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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

Photo of a desert scene with tall cacti and a person standing, set against a sunlit rocky hill.

video

Human rights and justice

Can providing humanitarian aid be illegal? A troubling case from the US-Mexico border

17 minutes

A painting of two girls with long hair each holding peacock feathers standing in front of a textured, muted background.

video

Family life

The precious family keepsakes that hold meaning for generations

10 minutes

Ancient Mayan ruins, including a prominent stone pyramid, surrounded by dense green jungle under a cloudy sky.

essay

Archaeology

Beyond kingdoms and empires

A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms

David Wengrow

A person with black hair and glasses, in a teal T-shirt with VIBES in rainbow text, and a backpack stands smiling in a garden with flowers and trees.

video

Wellbeing

Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest

11 minutes

An early morning view across an old bridge towards the spires of a historic medieval city partially obscured by fog

essay

Home

Return of the descendants

I migrated to my ancestral homeland in a search for identity. It proved to be a humbling experience in (un)belonging

Jessica Buchleitner

Three children in colourful clothing walk through a dense, leafy forest with sunlight filtering through the canopy.

essay

Anthropology

Societies of perpetual movement

Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest

Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias

A close-up of a weathered, rusty metal plate attached to a deteriorating wooden surface with bolts, showing corrosion and peeling layers.

essay

Global history

One ship, many stories

How a single, unglamorous, workaday merchant vessel tells the history of the 19th-century world in many violent chapters

Boyd Cothran & Adrian Shubert

Three motorcyclists are riding on an empty road winding through English moorland beneath a blue sky

essay

Stories and literature

Citizens

Devon, 1970s: I’m a rector’s son, hanging out with Boz the biker. My life is about to open up – what does it promise for him?

Tim Pears

Illustration of a father and his young daughter with backpacks in the rain at night, holding an umbrella, standing on a cliffside looking out at the distant city lights of Hong Kong across a dark body of water.

video

Demography and migration

One story, in a sea of millions, of swimming from China to freedom in Hong Kong

14 minutes

Historic nautical map depicting the Pacific Ocean with detailed coastlines, islands, and ships sailing in the sea, surrounded by navigation lines.

essay

Demography and migration

Asians in early America

Asian sailors came to the west coast of America in 1587. Within a century they were settled in colonies from Mexico to Peru

Diego Javier Luis

A man and a woman with tattoos are standing in a kitchen, one shirtless and the other in a blue top, both in a contemplative mood.

essay

Economic history

Matrimony and the market

The sexual revolution promised new norms of intimacy based on egalitarianism. So far, only the rich have cashed in

Daniel Tutt

Footprints on a sandy desert landscape with sparse bushes, distant mountains, a cloudy sky, and an antenna structure in the background.

essay

Archaeology

Finding the First Americans

Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why

Jennifer Raff

A woman with a colourful scarf covering her face stands in a queue, surrounded by other masked individuals in an outdoor setting.

video

Demography and migration

How the world’s harshest lockdown hit India’s millions of migrant workers

27 minutes

Busy historic street market with people, horse-drawn carts, awnings, and shop signs in a crowded urban area with multistorey buildings.

essay

Cities

Living closer together

Urban density was once seen as a sign of unhealthiness and poverty. But today it is necessary to make cities sustainable

Max Holleran

Two people walking with a shopping trolley past old, weathered buildings on a narrow street, with a blue arrow sign pointing left.

essay

Demography and migration

The ungreat replacement

Workers in the West have indeed been repressed – but not by immigrants. The policies of their own governments are to blame

John Rapley

A hand-drawn cartoon of a woman with a trolley full of grocery items while a cartoon Julian Simon looks on

video

Demography and migration

In 1980, two feuding professors bet on the fate of humanity. Who won?

5 minutes

Two Black men wearing face masks and looking at a colourful sky at dawn or dusk; one has their arm around the other, wearing a floral shirt.

video

Demography and migration

Tension, bureaucracy and deep humanity define life aboard a refugee rescue ship

27 minutes

Man in a cowboy hat at a bar, holding a beer bottle. A neon light, a mural and another man are in the background.

essay

Political philosophy

How important is white fear?

It’s become a commonplace that demographic anxiety is driving white voters to the far Right. This is dangerously wrong

Mark R Reiff

A woman soaking in a dimly lit bathtub with toiletries and a towel visible in a white tiled bathroom.

video

Family life

The walls come down on guarded emotions and secrets in an intimate family portrait

16 minutes

People standing in line outside a nightclub with a taxi in the foreground and a few illuminated signs.

video

Personality

Meet the British bouncer in LA on an expired visa who has no time for immigrants

10 minutes

Aerial photo of a residential area with numerous houses, winding roads, small lakes and surrounded by green fields.

essay

Anthropology

Safety is fatal

Humans need closeness and belonging but any society that closes its gates is doomed to atrophy. How do we stay open?

David Napier

A person in a jacket and hat stands at night near illuminated Eiffel Tower models with the actual Eiffel Tower in the background.

video

Demography and migration

The hopes and fears of the migrants selling souvenirs in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower

15 minutes

A monk wearing orange robes and a black beanie sweeps a residential street with a rake in front of houses in a neighbourhood.

essay

Demography and migration

Exiles on Main Street

To respect exiles as real and important political actors, we should get over casting them as saints, threats or victims

Ashwini Vasanthakumar

A small room with several people sleeping on the floor under colourful blankets and an elderly man cooking on the floor in the corner.

essay

Human rights and justice

Gulf slave society

The glittering city-states of the Persian Gulf fit the classicist Moses Finley’s criteria of genuine slave societies

Bernard Freamon