News

The new SSGS magazine
4th November 2020
We're pleased to announce the publication of SSGS Magazine, which offers insight into the breadth of work across the School's eight disciplines.
Alternative Perspectives to nature
11th August 2020
Dr Eleni Dimou, a Lecturer in Criminology at the OU, looks at how we have lost our relationality to nature and considers alternative indigenous perspectives that view human beings in connection and complementarity with Mother Earth
Stephen’s story on film: from prison life to PhD student
6th August 2020
Filmed for BBC Ideas, Stephen Akpabio-Klementowski talks openly about his challenging journey to education.
Youth Violence Commission report launches with the voices of young people at its heart
20th July 2020
The report, led by FASS academic Dr Keir Irwin-Rogers, OU Lecturer in Criminology, calls for long-term, sustained financial support for the UK’s 18 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs).
The deaths of care home residents and social care workers
9th July 2020
In this article, Dr Victoria Cooper, a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at The Open University, reflects on the deaths of care home residents and social care workers in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic
Moving on: Burying Coronavirus Deaths
3rd July 2020
Professor Steve Tombs from the OU and Professor Joe Sim from Liverpool John Moores University explore the numbers game that has been played by the Government since the start of the coronavirus crisis and question their efforts now to move on from it
Grenfell, three years on: let us not forget
12th June 2020
Steve Tombs marks the third anniversary of the fire at Grenfell Tower which killed 72 people and changed forever the lives of many more; he does so through the lens of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the renewed critical attention to manifestations of structural racism
Everybody needs good neighbours, especially right now
20th May 2020
OU lecturer in Criminology Dr Julia Downes considers the difference neighbourhood groups called mutual aid groups are doing and could do, to help support those who are facing more interpersonal and state violence in the pandemic
In search of the COVID-secure workplace
14th May 2020
Open University Professor of Criminology, Steve Tombs, writes for the Institute of Employment Rights. He asks, if the average workplace will only be inspected once every 275 years, how does Boris expect these Covid 'spot checks' to work?
Will COVID-19 increase Secondary Data Analysis?
12th May 2020
In this post, Sarah Hadfield, an ESRC Grand Union PhD Researcher in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at The Open University, discusses if social distancing will increase the use of secondary data in research projects