Newsroom University of Manchester

Sexual role identities among gay and bisexual men vary by age and region

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:45:57 +0100

A new study has found that sexual role identities among men who have sex with men vary systematically by age and geographic region.

Written by Dr Morten Thomsen, University of Oxford; Dr Francesco Rampazzo, The University of Manchester and Associate Member, University of Oxford; and Milan Kovačič; the paper argues that these labels are shaped by social and cultural contexts rather than being fixed or universal.

The findings challenge assumptions that younger generations are moving away from traditional sexual role labels, suggesting instead that these identities are being used in increasingly flexible ways shaped by context.

Men who have sex with men may use specific labels to refer to their preferred sexual role within penetrative sexual activities. The most common of these are Top (someone who prefers a penetrative role), Bottom (someone who prefers a receptive role), and Versatile (someone who may take either role without a strong preference).

However, the study notes that these categories are not just descriptions of sexual preferences; they also function as social identities that can carry significant meanings extending beyond sexual behaviour.

Because these labels can carry social consequences – including stigma, assumptions about gender, and perceived group membership – individuals may avoid labels that accurately describe their desires or behaviour, or adopt labels that do not fully reflect them. This means that sexual role labels are often chosen strategically, decided not only by sexual preferences but also by wider social norms and cultural contexts that may vary across generations and settings.

To examine these patterns, the researchers analysed cross-sectional data from 141,156 active users of Surge, a gay dating app and chat platform with more than 8.5 million users.

The study found that most users did not specify a sexual role, although younger men were more likely than older users to disclose one. Younger users were also more likely to identify as Bottom or Versatile, while older users were more likely to identify as Top.

This contrasts with previous research suggesting that younger cohorts are increasingly rejecting traditional labels, pointing instead to a more complex dynamic in which labelling and non-labelling may coexist as parallel strategies of self-presentation, rather than representing a simple generational divide.

“Sexual role identification remains an important dimension of sexual and romantic culture among many men who have sex with men," said Dr Thomsen. “Our findings suggest that sexual role categories are being used in increasingly flexible and context-dependent ways within contemporary digital environments, especially among younger users.”

Regional differences were also identified – Versatile was the most common identity in Europe and Oceania, while Bottom was most common in the Americas and Africa. Users in Europe and Asia were substantially more likely to specify a sexual role than those in the Americas or Africa, consistent with differences in social stigma, local sexual cultures, and platform-specific norms.

The study demonstrates that large-scale dating app data can provide valuable insights into sexuality, identity, and self-presentation among men who have sex with men worldwide, while also highlighting how app design and platform features may influence what users choose to disclose.

Publication details

The study was published in the Journal of Sex Research.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2026.2710145.

PhD candidate wins Faculty of Humanities MDC Excellence Award for research impact

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:14:07 +0100

Tetyana’s research focuses on fashion sustainability, with particular attention to over-consumption, clothing repair and ethical manufacturing. Through her work, she connected with ‘The Making Room’, a community organisation led by Jess O’Riley (J.O.STUDIO), James Robinson (COLD ON A SUNDAY), and Connor Thomas-Davidson which aims to bring ethical fashion manufacturing to the UK.

This collaboration led to ‘The Making Room Fair’, an ESRC Festival of Social Science 2025 , designed to equip people with practical repair and upcycling skills. The fair featured making station pop-ups from Manchester Mending Club, Krass Community Collective and Print Parlour, alongside workshops on alterations and upcycling led by fashion professionals and volunteers leading workshops.

The event was a large success, attracting more than 120 attendees, from students and local residents to sustainability‑minded participants. It introduced members of the community to practical clothing repair skills, encouraged conversation about how we consume clothing and provided an accessible space to explore small but meaningful changes in how we use and value clothes.

Tetyana Solovey said:

Read more about Tetyana’s award-winning research on the Sustainable Consumption Institute blog: Sustainable Consumption Institute blog | What We Learned from The Making Room Fair.

Winners of the 2026 Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize announced

Tue, 19 May 2026 09:17:17 +0100

The winners of the 2026 Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize have been announced, recognising outstanding work that shares sociological research beyond academia.

This year’s prize was judged by Claire Fox (Director of EDI and Social Responsibility, School of Social Sciences) and Gemma Edwards (Research Director, Sociology).

Liang Ge wins the staff category for Queer Asia as Method, six years of work connecting queer Asian academic research with LGBTQ+ communities across Asia, Britain and diaspora. This international programme of work brings together practitioners, artists, activists and academics to produce film screenings and Q&As with filmmakers, workshops, partnerships with Queer East, the Queer Asia Film Festival and the London Queer Museum, a co-edited special issue, and a new downloadable digital resource pack for community educators, youth workers, cultural practitioners and LGBTQ+ communities.

Jonas Weselake‑George wins the PhD student category for helping preserve and widen access to Métis cultural archives in Canada. Métis are an Aboriginal nation within Canada for whom violin music and dance are particularly significant. After identifying that important archival recordings held in museums were not digitised or accessible, especially to Métis groups, he wrote policy briefings for Métis political groups and museum policy makers and used Freedom of Information requests to clarify museum holdings and access. Following this work the Canadian Museum of History has now digitised key archival collections and work continues to share copies to Métis organisations to increase accessibility.

Pippa Winship was highly commended in the PhD student category for her work supporting residents and community groups to engage with redevelopment plans in North Manchester. Pippa’s research explores the impact of regeneration on local communities, and she used her knowledge of the concerns, needs and aspirations of people she does research with to produce a technical document that community groups could use to leverage power in the urban planning process. She also facilitated an event to allow residents to present their alternative plans for their area to the local authority and developers.

Congratulations to all our winners!

Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group recognised with national Team Achievement Award

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 13:40:47 +0100

Led by Professor Tine Buffel, MUARG brings together researchers from across social sciences, architecture, geography, public health and the arts to explore the relationship between population ageing and urban change. Central to its work is a commitment to co‑production – working in long‑term partnership with older people, community organisations, policymakers and practitioners to ensure research is grounded in lived experience and leads to real‑world change.

Professor Buffel said the award recognises the collective effort that underpins MUARG’s work:

Research driven by partnership and lived experience

MUARG’s work is shaped by long‑standing collaborations with partners across Greater Manchester and beyond, including local and regional government, third‑sector organisations and older people themselves. A key part of this approach is MUARG’s Older People’s Forum, a diverse group of residents from across Greater Manchester who help to set research priorities and guide activity.

Elaine Unegbu, Chair of the Greater Manchester Older People’s Network and a longstanding MUARG co‑researcher, said:

Reflecting the University’s commitment to social responsibility, MUARG’s work focuses on tackling inequalities in later life and supporting people to age well in their communities. Projects span creative and participatory methods, from collaborative filmmaking and comics co‑created with older refugees and asylum seekers, to the co‑design of age‑friendly neighbourhoods and arts‑based interventions including exhibitions, films and zines.

Recognising collaboration across Greater Manchester

MUARG’s partnerships across the city‑region were highlighted by Paul McGarry, Head of the Greater Manchester Ageing Hub and Assistant Director for Public Service Reform at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, who represented the team during the award process:

Niamh Kavanagh, an urban sociologist in the University’s Department of Architecture and a core member of MUARG, added:

Celebrating 10 years of MUARG

The award comes at a landmark moment for the group. In April, MUARG celebrates its 10th anniversary with an interactive event in Manchester showcasing the creative, participatory methods that have defined its work over the past decade.

The event will also mark the launch of a new collective publication, Collaborative Research for Ageing in Place: Stories of Co‑Production in Practice, bringing together insights from 18 MUARG projects. The book shares practical learning on co‑producing research in communities shaped by inequality – highlighting partnership, trust‑building and experimentation as essential ingredients for impactful research.

“With this book, we want to be open about what co‑production looks like in practice — the challenges as well as the potential,” said Professor Buffel. “It’s about sharing learning that others can build on.”

Investing in people and future impact

Looking ahead, MUARG hopes to build on this recognition by developing as an international centre of excellence on urban ageing, rooted in Manchester but globally connected. Funding associated with the award will support three priority areas:

Co‑production and community leadership
Knowledge exchange and policy engagement
Team culture, mentoring and capacity‑building

At least half of the funding will be directed towards supporting community leadership, including paid roles for older people as co‑researchers.

Find out more: Read MUARG’s publication Collaborative Research for Ageing in Place: Stories of Co‑Production in Practice and learn more about the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group on their website.

Evidence on racism and ethnic inequalities in the pandemic presented to the Covid-19 public inquiry

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:30:39 +0100

Professor James Nazroo and Professor Laia Becares recently presented evidence on ethnic and racial inequalities during the pandemic to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Their testimony draws on their expert report which found that there have been clear and stark ethnic inequalities in infection and mortality rates, testing, monitoring, and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection, and health, health behaviours and healthcare.

People from ethnic minority groups also experienced detrimental impacts of the pandemic in other ways, such as on their finances, housing, social networks, experiences with the police, and education. These factors are important social determinants of health and wellbeing. The unequal impacts of the pandemic on these factors have led to ethnic inequalities being exacerbated as a result of the pandemic.

James and Laia’s expert report shows how ethnic inequalities result from historical and ongoing racism, which meant that before the pandemic hit, people from ethnic minority groups were more likely to be poorer; have poorly paid and insecure employment; live in overcrowded housing; and live in deprived neighbourhoods with high rates of concentrated poverty and increased pollution. All of these social and economic factors contributed to inequalities in Covid-19 infection and mortality.

The report also criticises the ‘colour blind’ approach taken by political and administrative decision-makers, which meant that they did not take into account the extra social and economic vulnerabilities experienced by ethnic minority groups. This resulted in unequal impacts experienced as a result of social distancing and lockdown measures introduced to control the spread of the pandemic. This included impacts on mental and physical health, in part as a result of limited access to necessary healthcare, in part as a consequence of poorer housing conditions, the greater likelihood of living in deprived areas with limited access to green space and exercise, and in part as a result of the disruption of social and community sources of support. The more vulnerable employment and financial situation of some groups of ethnic minority people prior to the pandemic also meant that they experienced greater negative financial impacts from lockdown measures.

Manchester researchers launch major UKRI funded project to understand “air inequalities”

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:36:26 +0000

Led by sociologist Professor Sophie Woodward, Air Spaces: Getting the Measure of Air will explore the social, scientific and environmental dimensions of air quality, focusing on communities in Manchester where pollution levels are significantly above WHO guidelines.

Air pollution does not affect everyone equally. Housing conditions, neighbourhood geography, transport infrastructure, and work environments all contribute to unequal exposure. Yet research and policy responses often rely on narrow or fragmented datasets. This project seeks to address that gap by combining:

atmospheric sensor data
qualitative research
creative and heritage-based methods
community knowledge and participation

By developing a new framework for understanding “air inequalities”, the team aims to inform more inclusive and effective approaches to air quality policy and public health intervention.

The research will work closely with community groups and local authorities and brings together UoM academics across multiple faculties: Dr Jenna Ashton, Dr Andrew Balmer, Dr Thomas Bannan, Dr Steve Hicks and Dr Vladimir Jankovic. The project was selected by UKRI as a featured award within its latest Cross Research Council Responsive Mode scheme which is a highly competitive call highlighting breakthrough interdisciplinary ideas. The project partners include Ardwick Climate Action, Love Old Trafford, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and Trafford Council.

Dharmi Kapadia becomes Director of CoDE

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 12:31:34 +0000

The Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) starts the new year with a new director: Dr Dharmi Kapadia. Dharmi is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Manchester. She joined CoDE in 2012 as a PhD student and has worked in CoDE as a Research Associate and as Co-Investigator on many CoDE research projects. Dharmi became Deputy Director in 2025 and from January 2026 is CoDE Director.

Dharmi’s research focuses on racism, health, mental health and older people. She is currently working on research looking at how adverse life experiences and negative experiences with state institutions impact upon mental illness and mental healthcare in collaboration with the NHS Race & Health Observatory. Dharmi is also Co-Investigator of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and Co-Investigator of the WELL-Bradford study, which looks at end of life care in a diverse sample of frail people.

Our outgoing CoDE Director, Professor Bridget Byrne, has swapped roles with Dharmi and now becomes Deputy Director. Bridget has recently been awarded a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust which will be starting later this year.

New report calls for comprehensive overhaul of UK counter-terrorism policies

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 17:06:22 +0000

The University’s Professor Hilary Pilkington is among 14 experts who compiled the final report of the Independent Commission on Counter-Terrorism Law, Policy and Practice, which was published today by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.

The report is based on extensive research and evidence from over 200 experts, practitioners, policymakers, academics and community representatives.

Professor Pilkington’s remit was to scrutinise the evidence around the Government’s Prevent programme - which aims to identify and rehabilitate people at risk of radicalisation - drawing on her research expertise in youth engagement and the societal drivers of extremism.

Referrals to Prevent increased markedly after 2015, when it became a legal duty for teachers, social workers, nurses and other frontline professionals to report people they believed to be at risk of being drawn into terrorism or extremism. Referrals jumped from a few hundred a year before 2015, to an average of 6,458 per year since 2015 and to a record number of 8,517 in 2024-25.

More than two thirds of these referrals were for concerns that had no - or no clear - ideological dimension, meaning that a counter-terrorism intervention was not an appropriate response. Almost half of referrals were for children aged 11-17, and a third had at least one mental health or neurodivergence condition.

“We have lost a lot of trust in communities over the Prevent programme,” said Professor Hilary Pilkington. “The whole of society has to live better together, and that requires social cohesion for all communities.”

“It should constitute one element of a broader, more holistic and better resourced multi-agency safeguarding approach that addresses diverse drivers of violence and to which individuals are referred via a ‘big front door’,” Hilary added.

The Commission sets out 113 recommendations to modernise the UK’s counter-terrorism framework and strengthen its fairness, focus and accountability.

