Two sets of conversations come to mind, the first with a longstanding friend and colleague, an academic in social and health policy who served as chair of important NHS Trusts; and the second an academic in social epidemiology who conducts research and leads national and international efforts to reduce health inequity. Both dialogues reflected tensions,… Read More »
The current lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has, I am sure, led many people to re-assess their circumstances, projects and aspirations. The first thing to say in this very personal and hence circumscribed re-appraisal is that I am exceptionally fortunate in my starting point. I am only too aware that a confinement between walls… Read More »
Open Letter to Kier Starmer Dear Kier Starmer, I am writing to inform you that I am resigning my Labour Party membership and to explain why. It is a story with several parts, but I will be brief. Like many others – tens of thousands in fact – I re-joined the Party on the election… Read More »
I have referred on and off to the chances of a left-movement anticipating, hastening and responding to a state legitimation crisis caused by COVID-19. I have always insisted that to stand any chance of affecting real social change such a movement would have to be class-driven. In a recent post I approvingly quoted Erik Olin… Read More »
I have submitted an abstract to the special issue of an Australian journal and am hoping to write a paper examining the lessons we might learn as sociologists from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; and as I write this I am aware that an astonishing 20% of the global population is now in some kind of… Read More »
There is no real consensus emerging on how best to respond to what the WHO now describes as the coronavirus pandemic. It is a once-in-a-generation challenge for epidemiologists. But it’s a tough one, and I’m not about to launch into a tirade of criticism. One outstanding question, however is why the response of the Johnson… Read More »
My current thinking and writing is around philosophy, social theory and the fractured society. It is a complex project with which I am and are likely to remain happily engaged. I am a sociologist still. I guess I’m essentially an ex-academic though, for all that I retain the title of Emeritus Professor and five years… Read More »
I have been dipping into the writings of Hannah Arendt recently, encouraged to do so by Richard Bernstein’s Why Read Hannah Arendt Now? She is not a writer I’d been attracted to, solely because I found her style uncongenial. But I have found a better acquaintance with her work helpful, as this blog betrays. I… Read More »
Much of my thinking/reading/writing since retirement has been focused on two longstanding areas of interest: health inequalities and the sociology of stigma. This has culminated in two single-authored volumes, Sociology, Health and the Fractured Society: A Critical Realist Account (Routledge, 2018) and A Sociology of Shame and Blame: Insiders Versus Outsiders (Palgrave, 2020). To a… Read More »
Dear Jennie, It will not have escaped your attention that many members of the Labour Party are currently reconsidering their position. I confess that I am among them and I am writing this open letter to explain why this is so. I rejoined the Labour Party on the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership. … Read More »