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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

A large, artificial ice structure in a mountainous landscape with clear blue sky in the background.

video

Engineering

Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?

15 minutes

A person in a hard hat and coveralls surrounded by thick white smoke, obscuring most of the view.

video

Fairness and equality

There’s a dirty side to clean energy in the metal-rich mountains of South Africa

10 minutes

Photo of a man speaking at a podium marked ‘Letters Live’, gesturing with one hand against a dark background.

video

Fairness and equality

‘To my old master’ – a freed slave answers the request to return to his old plantation

7 minutes

A beach with a white S U V, chairs and a bird in the foreground, and a rocket on a launch pad in the background.

video

Fairness and equality

Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches

14 minutes

Black and white photo of cars in traffic on a multi-lane motorway seen from above.

essay

Political philosophy

The order of anarchy

How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott

Reyko Huang

Black-and-white drawing of labourers working in a warehouse, overlaid with the text “Marks of weakness, marks of woe” in yellow.

video

Art

In his poem ‘London’, William Blake crafted a bleak vision of the city he loved

9 minutes

Painting of two men sitting in a barn, one on a bench and the other on a chair, with a horse and pumpkins in the background.

essay

History of ideas

Philosophy of the people

How two amateur schools pulled a generation of thinkers from the workers and teachers of the 19th-century American Midwest

Joseph M Keegin

Abstract geometric pattern featuring overlapping rectangular and house-like shapes in various colours, including orange, yellow, green, pink, blue, red, and black, with circular details. The shapes create a visually intriguing mosaic-like composition.

video

Political philosophy

Beyond the veil – what rules would govern John Rawls’s ‘realistic Utopia’?

6 minutes

Artist painting vibrant, abstract artwork on large canvases in a studio, with paint buckets, a stool, and a folding chair nearby.

video

Art

‘If you’re creative, why can’t you create a solution?’ One artist’s imaginative activism

17 minutes

A portrait of a smiling Black woman in a garden, sitting on a white plastic lawn chair, with leafy plants, flowers, and a wooden fence in the background.

video

Biography and memoir

A gentle soul in an oppressive land – Bonnie’s story of life in America

11 minutes

A doorman in uniform at the entrance of a building looks out while people walk past.

essay

Race and ethnicity

Battling implicit bias

Training is a cheap solution to a hard problem. It is the systems that allow for biased behaviour that need to change

Jeffrey To

An armoured police vehicle on a street with yellow tape and debris, an officer in the foreground, next to the “San Pedro St” sign.

video

Fairness and equality

A tragicomic account of how the Los Angeles Police Department blew up a city block

19 minutes

Two children sit under a large portrait of B.R. Ambedkar, with women seated on a stage behind them, surrounded by colourful decorations and a cloth banner.

essay

Thinkers and theories

The Indian pragmatist

Ambedkar was not only a politician, but a profound thinker whose philosophy of democracy challenged the caste system

Scott R Stroud

Aerial view of a columned monument in the centre of a plaza surrounded by modern buildings, with people walking and resting on benches.

video

Fairness and equality

To build a fair society, we must first be able to envision it. John Rawls can help

64 minutes

A black-and-white image of a man and a woman in a bar, both holding drinks. The woman is looking at the man with a serious expression.

essay

Social psychology

Don’t let them fool you

The fear of being duped is ubiquitous, but excessive scepticism makes it harder to trust one another and cooperate

Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

A person in religious attire pours a golden beer from a labelled bottle into a glass with “Maredret” written on it.

essay

Virtues and vices

The virtue of discretion

When the rules break down, you must judge what to do on your own. Discretion is necessary for navigating the muddle of life

Lorraine Daston

A person viewed from behind, wearing a leather jacket, sitting in front of a blurred panel of three individuals in a dark room.

video

Human rights and justice

Thirty years after one teenager shot another, is it time to forgive?

28 minutes

A group of men in orange jumpsuits walk under supervision near a building with barbed wire and industrial piping.

essay

Human rights and justice

Abolish life sentences

It is unjust, cruel and profoundly wasteful to consign a person to prison for life. A decent society must not do it

Judith Lichtenberg

Smiling woman holding a document in front of the US Capitol building dome, black and white photo.

video

Fairness and equality

How the first woman of colour to be elected to the US Congress remade education

21 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 group of people, including women and children, gathered outdoors; a man records data while a baby is weighed using a hanging scale.

essay

Poverty and development

A fairly fed world

Last year, 200 million children did not get enough to eat, yet it would be cheap and easy for the world to feed them all

Sharman Apt Russell

A person wearing headphones on a subway train next to a poster saying “Courtesy Counts”. Carriage doors have blue windows and “Do not hold doors” signs.

essay

Fairness and equality

Poor sleep

Being on-call, out-of-sync and underslept is not just personal but a pervasive political injustice. Bold change is needed

Jonathan White

A smiling person with a punk hairstyle stands near police officers and another individual with an anarchy symbol on their jacket.

video

Fairness and equality

With barely a possession to his name, Rabbit builds a life around fighting corruption

10 minutes

Two uniformed officers lean into the windows of a green taxi to speak with the driver on a busy street.

essay

Politics and government

High crimes and cabals

The official definition of corruption – the abuse of public office for private gain – does little to capture the reality

Sudhir Chella Rajan