The report concludes that while the UK’s counter-terrorism system remains world-leading, it has grown complex and overbroad. Key reforms are needed to ensure it remains effective, proportionate, and rooted in democratic values. As well as the recommendations concerning the Prevent programme, it also recommends that the government:

Narrow the legal definition of terrorism, ensuring clarity and proportionality.
Reform proscription powers, introducing time-limited reviews and stronger parliamentary and judicial oversight.
Tighten terrorism offences, ensuring prosecutions are fair, proportionate, and grounded in clear intent.
Restore equality in citizenship law, limiting deprivation powers and ensuring fair treatment under the law.
Invest in social cohesion, recognising that inclusion and trust are vital to long-term security.

Research shows cities must do more to support older residents

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 12:17:13 +0100

To mark the upcoming International Day for Older Persons, a new study from The University of Manchester is calling for cities to do more to support older people who want to stay in their own homes and communities as they age.

The research published in the European Journal of Ageing looks at the idea of ‘ageing in place’ - the policy focus on enabling older adults to live well in their own home and neighbourhood of choice for as long as they wish. While this approach is often seen as positive, the study highlights that many urban areas do not provide the necessary supports to make this a reality.

According to the research team, the pressures of rising inequality, cuts to public services, and the privatisation of spaces in cities mean many older people struggle to access the support they need. Poorer neighbourhoods in particular face declining facilities such as libraries, community centres and affordable housing – resources that are crucial for wellbeing in later life.

“Most people want to stay in their homes as they grow older, but this is only possible if the communities around them are supportive,” said lead author Dr Tine Buffel. “At the moment, too many older residents are left isolated or feel invisible in their own neighbourhoods. We need new ways of organising community life so people can rely on each other, rather than just on families and/or overstretched services.”

The study looked at innovative examples from around the world that could help tackle the problem. These include:

The Village model – neighbourhood organisations run by older people themselves, pooling resources to provide services like transport, home repairs and social activities.
Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities – areas where large numbers of older people already live, supported by tailored health and community services.
Cohousing – intentionally created communities where residents share spaces and provide mutual support.
Compassionate Communities – grassroots networks that help people facing illness, end of life or bereavement.

Each model has benefits, from reducing hospital admissions to strengthening social ties, but also face challenges such as funding pressures and a tendency to leave out more disadvantaged groups.

The researchers argue that the next step is to think about ageing in place as a collaborative venture – something built on collective action, shared resources and planning with the direct involvement of older people themselves. They also call for urban planning to be less ageist, pointing out that too many urban regeneration projects prioritise young professionals over older residents.

The study concludes that ageing in place can only succeed if communities, councils, charities and older residents work together. Without this, many people risk not being able to live independently, or being “stuck in place” in unsuitable housing and unsupported communities.

Not white, not seen: study uncovers France’s racial blind spot

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:20:34 +0100

A groundbreaking new study from The University of Manchester has challenged traditional ideas of race and national identity in France, revealing how French citizens of Indian descent are navigating their identities in a society that often ignores them.

The research, led by Dr Manuela Latchoumaya from the University’s Department of Sociology and published in leading journal Ethnic and Racial Studies, explores the lived experiences of French people whose families come from former French colonies in India and the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe via the system of Indian indentured labour in the 19^th century.

Despite holding French passports and speaking fluent French, many of these citizens feel excluded from what it means to be “truly” French.

Using interviews with 21 people, the study paints a powerful picture of what it feels like to be treated as invisible in your own country - and how people push back.

“It’s not just about being seen as different,” said Dr Latchoumaya. “It’s about being completely left out of how the French think about who belongs.”

The study found that many French Indians are misidentified as Black or North African, two established categories in France that covertly operate to minoritise people with roots in the French Empire. Others are judged by outdated stereotypes - like being overly traditional or even exotic - based on ideas left over from colonial times. These experiences often begin in childhood and continue into adult life, especially in education, work and healthcare.

But rather than staying silent, many people are speaking up and taking control of their identity. Some proudly reclaim the label Black as a category of visibility, while also identifying as South Asian. Others challenge people who use offensive or outdated terms, and several participants said they now openly name ‘whiteness’ - the idea that being white is the default or “normal” in France - as part of the problem.

The study also highlights the deep impact of colonial history, showing how the French Empire shaped today’s ideas about identity, and how some communities - like those with Indian roots - have been left out of the national story.

This research is one of the first studies to centre the voices of French citizens of Indian descent, a group rarely studied in academic or public discussions about French imperial history. It is especially relevant today as France - and many other countries - grapple with their colonial past and while having increasingly diverse populations.

This research was published in the journal Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Full title: Negotiating the boundaries of Blackness and naming whiteness: the radicalisation and identity formation process of French citizens of Indian descent

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2513376

UK Data Service expertise helps government listen to researchers on the future of health data

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 10:39:49 +0100

Work led by Professor Vanessa Higgins (Professor of Data Literacy in the Social Sciences and Service Director of Training and User Support, UK Data Service) and Professor Debora Price (Professor of Social Gerontology and Deputy Director, UK Data Service) has made headlines in The Guardian following the UK Data Service Health Studies User Conference in June, which brought national attention to the future of the Health Survey for England (HSE).

Drawing on their expertise in population data, large scale social surveys, and the use of data to inform fair and effective health policy, the Manchester academics highlight the vital role of robust evidence in ensuring policy keeps pace with societal change.

Launched in 1991, the Health Survey for England, has been the backbone of health policy evidence for more than three decades, providing annual, nationally representative data to monitor the nation’s health and guide healthcare delivery. At the June 2025 conference, the government confirmed that NHS England would no longer run the survey. While details of any replacement are yet to be confirmed, discussions are under way on the future of population health surveys in England.

Since the conference, The UK Data Service has acted swiftly to ensure researchers’ voices are heard in the national debate:

Boosting consultation responses – negotiating with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to re-open a user consultation on the future of population health surveys for three weeks in July, generating a further 140 responses from health survey users.
Showcasing impact – collaborating with a key health survey user to publish a Data Impact blog highlighting the importance of the survey: Help shape the future of population health surveys.
Supporting decision-makers – at DHSC/ONS’s request, preparing a written summary of the Health Survey for England’s value and impact, including user testimonies, to feed into their internal report (due end of September), and advising on an expert peer-reviewers.

Through this work, Manchester academics and the UK Data Service are playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of the Health Survey for England, influencing how health data will be collected to meet the challenges of a changing world.

Iran’s history has been blighted by interference from foreign powers

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:28:57 +0100

Israel’s recent surprise attack on Iran was ostensibly aimed at neutralising Iran’s nuclear programme, but it didn’t just damage nuclear installations. It killed scientists, engineers and senior military personnel.

Meanwhile, citizens with no ties to the government or military, became “collateral damage”. For 11 days, Israel’s attacks intensified across Tehran and other major cities.

When the US joined the attack, dropping its bunker-buster bombs on sites in central Iran on June 21, it threatened to push the region closer to large-scale conflict. Israel’s calls for regime change in Iran were joined by the US president, Donald Trump, who took to social media on June 22 with the message: “if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”

Trump’s remarks are reminders of past US interventions. The threat of regime change by the most powerful state in the world carries particular weight in Iran, where memories of foreign-imposed coups and covert operations remain vivid and painful.

In the early 1890s, Iran was rocked by a popular uprising after the shah granted a British company exclusive rights to the country’s tobacco industry. The decision was greeted with anger and in 1891 the country’s senior cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mirza Shirazi, issued a fatwa against tobacco use.

A mass boycott ensued – even the shah’s wives reportedly gave up the habit. When it became clear that the boycott was going to hold, the shah cancelled the concession in January 1892. It was a clear demonstration of people power.

This event is thought to have played a significant role in the development of the revolutionary movement that led to the Constitutional Revolution that took place between 1905 and 1911 and the establishment of a constitution and parliament in Iran.

Rise of the Pahlavis

Reza Shah, who founded the Pahlavi dynasty – which would be overthrown in the 1979 revolution and replaced by the Islamic Republic – rose to power following a British-supported coup in 1921.

During the first world war, foreign interference weakened Iran and the ruling Qajar dynasty. In 1921, with British support, army officer Reza Khan and politician Seyyed Ziaeddin Tabatabaee led a coup in Tehran. Claiming to be acting to save the monarchy, they arrested key opponents. By 1923, Reza Khan had become prime minister.

In 1925, Reza Khan unseated the Qajars and founded the Pahlavi dynasty, becoming Reza Shah Pahlavi. This was a turning point in Iran’s history, marking the start of British dominance. The shah’s authoritarian rule focused on centralisation, modernisation and secularisation. It set the stage for the factors that would that eventually lead to the 1979 Revolution.

In 1941, concerned at the close relationship Pahlavi had developed with Nazi Germany, Britain and its allies once again intervened in Iranian politics, forcing Pahlavi to abdicate. He was exiled to South Africa and his 22-year-old son, Mohammad Reza, was named shah in his place.

The 1953 coup

Mohammad Mosaddegh became Iran’s first democratically elected prime minister in 1951. He quickly began to introduce reforms and challenge the authority of the shah. Despite a sustained campaign of destabilisation, Mossadegh retained a high level of popular support, which he used to push through his radical programme. This included the nationalisation of Iran’s oil industry, which was effectively controlled by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company – later British Petroleum (BP).

In 1953, he was ousted in a CIA and MI6-backed coup and placed under house arrest. The shah, who had fled to Italy during the unrest, returned to power with western support.

Within a short time, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi established an authoritarian regime that governed through repression and intimidation. He outlawed all opposition parties, and numerous activists involved in the oil nationalisation movement were either imprisoned or forced into exile.

The 1979 revolution: the oppression continues

The shah’s rule became increasingly authoritarian and was also marked by the lavish lifestyles of the ruling elite and increasing poverty of the mass of the Iranian people. Pahlavi increasingly relied on his secret police, the Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State.

Meanwhile, a scholar and Islamic cleric named Ruhollah Khomeini, had been rising in prominence especially after 1963, when Pahlavi’s unpopular land reforms mobilised a large section of society against his rule. His growing prominence brought him into confrontation with the government and in 1964 he was sent into exile. He remained abroad, living in Turkey, Iraq and France.

By 1978 a diverse alliance primarily made up of urban working and middle-class citizens had paralysed the country. While united in their resistance to the monarchy, participants were driven by a variety of ideological beliefs, including socialism, communism, liberalism, secularism, Islamism and nationalism. The shah fled into exile on January 16 1979 and Khomeini returned to Iran, which in March became an Islamic Republic with Khomeini at its head.

But the US was not finished in its attempts to destabilise Iran. In 1980, Washington backed Saddam Hussein in initiating a brutal eight-year war, which claimed hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives and severely disrupted the country’s efforts at political and economic reconstruction.

Iran and the US have remained bitter foes. Over the years ordinary Iranians have suffered tremendously under rounds of US-imposed sanctions, which have all but destroyed the economy in recent years.

This new wave of foreign aggression has arrived at a time of significant domestic unrest within Iran. Since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, which began in September 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police, there has been a general groundswell of demand for social justice and democracy.

But the convergence of external aggression and internal demands has brought national sovereignty and self-determination to the forefront, as it did during previous major struggles. While world powers gamble with Iran’s future, it is the Iranian people through their struggles and unwavering push for justice and democracy who must determine the country’s future.

Simin Fadaee, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, The University of Manchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

University of Manchester team wins BISA 2025 EDI prize for Decolonial Praxis Project

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 14:07:24 +0100

The British International Studies Association (BISA) has recognised The University of Manchester’s outstanding commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) by awarding its 2025 EDI Prize to a team of staff members whose work has significantly advanced inclusive practices in international studies.

The award was presented during the BISA 2025 annual conference, held in Belfast, and celebrates initiatives that have made a tangible impact on fostering inclusive academic environments. The University of Manchester team who received the EDI prize consisted of Andreja Zevnik, Toni Haastrup (both from the Politics department) and Meghan Tinsley (Sociology department).

The Decolonial Praxis project, that the awardees co-lead, challenges colonial legacies in Higher Education, while ensuring a more ethical and social justice-oriented approach to international partnerships. It is a transformative initiative that embodies the principles of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Its working method is to evolve the approach in collaboration with colleagues from other universities (so far that includes universities of Ghana, Nairobi and Pretoria).

The initiative has sought to rethink modes of decolonising by including a wider range of participant: students, staff including academics and research support staff, and artivists. It convened at the universities but also in local communities and art-spaces giving importance to locally produced knowledge and knowledge-practice.

Over the last two years, activities have included mapping courses and degree programmes to highlight the ways in which structural inequalities persist as an evidence base to drive change within our School. Moreover, by engaging with colleagues from other universities and across disciplinary boundaries (in Nairobi the Faculty of Education; in Ghana the Interdisciplinary Institute for African Studies and in Pretoria the Department of Politics), the initiative has facilitated peer learning with implications for critical pedagogy, research and research support.

This initiative enhances diversity by amplifying marginalised voices and perspectives, through collaborative workshops and knowledge exchange. Through this initiative the project created an important space for critical dialogue and co-production of tools that advance decolonial praxis. This approach not only validates Indigenous knowledge but also ensures its relevance to socio-economic and cultural contexts, promoting sustainable development. The project’s long-term impact is secured through the ongoing development of a decolonial archive, and a number of publications.

This recognition underscores The University of Manchester’s leadership in social responsibility and its commitment to inclusive excellence in higher education. The project has been funded by the International Science Partnerships scheme and the Faculty of Humanities at Manchester.

New report shows a ‘dose response’ relationship between racism and poor mental health

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 17:30:00 +0100

A new report titled The impact of racial discrimination on mental health investigates how experiencing racial discrimination affects mental health, both directly and indirectly.

It finds a ‘dose-response relationship’ between racial discrimination and poor mental health (ie the negative impact on mental health increased with increasing number of times and areas in which racism was experienced).

The authors also examine the impact of experiencing racism over many years. Recent experiences of racial discrimination (within the past 5 years only) had a stronger effect on mental health compared to experiences of racial discrimination that happened over five years ago. Chronic experiences of racial discrimination over someone’s life (both past and recent experiences) had the strongest effect on mental health.

