Is a systemic enchantment with technology hiding a reality of individual disempowerment? With the excitement around technology and it's potential for improving our society, it's easy to forget, or ignore, the risks that it poses. Our researchers are exploring how to safely manage digital transformation.
How have educators innovated during the pandemic? The pandemic's impact on education has been far reaching, both globally and locally. What lessons can we learn from teaching during this challenging time to reduce educational inequality?
What more can anti-doping organisations do to discourage doping in sport? Sports psychologists are researching the effectiveness of moral interventions in reducing doping likeliness.
How are power imbalances threatening sustainable livelihoods? From illegal poaching to crackdowns on the wildlife trade, efforts are being made to end these practices - but who is making decisions on how to do that and based on what evidence?
How can we strengthen anti-racism measures in universities? UK universities are often taking tokenistic measures and failing to confront their complicity in racial injustice, argues Professor Kalwant Bhopal.
Not all young people have a positive experience in sport. How can we encourage participation? How can we design sport and physical activity settings to promote optimal engagement and realise the wider benefits of participation?
How do we ensure autistic children and young people get the education they deserve? With a rise in exclusions of autistic pupils, academics are investigating the underlying causes and are advocating for enhanced support for teaching staff.
How do you increase people's trust in development aid? Academics are helping NGOs and governments improve public engagement with global poverty by tracking attitudes towards development aid.
How do we ensure the state is accountable? Counter-terrorism measures are proliferating around the world, yet little is know about the accountability and review mechanisms placed on them. A team of researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford are conducting an in-depth, first-of-its kind analysis of UK counter-terrorism policy.
Can a medical diagnostics approach keep our cities in good health? By 2030, 60% of the world’s population will be living in cities. Understanding the reality of city-regions and the challenges they face is a critical matter for our times. Medical diagnostics combines the intuitive reasoning of practitioners with partly subjective observation, before it is explored or tested further. For Professor John Bryson, this two-step process inspired a new way of thinking about cities.
How do regimes continue to rig elections and get away with it? Democracy is in the spotlight. We spoke to Professor Nic Cheeseman, Research Director of the University of Birmingham's International Development Department, to find out how our understanding of democracy and elections have evolved in the 21st Century.
How do we meet the healthcare needs of superdiverse populations? Though welfare systems in countries differ, the challenge of how states handle how a diverse population gains access to healthcare, social care and other welfare provisions is a shared one. A new approach is needed. But first, a fresh approach to research on welfare provision.
How is beauty transforming the self to become our actual, transforming and imagined body? You should ‘make the best of yourself’, you’re worth it, you deserve it and, whatever else you do, you should not ‘let yourself go’. So familiar is beauty talk that the harshness of the moral judgement might pass you by. But the moral pressure to ‘do’ beauty is growing.