The Open University

History offers Britain an important lesson on shutting down immigration

29 September 2016

The rate of hate crimes reported in the UK has rocketed since the country voted to leave the European Union in June, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council. In 2013 we published research on the parallels between British discontent about migration in the 2010s and in the late 1960s – a moment perhaps best […]

Can quotas make gender equality happen in politics? Lessons from business

28 September 2016

The number of women MPs in the British parliament is the highest it’s ever been. There are 191 women among the 650 MPs, up a third from the 2010 election. This has to be good news, especially for the many critics of national politics who complain that too many politicians are white male graduates of […]

Apple and Ireland are betting on ‘Nation Inc’ and a world of shareholder citizens

6 September 2016

When the European Union decided to fine Apple €13.5 billion for tax evasion in Ireland last week, it didn’t take long for the Irish government to join with Apple to announce it would appeal the ruling. The alignment between the tech giant and a nation state shows how governments can be held to ransom by […]

How the Bank of England rate cut will hit your personal finances

4 August 2016

The Bank of England has cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to a historic low of 0.25%. The move was expected and comes in response to worsening economic data following the UK referendum vote to leave the European Union. The cut is part of a package of measures that also includes a big boost […]

After Bernie Sanders: how progressives can actually change America

1 August 2016

Even her rival Bernie Sanders has publicly endorsed her. But as the convention got underway, plenty of Sanders’s progressive supporters were far from happy with the outcome. Clinton and her allies have shifted leftwards on a number of issues, among them student debt and the minimum wage. Yet one recent poll showed that nearly half […]

Earthquake reveals the problems with Ecuador’s famous ‘good life’ policy

21 July 2016

Disasters have a way of revealing the gap between what a government says it wants to do and what it actually does. As Oxfam’s Duncan Green put it, disasters can bring to light some of the tensions, contradictions and strengths of a country’s political and development agenda. So it went after Ecuador’s recent earthquake, which […]

What does Brexit mean for UK housing?

20 July 2016

Britain’s housing market is in a sorry state. With house prices forecast to fall, house building grinding to a halt and buyers pulling out of purchases amid job security fears, post-Brexit uncertainty has been worsened by the contrasting “visions” that won the vote. These opposing visions are now evenly represented in Theresa May’s cabinet. The […]

TV series sheds light on real life journey of refugees

11 July 2016

The subject of refugees and their often dangerous journeys into Europe has barely been out of the news in recent years. Now, a powerful new BBC series – produced in partnership with The Open University – is set to cast a new light on those directly involved. Exodus: Our Journey to Europe charts the journeys […]

Podcast: OU academic reflects on the EU Referendum

24 June 2016

The British public has voted to leave the European Union (EU), which is potentially the biggest political decision many of us will experience in our lifetime. Shortly after David Cameron announced his intention to resign as UK Prime Minister, we spoke to Interim Head of Politics and International Studies, Dr Richard Heffernan, about what Brexit might […]

Former Zimbabwean refugee on the transforming power of education

24 June 2016

Alice Chigumira came to the UK in 2002 as a refugee from Zimbabwe where she’d worked for the Minister of Foreign Affairs for 12 years. She grew up during a time of social upheaval and distress, eventually forced out by political instability, to settle in Reading. As a widow with two small children, Alice adjusted […]

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Category: Society and politics