Ewen Speed

We are delighted to publish @colinlorne.bsky.social & Michael Lambert's paper on place-based reform, Wigan, & rejecting the politics of responsibilisation for 'left-behind'places - now on online first:
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

Health Communism is out in paperback today. It contains just one new endorsement, from RWG, which meant the world to us. “The authors are at once ahead of their time and right on time.”

Get it at the link below to donate to Sameer Project, or pirate it online and donate instead

The Campaign Against Vegan Diets Chris Till looks at the disinformation campaigns against the adoption of vegan diets

New blog - "Disinformation, vested interest and the campaign against vegan diets" - Chris Till looks at the right-wing criticism of vegan diets and uncovers vested interests, anti-environmentalism and climate denialism #veganism #climatechange www.cost-ofliving.net/disinformati...

Making Meaning, Creating Care: Mad Zines and Self-Harm Making Meaning, Creating Care: Mad Zines and Self-Harm

New Blog Post - "Making Meaning, Creating Care: Mad Zines and Self-Harm" - @veronicaheney.bsky.social‬ looks at the use of MadZines to challenge prevailing understandings, diagnoses and treatments of self-harm #SelfHarm #MadZines www.cost-ofliving.net/making-meani...

How to think about the rise and rise of mental distress How to think about the rise and rise of mental distress

New Blog Post - "How to think about the rise and rise of mental distress" - Susan McPherson critically examines the new Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) survey of adults in England #MentalHealth #MentalDistress www.cost-ofliving.net/how-to-think...

Distress in Community Food Support Systemic Betrayal, Moral Injury and Distress in Community Food Support

New Blog article - 'Systemic Betrayal, Moral Injury and Distress in Community Food Support' - Carl Walker examines the crisis at the heart of the UK food sector #food #foodpoverty #inequality
www.cost-ofliving.net/systemic-bet...

Review: “28 Years Later” and “Shifty” - Cost Of Living Review: “28 Years Later” and “Shifty”

New blog - "Review: 28 Years Later and Shifty" - Simon Carter reviews Danny Boyle's '28 Days Later' and Adam Curtis's 'Shifty', both of which explore nostalgia and a nation grappling with what it has become #28YearsLater #Shifty www.cost-ofliving.net/review-28-ye...

Staggering (even though we had clear idea) quite what the alleged profit margins are for these big publishers are...

Brand new research out from @changingrealities.bsky.social today. It's time to get the Child Poverty Strategy right.

Please do give it a read and a share.

Pandemics, populism and bioethics: A critical approach

new article on bioethics and populist health policy out now, with me, @gabyarguedas.bsky.social, @drberger.bsky.social and Russell Mannion. Great to see this now in print journals.plos.org/globalpublic...

Creating a surplus - Cost Of Living Creating a surplus

New post from me up on health policy and redefinitions of who is (and isn't) eligible for welfare support www.cost-ofliving.net/creating-a-s...

Creating a surplus - Cost Of Living Creating a surplus

New Blog Post - "Creating a Surplus" - @ewenspeed.bsky.social critically examines the concept of 'surplus' in healthcare systems and argues that it often makes people responsible for a whole set of structural conditions beyond their control www.cost-ofliving.net/creating-a-s... #policy #deathpanels

Does the UK have a mental health overdiagnosis problem? Mental ill health has been cited as a factor in the welfare overhaul, and experts agree it has worsened since the pandemic

Contributed to piece in Guardian on Streeting claims re MH overdiagnoses. It's part of sustained govt move to reduce ESA claimants.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

you'd need your binoculars....

where? Can't see them...

Autonomy, accountability, and ambiguity in arm’s-length meta-governance: the case of NHS England Meta-governance involves orchestrating the ‘rules of the game’ in public management. Arm’s-length bodies are particularly important vehicles for this. We consider the case of an arm’s-length body (...

Thanks Anna, time to revisit our paper on NHS England???https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14719037.2018.1544660

New Commentary from @heathercame.bsky.social & colleagues on excuses for racism (& how to counter them)
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

Journal of Critical Public Health The journal is published by the international Critical Public Health Network in Edinburgh, UK (https://cphn.net/), ISSN 3033-3997.

We are pleased to announce that our new issue has just been published! Vol 2 (1). Read, enjoy, let your colleagues know!
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...

