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  • Magazine

    June 2025

    The interview

    Jayshree Patel in conversation Teacher and lecturer turned TV scriptwriter on the power of sociology

    Hollyoaks writer Jayshree Patel talks to Juliette Wilson-Thomas about the sociological ideas underpinning her hard-hitting storylines – and how sociology helped her make sense of her own life.

    A vibrant digital collage with TV screens and three figures on a dark red background. The screens display close-up images of eyes. The central figure holds a remote control pointed towards the viewer, having its head replaced with another screen displaying a psychedelic vortex.
  • Editorial
    Hand-drawn silhouettes of a diverse group of people in profile. Coloured squares in speech bubbles and flowing from their heads represent their speech and thoughts.

    We need to talk Now more than ever, society’s problems demand fresh insights

    Introducing the June issue, our magazine’s editors Iris Pissaride and Juliette Wilson-Thomas ask how we can maintain public discourse in sociology at a time when understanding society – and each other – is crucial.

  • Opinion
    A vintage grey metal clock for clocking on and off with space for punch cards on either side.

    Lives of the mind Is it a trap to see sociology as a job?

    As universities increasingly focus on quantifiable metrics, Les Back considers the support and structures we need to nurture a deep and rounded sociological life.

  • Research insights
    A rocky mountain landscape with cable cars and ski lifts. A white sheet covers snow on the ground in the foreground; patches of snow are visible in the background.

    Slippery slopes As the world warms, will Alpine skiing tourism survive?

    In the face of climate change, Valentina Ausserladscheider examines the economic futures of alpine communities and the conflicts emerging over sustainable practices.

  • Private troubles, public issues
    The group Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise protesting the non-payment of wages

    Power shifts From fast-food jobs to academic posts, I've seen why workers need unions

    When I worked in factories and catering as a youth, the levels of respect were lower than the pay. Now, I support trade unionists and activists in challenging workplace deregulation, says Bob Jeffery.

  • Sociology at work
    Signage in large white letters on a red background covers the top floors of the outside of a building at Piccadilly Circus, London. The main panel to the right reads ‘London welcomes refugees’ and ‘#LondonIsOpen’.

    Open to persuasion Can a publicity campaign capture a capital city’s essence?

    Through maps, interviews and social media analysis, Karim Murji explores the London Is Open campaign and the challenge of representing a capital city’s complex reality. Part of our Sociology at Work series of resources for A-Level sociology students and teachers.

  • Research insights
    Bucharest, Romania - July 26, 2022: A man carrying a water bottle walks through the fine spray of a fountain on a very hot day

    Black mirrors Seeing today through apocalyptic visions of tomorrow

    Speculating on the end of the world is not only for climate change activists. Joe P. L. Davidson on what society can learn from dystopian reflections.

  • Inside the Journal
    Woman looking through binoculars at people on different levels of a transparent building.

    Matters of perspective What thinking sociologically really means

    Editor-in-Chief Carin Runciman shares insights from The Sociological Review’s editors about how they choose the scholarship that shapes the Journal.

  • Podcasts
    A dial showing the sound levels on a mixing desk.

    Are you sitting comfortably? Some sound advice for your first radio or podcast appearance

    Being interviewed can be nerve-racking, but don’t let that stop you getting your message across to a wider audience. Here are Alice Bloch’s tips for effective media engagement.

Obligated to Care: Intergenerational Family Relations in Contemporary China The Sociological Review Monograph 73.4

“It is often said that the principal institution of Chinese society is the family. This is arguably as true for China today as it was for traditional China, but for different reasons.” The latest volume in The Sociological Review’s long-running Monograph series turns a sociological lens on the family in China today, and the many factors – historical, economic and cultural – that continue to shape it.

Early Career Researchers Day 2025
Application deadline: Monday 8 September 2025, 17.00 BST/UTC+1

The Sociological Review Foundation’s annual Early Career Researchers Day returns for 2025, with in-person workshops exploring the future of migration studies and ethnographic practice.

Strictly Come Writing November 2025 The Sociological Review’s residential writing retreat for early career scholars

Application deadline: Monday 1 September, 17.00 BST/UTC+1

Apply now to join the Sociological Review Foundation’s annual three-day residential writing retreat for early career scholars, which this year will be held in November at a beautiful rural location in Wales. Fourteen places will be awarded on a competitive basis to PhD students and postdocs, and the retreat is free of charge to attend.

The Sociological Review Annual Lecture 2025 Shahram Khosravi: How to do Migration Studies in Dark Times

Date & Times: , 18.O0–20.00 UTC+1Location: James McCune Smith Building - Room 438AB, The University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ Register to attend

Acclaimed academic and author Professor Shahram Khosravi will deliver How to do Migration Studies in Dark Times, The Sociological Review’s 2025 Annual Lecture, on 27 November in Glasgow, UK.

Towards an Alternative Spatial Practice

Each month on our Instagram channel we present a selection of works from a visual artist that responds to our current theme.

“Building and destruction often happen simultaneously, and to research this nonlinear, chaotic context requires redefining rupture – not as a break alone, but as something generative too. Rupture that destroys, and rupture that makes”, says spatial researcher Sana Murrani, our Image-Maker in Residence this summer.

Read about the current Image-Maker in Residence
A long horizontal strip with segments from eight abstract maps that depict visual assemblages of city plans, pathway routes, images of places and personal items and notes.

A collage of maps from the Ruptured Domesticity project. Materials: Layered media, photographs and fragments of GIS maps.

Copyright 2023 Sana Murrani. All rights reserved.

Shaping for Mediocrity by Gibson Burrell et al
Reviewed by Steven Brown
Gibson Burrell, Ronald Hartz, David Harvie, Geoff Lightfoot and Simon Lilley
Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at our Universities
Zer0 Books,  2024
ISBN:  9781803417967

There is no shortage of texts critiquing the nature of the modern neoliberal university, but few land with quite the balance of emotional and intellectual force as Shaping for Mediocrity: The Cancellation of Critical Thinking at our Universities.

The Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project is a project of The Sociological Review. It is an educational platform that provides open-access resources for students, teachers and academics who are interested in decolonising school, college and university curricula.

Visit the Connected Sociologies website
Toussaint Louverture by Jeanne Menjoulet licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Lowry, Salford

10–12 September 2024

The Sociological Review Foundation’s Undisciplining II conference took place from 10 to 12 September 2024 in Salford, England. Academics and educators, artists and activists, and thinkers and doers across many fields came together to ask: “Who is sociology for?”

The Sociological Review Journal and Monograph Series