Social science

Hillegonda Rietveld reviews a study of recording artists as cultural workers

Stewart Lansley on a sobering tale of plutonomy and the ‘failed science’ of economics

Simon Blackburn on higher education via a postmodern lens

Hera Cook on a study of young Californian women’s thoughts on gender and sexuality

Two economists aim to put the crisis to rights with the help of Iceland’s ash cloud, finds Howard Davies

Democracy suffers when the Islamists, the military and the secret police collude, writes Mariz Tadros

Alan Ryan on political reaction at two extremes of the American higher education system

The ‘most authoritative polymath of our age’ offers a reverse recipe very much to Chris Knight’s taste

A.W. Purdue on the ramifications of the demise of Western civil society’s foundational structures

Steve Yearley weighs claims that environmental policies sweep emissions under a Chinese rug

Sergio Sismondo on a critical exploration of a new, lucrative model for public well-being

Joanna Lewis on how cultures and circumstances skew our passions more than we may realise

Kathleen McNamara on the technocracy that created the EMU - and its current malaise

A close-focus study of Arab schooling calls Western views into question, writes Carine Allaf

Alison Bashford applauds a magisterial study of scarily relevant bioeconomic history

The man-woman pairing displaced other well-established forms of bonding, finds Robert Mills

Olga Wojtas meets an environmental psychologist studying architecture's impact on academic life

Lecturers steer students away from some topics and get material vetted. Melanie Newman reports

A work exploding the myths surrounding so-called race riots wins David Gadd's enthusiastic approval

In the UK, the gulf between the political and the academic worlds seems all-but unbreachable while Americans flit easily between lecture halls and halls of power. Here Matthew Reisz examines why Whitehall seems so inhospitable to scholars, while overleaf Jon Marcus looks at why Washington is so accommodating

In America, it is common for academics to play a prominent political role. Jon Marcus reports

Academics could give valuable advice to company boards, the head of City University tells John Gill

Widespread prejudices and assumptions must be overcome, new HE Minister tells Rebecca Attwood

The UK has the opportunity to make dynamic changes to European higher education if only it would make the effort, writes Anne Corbett

Sex is researched across many disciplines, but there are no certificated courses in sexology in the UK. Matthew Reisz considers some of the scientists who are focusing on sexual functioning and behaviour