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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future
A suburban street with mountains in the background, featuring a girl on a bike, parked cars, and old furniture on the sidewalk in front of a house.

essay

Progress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

Shopfront of NY 99 Cent Fresh Pizza restaurant with an open sign, vaccine notice, and menu visible through the window.

essay

Economic history

Economics 101

Why introductory economics courses continued to teach zombie ideas from before economics became an empirical discipline

Walter Frick

Image of an offshore wind turbine in the sea with a large LNG ship in the background under a partly cloudy sky in calm waters.

essay

The environment

Decoupling

We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it

Ville Lähde

A collage showing a ‘just married’ car, a couple speaking with a bank teller, a couple by a crib, and a close-up of a BankAmericard with a gold coin in a money clip.

essay

Economic history

Credit card nation

Americans have always borrowed, but how exactly did their lives become so entangled with the power of plastic cards?

Sean H Vanatta

Female healthcare worker examines a tattooed man’s eye in a hallway decorated with colourful artwork.

essay

Economics

Who bears the risk?

Under the guise of empowerment and freedom, politicians and business are offloading lifethreatening risk to individuals

Suzanne Schneider

A man wearing a hat and red shirt is chopping a log with an axe, with wood chips flying around, next to a tent under a blue sky with clouds.

video

Work

Does capitalism make ‘non-playable characters’ of us all? An uncanny exploration

21 minutes

Close-up of an orange Mercedes car with the focus on the front tyre, which is inscribed with ‘In Crypto We Trust’

essay

Economics

The cruelty of crypto

Selling itself as the new American dream, crypto exposes the vulnerable to fraud and scams, and loads risk onto the poor

Rachel O’Dwyer

A woman in a pink coat and carrying a pink umbrella walks past a protestor carrying a yellow placard appealing to people to use cash

essay

Economics

Going cashless

It’s not in the interests of the ordinary person but it’s not a conspiracy either. A cashless society is a system run amok

Brett Scott

A person adjusts a digital board displaying red illuminated numbers, possibly currency exchange rates, against a blurred background of people.

essay

Economics

Finance as alchemy

Finance fraud is not a deviation from an essentially rational system but a window onto the reality-distortion of markets

Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou

A shopfront with “O’DEA’S” in gold letters, two windows above with flower boxes holding pink flowers, and the number 66 on the right side.

video

Home

Whether above a pub or in a castle, our childhood homes leave an indelible mark

15 minutes

Abandoned shopping trolley beside a closed, grey roller shutter, surrounded by fallen autumn leaves.

essay

Economics

The empty basket

Economics is the language of power and affects us all. What can we do to improve its impoverished menu of ideas?

Ha-Joon Chang

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

A close-up of two hands exchanging a piece of bread, symbolising sharing or giving, with a blurred background. Black and white photograph.

essay

Anthropology

Keeping the score

The gifts we exchange are both generous and yet fraught with social rules and obligations. Marcel Mauss explained why

Gili Kliger

A woman in a black top sits inside a vehicle, looking pensive, with her fist resting on her chin and other vehicles visible in the background.

video

Work

Living out of a truck, Maikhuu finds promise and peril on Mongolia’s ‘coal highway’

25 minutes

A woman points at a colourful bar chart labelled ‘Time Use,’ which compares data between women and men, while seated and wearing a checkered shirt.

video

Economics

We all play by economic rules set by men. What could a feminist economics look like?

30 minutes

A close-up of a £5 Bank of England note, featuring an illustrated portrait of a woman, with text “FIVE POUNDS” and serial number JY38 280593.

video

Art

Is paying with hand-drawn banknotes artistry or forgery? The knotty case of J S G Boggs

10 minutes

Man carrying large sack on his head into a warehouse as another man arranges sacks on a blue lorry.

essay

Economics

Beyond Eurocentrism

If you really want decolonisation, go beyond cultural criticism to the deep structural insights of economist Samir Amin

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven

Two people walking past The Bank of New York sign, which reads “Founded 1784,” engraved on a stone wall.

essay

Economics

A softer economics

Financial markets are entangled and uncertain. When will economists let go of physics envy to embrace the quantum revolution?

David Orrell

Man holding a cardboard sign reading “Need cash desperately, will do any job!!!” on the side of the road with cars and buildings in the background.

essay

Economics

The worldly turn

After generations of ‘blackboard economics’, Berkeley and MIT are leading a return to economics that studies the real world

Tom Bergin

A female police officer drinks from a coconut while standing next to a vendor with a cart full of coconuts.

video

Travel

‘My people!’ A Trinidadian’s love letter to his island, just before its 1962 independence

17 minutes

Aerial view of numerous container ships on a shimmering sea with distant mountains under a clear sky.

essay

Economics

The biggest picture

No wonder we cannot agree on how globalisation works and whether it’s a good thing. All the stories we have are flawed

Anthea Roberts & Nicholas Lamp

Close-up of crickets on a light surface, focusing on one in the centre with blurred crickets in the background.

video

Animals and humans

Familiarity breeds roach-respect, and even love, for a group of Florida insect farmers

13 minutes

Elderly man using a trolley to unload firewood onto the grass outside a white building with windows and some trees.

video

Thinkers and theories

Bigger isn’t better – the renegade ‘Buddhist economics’ of E F Schumacher

30 minutes

A black cormorant with wet feathers stands on a rock in front of a blurry forest background.

essay

Economics

Stock-picking for humanity

Everyone on the planet has a stake in making investment more ethical. What’s new is that they have the power to do so too

Ellen Quigley