Drawing on data from EVENS, the largest and most comprehensive survey to document the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain during the pandemic, the report also shows how experiences of racial discrimination were associated with testing positive for COVID-19, financial concerns, feelings of loneliness, and a reduced sense of belonging. Racial discrimination also indirectly contributed to poor mental health, through these experiences.

The report is written by Patricia Irizar, Dharmi Kapadia, Harry Taylor, Gertrude Wafula, Albert Kwansa, Charles Kwaku-Odoi, Laia Bécares and Srinivasa Vittal Katikireddi.

This report summarises Associations Between Experiences of Racial Discrimination Across the Life Course and Mental Health: Exploring Direct and Indirect Pathways published in 'Sociology of Health & Illness' (open access).

Manchester researchers appointed to lead REF 2029 sub-panels

Wed, 28 May 2025 12:49:08 +0100

Two Manchester researchers have been appointed to lead REF 2029 sub-panels.

Claire Alexander will chair the Sociology panel and Kate Dorney has been appointed deputy chair of the Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies panel.

They will lead their units of assessment through the criteria setting phase, beginning later this year, and on through to the final assessment.

Their appointments take the total number of University colleagues with REF 2029 roles to eight.

Six colleagues are members to the REF People, Culture and Environment (PCE) pilot panels:

Anne-Marie Glenny, Professor of Health Sciences, for Unit of Assessment 3 – Allied Health Professions, Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy;
Rachel Cowen, Professor of Inclusive Researcher and Academic Development, for Unit of Assessment 5 – Biological Sciences;
Chris Taylor, Professor of Medical Biophysics, for Unit of Assessment 11 – Computer Science and Informatics;
Cathal Rogers, Research Culture and Assessment Manager, for Unit of Assessment 17 – Business and Management Studies;
Maggie Gale, Vice-Dean Research, Humanities and Chair in Drama, for Unit of Assessment 28 – History;
Kate Dorney, Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, for Unit of Assessment 33 – Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies, as well as her new deputy chair role.

In October, Toni Haastrup, Professor in Global Politics, was appointed to the REF People and Diversity Advisory Panel, while Dr Cathal Rogers, Research Culture and Assessment Manager, was recently appointed to the REF 2029 panel secretariat.

Vice-President for Research, Professor Colette Fagan said:

REF Director Rebecca Fairbairn said:

Further information

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the excellence of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). The REF outcomes are used to inform the allocation of around £2 billion per year of public funding for universities’ research. The REF is a process of expert review, carried out by sub-panels focused on subject-based units of assessment, under the guidance of overarching main panels and advisory panels.

To find out more, visit:

Eight years after the arena attack, Manchester bee commercialisation has unsettled some Mancunians

Thu, 22 May 2025 14:53:12 +0100

If you visit Manchester, one of the first things you’ll notice is the great number of bee images throughout the city. Born in the Industrial Revolution, the “worker bee” symbol captured the city’s tireless spirit and its legacy as a buzzing hive of industry. Today, the symbol is more often associated with collective resilience and remembrance following the Manchester Arena attack on May 22 2017.

The bee became a powerful symbol of the “Mancunian spirit”, emerging almost instantly on murals, on bodies as tattoos and on public memorials. Over the last eight years, it has become a core part of Manchester’s identity.

As part of my ongoing PhD research, I set out to understand why the bee is everywhere in Manchester and what it means to people. I interviewed 24 Mancunians who were living in the city at the time of the attack, including some who were directly affected.

Conducted in 2023, seven years after the attack, these interviews aimed to capture how the symbol’s meaning had evolved as the city continued to process and commemorate the event.

For many, the bee still stands as a symbol of resilience, a reminder of how the city came together in the face of tragedy. But for others, its presence throughout Manchester has become more of a burden than a comfort.

Appearing on buses, shop windows and public spaces, it serves as a constant and eerie reminder of the events and aftermath of the attack. Eight of my interviewees described these as memories of “trauma”. Over time, what once felt comforting has become more unsettling.

Fifteen of my interviewees expressed discomfort with how the bee has become more commercialised in the years since the attack. Some described feelings of “exploitation”.

Both independent businesses and large companies have embraced the symbol, integrating it into their branding in public spaces. Many sell bee-themed gifts and souvenirs, such as fridge magnets, coasters and beanies.

Manchester city council has played a key role in this commercialisation, promoting the image through various initiatives, including the Bee Network transport system and the Bee Cup – a reusable takeaway cup launched in 2023.

In June 2017, shortly after the attack, the council moved to trademark several versions of the bee as an official city symbol. This was made public in March 2018, after the period for objections had passed.

Initially, the council allowed people and businesses to use the symbol for free, but later introduced a licensing scheme. Now, anyone wishing to use the trademarked versions of the bee must apply for permission from the council, and commercial use comes with a £500 fee. Businesses that want to use the bee are also asked to donate to charity.

The council described the trademarking of the bee symbol as a way to protect its use and support local good causes, such as the We Love MCR Charity, which helps fund community projects and youth opportunities across the city.

But some of my participants noted that this transformed the bee from something personal and meaningful to something more corporate. In their view, it is as if the city itself is commodifying the attack rather than honouring it.

This can be viewed as an element of “dark tourism”, which involves visiting places where tragedy has been memorialised or commercialised. In Manchester this manifests not through visits to the attack site but through the bee symbol, which has been commodified in murals, merchandise and public spaces. Tourists buy into collective grief through consumption, turning remembrance into a marketable experience and the bee as a managed and profitable commodity.

Some Manchester Arena bombing survivors I spoke to feel that their personal grief has been repackaged into a public identity, one that does not necessarily reflect the complexity of their experiences.

The use of the bee in products and souvenirs raises questions about how the city commercialises its identity, especially when considering the layered histories that the symbol carries.

Uncomfortable history

For some, the discomfort around Manchester’s bee goes even deeper. Today, the bee symbolises resilience and unity, but it originally represented hard work during Manchester’s industrial boom.

This era wasn’t just about progress — it also involved exploitation and colonial trade especially through cotton produced by enslaved people in the Americas. Manchester’s role in the industrial revolution would have never been possible without slavery.

My participants pointed out this hidden history, noticing that these stories rarely appear in Manchester’s public commemorations in the city. The bee’s visibility today reveals how cities tend to highlight positive histories, while uncomfortable truths remain hidden.

A painted window in Manchester’s Victoria station. Ashley Collar

Focusing solely on resilience risks creating a simplified version of Manchester’s past. This can exclude some people in the present, overlooking how historical injustices, like the city’s links to the transatlantic slave trade, still shape their lives today.

This selective storytelling makes it harder for some communities to commemorate Manchester’s identity. They can’t do so without acknowledging past legacies of slavery and the city’s history of division.

While some see the bee as a proud symbol of unity, others feel it erases their history. As the bee continues to dominate public spaces, Manchester faces an important challenge: making sure this symbol genuinely acknowledges the varied experiences and histories of all residents.

This might be through dedicated plaques or exhibits that explore some of these hidden histories, and the bee’s complex meaning. Only by confronting its past can the city ensure that commemoration includes everyone.

Ashley Collar, PhD Candidate in Sociology at The University of Manchester and Associate Lecturer in Criminology at MMU
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Counting on Everyone: Profiling the Christian population in England

Tue, 20 May 2025 11:53:29 +0100

As part of the church’s work to ensure diversity and inclusivity in their work, they asked us to use 2021 census data to profile the demographic changes in the population in England, with a special focus on religion and ethnicity.

Download the Counting on Everyone report from the Church of England website.

Key findings

There was a significant fall in the Christian population, from 37.3 million (72%) in 2001 to 26.2 million (46%) in 2021.
At the same time the number of Muslims (1.5 million to 3.8 million), Hindus (0.5 million to 1 million) and those with no religion (7.2 million to 20.7 million) has more than doubled.
There has been a significant drop in the percentage of White British, White Irish and mixed ethnicity groups (e.g. in 2001 82% of White British respondents identified as Christian compared with 49% in 2021). Most other ethnic categories saw a more gradual decline.
Across most ethnic categories, younger people are less likely to say they are Christian.
Looking at migration history, some ethnic categories (White British, White other, Indian, Asian other and black African and Caribbean, recent arrivals are more likely to be Christian than those born in the UK)
Migration has contributed to the growth in the Christian population recently with 1.2 million Christians migrating to the UK between 2001 and 2011 and 1.9 million between 2011 and 2021 compared to only 0.4 million between 1991 and 2001. The majority of Christian migrants between 2011 and 2021 came from Europe.

See the report for more detailed data from each region of England. The report is written by Nigel de Noronha.

Winners of the Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize announced

Wed, 07 May 2025 12:00:00 +0100

This year’s prize was judged by Philip Drake (Former Director of Social Responsibility, School of Social Sciences) and Hilary Pilkington (Research Director, Sociology) who commented on the variety of audiences engaged: from local sixth form students and social housing tenants in a Brussels neighbourhood, to people connecting to international webinars and World Health Organisation (WHO) leaders.

The winners in our staff category were Patty Doran, Tine Buffel and the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) for the Age-Friendly Futures Summit which aimed to advance the creation of an age-friendly world.

Over 300 age-friendly leaders working in policy, practitioner and research from 20 countries were invited to the event in Manchester in March to share knowledge and shape the future of age-friendly policy and practice. Collaboration was key to the success of the summit, with MUARG working closely with WHO, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Centre for Ageing Better and Manchester Metropolitan University. This collective approach led to the development of shared international priorities and principles for age-friendly practice, and the team also fed into the WHO European Healthy Ageing Strategy.

Amit Singh and Laura Towers were both highly commended in the staff category. Amit has developed a course for sixth form students at Rochdale College linking sociological concepts around race, class, gender and inequality to students’ experiences of social life in and around Rochdale. Working with the charity The Compassionate Friends (TCF), Laura has produced a series of ‘talking tools’ and contributed to TCF events to share her research on the experiences of bereaved siblings.

Joana Salles wins our PhD student category for co-producing and sharing of a documentary film made with social housing tenants in the Molenbeek area of Brussels. The film aimed to amplify the voices of older migrant and working-class communities in local and regional housing policy and practice. Joana organised nine screenings of the film in community venues, each followed by public debate on housing issues between the audience and stakeholders including elected representatives, tenants, community workers and researchers.

Shengjun Zhang, Pippa Winship and Sandhya Sharma were highly commended for their Manchester Urban Film Series project which uses short films to spark conversations on social justice and the city. And Yu Zhu is highly commended for her work with United Proud Women using webinars and online media to share queer scholarship and knowledge with LGBTQ+ people from the Chinese diaspora.

80% of Northern Irish women first endured sexist behaviour as children

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:04:02 +0100

Four in five women surveyed in Northern Ireland said their first experience of sexist behaviour or harassment by men happened when they were children, according to a new study.

Kim McFalone, a PhD researcher from The University of Manchester, surveyed 211 women in the country who had experienced staring, sexual comments, touching, catcalling, flashing and other behaviour that made them uncomfortable.

She found that 80% said they had first experienced this before the age of 17 – 25% experiencing it before the age of 11, and 55% when aged between 11 and 16 years.

Her study, which is ongoing, also found that almost half (47%) of the 221 women surveyed had, while children or adults, experienced flashing by a man, and 93% had been harassed by men wolf-whistling or cat-calling.

The research was carried out against a background of a gradual increase in violence against women since the end of the Troubles. Sexual violence has increased every year since 1998 and reached the highest recorded level in 2024. Northern Ireland has the second-highest levels of femicide in Europe.

“I found it quite alarming that four out of five respondents first experienced behaviour from a man which made them feel uncomfortable as children, aged 16 or under,” Ms McFalone told the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Manchester on Wednesday 23 April.

“The other circumstance for unwanted behaviour was while they were working in their first part-time job as a teenager, with adult male customers making sexual or otherwise inappropriate comments to them while they were working. A young girl working her first job probably isn’t going to feel able to challenge this behaviour or speak to someone about it.”

Ms McFalone also carried out interviews with affected women. One told her she was 13 years old when she first was “cat-called in a school uniform” by “fully grown men.” Another said: “I worked for a pizza place as my first job – surprisingly the worst sort of male attention I got, which was borderline illegal, was when I was 15.”

Expert says ageing is 'an opportunity, not a problem to be managed'

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 11:37:09 +0100

Professor Tine Buffel called for society to reframe ageing as an opportunity during her plenary at the Age-Friendly Futures Summit held from 25 to 27 March in Manchester. She emphasised the need to rethink ageing, not as a problem but as a shared opportunity to strengthen communities and create healthier, fairer and more sustainable cities through collective action.

At the Summit, MUARG played a key role in shaping the WHO European Strategy on Healthy Ageing. Led by Yongjie Yon, Head of the Ageing and Health Programme at WHO Europe, MUARG contributed insights and evidence through a series of roundtables, designed to inform the programme's strategic development.

Professor Tine Buffel, Director of the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group at The University of Manchester, said: “Deeds, not words. Manchester has never waited for change – it has led it. As a pioneer in the age-friendly movement, the city and region have brought together research, policy, and communities to drive forward real progress in creating places where people can age well. The Age-Friendly Futures Summit is our moment to build on this legacy, push boundaries, and drive bold action for a fairer, more inclusive, and more connected future where people of all ages can thrive.”

MUARG, a leading research group comprising experts from the University of Manchester and the Manchester School of Architecture, has been instrumental in highlighting the growing social and spatial inequalities in ageing. In the UK, people living in the most deprived areas can expect to live up to 19 fewer healthy years than those in the most affluent localities.

Manchester was recognised as a pioneering voice in the global age-friendly movement at the Age-Friendly Futures Summit this week. The Summit, delivered in partnership by the University of Manchester, the Centre for Ageing Better, the World Health Organization, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Manchester Metropolitan University, was a landmark event that brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, architects and communities to share cutting-edge research, showcase effective interventions and set a global agenda for a more age-friendly world.