Funding Schemes - Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness The Foundation currently offers 4 different types of awards, across fellowships, conference travel, research development and symposia. Please note that the Foundation no longer funds PhD studentships.

Based in UK? Working in soc of health? #medsoc Next @fshi.bsky.social deadline 28th march www.shifoundation.org.uk/schemes/

Reminder to colleagues working in critical public health to submit to the community owned diamond OA journal when they can! We know not everyone has the academic capital to publish in new journals, but if you can, please do!

This is a venn diagram showing how 69 Trump actions map onto domains covering: undermining democratic institutions; suppressing dissent and media; dismantling social protections; attacking science and education; destabilising the global order. A table version is available here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LZN7QnbSyFfUZJG8Sn1MWpK0VnfBtb0OSyZ1jxP3xBk/edit?usp=sharing

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..."

Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up.

I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

BREAKING: The High Court has ruled the government's consultation into plans to slash billions of pounds from disability benefits claimants was unlawful

The case was brought by Ellen Clifford

Full report coming

Catherine Will - Cost Of Living Catherine Will, a founding member of the blog, died this year. To mark her contribution, we offer a short selection of the articles she wrote

New Blog - 'Catherine Will' - In our last blog of the year we remember Catherine Will, who died this year. Catherine was a founding member of the editorial collective and contributed numerous articles to the blog. Here is a short selection of her many articles.
www.cost-ofliving.net/catherine-wi...

Anxiety and Art: Uncertain Bodies Anxiety and Art: Uncertain Bodies

New Blog - 'Anxiety and Art: Uncertain Bodies' - Veronica Heney reflects on the 'Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers' exhibition and the relationship between art and anxiety and how the non-verbal can convey a sensation #art #anxiety #mentalhealth
www.cost-ofliving.net/anxiety-and-...

When did you make the jump? I left when he bought it, but I've not managed to get in the way of it again on here, much more lurking, much less posting, and also waiting for trolls to arrive... all a bit sad really 😔

Scotland experiences higher mortality rates and larger health inequalities than other high-income countries, including the wider UK. The predominantly epidemiological evidence-base identifies deprivation, inequalities in wealth, deindustrialization, health behaviours and housing as important factors, while excess mortality has been attributed to a ‘political attack’ on the Scottish population in the late twentieth century. This paper synthesises 48 studies offering lay perspectives on the factors shaping health in Scotland, identified via systematic searches. The findings demonstrate that people with lived experience of disadvantage have a good understanding of the social determinants of health inequalities. We also identify five ways in which Scotland’s disadvantaged communities experience a sense of ‘attack’: the structural violence of poverty; disadvantageous national policies; ‘street level bureaucrats’ gatekeeping welfare support; local profiteers (e.g., unresponsive landlords); and interpersonal violence. We argue that these findings provide support for the ‘political attack’ hypothesis and that they suggest research and policy needs to better grapple with the depth of poverty, the intersectional nature of inequalities and the roles that history, narratives, crime, violence and policy implementation each play in shaping Scotland’s health outcomes. We call for research and policy responses that ground both diagnosis and future prescriptions in the experiential knowledge of those most negatively impacted.

Under attack? Public accounts of health inequalities and the social determinants of health in Scotland -
Ellen Stewart
University of Glasgow
JCPH Vol. 1 No. 2
doi.org/10.55016/ojs...

New blog - "Lived Experience and Social Welfare Policy" - @ewenspeed.bsky.social examines the democratic deficit caused by the discrepancy between healthcare policy and social welfare policy #healthcare #socialwelfare www.cost-ofliving.net/lived-experi...

The NHS in Late Soviet Britain - Cost Of Living The NHS in Late Soviet Britain

New Blog - "The NHS in Late Soviet Britain" - @ewenspeed.bsky.social examines the current state of the NHS and asks why Britain has become so unstable www.cost-ofliving.net/the-nhs-in-l...

The NHS in Late Soviet Britain - Cost Of Living The NHS in Late Soviet Britain

new post from me up on the @costoflivingblog.bsky.social on the NHS in late Soviet Britain, more here www.cost-ofliving.net/the-nhs-in-l...

A sad moment: the outgoing editorial board's last ever issue of CPH - as always, some cracking papers plus our final editorial reflecting on change in publishing doi.org/10.1080/0958...