Recent
Report of an independent assessment
Two years ago, in the Children's Plan, the DCSF committed itself to commission an independent assessment of the impact of the commercial world on children's wellbeing. That assessment, led by Professor David Buckingham, is now complete. As part of the process SIRC was commissioned to undertake two major reviews: Children and Family Life: Socio-Demographic Changes and The Ecology of Family Life. more
Psychological impact & the lessons of recession
There can be very few people in Britain who are unaware that we have been living in times of recession…It is clear that people — even those unaffected directly — are worried, especially about their future financial security. But are there some positive lessons to be learnt? more
The role and citizen impact of Public Service Broadcasting
As a complement to the extensive work contributed by other players on the rapid advances in technology and consumer behaviour, the work is designed to review and present the available data on broader social trends which may impact on PSB in the future…more
Passion, emotion and the 'beautiful game'
The Football Passions report summarises extensive sociological research across 18 countries in Europe. The objectives of the study were to capture the emotions of being a football fan and to compare the feelings, expressions and behaviour of fans associated with support of their football teams…more.
Anniversary of the guillotine
April 25th 2000. On this day in 1792 Dr Guillotin's much-improved device for executing people was first used in Paris to remove the head of a highwayman. Six years later, in the year of the French Revolution, the same man was to become the head of the very first government public health department. It was clearly no coincidence that the dominant ideology of this time was that coercion in matters of diet and lifestyle were the keys to ensuring the universal health and eventual compliance of the French people, even though dictatorship, and the much extended use of the guillotine, would initially be required to begin such a radical and mechanistic process.
All that, of course, was long ago in history and such approaches to the issue of 'governmentality' in health could never gain credence now, could they?