With the global population of people aged 60 and over predicted to reach 2.1 billion by 2050, the Age-Friendly Futures Summit called for urgent action to create a more equitable and age-friendly future. Population ageing and urbanisation are the defining demographic trends of our time, but urban planning still focuses on youth and families, rather than integrating the needs of all generations. In response, the WHO developed the Age-Friendly Cities initiative in 2007 and launched the Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) in 2010, which now covers over 1,700 cities and communities in 60 countries.

Building on this legacy, Greater Manchester has since become the UK’s first age-friendly city region. Together, the city and region have worked to create environments where people of all ages can participate in community life and feel respected and included in social, cultural, and civic spaces.

At the Summit, various initiatives from Greater Manchester were showcased, including the installation of age-friendly benches with backrests and arm supports to make public spaces more accessible. Architecture students collaborated with older residents to co-design public spaces that reflect their needs and aspirations. Cultural institutions hosted events, such as My Generation Club Nights, for people aged 50 and over, challenging ageist stereotypes. Underused spaces have been repurposed as community hubs, offering safe and welcoming spaces for older LGBTQ+ people and ethnically minoritised groups.

A key message from the Summit was the leading role older people play in shaping the age-friendly agenda, as active co-creators of research, policy, and practice. Initiatives such as MUARG’s Older People’s Forum and the Greater Manchester Older People’s Network (GMOPN) enable older residents to act as co-researchers, shape research priorities, and influence local and regional decision-making. Elaine Unegbu, Chair of GMOPN, noted how older people’s voices have often been silenced and their contributions overlooked. These platforms challenge that, providing a space for older people to lead change, inform policy, and improve lives. The Summit highlighted such examples to encourage genuine co-production and long-term collaboration with communities and grassroots organisations.

Professor Stefan White, Professor of Architecture at MSA and member of MUARG, said, “The relationship between place, health inequality and ageing is a complex challenge which requires urgent critical attention. This Summit showcases globally significant research in Greater Manchester, helping researchers, developers, housing providers, urban planners and public health departments from around the world to better understand and create age-friendly neighbourhoods and respond to the residential desires of older people.”

The Summit reinforced that tackling the inequalities that shape how we age, linked to place, gender, class, race, disability and migration, must be central to age-friendly work. MUARG's ongoing work is crucial in driving research and collaboration to improve the experience of ageing and to build fairer, more inclusive and connected cities for all.

Learn more about the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group’s work in building an age-friendly future by visiting their website.

Five Manchester experts become Academy of Social Sciences Fellows

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 11:14:30 +0100

An unprecedented five academics from The University of Manchester have been recognised as leading experts in their fields by being named as Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences.

New Fellows are named in recognition of their excellence and impact, and their advancement of social sciences for the public good. Through leadership, research and policymaking, they have deepened understanding of major societal challenges. The Academy comprises over 1,400 Fellows, 46 societies and affiliates, forming a 90,000-strong network that cements the UK’s global leadership in social sciences.

Joining them is Professor Sherilyn MacGregor, a leading scholar in environmental politics who is internationally renowned for her expertise in ecological feminism and environmental justice. Her research connects sustainability and justice in policy and practice, working with organisations like Oxfam and grassroots activists. She has authored pioneering works, mentored early career scholars, and edited Environmental Politics since 2010. She has secured over £1 million in research funding and recently led an £8.5 million bid for the Centre for Joined-up Sustainability Transformations (JUST), where, as PI and director, she leads more than 30 researchers studying just transitions to net zero.

“It is a huge privilege to become a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and I want to thank the colleagues responsible for my nomination,” said Sherilyn. “As we start building the JUST Centre, I am more committed than ever to demonstrating that the environmental social sciences play a vital role in leading the way out of the current so-called ‘polycrisis’. I will continue to do work that supports community struggles for eco-social justice, inspired by the countless mentors who have taught me the necessity and the rewards of engaged scholarship.”

Also named as a new Fellow is Professor Stefan Bouzarovski, who also co-leads a core working group of the JUST Centre as well as the Energy Demand Research Centre. Honoured by the EU as an ‘Ordinary Hero’, Stefan is a leading expert on energy regulation, urban inequality and housing vulnerability who has influenced global climate policies as the University’s Associate Research Director for Impact. A key member of the Manchester Urban Institute and the Sustainable Consumption Institute, he has worked with the UN, UK Government, EU and World Bank. He co-founded the European Energy Poverty Observatory, and he has authored over 150 publications.

“I am incredibly honoured and humbled to have received this recognition, while also feeling deeply grateful to the Royal Geographical Society for their nomination,” said Stefan. “All academic work is collective, and this Fellowship is equally the result of multiple years of cooperation with numerous researchers and practitioners across the world. I hope to be able to extend and develop our shared work in the period to come, in working towards energy equity and social justice against the background of the unfolding climate crisis.”

Another new Fellow is deputy director of the JUST Centre Professor Matthew Paterson, a globally recognised expert in climate politics and environmental governance whose work explores the political economy of climate change, global environmental governance and sustainable transformations. Matthew has authored influential books and over 100 scholarly articles, shaping discourse on climate politics. He has led major international research projects funded by organisations such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Leverhulme Trust, and he has engaged policymakers worldwide including as an author for the UN’s IPCC reports.

Also named as a Fellow is Professor Toni Haastrup, a leading expert in feminist international studies. Her work has explored contemporary Africa-EU relations, feminist foreign policy and the Women, Peace and Security agenda. With over 80 published works, her work seeks to bridge theory and practice, which has led to collaborations with UN agencies and EU institutions. Passionate about inclusion in the sector, Toni is currently chair of the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES). Her contribution to feminist knowledge in Europe was recognised with an Emma Goldman Award in 2022. She is also a mid-career fellow of the Independent Social Research Foundation.

“I am deeply honoured to be recognised by the Academy of Social Sciences,” Toni said. “This recognition further validates the importance of feminist perspectives within the humanities and social sciences, at a time we are increasingly seeing a backlash within and outside the academy. Yet, this work is essential to addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time, and I am grateful to the colleagues and collaborators who have supported my work over the years.”

Our final new Fellow is Professor Sophie Woodward, a distinguished sociologist who carries out research into material culture, consumption and everyday life. Sophie is the author of several books including Why Women Wear What They Wear (2007), Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary (2012), Birth and Death: experience, ethics and politics (2020) and Material Methods: Researching and Thinking with Things (2019) who co-directs the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, as well as serving as Vice-Director of the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). She is also one of the founding editors of the new Journal of Creative Research methods.

“I am delighted to be made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences - it is wonderful to receive recognition like this,” said Sophie. “I look forward to working with other fellows at a time when the world needs social science methods, perspectives and critiques more than ever. I look forward to continuing to develop critical engagements with methods and the data they can generate and my research into everyday lives.”

“I’m delighted to welcome these outstanding social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship, whose research and practice are helping to develop solutions to pressing societal issues,” said Will Hutton, President of the Academy. “We look forward to working with them to further promote the vital role the social sciences play in all areas of our lives.”

Kinship carers struggling to cope despite £4.3 billion value they add to society

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:31:31 +0000

Dr Jingwen Zhang, Lecturer in Sociology, is one of the authors of 'Valuing Kinship Care in England', a new report on the huge and often under-recognised contribution made to society by kinship carers, who look after children who would often otherwise be in the care system.

The team estimate that over 132,000 children live in kinship care in England. Kinship carers contribute an estimated £4.3 billion a year to society. But unlike foster carers and adoptive parents, most have few rights to financial, practical and emotional support, and taking on the care of a child they love often pushes them into poverty, unemployment and ill health.

The report is produced by Centre for Care at University of Sheffield in partnership with Kinship. It is written by Maria Petrillo, Jingwen Zhang, Becky Driscoll, and Nathan Hughes.

The passing of Professor Lou Kushnick

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 12:29:40 +0000

It is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Professor Lou Kushnick OBE.

Lou was a Professor of Sociology at The University of Manchester, who lectured at the University for over 40 years.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Lou received his first degree from Columbia University before receiving a scholarship to complete his PhD in political science at Yale University. He then moved to The University of Manchester on a further scholarship, where he settled permanently. Lou moved to the UK before the main US Civil Rights Movement gained momentum – it was racial discrimination in the UK that sparked his own interest in race and inequality.

In 1999, he founded the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE (Race Archives and Community Engagement) Centre, a specialist library and archive located in Manchester’s Central Library, which documents the histories of Greater Manchester’s Global Majority communities (and beyond), and the struggle against racism. His vision, underpinning all the work of the Centre, was for a collection that would not only have major research value, but would also be instrumental in celebrating Global Majority histories and cultures and combating racism.

The RACE Centre holds an extensive collection of Lou Kushnick’s work and research (1965-2008), relating to race relations in the UK and US, including 95 interviews with key figures who discuss American politics, economics, health and welfare and racial polarisation in the 1980s and 1990s.

These archives offer an extraordinary resource for students and scholars, providing unique insights into an array of subjects and inspiring discussions.

His publications spanned the UK and United States, and explored racial inequality in policing, health and politics. His work and legacy were a crucial foundation for the work of the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE) at Manchester.

Professor Bridget Byrne, Director of CoDE, reflected:

Lou’s 2015 ‘Star Lecture’, was aimed at sixth-form and college history students studying the civil rights era in the USA.

Professor Claire Alexander, Head of the School of Social Sciences, shares her thoughts:

Our thoughts are with his family and friends, and the many colleagues who worked with Lou in Manchester and elsewhere.

New study reveals social connections are key to preventing disease

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:54:00 +0000

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Scientific Reports has revealed that people’s social connections play a crucial role in determining whether they adopt preventative health measures.

Researchers from institutions including The University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, NYU and the Indian Institute of Public Health collaborated on this innovative project which could significantly change how public health initiatives are designed and implemented.

Their study - which focused on malaria prevention in ten villages in India - looked at how different factors influence people's use of preventative measures like bed nets, insect repellent and protective clothing. It involved detailed interviews with over 1,500 adults, gathering information about their health practices and social networks.

The findings showed that exposure to preventative behaviours within someone’s social network is the main factor influencing whether they adopt those same behaviours - in other words, if your friends and family use insect repellents, you are much more likely to use them yourself. This suggests that health behaviours are heavily influenced by our social connections and are not just the outcome of individual choices.

The study also found that households are critical for shaping health-related discussions - people tend to discuss health matters with those within their own household, which means that the information and practices shared at home have a large impact.

Interestingly, the researchers found that individual characteristics like age, gender or education - as well as advice from health experts - appeared to have a much smaller direct influence on whether people adopted preventative measures.

There was little evidence that adopting one healthy behaviour leads to adopting others – the study found that people do not necessarily adopt prevention behaviours in bundles, but rather tend to simply adopt ones which are common among the people they talk to.

The researchers say that instead of focusing solely on individuals, public health programmes should recognise and utilise the power of group influence - for instance, public health campaigns could focus on educating and supporting community leaders and influential people who can then act as a channel to promote health behaviours among their social circles.

They also highlight the importance of household level interventions - this means targeting entire families, rather than individuals, which could result in more effective prevention strategies.

While the research focused on malaria in rural India, the implications extend to various diseases and populations globally – the researchers say that their approach provides a valuable framework for developing more effective public health strategies around the world.

“Our study found that while individual choices matter, the environment in which these choices are made - particularly our social networks - plays a key role in influencing them,”

Guardian journalist to talk about Hillsborough legal failures as families push for law change

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 11:43:52 +0000

The University of Manchester and Garden Court North Chambers are set to host a lecture by award-winning Guardian journalist David Conn on the Hillsborough disaster, and the subsequent legal failings that led to a decades-long fight for justice.

The disaster, which occurred on Saturday 15 April 1989 at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, caused the deaths of 97 people and injuries to hundreds more, in a crush on the overcrowded terraces of Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough Stadium.

Despite the overwhelming evidence of negligence and safety failings, the South Yorkshire police blamed the victims, alleging that Liverpool supporters had misbehaved, a narrative amplified by parts of the media. Families fought for 21 years against the first inquest verdict of accidental death before it was finally quashed in 2012.

At the new inquest in 2016, the jury determined that the 97 people were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence by the police match commander, that there was a series of other failings by the police, emergency services and Sheffield Wednesday, and that no behaviour of supporters contributed to the disaster. Criminal prosecutions followed but resulted in only one conviction of the former Sheffield Wednesday club secretary, for a health and safety offence.

Guardian Investigations Correspondent David Conn, who won the Press Awards News Reporter of the Year in 2024, has covered the tragedy and the families’ fight for justice for nearly 30 years. His work helped to establish the Hillsborough Independent Panel, whose 2012 report led to the quashing of the first inquest verdict. Conn has also highlighted legal injustices like racial bias in ‘Joint Enterprise’ laws and systemic failures in accountability.

In his lecture on Thursday 13 February, Conn will discuss the legal failures that followed the disaster, and discuss the Hillsborough Law, the principal reform families are calling for which would impose a statutory duty of candour for police and public authorities, and ensure that victims of disasters or state related deaths have the funding for lawyers to represent them at inquests and inquiries. Human rights barrister Pete Weatherby KC, who has long advocated for Hillsborough Law, will explain its purpose and provide a response to the lecture, with Anna Morris KC chairing the discussion.

This inaugural Mark George Memorial Lecture honours the late Head of Garden Court North Chambers, who represented 22 Hillsborough families during the 2014-16 inquiry. George played a pivotal role as legal counsel for 22 families during the Hillsborough Inquiry (2014-16), helping uncover the truth after nearly three decades of struggle. The series honours his dedication to justice, education and advocacy.

The event also marks the launch of Conn’s Simon Industrial and Professional Fellowship, which brings him together with experts from the university to advance research into fairness in legal processes and amplify voices impacted by injustice.

