News

Ethical dilemmas and global health

15 May 2012: Sociologists David Stuckler and Sridhar Venkatapuram discuss how tensions within society are slowing down the process of combating disease worldwide. We are driven by the notion that politics, especially global health politics, can be richer than the pursuit of self-interest of different actors through greater...

The human cost of economic policy

7 May 2012: New research will bring social scientists closer to uncovering the economic basis of a “gigantic human catastrophe” that followed the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union. Economic policies can ‘get under the skin of individuals’ and have a huge impact on public health. Dr Lawrence King As scenes of...

Gendered Lives: Gender Inequalities in Production and Reproduction

May 2012: Professor Jacqueline Scott has published a new book, Gendered Lives: Gender Inequalities in Production and Reproduction, edited with Professor Shirley Dex (University of London) and Dr Anke C. Plagnol (City University London). Description: This meticulous book examines how gender inequalities in contemporary...

A policy of mass destruction

29 March 2012: A new study reveals how a radical economic policy devised by western economists put former Soviet states on a road to bankruptcy and corruption. The most radical privatisation programme in history failed the countries it was meant to help. The lessons of unintended consequences in Russia suggest we should...

Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century, 2nd Edition

March 2012: Professor John Thompson has published the 2nd edition of his book, Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century . Description: These are turbulent times in the world of book publishing. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged...

Men of wonder: Gender and American superhero comics

1 November 2011: Boys and action comics go together like Batman and Robin – but how are girls represented in comics? Sociologist, Casey Brienza, investigates the male world of the action comic and looks at the depictions of female characters. Starfire, appearing in Red Hood and the Outlaws #1, is drawn like a centerfold...

Belief and beyond

23 October 2011: In a Festival of Ideas talk for the public this Tuesday, Cambridge University academic Dr David Lehmann will discuss the enduring power of fundamentalist strands of religion within an increasingly secular society. His most recent research focuses on the phenomenal rise of the neo-Pentecostal Church in...

A Greek tragedy in health?

10 October 2011: Cambridge-led research documents rises in HIV, heroin use, prostitution, homicides and suicides in the wake of the Greek financial crisis. The trends in Greece are deeply disturbing. They pose a warning for hard-hit European countries like Spain, Ireland and Portugal. David Stuckler The Greek debt crisis...

PCs to blame for rise in stressed out workers

30 September 2011: New research shows early adoption of PCs led to a rise in work intensity in the UK. Researchers interested in stress at work have been concerned at the increased intensity of work in the EU over the past 20 years. A more detailed breakdown has shown that this increase between 1995 and 2005 occurred in...

Smartphone art

25 September 2011: As mobile phone cameras improve, emerging forms of social media are basing themselves in ‘iPhoneography’. While social media is often held up as an example of the increasingly vacuous and self-obsessed nature of society, research into these new networks shows they can encourage creativity, and even...