For insight into the ‘pervasive dislocation’ of people’s lives today, the sociologist Jeff Ferrell rode the rails across the US. He tells Matthew Reisz about life on the road and the limits of mainstream research
The Migration Advisory Committee’s survey was so poorly framed that any data would have been unusable, so how was it even approved? asks Tanja Bueltmann
The protests against pensions reforms reflect not just self-interest but also anger about working conditions and a sense that universities are losing their way. Jack Grove explores how proposed changes to the USS strained and broke bonds of trust
Book of the week: life is full of inescapable sorrows; dealing with them takes grace and grit, K. E. Gover learns
China’s ‘educational inequality’ revealed as country’s lower-ranked universities fall further behind
