Racial justice is never far from the headlines, but, although the ideals of the legal system such as fairness and equality seem allied to the struggle, campaigners have been all too often let down by the system.  In this episode Jess Miles and Bharat Malkani, author of ‘Racial Justice and the Limits of the Law’, talk through cases like those of the Colston Four and Shamima Begum, to explore this paradox and establish where change is possible.   Bharat Malkani is Reader in Law at Cardiff...

In this episode, George Miller talks to the author of What are Prisons for?, prison inspector and visiting professor of law at Oxford Hindpal Singh Bhui, about why we lock so many people up. Prison populations have increased hugely in the past fifty years and vast sums of money are spent to keep over 11.5 million people behind bars, so you might think there is overwhelming evidence that prison ‘works’. However, hard evidence for this claim is lacking. ‘If we are to understand more about the...

Jessie Abrahams' new book reveals the extent of class inequality in schools in the UK. By telling Jessie's story and that of one of the young people in her research, this episode untangles the role aspiration plays for young people in school and the significance of the different choices that are available to different pupils in different schools. Jessie puts forward ideas for changes that we can make, despite the limitations of what is a fundamentally unequal system. Jessie Abrahams is...

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Anna Durnova, one of the guest editors for the Emotions and Society special issue on 'Emotions and the ‘Truths’ of Contentious Politics: Advances in Research on Emotions, Knowledge, and Contemporary Contentious Politics'. They discuss the weaponisation of truth, the important difference between being told you are safe and feeling you are safe and the need to bring the harnessing of emotions back to democracy. Read the special issue:...

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Nigel Thrift, author of The Pursuit of Possibility: Redesigning Research Universities, about research universities and what makes them different. They discuss the importance of free speech at universities, the many threats research universities face and what can be done about these threats to ensure a thriving future for these essential institutions. Find out more about the book: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-pursuit-of-possibility Intro...

In this episode, we talk about postracialism and colourblind narratives with Paul Warmington, Visiting Professor at Coventry University, Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths and author of ‘Permanent Racism’. Britain’s current postracial perspectives are facile so we need to reconceptualise critical race theory from a British standpoint. This means foregrounding the concept of ‘permanent racism’ and decolonising public debate and antiracism itself. Find out more about the book:...

In this episode, Jess Miles speaks with Nick Gibbs, author of ‘The Muscle Trade’, about the rise in the use of image and performance enhancing drugs, why people take them and how they get them. They talk about how the reasons for people taking these drugs goes beyond sporting skill and physical prowess, the difference between online and offline supply, avenues for future research and ways of reducing the harm caused. Find out more about the book:...

There has been a growing interest in talking about menopause over the last decade, but the impact is still rarely discussed in management and organisation studies, despite having profound implications in this area. In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Vanessa Beck and Jo Brewis, co-editors of ‘Menopause Transitions and the Workplace’. They discuss how the menopause can impact work, what support organisations and individuals can offer and the key areas...

In this episode, Ann-Marie Bathmaker, co-author of The Degree Generation: The Making of Unequal Graduate Lives, talks about the transition to the graduate labour market, examined through the eyes of a cohort of middle-class and working-class young people. They discuss the changing nature of the graduate labour market, the promise of upward mobility that universities and governments failed to deliver on, how graduate life differs for working-class people when compared with their middle-class...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Alison Young, author of Unchecked Power, about the growth of governmental power and erosion of checks and balances over the last 4 years.  They discuss the difference between constitution and law, how the ‘will of the people’ is being homogenised all over the world and how a lack of knowledge and understanding about the constitution helps the government get away with bad behaviour. Find out more about the book:...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Olivier De Schutter, Hugh Frazer, Anne-Catherine Guio and Eric Marlier, authors of The Escape From Poverty, about child poverty and intergenerational poverty and things we can do as individuals to make change. They talk about the evidence in the book, how poverty impacts developed and developing countries differently and programmes that are making a difference. Despite the fact that tackling child poverty is good for...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Rebecca Megson-Smith speaks to Arve Hansen, Ulrikke Wethal, Sophia Efstathiou and Johannes Volden, editors of the special issue of Consumption and Society called ‘Towards Less Meat-intensive Diets? Exploring Everyday Practices of Meat Consumption, Reduction and Substitution’.  They discuss the pressing need for us to reconsider our relationship with meat, particularly in light of its significant impact on climate change. Whilst our...

