By Francisco Azpitarte, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy & Undergraduate Programme Lead for Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy Programmes, Loughborough University
Louise Holt, Professor of Human Geography, Loughborough University
Sobhi Berjawi, Senior Researcher in Data Analysis, Loughborough University
A new report from social mobility charity the Sutton Trust shows that children from poorer families are more likely to have special educational needs. It also shows that children from wealthier families who have some kind of special educational need are more likely to get support.
Unsurprisingly, middle-class families are more likely to spend money on private reports or diagnosis. They have the cultural capital to fight for and successfully gain an education, health and care plan (EHCP), the legal document that outlines the additional support a child should receive.
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By Xinyu Liu, PhD Candidate, Long-term Effects of Bilingualism on the Ageing Brain, University of Reading
Christos Pliatsikas, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Reading
A study of 86,000 older adults across Europe shows people who speak multiple languages tend to age more slowly than monolinguals.
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By Roberta Garrett, Senior Lecturer in Literature and Cultural Studies, University of East London
Julia Dane, Senior Lecturer in Media, University of East London
Please note this piece contains spoilers for Wild Cherry.
Critics have compared Nicôle Lecky’s six-part BBC thriller, Wild Cherry with the critically acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence. But that would be unfair.
The former is a glossy thriller that critiques the lives of wealthy Surrey schoolgirls and their mothers, while the latter is a serious and…
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By Clementine Collett, BRAID Fellow at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge
Back in 2023, I was completing my doctorate on AI and gender bias and my debut novel, Something About Her, had just been published. It was also the year that many prominent authors including Jodi Picoult, John Grisham and George R.R. Martin filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for using their work to train generative artificial intelligence (a type of AI that creates new content based on user prompts) without permission. This case is still proceeding through the courts, as are many others on similar grounds.
At the time, I remember thinking: we desperately need to know more about the implications…
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By Louise Ashley, Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Work, Queen Mary University of London
Elena Doldor, Professor of Leadership & Diversity, Queen Mary University of London
Ahead of delivering a consequential budget, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor of the exchequer, told the Times she was “sick of people mansplaining how to be chancellor to me”. She added: “I recognise that I’ve got a target on me. You can see that in the media; they’re going for me all the time.”
The term “mansplaining” signals a gendered dimension to how Reeves is critiqued. The suggestion is that, as a woman in a highly visible role, she is subject to patronising explanation, implicitly from men, that would not be levelled at a male chancellor. The prime minister backed…
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By Susan Ann Samuel, PhD Candidate, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds
At the UN climate conference Cop30 in Belém, Brazil, I asked some young climate activists and negotiators about their hopes, expectations and demands. Despite their positivity and the push for action from climate movements, Indigenous people and civil society, a lack of consensus on key issues was palpable.
Following overnight negotiations on November 21-22, the Brazilian presidency unveiled an outcome decision referred to as the “global mutirão” (collective…
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By Emma Linford, Honorary research associate, English literature, University of Hull
Arthur Conan Doyle was not just one of the world’s best crime fiction writers. He was a progressive wordsmith who brought light to controversial and taboo subjects. One of those taboo subjects was male vulnerability and mental health problems – a topic of personal significance to the author.
Doyle was a vulnerable child. His father, Charles, was…
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By Francesca Lessa, Associate Professor in International Relations of the Americas, UCL
Fifty years ago on November 25 1975, military intelligence officers from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay gathered in the Chilean capital of Santiago to set up what they called the “Condor System”.
Better known as Operation Condor, this was a secret transnational terror network that allowed repressive regimes in these countries to persecute opponents living in exile. It left behind…
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By Selbi Durdiyeva, Visiting Scholar, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University
Details of a new peace plan for Ukraine are emerging after officials from the US, Ukraine and its European allies met in Geneva on November 23. They discussed the 28-point plan presented by Russia and the US the previous week, which has been widely criticised as requiring concessions from Kyiv that critics said would be tantamount to surrender.
These two plans, which represent the contrasting positions approved by Ukraine and Russia, are now being discussed…
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By Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine, University of Lincoln
Humans have probably shared their homes with dogs ever since they first settled. So it could be argued that there is no such thing as “human society” without including animals as part of it. Our long shared history with dogs has even be described as a form of co-evolution.
And a new study my colleagues at Cambridge and I published…
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