Society Matters
Erotic Award 2013: OU's Meg Barker wins the academic category
Shocked and delighted, Meg Barker explains why winning meant so much. Following my last post I'm very pleased to report that last Friday, I was the proud recipient of the Erotic Award in the academic category. Even better that my co-nominees Sue Newsome and Brooke Magnanti both received awards in other categories: Sue for her important sex therapy work around disability, and Brooke for her recent book about sex work and sexuality, Sex Myths. My award was the last one of the...
It's not just the European community that's losing support
The swing against ‘Europe’ reflects a wider swing against the concept of any community wider than a gated one, writes Alan Shipman. While the EU’s opponents say that leaving it would boost our national solidarity and sense of community, the policies built around the new Euro-scepticism suggest something else. It’s more than likely that the United Kingdom Independence Party’s (UKIP) remarkable 26% vote share in May’s local elections reflected a...
Line up for the Erotic Awards
As a regular writer for the Society Matters blog I'm very pleased to announce that my book Rewriting the Rules – which I've frequently written about here – has been nominated for an award. This was very unanticipated so I'm stoked about it. What was even more unanticipated was the kind of award. Something from the psychology or psychotherapy world might have been expected, but I have been short-listed for an 'erotic award'! For those...
The plight of the seriously ill, the dying and the disabled in our prisons
Despite small improvements our prison service remains vulnerable to appalling incidents of mistreatment and cruelty. Dick Skellington reports. Every once in a while a report shocks and appalls. Readers of the blog will be aware of my interest in prisoner welfare and I have written about the plight of the elderly in our prisons and more recently about the plight of women prisoners. A common thread through these posts reveals a lack of care for individual welfare...
Stranger than fiction: wars are caused by male sex drive
It is men who cause war and conflict, not women. Dick Skellington looks at the latest research. The male sex drive is the cause of nearly all conflict in the world, from football violence to wars between nation states, according to scientists at the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. The psychological study found that evolutionary influences shape the male to be aggressive to outsiders. This aggression has emerged over the...
Indebtedness lessons that can’t be learned
Economists’ brightest ideas often seem ludicrous; and the most obviously sensible – such as budget cuts reducing debt – turn out to be wrong, writes Alan Shipman. Despite the mounting pain of ‘austerity’, opposition parties across Europe find it hard to swing voters’ opinion behind alternative, pro-growth policies. That’s mainly because any ‘Plan B’ would require an initial rise in public borrowing. This is...
Stranger than fiction: 'shop till you drop' wastes your life away
Given the extraordinary measures supermarkets took to ensure that their dirty knickers were not seen in public after their beef was sold dressed as horse, it is interesting to reflect just how quick or how slow it is to get around a supermarket in an average shop. Research – done before shoppers sensibly avoided the purchase of most processed frozen beef ready meals or burgers – revealed that if you shop at Lidl it only takes an average of 49 minutes to get...
Never judge a book by its cover, judge it by its title
The world of odd book titles is wonderful to behold, writes Dick Skellington. There are book titles – take The Communist Manifesto for example – which do exactly what they say on the cover. And there are book titles like Cooking with Poo and Estonian Sock Patterns All Around The World which, however you look at them, seem to exist solely to prevent the books being sold in great numbers. Or do they? For every good book title...
The blocking of gun control exposes America's corrupt priorities
With news that 42 out of 45 Congress Senators who opposed Obama's modest gun reforms were in the pay of the gun lobby, US journalist David Simon reflects on how deeply corrupted America's democracy has become. What is left to say? A sane man's contempt for the United States Senate must now be certain and complete. Given the inertia on even the most modest legislative response to the mass murder of schoolchildren (), those still credulous enough...
Why are we surprised when we get what we pay for?
The UK economy is suffering from subsidies that extend the problems they’re meant to resolve, writes Alan Shipman. Kissing babies at election-time is a practice politicians often regret but cannot seem to renounce. So, too, is commenting publicly on those that go on to become the victims of extreme parenting. By suggesting that the deaths of six children in Derby could have resulted from state welfare support for the father who killed them, Chancellor...
About Society Matters
Provocative, relevant, current: for the last decade Society Matters magazine has been informing, engaging and annoying social sciences students in equal measure. Now, its move online has given us the chance to bring its lively mix of analysis and opinion to a wider audience.
Society Matters online started in October 2010 and has, so far, covered a wide range of issues and topics ranging from inequality and the big society to arms sales and foreign policy. All can be seen by scrolling down from the top of the Society Matters front page.
We have also illustrated many of these posts with the work of our two illustrators (see below). Serious analyses have been interspersed with posts on a less weighty issues which show both human folly and innovation.
Society Matters continues to be edited by its original creator, Dick Skellington. Dick, pictured above, was previously a programme manager in the social sciences faculty, walks the talk through an active involvement in the affairs of his home town of Stony Stratford, Bucks, and finds light relief through writing poetry and the occasional stage appearance in local productions.
Since many years at the coalface of journalism have taught us all that sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words Dick is aided and abetted by resident illustrators, Gary Edwards and Catherine Pain – both former OU students.
Catherine has drawn and painted all her life, and when she is not pillorying public figures for Society Matters paints animal portraits, works in stained glass and produces alphabet teaching posters for children. Her work is in several galleries in and around her current home in Cambridgeshire and her publications include an illustrated cookbook sold on behalf of the National Trust, a colouring book for small children, Alphabet for Colouring, and The Lost Children, a story for older children. Her website is at catherinepain.co.uk
Gary has written two best-selling books about his travels all over the world watching Leeds United FC, Paint it White and Leeds United - The Second Coat. His third title No Glossing Over will be published by Mainstream in September 2011. He has not missed a Leeds game anywhere in the world since February 1968 and married his wife Lesley at Elland Road.
Specialising in wall murals, Gary also holds diplomas from the London Art College, The Morris College of Journalism, has a Diploma in Freelance Cartooning and Illustration and is a contributing cartoonist for Speakeasy, an English-speaking magazine in Paris. During the 1970's and 1980's he collected hearses and is a long time member of the Official Flat Earth Society as well as the Clay Pigeon Preservation Society.
Please note: The opinions expressed in Society Matters posts are those of the individual authors, and do not represent the views of The Open University.