“The Hillsborough families suffered grievous injustice in the legal system after the loss of their loved ones, and had to fight for decades to have the truth recognised and for justice,” David said. “Mark George was a great advocate for the families, as one of the leading lawyers who worked so hard to achieve the landmark inquest verdict in 2016.”

“This lecture series honours him and marks a deepening relationship between our University and leading human rights barristers’ chambers Garden Court North,” said Professor Eithne Quinn. “David delivering the first lecture highlights his decades of investigations and reporting on the Hillsborough families' justice campaign. This event will expose the urgent need for the landmark ‘Hillsborough Law’ and raise vital questions about legal reform.”

“Mark was many things – a radical barrister, formidable advocate, opponent of the death penalty, lifelong socialist, student of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic Studies at Cambridge, and Chelsea FC supporter – but above all, a man of integrity, kindness, and wisdom," said Pete Weatherby KC from Garden Court Chambers. ”He combined humanity with fierce intellectual commitment. Whether defending protesters or representing Hillsborough families, Mark gave everything to his clients."

“Mark is a much-missed friend and colleague, and I am glad that a lecture being held in his memory will highlight the importance of the Hillsborough Law - if was in place in 1989, the truth could not have been concealed. Those hiding it would have known they’d be found out and prosecuted. This sophisticated bill has a clear purpose and should be urgently introduced.”

The event will take place at The University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School, followed by a drinks reception and buffet open to all attendees. To register for a free ticket, click here.

The Post Office: an emblem of the UK’s relationship with the state, sliding into dystopia

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 15:07:52 +0000

Written by Martin Greenwood

The Horizon scandal, which led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, has severely dented the public’s perception of the Post Office as an institution. Against this backdrop, branch closures are planned across the Post Office network.

These further cuts to a system already struggling can only do further harm to the sense that well-resourced public services could and should play a central role in everyday life.

In my PhD research, I spoke to people about their thoughts on the Post Office and their ideas about the future of society more generally. One interviewee relished their trips to Manchester’s now-closed crown post office at Spring Gardens and described it, with only a little irony, as “the cathedral of post”.

They loved the way it revealed something of the workings of a larger, complex and world-spanning system of communication. They also liked to daydream about how it would be to live in a society oriented towards a more community-focused, village-like way of life.

My work looks at these speculative dimensions of social life – the way hopes, dreams and desires for other ways of living are expressed by people now. These speculative dimensions have a political significance – they tell us something about the forms of social organisation people yearn for, and what frustrates them about our current way of living. Understanding how public infrastructures influence these frustrations and desires is a key focus of my research.

The infrastructures which facilitate social life also send signals to us about how society is organised, what’s valued and powerful within it, and what seems likely to be valued in the future. They help structure our ideas about what society is and what it could be like.

In the case of the Post Office, the Horizon scandal demonstrates how the consequences can be severe and dystopian when something malfunctions within a key institution of this kind.

Historically, the Post Office played a key role in developing infrastructures of modern life that came to be cherished. Key among these, as historian Patrick Joyce has noted, is routine engagement with paid officials of the state, through Post Office staff and postal delivery workers, or “posties”.

Speaking to Post Office workers and posties has long been among the most positively regarded interactions that an ordinary person routinely has with state infrastructures. Local post offices and posties have represented valued senses of local knowledge, community overwatch and benevolent officialdom.

Crown post offices (the larger branches in the network), often inhabiting a significant spot in a town or city centre, have done their bit too, contributing a sense of civic importance to a place, alongside libraries and town halls. They have provided access to a professional, knowledgeable human interface between a complex system of multiple state services, and those who rely on them.

But our positive engagements with this state system have been placed under decades of increasing strain. Privatisation has flowed from a creeping rejection of the idea that publicly owned public services could ever function beautifully. This, in turn, has left the services we need on a daily basis under-resourced.

The condition of crown post offices has reflected this. Their interiors often emanate a stark sense of minimal upkeep and only grudging repair. Already, many crown post offices have been closed. Where their services have not fully disappeared, they have been precariously relegated to space in retailers such as WH Smiths.

Meanwhile, the way we communicate, shop and socialise has been altering dramatically. Digital communication technology is impressing itself ever further into our social lives. Technology has deeply embedded associations with the future, but with this also comes a sense of unavoidability. The way AI is spoken about, as something set to bring inevitable and consequential transformations of our lives – whether we like it or not – is a case in point.

Both of these things – the neglect of physical places where we interact with state services and the increasing technologisation of social life – contribute to a growing sense of anachronism about places like the post office. The idea that a public service might attend to the public good in a well-appointed, pleasant, urban public setting feels, for no good reason, like a relic of the past.

All this affects the ways we imagine social futures. It brings a false air of inevitability to the loss of things people still need and care deeply about.

When talking with users of post offices for my research, there was a simultaneous sense among them that posties and post offices contributed vital resources to everyday life, and that technology meant these things were not likely to survive much further into the future. This was often regarded as something to be accepted, even as it was acknowledged that what was going to be lost was something important and irreplaceable.

But such losses are not inevitable. They are a political choice built on two key failures – failure to challenge the idea that well-funded, publicly owned and run public services are unaffordable, and failure to envisage ways of organising public services in the digital age, such that they retain the vital material contributions they make to places.

Further losses to the crown post office network would represent a sad and, I believe, unnecessary extension of these failures.

Martin Greenwood, Research Assistant, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Manchester’s Professor Gary Younge wins prestigious journalism award

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 10:04:33 +0000

The University of Manchester’s Professor Gary Younge has been named as the recipient of a prestigious Robert B. Silvers Award in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the field of journalism.

The Silvers-Dudley Prizes acknowledge outstanding achievements in genres of writing championed by the late Robert B. Silvers - the founding editor of The New York Review of Books - and his partner, Lady Grace Dudley.

Professor Younge is a distinguished journalist, broadcaster and author whose work has shaped public discourse for decades. With a career spanning investigative reporting, essays and commentary, his writings exemplify the intellectual rigour and moral clarity that the Silvers-Dudley Prizes seek to honour.

Gary joined The University of Manchester in 2020 as Professor of Sociology, bringing a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to the academic community. His appointment followed a highly celebrated journalism career, including over two decades at The Guardian where he served as a columnist and US correspondent. Younge’s work has delved into topics ranging from racial inequality and migration to gun violence and political movements, resonating with audiences worldwide.

At The University of Manchester, Professor Younge has inspired the next generation of scholars and journalists through his public engagement and mentorship. He has also continued to write and speak extensively, addressing critical global challenges with insight and passion.

The Robert B. Silvers Award is a fitting tribute to Younge’s enduring impact on journalism and public life. This accolade joins an impressive list of honours he has received, including the James Cameron Memorial Trust Award and the George Orwell Prize for Journalism.

“Gary Younge’s ability to probe complex issues with humanity, depth and wit is unparalleled,” said Professor Claire Alexander, Head of the School of Social Sciences at The University of Manchester. “We are thrilled to see his remarkable contributions to journalism recognised on this global stage.”

Professor Younge will be formally presented with the award at a ceremony in New York City later this year.

University members recognised in 2025 New Year Honours

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 13:04:50 +0000

A University of Manchester professor has been recognised in the King’s 2025 New Year Honours List.

Professor Yaojun Li, a distinguished researcher and educator at The University of Manchester, has been made an OBE for his exceptional services to the Advancement of Knowledge in Social Mobility and to Ethnic Integration.

Professor Li is one of more than 1,200 people across the country, in all fields of work, who have been handed honours to celebrate their contributions to society, community, or their area of employment.

Professor Yaojun Li is a Professor of Sociology at the University, his work focuses on social mobility and social stratification, social capital, education, labour market positions, ethnic integration and comparative studies, especially between Britain and China.

Speaking about being recognised in the Honours list Yaojun said: “I am completely humbled and startled. It is beyond my dream of all dreams. I wish to thank all colleagues who have given me so much help, advice and support all these years.”

Honours typically celebrate the contributions of well-known personalities, government employees, and ordinary people who have served their community. Most honours are awarded at New Year and on the monarch's official birthday, in June.

Keely Hodgkinson, Greater Manchester's two time Olympic medallist and recent Sport Personality of the Year champion, has also been awarded an MBE for services to Athletics after winning an Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024. Keely was one of several Olympian and Paralympian contenders in this year’s Games supported by the University’s Performance Sport team.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Each and every day, ordinary people go out and do extraordinary things for their communities. They represent the very best of the UK and that core value of service which I put at the centre of everything this government does. The New Year Honours List celebrates more of these unsung heroes, and I thank them for their incredible contribution.”

King George V created these honours during World War One to reward services to the war effort by civilians at home and service personnel in support positions. The ranks are Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). They are now awarded for prominent national or regional roles and to those making distinguished or notable contributions in their own specific areas of activity.

University alumni and affiliates:

· Dr. Anthony Freeman

BSc(Hons) Mathematics 1979; PhD Mathematics 1982

Retired Head of Formulation for Solar System Exploration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA

CBE for UK/US Relations in Space and Earth Science

· Dr. Sarah Lancashire

Hon LittD 2018

Actor: Coronation Street, Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax, Black Doves

CBE for Drama

· Professor Christine Harrison

BSc(Hons) Genetics and Cell Biology 1975; PhD Oncology 1978

Academic - Professor of Childhood Cancer Cytogenetics at Newcastle University; Trustee of Blood Cancer UK

OBE for contributions to children with acute leukaemia

· Professor Petra Oyston

BSc(Hons) Bacteriology and Virology 1987; PhD Cell and Structural Biology 1991

Fellow, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and Non-Executive Director, Zentraxa

OBE for contributions to Science and Defence

· Professor Daniel Davis

BSc(Hons) Physics 1992

Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology, Imperial College London

MBE for Science Communication

· Mr. Francis Galvin

BA(Hons) Combined Studies 1978

Retired museum curator and former Chair of Manchester Historic Buildings Trust

MBE for contributions to Heritage

· Mrs. Christine Lyness

Dip Guidance and Counselling in Education 1983

Former teacher and now governor at Ashton Sixth Form College

MBE for contributions to Education

Manchester sociologist wins award for her distinguished service

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:39:38 +0000

The University of Manchester's Professor Claire Alexander has been announced as this year’s winner of the Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award.

The prestigious award is judged on service to British sociology and awarded to the outstanding individual who has contributed most to the discipline by leading an extraordinary life as a sociologist.

Claire is the Head of the School of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology and has researched and published on race, ethnicity, youth and migration in the UK for over thirty years. She is a member of the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).

Between 2011 and 2018, Claire was Editor of Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power and she is on the editorial boards of Ethnic and Racial Studies and Whiteness and Education.

She is also a Trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Active Communities Network and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation and the Runnymede Trust.

Report finds that 10% of people from ethnic minorities in Scotland have suffered recent racist physical attack

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The report finds that one in four people from an ethnic minority experience unfair racist treatment in their job or education, and one in ten experienced recent unfair treatment in housing or from the police.

Ten percent of ethnic minorities in Scotland have suffered recent racist physical attack. Black and Chinese ethnic groups in Scotland have particularly high levels of reporting racist insult and unfair racist treatment from police.

More than one third of people from ethnic minorities in Scotland worried about racist harassment. The majority of people identifying as Black, Pakistani, Indian and Jewish in Scotland worried about racist harassment. Levels of worry about racism were higher in Scotland than in England and Wales for many ethnic groups.

The report is produced by CoDE working in collaboration with BEMIS, the national umbrella body supporting the development of the Ethnic Minorities Voluntary Sector in Scotland.

The report is based on data from Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), the largest and most comprehensive survey to document the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain during the pandemic.

The collaboration is part of EVENSinAction, an initiative which works with research and voluntary sector partners to explore how the EVENS dataset can be used in racial justice work beyond academia.

Read the report: Racism, belonging and COVID's legacy of ethnic inequalities in Scotland: A report of the Evidence for Equality National Survey.

The report is authored by Nissa Finney (University of St Andrews), Nigel de Noronha (University of Manchester) and BEMIS. We acknowledge funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council via the CoDE grants ‘Exploring racial and ethnic inequality in a time of crisis’ (ES/V013475/1), ‘The social, cultural and economic impacts of the pandemic on ethnic and racialised groups in the UK’ (ES/W000849/1) and Legacy Grant funding (ESW012340/1).

University of Manchester reflects on 2024 UK riots with solutions-focused panel discussion

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The University of Manchester hosted a panel discussion comprised of academics and politicians to explore the causes and impact of the civil unrest that gripped swathes of UK towns and cities during the summer of 2024.

In the immediate aftermath of the tragic deaths of three young girls in Southport, far-right, anti-immigration riots and protests erupted, fuelled by the spread of misinformation and expressions of toxic masculinity.

Hosted by Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, panellists included Rob Ford, Professor of Political Science, Hilary Pilkington, Professor of Sociology, Peter Knight, Professor of American Studies, David Gadd, Professor of Criminology, Bridget Byrne, Professor in Sociology, and Afzal Khan, Member of Parliament for Manchester Rusholme.

Attended by civic leaders, policymakers and politicians, the panel discussion covered a broad range of issues related to the civil unrest, including the role social media played in the rapid spread of misinformation and to what extent this acted as a catalyst for rioting across England and Northern Ireland.

While the UK is often cited as a nation that embraces multiculturalism, the hostility many face due to Islamophobia and its prevalence in the UK was raised. It was also discussed how anti-immigration sentiment is likely to become more prevalent in public discourse if far-right rhetoric among political groups, and traditional and social media, continues to rise.

On the topic of the motivations of the people who engaged with the riots, class struggles, toxic masculinities and family problems were remarked upon as potential contributors. The wider UK context, including the stripping back of public services and community centres in recent years, was also acknowledged.

As for the aftermath of the unrest, statistics from public polling were also shared. According to YouGov, 85% of the public were opposed to the summer riots, and 82% said they were unjustified.

