Politics

Book of the week: A shared sense of precarity is at the heart of recent disparate mass protests, says Mary Evans

A small tax hike for the cream of 1 per cent could fund college for the poorest, says Danny Dorling

Marianne Franklin on a guide to help people escape the attentions of public and private bodies capturing and capitalising on our online actions

Book of the week: Ethics aside, no useful information is to be gained from ‘coercive questioning’, says Steven Rose

Labour ex-minister criticises the view that UK ‘can’t afford English identity’

Marcus Chown on a brief, critically important guide to economic literacy

Liberal thinking, teaching quality and pastoral care are his priorities for private university

Government proposals will be detrimental not just to scholarship but to quality teaching in higher education, says Joanna Williams

Howard P. Segal on a brilliant study exploring the conflict between free speech and instruction guides that may be used for violence

Richard Murphy praises a bold effort to halt tax-dodging by the 1 per cent

University with close links to former prime minister to be home for planned library, museum and resources for both education and research

The Chinese president is visiting several of the UK’s top universities. But would they thrive in China? 

High-profile visiting professors at King’s Policy Institute include Margaret Hodge, David Willetts and Charles Clarke

Sample list of questions says applicants were asked about bankers’ pay and invited to carry out an engineering experiment with a ruler

Annual event continues to open up unexpected places and debates

Not everybody is impressed by a new “model” for conferences addressing controversial themes fashioned after outrage over an event about the Israel-Palestine conflict

John Morgan looks at the latest spending review developments

Former head of No 10 Policy Unit to be professor of public policy at the university

Caron E. Gentry praises a work that reveals the contributions of female Muslims

Martin Cohen on how the failings of liberal democracies have affected every aspect of our lives

The ineffectiveness of the Mogadishu government is not stopping university leaders from trying to drive up standards

Emma Rees on the social networking origins of a 21st-century political movement

Sarah Waters on a fascinating yet deeply curious book that has triggered a public outcry in France

Body behind the Athena SWAN gender equality initiative names first institutions to receive award to promote racial diversity

Linnie Blake extols a study on films using the technology to tell their stories

A biography of the late Chinese leader details his long, complex career yet the statesman defies easy labels, says Kerry Brown

Twelve universities across the continent are offering course aimed at next generation of development professionals

This study of an era of violent abuses of power ignores half of humanity, finds Jacqueline Broad

We talk to the Labour MP for Barking and former chair of the Public Accounts Committee

The former Cabinet minister and diplomat will be the first black woman to lead a UK university

Lack of safeguards raises ‘fundamental issue of academic freedom’

A conference will explore the role of “Universities in Revolution and State Formation” all the way from 19th-century Sicily to the Arab Spring.

M. Emranul Haque on why hard information is the best way to stop the backhanders

Paul Bernal clicks with a maverick thinker who shows how business and governments are building a global surveillance network and how we can fight back

Rising inequality can be addressed without taking to the barricades, Victoria Bateman suggests

Danny Dorling on an unusual study that reveals much about what is wrong with political culture

Jonathan Mirsky on the undistinguished qualities of a president who wants China to ‘learn from Chairman Mao’

Robert Lee Maril on a timely study of an important issue in the run-up to another US presidential election

Miriam E. David urges scholars to engage with essays contributing to wider political debates

Vasilis Leontitsis weighs arguments for economic reform co-written by a scholar turned Syriza MP

An engaging account of an unruly city, but why so little on Empire, wonders Danny Dorling

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on the drama that formed and maintained Near Eastern civilisations

Joanna Lewis on the assassination of the nation’s first democratically elected leader

Top-down ideas narrow a New Labour architect’s vision of a brave new Britain, says Philip Roscoe

A German sociologist proposes that EU reform should be in the direction of revival, growth and social justice, explains Roger Morgan

Angelia Wilson on a prison system that has eroded democratic institutions and exacerbated social injustices

Andrew Blake on a study of politics and the arts in the New Labour era

Jonathan Mirsky on a revealing study about the roots of changes in sexual habits

Fred Inglis finds much to savour in a shrewd and affectionate study of a cherished satirical sitcom

Paul Bernal finds much to admire in this compelling examination of the diverse events the group has been involved in

Film-makers are challenging mainstream media depictions of state terror, finds Linnie Blake

Hester Vaizey on the political and religious divisions across a lesser known part of the Iron Curtain

Roger Morgan lauds a biography charting Labour statesman’s rise from a colliery to the Cabinet

Alex Danchev considers a history of a small but influential group of cultural ‘hijackers’

Martin Cohen on a brief but powerful look at the history of avarice in society and what can be done to temper its more extreme elements

Vladimir Tismaneanu lauds a posthumous and provocative work that reflects on the past but also on the current European predicament

The veteran right-wing academic sets out his belief system. By A. W. Purdue

Kristin M. Bakke on moving beyond standard intervention practice and involving local knowledge to end conflict

Most people receive from the welfare state what they pay in taxes, argues Danny Dorling

Farzana Shaikh on a retread of a historian’s former work on Pakistan