Sugar, poverty and taxation
As social scientists, we can bring a unique perspective to a debate dominated by politicians, ‘food campaigners’, public health and industry. I don’t know if self-appointed sugar experts Jamie Oliver (TV chef) and George Osbourne (political chancellor) have a lot...
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The Volkswagon scandal: making air pollution visible
It is difficult to have missed the recent ‘Volkswagon scandal’. The US Environmental Protection Agency claimed that Volkswagen rigged emissions tests by fitting a device that reduced emissions of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) during testing. By law, all vehicles have to...
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Chemsex
Made for VICE by directors William Fairman and Max Gogarty, Chemsex is an eighty-minute documentary film about drug-fuelled gay sex parties, the men involved, and the risks they take with their health. While the stories and images of injecting drug...
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Why cutting spending on public health is a false economy
Public health spending is under threat. This despite the fact that increasing investment in prevention is the foundation of a sustainable NHS. Cutting these budgets is alarmingly short-termist and indicates a fundamental failure of the government to understand the changing nature...
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Becoming a scientific society: making the living laboratory work for public services in Wales
Government departments and their frontline staff are constantly experimenting with new policies and different methods of delivering public services to try to discover better ways of doing things. For example, it’s thought that some health boards in Wales are now...
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Public Health and Behaviour Change: from naïve sociology to naïve psychology
One of the age-old problems for ‘public health’ has always been how to get people to adopt more healthy behaviour change. How can citizens be persuaded to vaccinate themselves, eat healthier food or avoid obvious harms such as smoking? Of...
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Neoliberal epidemics: the spread of austerity, obesity, stress and inequality
Within the small local authority of Stockton-on-Tees, where one of us lives and works, the difference in male life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas is 17 years. This is comparable to the difference in average male life expectancy between the...
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Measuring Ideology
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA), introduced in 2007 by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) under the last Labour government, is likely to form a key component in the current Conservative government’s commitment to reducing the UK welfare bill...
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Taking a break: a note on the sociology of snacking
I was at the dentist a couple of weeks ago and he managed to surprise me. For more than a decade now these encounters have been pretty predictable. Moralising about sugar, followed by mild disapproval about the state of my...
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2015: Time for politicians to make a healthy New Year’s resolution
It’s that time of year. Millions of British people resolve to change. Quit smoking. Eat better. Exercise more. Drink less. Breaking a New Year’s resolution is as much a British tradition as making one though. So what can we learn...
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The Janus–face of e-cigarettes
“I feel like there is a new toy in the market, let’s try this you know because it’s supposed to be healthy and not cause any health problems, but it’s a chemical that they don’t need. It’s not going to...
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Parkrun