Social policy

Former department store transformed into an institution focused on climate, energy, digitalisation and security

Refugee student Naweed Zafary recalls harrowing scenes as the Taliban took power and thousands fought for places on the last flights out of Afghanistan

Much has changed since Tony Blair declared his priorities to be ‘education, education, education’. Could better communications help restore relations?

Michael Marinetto applauds an attempt to consider the challenges of our technological future without lapsing into moral panic

David Owen on a compelling case for interdisciplinary analysis of refugee economies

Catherine Rottenberg applauds a bold attempt to forge a politics of solidarity in response to humanitarian crisis

Martin Myers applauds a bold attempt to re-examine one of the sacred cows of liberal societies

UK universities must investigate how many of their students are affected by homelessness – and what can be done about it, says Ricardo Visinho

Lennard Davis is impressed by a compendious account of all the ways the hearing world has tried to put Deaf people right

Roberta Mock is intrigued by a radical account of the currents that have shaken her native city

Tributes paid to sociologist whose ‘influential work’ on inequalities has proved crucial in understanding and addressing today’s sharp ‘social divisions’

Kalwant Bhopal thinks that the authors of a new anti-racism toolkit need to go deeper

Failings on protective clothing have caused immense suffering for families of the dying, argues researcher

As the tools of complexity theory prove crucial in responding to the pandemic, they must be taught far more widely in universities, argues former oil executive turned researcher

City, University of London professor calls for the creation of a food security council to feed academic expertise to ministers

As their book about the deep links between education and well-being is published, Anne Case and Nobel laureate Angus Deaton tell John Morgan about their jaw-dropping discoveries of a sharp rise in ‘deaths of despair’ among white American people – and an unhealthy obsession with causality among journals

Adam Kucharski, author of The Rules of Contagion, on books that piqued his interest in mathematics, and those that showed how maths could be applied to serve public health by modelling infectious diseases – and happiness

Danny Dorling is impressed by an in-depth account that challenges much of the received wisdom (and stereotypes) about social housing

Book of the week: Victoria Bateman is impressed by the clear and wide-ranging insights of a Nobel-winning economist and public intellectual

Zoë Waxman is intrigued by a poignant but little-known strand of refugee history

Christopher Hill considers the tangled history of migration into Europe and the complex lessons for today

The author of The Outsiders: Refugees in Europe since 1492 discusses tracing the rises and falls of empires in atlases, understanding the pain of mass displacements and the pleasure of simultaneously reading and listening to music

Matthew Reisz considers the researchers who keep on top of the issues we most want to avoid

John Gilbey is impressed by a bold attempt to assess just where AI is likely to lead us

Mateusz Zatoński is disappointed by an ambitious overview of the development of smoking

Lennard Davis is intrigued by an exceptionally wide-ranging account of the many things on which humans get high

Kalwant Bhopal finds that the brave progressive new world technology enthusiasts have promised us is just as tainted by racism as the familiar analogue world

The author of The Fire Is upon Us on childhood obsessions, racial identity and the power of primary sources

Nathan Schneider would like more detail about how we can escape the embrace of the technological giants

Bath researchers seek to combine scholarly rigour with campaigning zeal

Douglas J. Davies considers an analysis of how funerary practices can take much greater account of ecological concerns

Our personal environment faces profound changes as a consequence of technology, says John Gilbey

Migrants’ stories remind us of the paradox of a comparatively affluent Europe that shows a lack of compassion for outsiders, writes Amina Yaqin

Scholar of race and urban history remembered

The good and evil of opium is documented in this eloquent history, writes Jonathan Mirsky

Book of the week: A. W. Purdue on an argument that relocates the roots of modern Britain in the post-war period

Book of the week: Taxonomy is a weapon wielded against myths that are difficult to kill off, says Steven Rose

Richard Joyner on a heartening collection of accounts by more than 40 people who participated in worldwide demonstrations for science

Doctoral student takes performance poetry to academic conferences and university council meeting

Indian lecturer joins with British colleagues to promote literature of those formerly called ‘untouchables’

Worsening political ties have led a Russian government agency to urge students abroad to return home

Public health academic says studies must speak the same language as their subjects

Centre will combine basic research with practical solutions to grand challenges

Matthew Feldman considers an exploration of the perception of masculinity and its effects on extremism

The home of the US novelist and social critic offers a lens through which to explore his politics, writing and sexuality, says Kalwant Bhopal

A study about caring for those with dementia should be read by all who want care to improve for older people, writes Martina Zimmermann

Why can’t we feed the world? Because food is a powerful weapon of war that we have done little to disable, says Tehila Sasson

Book of the week: Correct use and interpretation of big data can lead to the creation of new theories, finds Farida Vis

Career of prolific technology and development expert took him from Nairobi to Harvard

Emma Rees on a study of refugees’ remarkable transnational journeys in our post-Brexit, Trumpian world

Book of the week: Is poor housing here to stay? Hopefully not, but one word associated with it has a grip on our culture, says Danny Dorling

Lord Willetts and Lord Adonis go head to head in this video debate, tackling UK political issues from tuition fees to vice-chancellor pay levels

Protest movement against racial oppression in US belongs to a long tradition, says Martin Myers

Free market ideology has contributed to ‘vaccine hesitancy’, endangering us all, says Harry Collins

Prevent monitoring and defeat of legal challenge shows that anti-extremism policy is not limiting academic freedom, says Hifsa Harron-Iqbal

The notion that only the ‘left-behind’ poor are xenophobic is a myth, Eliane Glaser learns

Steven Yearley considers the argument that metropolitan centres, not nation states, hold the power to take the lead on climate change

New centre to promote respect through research, outreach, culture and practical help

‘Nice’ kids are still being told not to do ‘it’, setting off a dangerous dissembling, says Angelia Wilson

Book of the week: Apps are taking us places, fast – but do we always want to go? John Gilbey considers the value of rapidly changing tech