A new report from the Resolution Foundation tells of a widening of the wealth gap in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic. The short summary that follows is indebted to Larry Elliot’s summary on 12 June in the Guardian. In terms of wealth, the richest 10% of the population have gained £50,000 on average, dwarfing… Read More »
I recall in particular here two sessions of the British Sociological Association, I think in the mid-1970s. The first was at Surrey University and involved a group of ethnomethodologists from Goldsmiths College in London who had pre-circulated the text of a book on ethnomethodology they’d just written and, when presenting to an audience of 100+,… Read More »
I have repeatedly called for academics interested in the social determinants of disease, and most particularly sociologists, to go beyond: (1) merely re-affirming the existence of health inequalities; (2) emphasising the salience of structural factors like class, gender and race; and (3) commending social and health policy reform that is simply not going to happen… Read More »
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Today my co-authors and I have withdrawn a manuscript under consideration in a well-regarded international journal.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 »