In discussion on how to take learnings forward, a breadth of potential solutions were discussed from tackling social inequalities as part of wider strategies on cohesion, delving into the state of community services, and investing in social relationships. A need for social media platforms to adhere to their crisis protocols was also identified and, for the traditional media, a need for sensitive issues to be taken more seriously to prevent misinformation and for politicians to be held to account more effectively.

Members of the audience were invited to discuss what role institutions such as universities, schools, local politicians and policymakers, religious organisations and community groups should play in promoting societal cohesion.

Professor Duncan Ivison, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester said: “The riots that occurred this summer were shocking and frightening for many in our communities, and I am determined that The University of Manchester works collaboratively with our community partners to continue the constructive dialogue about the issues we identified at the workshop and identify actions we can implement together.

“Universities have an important role in bringing people together from wide sections of society and it was heartening to see a diverse group of civic leaders at the event, all with a positive attitude for long term change.”

Ultimately, it is hoped the event served as a springboard for further discussion and meaningful action that tackles the causes of civil unrest, helping to prevent these events from occurring in the future.

Top image from left to right: David Gadd, Hilary Pilkington, Rob Ford, Peter Knight, Bridget Byrne, Afzal Khan and Duncan Ivison

Professor Judith Phillips joins University of Manchester as Visiting Professor

Tue, 03 Dec 2024 09:28:27 +0000

The University of Manchester is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Judith Phillips as a Simon and Hallsworth Visiting Professor at the School of Social Sciences.

Professor Phillips, a distinguished Social and Environmental Gerontology Professor, is visiting from The University of Stirling, where she has made significant contributions to research and policy in the field of ageing.

Professor Phillips brings a wealth of experience and expertise to Manchester. During her tenure as Deputy Principal for Research at Stirling (2016–2024), over 80% of the University’s research was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent, and her leadership resulted in the largest increase in research grant capture in Stirling’s history.

She also served as Research Director for the Healthy Ageing Challenge under UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) from 2020 to 2024. Professor Phillips was previously the Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University and Director of the Research Institute for Applied Social Sciences. She also established the Centre for Innovative Ageing at Swansea and directed the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research for Wales.

Professor Phillips’ contributions to gerontology have been recognised with numerous fellowships and awards, including an OBE for services to older people in 2013 and the British Society of Gerontology’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 2021.

At The University of Manchester, Professor Phillips will engage in a series of strategic initiatives aimed at advancing research on ageing and enhancing The University of Manchester’s already world-leading research capabilities in social gerontology and ageing.

Professor Tine Buffel, Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology at the University has shared:

New book calls for urgent government action to regulate online platforms

Fri, 29 Nov 2024 09:37:18 +0000

A new book by Dr Luke Yates from The University of Manchester is calling for the government to take immediate action to regulate online platforms such as Airbnb and Uber. These platforms have transformed the way we work and live, but some of their impacts have been damaging - especially when it comes to housing and jobs.

In Platform Politics: Corporate Power, Grassroots Movements and the Sharing Economy, Dr Yates highlights how letting platforms such as Airbnb have contributed to a shortage of housing - as more homes are used for short-term rentals, fewer are available for people looking for permanent housing. Gig economy platforms including Uber and Deliveroo have also made jobs less secure - most of their workers don’t receive the same benefits or protections as regular employees.

In particular, the book explores the extensive and controversial ways in which digital platforms have lobbied to avoid regulation and protect their advantages. These have included opaque approaches known as ‘corporate grassroots lobbying’, where platforms mobilise their users and allies against legislative proposals. Dr Yates points out that this type of lobbying is becoming more common, posing a threat to democratic processes.

To address these issues, the book proposes several urgent changes that the government should make:

Create a Lobbying Register: Platform companies often lobby the government in secret, making it difficult to regulate them properly. Dr Yates calls for a mandatory register of all lobbying, whether conducted in-house or by third parties, to ensure transparency and fair governance.

Protect Housing and Workers’ Rights: He also recommends that the government give local councils the power to prevent more houses from being turned into short-term lets. Additionally, stronger laws are needed to protect workers in the gig economy and ensure their rights are upheld.

Implement Short-Term Letting Rules: Although the UK government has started looking into regulating short-term lets, Dr Yates stresses that this process must not be delayed. Without stronger rules, more homes will be lost to platforms like Airbnb, making it harder for people to find affordable housing.

Digital platforms were initially celebrated for their potential benefits, such as creating new income streams and helping communities and the environment. However, Dr Yates’ research shows that these platforms have caused unexpected problems. Policymakers at all levels are struggling to regulate platforms because they often lack reliable data and cooperation from the businesses involved.

Companies like Airbnb and Uber often start operating in cities without permission, quickly expanding and attracting users. Once the government tries to regulate them, these companies use tactics like lobbying to slow down or change the laws. They even mobilise their users to fight against regulation, making it seem like it’s the public pushing back when it is actually the companies themselves.

“As the digital economy continues to evolve, it’s crucial that policymakers take the necessary steps to protect the public from the growing negative effects of platform businesses,” said Dr Yates. “The government needs to create more transparent lobbying rules, protect housing, and ensure workers’ rights are not eroded by these rapidly expanding businesses.”

New book on the sociology of death, dying and bereavement

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 15:57:06 +0000

Death, Dying and Bereavement: New Sociological Perspectives is a new book, edited by Sharon Mallon and Laura Towers.

While death, dying and bereavement are universal life events, the social conditions under which death takes place are fundamental in shaping how it is experienced by the individual. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of chapters provides sociological insights into death, dying and bereavement.

Drawing upon a range of sociological theorists, including Émile Durkheim, Zygmunt Bauman and C. Wright Mills, the book reviews the historical contribution of sociology to the field of thanatology. In doing so, the book challenges individualistic psychological approaches to death, dying and bereavement and demonstrates how sociological approaches can shape, constrain and empower experiences by imbuing them with both collective and individual meaning.

Chapter-length case studies explore a wide range of issues, from digital aspects of remembrance and memorialisation and continued threats to liberties that permit life and death decisions to discussions of the impact and likely legacy of COVID-19 and climate change.

Sharon Mallon is senior lecturer in mental health at the University of Staffordshire and Laura Towers is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Sociology at The University of Manchester.

Death, Dying and Bereavement: New Sociological Perspectives is published by Routledge.

Sociology and Politics Success in Global Subject Rankings

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 16:24:56 +0000

The School of Social Sciences has seen two of its departments rise in the latest Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) Subject Rankings for 2024. Our Politics department is now ranked in the top 50 globally for universities delivering ‘Political Science’, and our Sociology department has broken into the top 25, ranking 11th on the global rankings.

Our Heads of Department for Sociology and Politics have both welcomed the results as a reflection of the hard work of their academics and researchers.

Overall, the University has been placed among the top 25 worldwide in seven subject areas, and has two other subjects ranked in the top 50 globally. We are now ranked in 46 of the 55 subject areas covered by the ARWU, an impressive achievement.

These exceptional results demonstrate our commitment to research excellence and global impact across a diverse range of disciplines.

New resources support dating app users and health practitioners

Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:28:30 +0000

Professor Brian Heaphy, Dr Jaime Garcia Iglesias and Dr Neta Yodovich from the Dating App Connections project have produced a series of free resources with the aim of supporting the healthy, safe, and fun use of dating apps.

With as many as 1 in 10 people in the UK using dating apps, connecting with others online is part of everyday life. Over 900 LGBTQ+ and heterosexual dating app users took part in the research, and they told us that they used dating apps to find ‘the one’, to arrange hookups, for friendship, to make them feel less lonely, to pass the time or even for tourism tips.

Lots of people who used apps to connect with others found them useful, but others were dissatisfied. Some people were dissatisfied because the apps didn’t help them achieve their aims and others experienced discrimination or abuse.

This series of short videos shares insights from the project to help people get the most out of dating apps and avoid some of the common pitfalls. The videos are:

The team have also produced a Guide to Using Dating Apps aimed at individuals using, or considering using, apps. It covers the advantages and disadvantages of using dating apps plus important considerations around ethics, security and privacy.

The widespread use of dating apps has led public health and sexual health practitioners to use them as a way of sharing health messages with users, but this raises additional ethical concerns. Dating apps and health promotion: a guide for practitioners and organisations addresses these issues.

The project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (reference: ES/W002426/1)

New book on corporate power, grassroots movements and the sharing economy

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 15:40:22 +0000

Luke Yates' new book, Platform Politics: Corporate Power, Grassroots Movements and the Sharing Economy, investigates the ‘sharing economy’, powered by companies like Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo.

This new model promised to revolutionise the way we work and live. But what changes have come about, and why?

The book shows how platform capitalism is not only shaped by business decisions, but is a result of struggles involving social movements, consumer politics and state interventions. It focuses in particular on the controversial tactics used by platform giants to avoid regulation.

Drawing on cutting-edge research and analysis, the book provides a critical overview of the struggles around platforms, examines platform power, and reflects on the different possible futures of the platform economy. You can find the book on the Bristol University Press website.

Platform Politics is published by Bristol University Press.

Modern secondhand clothes are often considered ‘dirty’ but vintage garments aren’t – certain assumptions limit sustainable fashion

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 14:59:41 +0100

Written by Tetyana Solovey

As a teenager in post-USSR Ukraine, I vividly remember visiting secondhand clothes shops. For the elderly, the biggest obstacle to accepting secondhand clothes wasn’t just the lingering smell of naphthalene – a potent chemical with a strong mothball odour used for sanitation which is hard to remove even by washing or dry cleaning.

Assumptions about the previous owner’s class — like the bourgeoisie, the so-called enemy of the working class in Soviet propaganda — and their skin colour were barriers too. But for me, these were exactly the reasons I adored this form of shopping. Through secondhand clothes, my friends and I consumed western culture.

Yet, while proximity to western bodies felt like a blessing to my generation, it’s not universally desirable. Certain types of pre-worn clothing, like lingerie, for example, are rarely found in charity shops. Such items are perceived as “dangerous” for reselling as they are associated with contamination and lack of hygiene due to their close contact with intimate areas of the body.

For customers willing to buy and wear Victorian-era underwear slips, this perceived risk is much lower as the cultural provenance outweighs any association with dirt. Washing such historic items is also not recommended as it could ruin the delicate silk or batiste textile, while the traces of someone else’s body such as marks, frays, creases, wrinkles and folds on clothes are considered marks of authenticity.

Although both pre-loved modern and vintage lingerie have been worn, perceptions of their cleanliness differs radically.

The stigma associated with dirt hinders the way people reuse secondhand garments or choose recycled fabrics that have been woven into something new. This limits the potential to transform the wasteful, polluting and energy-intensive fashion industry into a more sustainable one.

Recycling is not yet happening on an industrial scale. Only 1% of used clothes are recycled, and Europe’s only recycling mill, designed to convert discarded clothes into new textiles through eco-friendly chemical recycling, closed in February 2024 – declaring bankruptcy just two years after opening.

Reuse – such as resale, rental, repair and remaking – could help prevent waste, reduce the use of new resources, lower carbon emission and increase consumer awareness to tackle fashion waste. But despite the rise of various reuse models, it still remains a niche practice because it relies on people wearing clothes that others have previously worn.

Although worn clothes are often called “pre-loved,” the visibility of a former “lover” should be minimal for them to re-enter the new cycle of consumption.

Behind the seams

Cleanliness is a cultural concept that has evolved over time. Before, laundering undergarments served as a substitute for bathing, protecting bodies from germs and disease. Today, laundry practices focus on caring for clothes and protecting them from our dirty bodies. Washing at low temperatures and on gentle cycles isn’t about killing germs but preserving freshness. Freshness has become the primary marker of cleanliness, as shown by the wide range of modern detergents and after-laundry products that promise extra freshness.

Cultural perceptions of cleanliness significantly influence how secondhand clothes are viewed and valued. Today, that’s driven by the need to remove traces of the previous owner. That involves laundering, which can release harmful microplastics – washing polyester contributes more than half a million tonnes of microplastics to the oceans annually – or energy-intensive dry cleaning with toxic solvents like perchloroethylene, a process that’s commonly used by rental clothing businesses.

My preliminary research on upcycling shows that clothes, even when physically clean, are often seen as dirty if they’ve been previously worn. Stains like blood on a dress, sweat marks on an XXXL men’s shirt, or wine spills on branded jeans are perceived and even smell differently, despite cleaning. These concerns go beyond hygiene, involving assumptions and moral judgements about the bodies of previous owners, including their class, body shape, gender and race.

In many cultures, there’s a need for symbolic cleansing from the body of the previous owners that is often overlooked.

Cultural biases extend to fibres, with the industry favouring virgin wool obtained from sheep shearing over recycled wool. That’s a reflection of historical attitudes towards lower-class people who collected discarded wasted and smelly textiles.

The recycling process of shredding discarded wool and weaving it into new fibres was invented in 19th-century Yorkshire. The resulting reclaimed product, known as “shoddy wool”, was considered lower quality not only due to the process, which significantly downgraded the quality of textile but also because it used worn, dirty rags collected by poor, often immigrant, women and children. The growth of wool recycling has been hindered, not by technology but by negative attitudes towards the use of recycled rather than virgin and dirty, rather than clean, fibres.

Cleanliness of secondhand clothes is symbolically charged. By distinguishing between the needs for and expectations of physical and symbolic purity in clothing and discussing them more openly, attitudes and cultural norms may shift. This could help move reuse business models from niche to mainstream and support further sustainable development.

Tetyana Solovey, PhD Candidate, Cultural Sociology, University of Manchester

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New book on Marxism in the Global South

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 14:14:30 +0100

Simin Fadaee’s new book Global Marxism: Decolonisation and revolutionary politics investigates how Marx's ideas have been adopted and adapted by revolutionary thinkers in the Global South.

For much of the twentieth century, the ideas of Karl Marx provided the backbone for social justice around the world. But today the legacy of Marxism is contested, with some seeing it as Eurocentric and irrelevant to the wider global struggle.

