Department of Sociology

By Paul Stoneman By the morning of May 8 2015, the British public had returned a majority Conservative government for the first time in 23 years. No-one saw it coming. A debate has since raged on the accuracy of the polls, and will no doubt continue (see the British Polling Council enquiry here). Just for the […]

By Paul Hodkinson A year ago, I was beginning four months of what, at the time, was called ‘additional paternity leave’. I am hard pressed to remember a more distinctive, enjoyable or fulfilling period in my recent daily life and, as the spring weather has set in this year, have found myself wishing I could […]

By Jo Hope (née Belcher) Although use of the Internet in the UK has become widespread (Dutton and Blank, 2013), our attitude toward online interactions and information seeking remains complex. There are utopian and dystopian approaches towards our use of ‘new’ media that have remained remarkably resistant to criticisms. These themes run through research and wider, […]

By Andrew King The context I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about the housing crisis in the UK in recent weeks. It’s been dubbed a ‘human disaster’ and as the General Election 2015 fast approaches there are suggestions that housing is moving up the political agenda; witness, for example, the Conservatives’ much debated extension […]

By Karen Bullock For the police service, as for other public sector organisations, a primary question since 2010 has been how to maintain levels of service as deep funding cuts start to bite. The public sector union Unison has recently drawn attention to how police services across England and Wales are quietly retaining volunteers to […]

By Jon Garland April 2014 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the London nailbombings: three separate attacks that occurred over two weeks in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho in the spring of 1999. In total, three people were killed and over 120 were injured in blasts that targeted the capital’s black, Asian and gay communities. In […]