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Society

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

Wooden model of a sailing ship with multiple masts and detailed rigging on a white background.

video

Art

A prisoner in Guantánamo finds some escape in building intricate model ships

6 minutes

Photo of a light beige woven fabric with black and red borders on the sides, frayed edges at the bottom, and a black background.

essay

Political philosophy

Citizens and spinning wheels

For Indians to be truly free, Gandhi argued they must take up traditional crafts. Was it a quixotic hope or inspired solution?

Benjamin Studebaker

Person in a wheelchair with a laptop, wearing a monitoring cap, and a doctor in a lab coat standing nearby in a clinical setting.

essay

Illness and disease

Empowering patient research

For far too long, medicine has ignored the valuable insights that patients have into their own diseases. It is time to listen

Charlotte Blease & Joanne Hunt

A black-and-white photo of soldiers in uniform checking documents of several men standing outdoors, with laundry hanging in the background.

essay

Psychiatry and psychotherapy

Decolonising psychology

At times complicit in racism and oppression, psychology has also been a fertile ground for radical and liberatory thought

Rami Gabriel

Silhouettes of four construction workers in hard hats standing on a beam against a sunset or sunrise sky. One worker is crouching and appearing to weld, emitting sparks.

essay

Mental health

The last great stigma

Workers with mental illness experience discrimination that would be unthinkable for other health issues. Can this change?

Pernille Yilmam

a crowd of women dressed in black face the camera

essay

Politics and government

India and indigeneity

In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence

Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati

Five young men leaning against a wall at night.

essay

Human rights and justice

My elusive pain

The lives of North Africans in France are shaped by a harrowing struggle to belong, marked by postcolonial trauma

Farah Abdessamad

A bustling 19th-century cityscape featuring a wide street with construction activity, carriages and pedestrians. Hills and a bridge are also visible under a cloudy sky.

essay

Religion

Conscientious unbelievers

How, a century ago, radical freethinkers quietly and persistently subverted Scotland’s Christian establishment

Felicity Loughlin

Four smiling flight attendants in bright-blue uniforms and matching hats, wearing identification badges, stand in a row saluting. They are indoors against a neutral background.

essay

Ethics

The scourge of lookism

It is time to take seriously the painful consequences of appearance discrimination in the workplace

Andrew Mason

A surreal artwork depicting floating items, including a woman, child, chair, bullets, and a photo of a family, all set in a dark abstract background.

video

Human rights and justice

A reporter orphaned by night raids in Afghanistan investigates their cruel legacy

17 minutes

A woman with grey hair lies down, partially covered with a colourful, patterned blanket against a textured wall.

video

Human rights and justice

Witch hunts persist as a horrifying, deadly reality in pockets of rural India

24 minutes

Several deaf inmates sit on chairs in a circle, engaged in an ASL conversation. Room has white walls, white chairs, flags and a podium in the background.

video

Human rights and justice

‘I know that change is possible’ – a Deaf prison chaplain’s gospel of hope

18 minutes

A close-up shot of one woman holding and comforting another grief-stricken woman

essay

Ageing and death

Witness the pain

When loved ones are traumatically lost, bereaved families become accidental activists by turning grief into grievance

Chris Bobel

Two people sit at a desk covered in papers. Background includes book shelves and posters about the “Ulysses” novel and Arnold Bennett.

essay

Human rights and justice

Beyond obscenity

A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst

Brett Gary

A group of boys stands in front of a white picket fence with trees and a house in the background. The boys are dressed in dark jackets.

essay

Human rights and justice

Do not forget them

Thousands of Indigenous children suffered and died in residential ‘schools’ around the world. Their stories must be heard

Steve Minton

Women wearing striped uniforms and medals, holding a Ravensbrück banner and umbrellas, participating in a commemorative event outdoors.

essay

History

The life of Wanda Półtawska

Her closeness to Pope John Paul furnished him with anti-abortion ideals, fuelled by her survival of the Ravensbrück camp

Joy Neumeyer

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

Black-and-white photograph of an elderly white man sitting next to a Black child, who is holding fingers to their face. Both look directly at the camera.

video

Art

David Goldblatt captured the contradictions of apartheid in stark black and white

15 minutes

Image of a box of mangoes with red stickers, alongside a picture and a book featuring a portrait on a grey textured background.

video

Nations and empires

The strange tale of how mangoes became hallowed objects in Maoist China

6 minutes

A woman and two girls in blue dresses with cat-ear headbands, smiling and taking a selfie outdoors.

essay

Family life

Honey, I sold the kids

We have laws to protect children from factory work. Why aren’t they protected from parents who monetise their lives online?

Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore

A sepia-toned, historical photograph of a woman sitting and reading a book, wearing a dark dress with puffed sleeves.

essay

Human rights and justice

Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist

Taking up arms against slavery, the famous novelist foreshadowed the vexed role of the white woman activist today

Lydia Moland

A massive mushroom cloud rises from an explosion test, with smoke billowing out above the landscape. Two towers and small structures are visible in the foreground.

video

Human rights and justice

Meet the man who uncovered the scandal of nuclear testing in South Australia

13 minutes

A large group of people grieving, with some in military attire and others holding a poster of an individual in uniform, under a partly cloudy sky.

essay

Politics and government

Wielding death

When everyday life is marked by oppression and violence, can a martyr’s death truly be an act of freedom and resistance?

Umar Lateef Misgar

Two young boxers pose together in a ring, one wearing a striped vest and boxing gloves, the other in a yellow vest with a blue belt, with spectators in the background.

essay

Biography and memoir

My blackness

At times I’ve tried to escape it. Other times I’ve embraced it. But at all times, people have attempted to define me by it

Colin Grant