In Global Marxism, Simin Fadaee argues that Marxism remains a living tradition and the cornerstone of revolutionary theory and practice in the Global South. She explores the lives, ideas and legacies of a group of revolutionaries who played an exceptional role in contributing to counter-hegemonic change. Figures such as Ho Chi Minh, Kwame Nkrumah, Ali Shariati and Subcomandante Marcos did not simply accept the version of Marxism that was given to them - they adapted it to local conditions and contexts. In doing this they demonstrated that Marxism is not a rigid set of propositions but an evolving force whose transformative potential remains enormous.

This global Marxism has much to teach us in the never-ending task of grasping the changing historical conditions of capitalism and the complex world in which we live.

Global Marxism is published by Manchester University Press.

How teenage dreams shape our lives

Wed, 26 Jun 2024 18:41:12 +0100

A series of new videos and an exhibition at the National Graphene Institute explore how teenage experiences and dreams shape our later lives. It is based on research with women in their seventies and eighties reflecting on their teenage experience in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.

This was a time of real change. Girls often stayed at school longer, which meant more qualifications, and for some of them this meant well-paid careers. Some, but not all, could access the pill. Teenagers with money to spare could buy pop music records, follow the latest fashions and save up to travel.

Our Teenage Kicks videos show their dreams for their future. From daydreaming about what it would be like to drive a car, or even just to wear trousers, to dreams of travelling to different countries, getting married, and delaying children until the family finances were secure.

Each of the eight women reflects on how their teenage experiences affected how their lives turned out. For some, like Joyce, dreams are cut short. She was planning on training as a teacher, but had to leave school when her mum got ill and she was needed at home.

Others, like Andrea, achieve some of their teenage dreams. Now retired, she is rekindling her teenage interest in politics and social justice, taking part in climate protests and volunteering at her local food bank.

You can see Andrea’s story at the National Graphene Institute until September. The gallery is viewed from the street outside NGI, so no need to check opening times.

Alternatively, you can see the whole Teenage Kicks exhibition online, read the zine or watch the video.

New book explores changes in everyday eating habits

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 11:30:00 +0100

In his new book, Everyday Eating: Food, Taste and Trends in Britain since the 1950s Alan Warde explores how eating habits have changed in recent decades and asks what it means for us to eat well.

He traces the changing culinary landscape of food consumption in Britain since the 1950s, drawing connections between global trends in mass food production and the changing practices of what and how we eat.

From a move towards more informal ways of eating, and an increase in eating out, Warde demonstrates how social change shapes what we put on our plates, sharpening both the pleasures and the anxieties around food.

Drawing on research undertaken over 40 years, the book offers fresh insights into such practices as everyday meals, shopping, cooking and dining out and how these are shaped by demographic, social and cultural processes. The book provides a comprehensive and engaging analysis of eating in Britain today and of the many controversies about how this has changed.

Alan Warde is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Professorial Fellow in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester. He specialises in cultural sociology, consumption and food. In 2019 he received the BSA Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award.

Why using dating apps for public health messaging is an ethical dilemma

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:38:37 +0100

Dating apps are not just about finding love or hooking up. They are becoming increasingly important in the communication of public health messaging, particularly sexual health.

In 2023, Harvard Public Health magazine suggested that dating apps could “become a key component in [sexually infectious diseases] prevention”. And their prediction seems to be spot on.

Grindr, a dating app popular among men who have sex with men, for example, has recently partnered with MPOWER in Ireland and The Love Tank in London to allow users to order HIV test kits through the app. While these partnerships hold promise for public health, they also raise important ethical challenges. Alongside colleagues from the UK and US, we have published a discussion of these challenges and proposed ways of addressing them.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever started using dating apps. Today, apps such as Tinder, Match, or Grindr have millions of users worldwide. A recent Pew survey in the US showed that more than half of people aged under 30 had used dating apps. Most dating apps can be accessed from smartphones, allowing users to find other people based on shared interests, preferences or location.

A recent systematic review concluded that apps have multiple benefits for public health, including the ability to effectively target specific groups. In the US, Building Healthy Online Communities is a successful example of collaborating with dating apps to promote sexual health. And, during the recent monkeypox (mpox) outbreak, Grindr provided information about the virus and its vaccine to users.

Profit, privacy and prejudice

But most apps are profit-generators for businesses and operate in ethical and regulatory contexts that are very different to those of medical or health related professions. One major concern is privacy, as apps collect vast amounts of personal data. Cybersecurity experts have argued that apps are a “security and privacy minefield”. This is, in part, because the main goal of apps is “generating, capturing and controlling user data” for profit.

Unfortunately, there are many examples of apps mishandling data. For example, Grindr has been fined for sharing sensitive user data with third parties, including users’ HIV status. This misuse of data can have severe consequences, including outing people in unsafe environments.

Dating apps can also reproduce the prejudices and discrimination all too common in wider society. Research shows that many users, particularly from marginalised groups, experience harassment, including racism and ableism, on these platforms. A 2019 study of the experiences of dating apps among rural sexual minority men in the US found that online dating often led to “deception, bullying or discrimination, and harassment or coercion”.

Some apps, such as Grindr, have removed the option for users to filter according to race – but other apps are designed with features which allow, if not encourage, discrimination. Discriminatory experiences undermine users’ trust in dating apps, making marginalised groups more reluctant to use them. This also means that marginalised groups may be less likely to access public health information and help through dating apps.

Some dating apps operate with opaque policies. For example, Grindr and Tinder can terminate any user’s account, for any reason and without any notice. Some public health organisations who had been using apps to disseminate information have had their profiles blocked on some apps.

Future collaborations with apps should prioritise the benefit of users over those of the app businesses, develop transparent data policies that prevent users’ data from being shared for profit, ensure the apps’ commitment to anti-discrimination and anti-harrassment, and provide links to health and wellbeing services beyond the apps.

Dating apps have the potential to be powerful allies in public health, especially in reaching populations that have often been ignored. However, their use must be carefully managed to avoid compromising user privacy, safety and marginalisation.

Winners of the Sociology Public Engagement Prize announced

Wed, 22 May 2024 16:02:00 +0100

Research engagement comes in shapes and sizes, and this year judges of the annual Sociology Prize for Public Engagement, Philip Drake (Director of Social Responsibility, School of Social Sciences) and Hilary Pilkington (Research Director, Sociology) awarded joint first prize in the staff category to two worthy, but very different, projects. Helen Holmes and Torik Holmes share first prize this year with Penny Tinkler.

Helen and Torik won for sharing their plastic recycling research with policymakers and consumers. They organised recycling pop-up events, produced reports for households and policymakers, contributed to government and business consultations and achieved extensive media coverage of their One Bin project.

Penny Tinkler won for her Teenage Kicks exhibition at Glasgow Women’s Library, which also included intergenerational workshops exploring how gender shapes teenage experiences and later life. Teenage Kicks shares the stories of eight women who were all teenagers in the 1960s.

Luciana Lang was highly commended in the staff category for a series of knowledge exchange events, at a local mosque, church and temple, researching the role of faith spaces in healthy ageing. The events led to co-produced policy and practice recommendations and a report on the role of faith spaces as social infrastructure.

We also awarded prizes in our PhD student category. Daniela Fazio Vargas, with Carlos Pineda Ramos (University of Bristol) won first prize in this category for an innovative essay for the British Council Cultural Relations Collection.

In it they explored how artists, from filmmakers to painters, can contribute to peacebuilding, using Colombia and Northern Ireland as their cases. Their essay led to them being invited to take part in further British Council international collaborations on the role of the arts in transitional justice.

Manuela Latchoumaya was highly commended in the PhD student category for sharing her work exploring identity and belonging for French citizens of South Asian descent through online and in-person events and as a podcast guest.

Most Gypsy and Traveller sites in Great Britain are located within 100 metres of major pollutants, shows research

Wed, 15 May 2024 13:35:42 +0100

Alice Bloch, The University of Manchester and Katharine Quarmby, University of West London

Gypsy and Traveller communities are among the more socially excluded groups in the UK. There is a long history of government failures in meeting these groups’ housing needs.

The shortage of sites has resulted in a homelessness problem. Those who do secure pitches on council-managed sites often have to contend with living near potential hazards.

For our recent study, we mapped local authority-managed Gypsy and Traveller sites in Great Britain. Of those sites, 39% were within 50 metres of one or more major pollutants and 54% were within 100 metres.

The effect on residents is significant. As one of our interviewees, Sarah (all names have been changed), put it: “You can’t breathe here. A lot of people have asthma. Lots of babies in the community have poor health. A lot of them have skin rashes. Nobody ever lived past about 50 here. Whatever is coming out is killing people. Lots of people are dying of chest, COPD and cancer.”

Worsening conditions

Between 2021 and 2022, we mapped 291 Gypsy and Traveller sites across Great Britain, noting their proximity to environmental hazards. These included motorways, A-roads, railway lines, industrial estates and sewage works.

To do so, we used the Caravan Count 2020, which lists all authorised local authority managed sites in England and Wales and a freedom of information request to the Scottish government, which gave us the names and addresses of all the authorised public sites in Scotland.

The study included in-depth case studies, site visits and interviews with 13 site residents (including repeat interviews with five site residents on two sites).

Local newspapers that reported on the highly contested historical and current planning processes were also analysed. Freedom of information requests were sent to local authorities to obtain planning meeting documents and 11 interviews were conducted with representatives of local and national organisations that work with Gypsy and Traveller communities.

When new Gypsy and Traveller sites are proposed by local authorities near existing residential areas, objections come from three main groups: residents, local politicians and local media outlets.

These objections often result in new sites being pushed further to the margins of towns and cities, in places that other communities would not be expected to live.

As a result, sites are often in isolated areas, quite literally on the wrong side of the tracks. They are nestled in among the infrastructure that services the needs of the local settled communities, from major roads to recycling centres.

One of the sites we visited has been in use since the 1970s, despite the fact that, already then, it was located near a waste transfer station. The intervening five decades have only seen conditions on the site worsen.

A chicken slaughterhouse nearby now burns carcasses regularly. The household waste recycling centre has expanded to allow for recycling and incineration of solid waste from commerce and industry.

Lorries and other vehicles now come in and out in large numbers, just metres away from some of the pitches. Residents experience constant noise and vibrations. Mary, who lives on the site, says the sound of the skips being deposited from 5am every morning is like a bomb going off: “It drops so hard it shakes the chalet.”

The air is always heavy with dust. Residents have to keep their windows closed – even in the summer – to keep out the flies. As Jane, who is the fourth generation of her family to live on the site, puts it: “We are living in an industrial area. It’s the air quality, the sand, the dust, the recycling tip is just behind us. The noise is a big problem. There is an incinerator near the slaughterhouse and that’s really bad. And the smell…”

Environmental racism

According to the World Health Organization, housing is one of the major factors determining health. The physical conditions of a home – including mould, asbestos, cold, damp and noise – are obvious risk factors. So too, are wider environmental factors, from overcrowding and isolation from services to the relative lack of access to green spaces.

The people we spoke with, including site residents and organisational representatives, highlight the harmful health effects of living on many Gypsy and Traveller sites. This chimes with the government’s own reports, which have found these sites to be unsafe.

Research on health inequalities in the UK bears this out. People from Gypsy and Irish Traveller backgrounds report the poorest health and a life expectancy of between ten and 25 years less than the general population. They also have higher rates of long-term illness and conditions that limit everyday life and activities.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has further constrained Gypsy and Traveller communities by criminalising roadside stopping and forcing people on to transit sites. These are designed for short stays and are often in even worse locations than permanent sites.

This poses a plain threat to traditional nomadic ways of life, from travelling in the summer months to fairs and attending religious gatherings.

Thousands of people rely on these local authority-managed sites, located dangerously near the kind of environmental pollutants that are associated with poor health and premature deaths. The term “environmental racism” is used to refer to how people from minority and low-income communities are disproportionately subjected to environmental harm.

Yvonne MacNamara is the chief executive of the non-profit advocacy organisation, Traveller Movement. She highlights that the inequalities these communities face are systemic. Local authorities, she says, treat Traveller communities “like second-class citizens”.

To one resident’s mind, attitudes within local government to Gypsy and Traveller social housing are clearly discriminatory. As she put it: “They wouldn’t expect anyone but a Traveller to live here.”

Alice Bloch, Professor of Sociology, The University of Manchester and Katharine Quarmby, Royal Literary Fund Fellow, University of West London. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

What being a teenage girl in 1960s Britain was really like

Wed, 15 May 2024 13:26:40 +0100

Penny Tinkler, The University of Manchester

Dressed in a mini skirt and passionate about boys, music, dance and fashion, the 1960s teenage girl is a pop culture icon, the seeming beneficiary of the ascendancy of mass youth culture in the west and of unprecedented social and cultural changes.

Quite how real women actually experienced – and benefited from – this era of social change is more complex. For the past six years, I have led the first detailed study of girls growing up in Britain between the 1950s and 1970s. In order to understand how this era has shaped women’s experiences and identities in later life, my colleagues and I conducted interviews with 70 women born between 1939 and 1952.

We also explored data on girlhood from Britain’s first birth cohort study, as well as the English longitudinal study of ageing.

The current Teenage Kicks exhibition, on show at the Glasgow Women’s Library and online until May 18, delves into eight of our interviewees’ stories. Edinburgh-based artist Candice Purwin has illustrated the striking diversity they relay: girls growing up in very different circumstances navigated the possibilities and pitfalls of the 1960s and early 1970s in very different ways.

Swinging London

Our interviewees were from different social class backgrounds and across both rural and urban locations. To spark memories, we played music that these women would have listened to when they were young. We talked with them about their personal photos.

One interviewee, Liz, was the epitome of a modern, mobile, young woman. At 17, she was earning an income, travelling to Europe with friends and enjoying the consumerism of swinging London. She told us about visiting clubs and shopping in new department stores. At 19, she left to work in the US.

This sense of London as a place of opportunity was a recurrent theme. Andrea embarked on a science degree in London, aged 18. Coming to the capital meant being able to escape village life and the scrutiny of her religious parents.

