalism’, which is perhaps marginally better, and now I’m tempted by ‘rentier capitalism’, following the likes of Andrew Sayer (whose work I much admire). This… Read More »
OPEN LETTER TO JEREMY CORBYN AND JOHN McDONNELL 7 May 2021 Dear Jeremy and John, I have been following the Hartlepool by-election and local election results from yesterday’s ballots. They are grim results for the Labour Party, even if not much of a surprise to many of us. But they have set me thinking again… Read More »
In a celebrated essay entitled Ur-Fascism Umberto Eco reflected on fascism in the Italy of Mussolini and asked the question: are there common features to fascist regimes? He wrote: ‘the term ‘fascism’ fits everything because it is possible to eliminate one or more aspects from a Fascist regime and it will always be recognisably Fascist.… Read More »
The Laburnum If only the small, homely laburnum tree Was as poisonous to squirrels as it is to me, Then the dunnocks and tits that come to feed Could sway in peace to peck at their seed. As it is, squirrels, plump and far-too-smart, Climb and plunder the spoils: they often start By… Read More »
The issue of the legitimacy or otherwise of lobbying government has arisen once more with Cameron’s championing of Greensill Capital. As the ‘crisis’ unfolds, new information is forthcoming daily, so this blog will inevitably be somewhat time-bound. But the issue is indeed critical in that it reflects what C W Mills called the ‘higher immorality’… Read More »
A Canadian colleague and kindred spirit, Dennis Raphael, recently sent me a copy of a pamphlet prepared by the Medical Research Group of the Labour Research Department entitled ‘Social Murder’ and published – ‘price twopence’ – in 1934. It has extraordinary resonance today and warrants a summary. It starts, appropriately enough, with a seminal quotation… Read More »