Meet the hosts of the Transforming Society podcast and discover more about the podcast. Browse Transforming Society: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/ Intro music: Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Julia Mortimer, Journals Director and Head of Open Access at Bristol University Press. They discuss recent developments in Open Access, including funder mandates, community-led models and the direction Bristol University Press are heading in. In addition, they offer advice for authors, and potential authors, for navigating this fast-moving publishing landscape. Find out more about Open Access:...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Steve Cooke, author of What Are Animal Rights For?, talks with George Miller about how the field of animal rights evolved – and continues to evolve as advances in the scientific understanding of animals’ lives expand the rights claims made on their behalf.  Philosophy, Steve suggests, has a critical role to play in proposing what a good future for animals might look like, equipping us with the conceptual tools to imagine a world in which...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Jess Miles speaks with Malcolm Evans, former Chair of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture and author of Tackling Torture: Prevention in Practice. They discuss the traps we fall into when talking about torture, including the disturbing normalisation of torture in television and film, why the distinction between torture and inhuman treatment is a sensitive area and what could be done to help prevent torture more effectively. Find...

Jess Miles speaks with Gerry Mitchell and Marcos González Hernando, authors of ‘Uncomfortably off: Why the top 10% of earners should care about inequality’. Wealth no longer guarantees security. Gerry and Marcos explain why it's time for higher earners to reset their attitudes towards the lives of others and reexamine their relationship with the private sector, public services and the state. They explore who the top 10% of earners are, why we should care about this relatively affluent group...

In this episode of the Transforming Society podcast, Richard Kemp speaks with Ed Atkins, author of 'A Just Energy Transition: Getting Decarbonisation Right in a Time of Crisis', about what is needed for an energy transition to be just. They discuss the need to ensure decarbonisation doesn't come at the expense of already marginalised communities, the role that green jobs will play and the importance of acknowledging that while an energy transition will change our everyday lives, it has the...

In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks to people from both sides of the Universal Basic Income (UBI) debate from a recent issue of the Journal of Poverty and Social Justice. Howard Robert Reed and Matthew Thomas Johnson argue that UBI is affordable and feasible, whereas Donald Hirsch believes the necessary funds for UBI could be used to cut poverty in more targeted ways. They explore the different UBI schemes that have been tested, discuss what an alternative, reformed welfare system may...

In this final short conversation with Jack McDonald, author of 'What is War for?', we turn to the part played by technology in war. There’s long been a technological aspect to war, not just in the development of ever more deadly weapons, but also in the way civilian technology, such as railway networks and the telegraph, have shaped the conduct of war. Today, in the era of drones and smartphones, war continues to evolve, posing new ethical questions on the battlefield and beyond. Find out...

Robin Sen and Christian Kerr, authors of 'The Future of Children’s Care', speak to Jess Miles about the recent 'once in a generation' MacAlister Review of Childrens Social Care in England. They discuss the problem of how reviews are commissioned and carried out, omissions in the report and the need for co-production and the need for dissent to stand up for people with less power. What does the future of children’s rights in the UK look like? Find out about Christian and Robin’s book here:...

What are state harms? What are the formal and informal ways they are enacted? How can solidarity, denunciation and resistance challenge state harm and what opportunities and openings for change exist? Federica Rossi and Chris Magill are guest editors of a themed section on state harms in the latest issue of 'Justice, Power and Resistance'. In this episode, they speak to Jess Miles about what state harms are, how they are justified, opportunities for resistance and whether academic research...

Cybersecurity is about identifying something you want to protect and exercising power in order to preserve it, Tim Stevens says in this, the last of three short conversations about his new book, 'What is Cybersecurity for?'. In this episode, we focus on cybersecurity’s political dimensions, including interstate competition that could manifest as cyberwarfare, the reasons why the world has not (yet) seen major acts of cyberterrorism, and the ways in which citizens in democracies can get...

So-called tainted donations have become a very real problem for many charities and organizations: when is it wrong to accept a donation because of how the money was made? What if the money was made in the distant past, when different ethical values prevailed? And if a donor uses their money to whitewash a dubious reputation, is that just something they should accept as a small price to pay for the greater good? In this final conversation with Rhodri Davies, author of What is Philanthropy...