Andrea found freedom to engage in student politics and to come out as a lesbian. Being gay was a stigmatised identity at the time. She recalled furtive visits to London’s only lesbian club, the Gateway Club. “A crummy place really,” she said, “down in the basement, small, hot and dark.”

Another interviewee, Joyce, grew up in poverty in an overcrowded home in central London. She said she felt like “the bee’s knees” when she started earning money. She described the pair of white boots she was able to buy, to wear when she went out dancing.

Like her peers, though, Joyce mainly spent her leisure time walking the streets with friends and going to cafés. “We sat there all night with one coffee,” she said, “sometimes two, if you were feeling rash.”

In rural areas, girls were often dependent on limited public transport to access leisure venues, shops and cafes in nearby towns. Going to the cinema was a major expedition.

Valerie, who grew up on a farm near Portsmouth on England’s south coast, said: “We couldn’t get there until 6 o’clock and we had to be on the 9 o’clock bus back.” As films were often shown on a continuous loop throughout the day, she said “you’d pick up a film half way through, watch it until the bit that you came in at, and then leave.”

For girls abroad, the capital represented the opportunities Britain itself promised. One interviewee, Cynthia, migrated from St Kitts, in search of better prospects. “Jobs were easy to find when I came to Britain,” she said.

Cynthia worked as a machinist in a clothing factory by day. By night, she studied typing and administration. These new qualifications helped her secure a better-paid job as a secretary in a solicitor’s office.

Unequal access

We found that access to the widening educational and professional opportunities for girls was uneven. More were going to university and into professional training. Most, however, left school at 15 without qualifications and with limited work prospects.

Joyce thrived at school but left at 15 when her mother became ill. Later, she took evening classes and became a telephonist.

Pamela too was a star pupil but her mother thought it pointless educating a daughter. “She’s only going to get married!”, her mother would say. Once in the workforce, however, Pamela excelled and quickly progressed into management.

Like others whose education was foreshortened due to hardship and sexism, Pamela and Joyce later regretted not having been able to pursue their studies further.

In popular culture, the 1960s are associated with growing permissiveness. Most of the women we spoke with, however, said that, as girls, they feared getting pregnant out of wedlock.

The pill became available to married women in 1961. But access for single women was restricted until 1974. Even access to basic sex education was limited.

Pamela fell in love at 17 and got pregnant. Her mother insisted that she give up both that relationship and her baby. She eventually started a new relationship and married at 20. This was an abusive marriage. Taking control of her fertility, she went on the pill and by age 24, she had secured a divorce.

The unprecedented trend towards early marriage meant youth was typically short-lived. In 1965, 40% of brides were under 21. Easier access to divorce from 1969 proved an important development for many.

Women speak about aspects of their younger selves having stayed with them in later life. Many live with what we call “shadow selves”, the feeling that they could have been a different person and had a different life if things had gone differently when they were young.

Some of our interviewees explained that it was not possible to rectify what they missed in their youth. Others spoke about using retirement to make up for missed opportunities. Most advise their own children and grandchildren to make the most of being young.

Penny Tinkler, Professor of Sociology and History, The University of Manchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Research highlights role of faith spaces in supporting healthy ageing

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:46:44 +0100

A team of researchers from The University of Manchester has spent the last 18 months examining how faith spaces in Greater Manchester support different groups of older people within their communities.

Greater Manchester has a growing older population which is becoming increasingly culturally diverse. The city region also faces high levels of inequality around health, income and access to neighbourhood services.

In this context, faith spaces provide much needed support as well as places for social connection. However, they are rarely acknowledged for the work they do, are mostly self-funded, and rely on mainly older volunteers to deliver their services.

Researchers from the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) spoke to a wide range of partners including local authority public health and neighbourhood officers, third sector organisations, faith-based and interfaith networks, and diverse groups representing older people from across Greater Manchester. A range of participants contributed to the data, including faith leaders or representatives of faith communities, as well as older people who are regular users of faith spaces.

Their research found that faith spaces provide spiritual wellbeing, belonging and a sense of community by serving as ‘social connectors’, and that they provide practical and emotional support across gender and social class.

The faith spaces in this study also supported a wider range of benefits beyond that of spiritual wellbeing, both for those who identified with a faith community, and by those who did not. Some participants from the White British community who visited an Anglican church told the researchers that they did not think of themselves as people of faith, but the space was important for social purposes - Beth, a White woman in her 70s, said “I’m a humanist so I don’t come here for the service, but to have a cup of tea with people.”

The activities provided by the faith spaces were not restricted to indoor meetings - a group of women started going for walks in a local park as part of an informal initiative by a lay leader from the Muslim community who participated in the research. One of the women taking part was Rayhana, a 72-year-old Muslim woman, who had found herself ‘stuck at home’ without a network of other Asian women after retiring from her busy life working as a teacher and looking after her children on her own. “It made a big difference in my life because I used to sit at home depressed not going anywhere," she said. "But now I come out with these people, and we enjoy that."

The research uncovered high inequality across different neighbourhoods, as well as social isolation amongst groups and individuals within the older population. Such experiences are reflected in the provision of various services by faith spaces, these often targeting recent migrants, those experiencing isolation and/or financial hardship, and people undergoing challenging life transitions such as bereavement, divorce, health problems and relocation.

The experts are calling for a more strategic involvement of faith-based groups in public health and age-friendly agendas. Taking into consideration the existing support happening in faith spaces and the opportunities for that work to be expanded, they suggest that policymakers should explore how to enhance the role of faith spaces in contributing to promoting health and wellbeing in the community, and provide support to enhance the social function of faith spaces, both for existing users and members of the wider community.

They also appeal for recognition of the role of faith spaces in supporting isolated/newly arrived groups to the community and their potential to connect older people to age-friendly initiatives, as well as support for faith spaces to access funding and the broadening of the age-friendly framework to embrace spiritual participation and cultural diversity.

The report is available to view here.

Exhibition explores the untold stories of teenage girls in 1960s Britain

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 17:02:05 +0000

Teenage Kicks, a captivating new art exhibition based on University of Manchester research, unveils the vibrant and dynamic lives of eight young women who navigated the turbulent cultural landscape of 1960s Britain.

The exhibition will run until Saturday 18 May at Glasgow Women’s Library and online.

The inspiration behind Teenage Kicks is research conducted by Penny Tinkler, Professor of Sociology and History at The University of Manchester, whose work sheds light on the youth experiences of women born between 1939 and 1952 in Britain.

During this period, societal norms shifted dramatically, affecting all aspects of young women’s lives, and heralding greater acknowledgement that women were equal to men. This transformation was evidenced in a surge in female enrolment into further and higher education, women’s active participation in trade unions, and their inroads into a wide range of careers. Meanwhile, personal life was being reconfigured by the contraceptive pill and increased accessibility of divorce.

The stories of the eight young women have been brought to life through the detailed illustrations of Edinburgh-based Candice Purwin. Her illustrations explore their everyday lives as they navigate school, work and relationships against the backdrop of a Britain undergoing huge social and political change.

How these large societal changes impact on individual lives is a key theme of the work: while many of the girls leave school with more qualifications than earlier generations, they do not all have the same chance of a good career, financial security or family planning. Often, family responsibilities, societal expectations or difficult relationships with partners or parents mean that teenage dreams are cancelled, or put on hold.

Candice Purwin, the illustrator, animator and graphic novelist behind the Teenage Kicks exhibition, said: “Illustrating Teenage Kicks gave me a rare and unique opportunity to bring to life a deeply transformative period of British history for women and girls. The stories these eight women shared with us are rich in detail and experiences that deconstruct the teenage girl stereotype we are usually shown. I’m excited for the exhibition to bring this history to a wider audience and that we get to share the work in such an iconic space.”

Caroline Gausden, Development worker for Curating and Engagement at Glasgow Women’s Library, added: “Our mission at Glasgow Women’s Library is to celebrate the lives and achievements of women and champion their contribution to society, so Teenage Kicks is a great addition to our busy programme. This generation of women, has played – and is playing - a huge part in how Britain has changed since the Second World War. We hope that visitors of all ages enjoy the exhibition, whether or not they remember the sixties themselves!”

There will be a workshop linked to the exhibition at Glasgow Women’s Library on 18 April 2024.

Teenage Kicks is part of The University of Manchester’s Girlhood and Later Life project, and has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Manchester expert becomes Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:00:00 +0000

An academic from The University of Manchester has been recognised as a leading expert in her field by being named a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

New Fellows are named due to the excellence and impact of their work, which addresses matters of vital importance and contributes to the social sciences for the public good. Through leadership, scholarship, applied research, policymaking and practice, they have helped to deepen the understanding of some of the toughest challenges facing our society and the world.

The Academy is made up of over 1400 Fellows, 46 societies and a number of affiliates - this extensive community of over 90,000 social scientists has helped establish the UK’s position as a global leader in the social sciences.

Joining them is Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology Tine Buffel, one of the world’s leading experts on urban ageing whose research is driving cities to create supportive environments for people as they grow older. Through her leadership of the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group, Tine has brought international recognition for the University's work in this field and has supported a new generation of researchers.

With over 100 scholarly publications, including six books and two edited volumes, her standing in the field is widely acknowledged – her work is frequently cited by other academics and the policy community, and she has given keynote speeches at major conferences such as IAGG, the leading international conference for Geriatrics and Gerontology.

Tine has led multiple research programmes on urban ageing, supported by an extensive record of grants from the European Research Council, ESRC, UKRI, and the Leverhulme Trust, while also receiving numerous awards for her collaborative work aimed at improving ageing experiences in low-income neighbourhoods.

Tine's influence extends beyond academia, as she collaboratively engages with local and regional government, community organisations, and older people’s groups to collectively shape policies and practices to enhance people’s quality of life in later life. As an elected expert member of major international committees, she plays a key role working with leading organisations in the field of ageing, informing initiatives such as the United Nations Decade of Healthy Ageing, and working with the World Health Organization to develop new measures to monitor the health and wellbeing of older people.

“At a time when the importance of the social sciences to addressing many pressing issues cannot be overstated, it’s a pleasure to welcome some of the UK’s leading social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship,” said Will Hutton, President of the Academy. “Their contributions have furthered our understanding in tackling a wide range of societal challenges including mitigating health and economic inequalities, understanding the causes and effects of hate crime, the development of inclusive practices in education, and the future of cities.

"We look forward to working with them to further promote the vital role the social sciences play in all areas of our lives.”

Experts outline how to reduce COVID-19 health inequalities for ethnic minority groups

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:11:04 +0000

An international collaborative led by The University of Manchester and the University of Leicester has published a new paper which outlines how to reduce COVID-19 health inequity among ethnic minority groups.

The paper, commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in EClinicalMedicine, builds on research already completed by both institutions during the pandemic which demonstrated that ethnic minority groups were disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

The paper brings together all of the available evidence, along with international experts in the field, to summarise why people from ethnic minority groups were more likely to be infected and die during the pandemic.

Researchers highlighted that ethnic minority groups were more likely to be exposed to those who were infectious with COVID-19 because a high proportion were employed in key worker roles, making it more likely that they would themselves become infected. They also showed that certain ethnic minority groups were more likely to die once infected due to barriers in receiving adequate healthcare, such as delayed diagnosis and treatment due to job insecurity and financial issues, and in some cases language barriers.

In addition, the research showed they were more likely to suffer from social and economic consequences – for example the inability to isolate once infected and in some cases the lack of adequate healthcare to meet their needs.

The authors state that ethnic minority groups were disadvantaged from the start due to longstanding health inequities caused by systemic racism and racial discrimination. Furthermore, the reasons for ethnic inequities in COVID-19 infection, severe disease and death are interconnected.

The paper aims to provide a blueprint for policymakers and researchers to address these inequities so that they can be better prepared for future pandemics.

It states that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to intervention does not work and that cultural, social and language barriers must be overcome along with other socio-economic issues.

“This framework is the first of its kind to specifically address inequities during a pandemic,” said Dr Daniel Pan from the University of Leicester, the paper’s co-lead author who is a specialist registrar in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine and a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Doctoral Research Fellow. “The recommendations aim to ensure ethnic inequalities in treatment do not occur in future.

“The COVID-19 pandemic won’t be the last and steps need to be taken now to reduce the inevitable consequences of the next pandemic on ethnic minority groups. We know that innovative approaches are required but if we plan for these, they can be overcome.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and amplified health inequalities for ethnic minority groups,” said Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases Manish Pareek from the University of Leicester, the paper’s senior author.

“It is important that we learn lessons from the pandemic and this work, in collaboration with international experts and the WHO, provides guidance on how to reduce the disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups for future pandemics.”

New book explores changing Muslim masculinities

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 11:44:10 +0000

Claire Alexander’s new book, Revisiting the Asian Gang: Changing Muslim Masculinities is out now, published by Bloomsbury.

In her groundbreaking ethnography The Asian Gang, published in 2000, Claire Alexander explored the creation of Asian Muslim masculinities in South London.

Set against the backdrop of the moral panic over 'Asian gangs' in the mid-1990s, based on 5 years of ethnographic fieldwork, the book explored the idea of 'the gang', friendships, and the role of 'brothers' in the formation, performance and negotiation of ethnic, religious and gendered identities.

The Asian Gang Revisited picks up the story of 'the Asian gang' over the subsequent two decades, examining the changing identities of the original participants as they transition into adulthood in the context of increased public and political concerns over Muslim masculinities, spanning the War on Terror, 'grooming gangs' and increased Islamophobia.

Building on her ongoing relationships with the men over 25 years, the book explores education, employment, friendship, marriage and fatherhood, and religious identity, and examines both the changes and the continuities that have shaped this group. It traces the lives of its participants from their teenage years through to their early-mid 40s.

A unique longitudinal study of this small, diverse but still close cohort of men, the book offers an intimate, rich and textured account of what it means to be a Muslim man in contemporary Britain.