We hear often about ‘red lines’ that cannot, must not, be crossed. These are typically held to apply both to individuals and to organisation or collectivities. But it can be a complicated business defining and acting according to red lines. It involves simplifying human relations, if in often very understandable ways. Some examples appear very… Read More »
Social media is replete with left debate, at least on my timeline. Some of it is deeply philosophical or theoretical, and some more explicitly activist-oriented; and typically these comprise entirely distinct discourses. This brief blog raises three issues that I regard as critical to any left action, whether philosophically/theoretically anchored or not. I used to… Read More »
At the conclusion of his introductory account of AI Toby Walsh (‘The Shortest History of AI’) poses a number of contemporary challenges facing us. These make immediate sense to me, carry the potential of a real threat to our social wellbeing, and warrant reproducing here. So, thanks to Toby for what follows. He lists the… Read More »
I’ve long been fascinated by those ‘I believe’ collections of pieces from often-famous thinkers and writers. Sometimes I was informed, even pleased, by precis that captured my own predilections. Perhaps more often I was disappointed to find people I admired for one reason or another, had views irreconcilably different from my own. Finding myself with… Read More »
This blog address three issues that I think have attracted too little attention in sociological and political circles. The first involves the tension between Habermas’ ‘communicative’ and ‘strategic action’. Academic sociologists tend to be professionally socialised into an engagement with communicative action, or discussions and writings that look to produce evidence en route to a… Read More »
I am gender critical. In other words I accept the biological distinction between the sexes. Does this mean I want to ‘other’, ‘reject’ or that I ‘hate’ the trans community. Of course not. Nor do I accept charges of bigotry. If anyone actually reads the UK Supreme Court judgement affirming the salience of biological sex… Read More »
THE BEST MODE OF DEFENCE IS ATTACK: SOCIOLOGY IN 21ST CENTURY UK GRAHAM SCAMBLER EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, UCL Introduction The sociological project can and does take many different forms, but I will argue here that it remains crucially indebted to a ‘reconstructed’ version of its Enlightenment origins. I will start this contribution by clarifying… Read More »
I have over a year or two ruminated on the need for a manifesto setting out what in current terminology is termed a ‘road map’ leading to a ‘better’, if not the proverbial ‘good’, society. Given that my own writings over the years – decades – have been oriented to fellow academics rather than to… Read More »
Part and parcel of the politically calculated undermining of the NHS in England is the introduction of cheaper staff. As has become the pattern of late, it is a process conducted by stealth. In this bog I look at what is happening in the primary care sector. It serves as a rider to my recent… Read More »
I have long adopted Chomsky’s formula: capital buys power to make policy. I was interested therefore to read a new report ‘Politics for Sale: Analysing Twenty-One years of UK Political Donations’ by Tom Mills and colleagues. The report draws on official data from the Electoral Commission plus data from Companies House, Wikidata and the Parliamentary… Read More »