• Lockdown and Educational Inequality: Some Reflections

    In 1970, Basil Bernstein famously wrote that education cannot compensate for society. Bernstein may have been writing fifty years ago, but recent reports on the impact of school closures on disadvantaged children and young people resonate with his conclusions. Despite decades of government rhetoric about inclusion, the empirical reality of social inequality has been exposed…

  • Coronavirus and Calais refugees: How can you stay safe without soap?

    France has been in lockdown since 16 March with strict rules limiting movement outside homes but what does this mean if you haven’t actually got a home? There are around 1200 refugees living rough in the pas-de-Calais region. They are in constant fear about their health and supplies of food and water as COVID-19 takes…

  • Wither Fake News: COVID-19 and its Impact on Journalism

    The current pandemic has reproposed, this time with more acuity than ever, key questions for the media and journalism. First, the current crisis has reconfirmed that our reality is indeed substantially shaped by media. We live in an era of deep mediatization, as researchers call it (see Andreas Hepp’s Deep Mediatization book published in 2019,…

  • In Troubled Times, Philosophy CAN Help

    There is much for us reflect upon during these difficult times, not the least of which might well be encompassed by how the modern, high-tech, sophisticated world of Homo Sapiens can be brought to a virtual standstill by a simple single-celled organism called Covid-19. This very fact is sufficient in itself to make us stop…

  • COVID-19: Lockdown when you are Locked Up

    The onset of COVID-19 has made an impact on every aspect of our society. But one group in particular is facing real difficulties in coping with the crisis, a group so often ignored by society, and that is people in prison. It is shocking that reportedly up to 60% of prisoners could become infected with…

  • Ministry without the Ministered: Reflections from a Vicar in Lockdown

    As a Church of England Vicar, like other professionals called to work in local community the idea of this lockdown has been a tremendous shock. I am learning to cope (but not very well!). Ministers of the Gospel are called to preach, teach and minister God’s love in community; isolation is a very painful and…

  • Who Needs Society? Authoritarianism and COVID-19

    The Wall Street Journal recently suggested that ‘western democracies’ should look to Eastern Europe to how it contained the COVID-19 pandemic. With some Eastern European countries first ignoring or diminishing the COVID-19 threat (Russia) or asserting the benefits of ‘alternative’ therapies such as the encouragement of steam baths, eating garlic, and drinking Vodka – the…

  • COVID-19 & the (dis)proportionate case for lockdown

    The Government has been criticised for doing ‘too little, too late’. But is this fair? One of the issues I identify here is the way mortality statistics have been recorded. This is important because mortality rates are fundamental to assessments of risk to public health, which in turn are fundamental to any rationale for lockdown.…

  • COVID-19 lockdown: What are the implications for individual freedom?

    Central Edinburgh under lockdown on Easter Saturday 2020. © kaysgeog, Fickr The Coronavirus outbreak is having a profound impact on our personal and work lives. Like many countries around the world, UK has been placed under lockdown for more than four weeks now. Unlike some European countries who have declared a state of emergency under…

  • Pandemic, Press Conference and Performance: What future for the politician’s ‘Direct Address’?

    27/04/2020. London, United Kingdom. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a statement outside 10 Downing Street, as he returns to work following recovering from Coronavirus at Chequers. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street. © Crown copyright I decided not to watch the coronavirus press conference the other day.  I heard the names…

  • What is the new ‘normal’? Autism, Routine and Covid-19

    On April 2nd World Autism Day was being celebrated around the world. Just as it has for the last few years, the Twitterverse was particularly active, with the popular hashtag #autismawarenessday being posted in thousands of tweets in support of those on the spectrum. This year of course, many #autismawarenessday tweets were also focused on…

  • Hannah Arendt: A Theorist for Troubled Times

    At a time of existential threat, Hannah Arendt is, I believe, a good theorist to turn to in troubled times. Throughout her career Arendt addressed many existential themes, most notably, totalitarianism and the so-called “banality of evil”, in her study of the trial of Adolf Eichmann. As a political theorist, however, Arendt was most interested…

  • Fingerprints, DNA and Policing Powers during COVID-19

    Lockdown measures have now been extended by a further three weeks and may last until mid-June. So, you might be wondering what the mechanisms are behind such structures. How can the police force people to disperse from large gatherings? What in fact are large gatherings? What about leaving your home for anything other reason than…

  • Lockdown 2020 – The Impact on Social Care

    During this unprecedented lockdown, serious concerns have been raised across society about the social care of the country’s most marginalised and vulnerable groups; and the safety and protection of those who provide their care. Despite this, provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020 undermine the Equality Act 2010 and the Care Act 2014, which guarantees disabled…

  • The Arts and COVID-19: A Time of Danger and Opportunity?

    Darren Henley (2020), the CEO of the Arts Council, refers to the pandemic as: “the most serious challenge to (the) existence” (p.1) of the arts industry since the second world war”. With the closure of all cinemas, theatres, live music venues, studios and dancing spaces, the arts industry in the UK faces a very uncertain…

  • Where is the Balance – Democracy in the Lockdown

    The arrival of CORVID 19 has changed our annual routines.  Every Spring we know to put the clocks forward, to expect events like the Grand National and the Cup Final and to expect the steady tramp of the political campaigners’ tread.  Because for politicians, May is polling day.  There is always an election somewhere in…

  • Back in the USSR: C-19 and the Normalising of a Surveillance State

    The current C-19 pandemic has led to a number of very challenging questions. Of course, as a society we want to provide the best care, and minimise the number of deaths. In order to achieve this however, we have had to make some unprecedented sacrifices, not least with our civil liberties. For some, these are…

  • Is it kindness that matters?

    There is no doubt that public interest in corporate social (ir) responsibility (CSR and CSIR) in the retail industry had been increasing dramatically over the past few years prior to the onset of COVID-19. Retailers of all shapes and sizes have, for some time, been taking steps to demonstrate socially responsible behaviours in order to reaffirm their…

  • SustainNET – The New Sustainability Network

    Sustainability Event It was good to see so many local organisations and people come together with Edge Hill University staff and students at the ‘Sustainability in the Region’ event held on 6 November 2019 at New Church House in Ormskirk. Around 20 organisations were able to display and demonstrate their sustainability-related work with around 100…

  • Imagining New Civic Interactions

    The Institute for Social Responsibility’s knowledge exchange program, “Imagining New Civic Interactions”, included a half-day symposium exploring the role of universities in their local communities on 8th January 2020. We were welcomed to the Tanhouse Community Centre in Skelmersdale by Cllr Ron Cooper, Tanhouse ward councillor and chair of West Lancashire Council’s cabinet working group on community…