Professor Jo Crotty

Word THE END written on an old typewriter

Following the death of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and former General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, just a week before, it feels as if the 20th century has finally come to an end.

Like me, people may have been prompted by the former to watch (or in my case re-watch) The Crown. In so doing I was struck by these lines from Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s (played by Jason Watkins) on his first audience with the Queen in 1964;

‘They had had enough of the mess those Conservatives left us… soaring land and house prices, race riots, sex scandals, large-scale unemployment, rejection from the EEC and an annual trade deficit of £800m.’

With a few tweaks, this felt like something Kier Starmer could have said at the recent Labour Party Conference.

The complex aftermath of a pandemic (1919 v 2020), Brexit (1964 v 2016), the resurgence of far-right leaders in Europe (1930s v 2020s), strikes (1984 V 2022), energy (1978 v 2022) and fuel crises (1973 v 2022), and of course a war in Europe, it all seems like history repeating.

So as we enter into a new academic year, we invite all EHU academics, GTA and Prof alike, to reflect on the ‘state of world’ – past, present, and future – as it pertains to your research through the ISR blog.

Of course, posts need not be linked to those outlined above: we are interested in any and all that bridge the gap between current events and your own area of enquiry. Posts may arise from reflection debates within the literature and/or data collection and analysis. They can also be linked to events showcasing your publications, research centres, networks and/or groups.

Whatever your motivation to write, the blog is a great way not only to showcase your research and raise your profile, but it also contributes to our wider research culture. You never know, they blog may even help you find someone working at EHU who has complimentary interests!

Please submit your post at any time via [email protected]. If you are unsure how to write a blog, you can also watch this short training video. As always posts need to be ‘pithy yet apolitical’, be 500 words or less, and are edited before publication.

We look forward to receiving them!

Prof Jo Crotty is the Director of the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) at Edge Hill University.