The economic shock of coronavirus has brought perennial questions about government borrowing and spending, NHS funding, social care and welfare, inequality in income and education, and wellbeing, into renewed focus. In a special edition of Advantage magazine published to mark 10 years since the Austerity budget, leading economists reflect on these issues and consider what lessons can be learnt as the UK plans its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trade unions are crucial in advancing workers’ rights, but it is unhelpful to consider their leaders as representatives of the working class as a whole when analysing labour relations and government policies, a new paper from the University of Warwick Department of Sociology argues.

A new project led by Professor John Solomos of Warwick Sociology will look at the social and political life of London to test whether the utopian ideal of the Open City exists in real life, and explore issues of race, migration, mobility and living with diversity. 

Sharifah Sekalala, Associate Professor in Warwick School of Law, will be taking on two significant projects aimed at ensuring that human rights don’t get eroded in the national and international response to the coronavirus pandemic with support from the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.

Six Warwick social science researchers have become members of the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner’s new Academic Advisory Board. Dr Ana Aliverti, Professor Jo Angouri, Professor Jackie Hodgson, Professor Vanessa Munro, Professor Tom Sorell and Professor Azrini Wahidin will share research and expertise with the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner, David Jamieson.