Social science

Spanning 200,000 years of human trading, this study considers the influence of technology and the fallout of global interconnectedness, says Juliet Webster

Book of the Week: lack of effective antitrust oversight leaves us at the mercy of digital platforms, says Julia Powles

The Left are busy looking back instead of devising laws to address inequalities, says Danny Dorling

Britain got sober patriotism, purpose and more from its post-war leader, says Gordon Marsden

Martin Cohen on a study that strives to position a much-quoted thinker as a social geographer

David Wheeler finds reason for hope in a critique of the neoliberal academy that also offers sound ideas for reform

Many early career researchers have ‘not gone to the library for years’, according to report

A study focused on Singapore’s Biopolis centre concentrates on various global ‘currents’ in bioscience, says Flora Samuel

UK universities can now ‘feel confident’ in recruiting postgraduate students for 2017-18, says RCUK chair

Book of the week: From the black stuff to books, who gets the goods in a sharing and streaming era? asks Paul Bernal

London as an eco-village? Treehouses in Accra? Danny Dorling lauds beautiful and bold what-ifs

Authors suggest something has gone badly wrong with economics as an academic discipline

Book of the week: Political Svengalis, not the public, drive populist pantomimes of democracy, says Angelia Wilson

Mark Gatenby considers what it means for business schools – and universities more generally – to embrace Utopian ways of thinking

Jonathan Mirsky on a bleak but believable view of rampant corruption taking a country to the dogs

Cheap taxis come at a price but remodelling the online marketplace is an option, says Kylie Jarrett

Marcus Chown on a deeply political study that explains why inequality exists and that while ending it will not be easy, it is not impossible

US bureaucrats are ignorant of the public’s views despite sharing similar outlooks, says Kori Schake

As meritocratic approach to education finds favour in UK, academic argues its dystopian original meaning has come to pass in China

Book of the week: Universities pay lip service to minorities while maintaining the status quo, says Kalwant Bhopal

Repeal the Human Rights Act? A study explains why we would be mad to do so, says Rachael Ita

Book of the week: Working through university crushes US students. Laurie Taylor fears the UK will share their pain

Once upon a time, authors pushed young readers to see the world very differently, says Shelley King

Training, bold interdisciplinary partnerships and ‘bridging skills’ are all essential for social scientists who want to make best use of all the data now available to them

Book of the week: E. Stina Lyon appreciates the social portraiture approach used to understand complex family roles

Catherine Clinton on the legacy of a marginalised group in a supposedly class-free society

Victoria Bateman on why the Enlightenment took root in Europe and how it helped to spur economic expansion

Richard Murphy is enthralled by an insider’s story of a secretive profession that intensifies inequality

A fine ethnography reveals how poor Angelenos and the cops control each other, says Dick Hobbs

Money buys compliance, and a few shots of Confucianism help too, says Jonathan Mirsky

Book of the week: If all-seeing ‘miracle’ tech is making the decisions we must demystify the tricks, says Danny Dorling

From Fox News to the race for the White House, this work is all about politics, says Sharon Wheeler

Angelia Wilson on how vulnerability means profitability when deregulation and privatisation come to health and social care

Young scholars tell it like it is but is knowledge of replaceability a bar to change? asks Finn Mackay

Book of the week: The decision process behind the euro has left the EU in an untenable position, says Lucia Quaglia

Paul Bernal on a vital and comprehensive survey of how our era of ubiquitous observation arose

Stefania Milan on the socio-legal complexities of digital redemption and digital reinvention

Book of the week: ‘Helicopters’ or ‘bystanders’? Your folks’ behaviour can govern more than grades, says Hazel Christie

A scholar in the oil-rich state takes in Mecca, art and quiet transgressions, says Madawi Al-Rasheed

Jonathan Mirsky considers an exploration of the dynamics between two ancient rival nations

Book of the week: Investing in individuals delivers personal and national prosperity, Richard Murphy finds

Book of the week: Meet the human computers in heels who juggled science and family, says Margaret A. Weitekamp

An economist explains to the rich that they didn’t build that, Danny Dorling writes

Projecting their hopes and fears on to Israel has polarised Jews in the US, says William Kolbrener

Social science scholars are attempting to produce ‘impossible results’ due to demands from journal editors, finds study

Unbeatable? This extremist group has little to offer in times of peace, says Christina Hellmich

Secretary general of the Guild of European Research Intensive Universities says shortfalls of Horizon 2020 must be addressed

Andrew Robinson on an eloquent exposition of what it means to be a modern university teacher

Personality researcher Adam Perkins faces claims at rescheduled lecture of ‘misrepresenting’ studies to suit his thesis on ‘work-shy’ benefit claimants

David Mould had to navigate cartoon lemurs and other barriers in order to help local academics study factors hindering development

Book of the week: Second-wave highs, Caitlin Moran and rape culture surface in a work of mixed genres, says Emma Rees

A sociologist and anthropologist who investigated some of the most challenging aspects of Israeli society has died

The ability to exercise some authority over others can be a force for good, but there is more to it than that, says Manuela Barreto

Optimism and realism vie in a study telling us where we are, where we’re going and how best to get there, says Jon Turney

Centre for the GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway will use interdisciplinary tools to explore everything from Elizabethan England to climate change and migration

Book of the week: Why are those pushed into food poverty then stigmatised and shamed, asks Lisa Mckenzie

Can intersectionality help transform policymaking or does it offer only an alienating new jargon?

Decision to move senior lecturer off core module raises further concerns about economics teaching in universities

Scientific misconduct increasingly studied as example of ‘occupational crime’, researcher says

There are many lessons to be learned from universities around the world, says new British Academy report