Author:  Maisie Tomlinson

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

2023 was another challenging year for the world, and this year’s cohort of students were determined to show us how public sociology could help address some of the biggest global challenges we face in the future. We have published 36 of their blogs on this website, adding to archived blogs from previous years. I hope you enjoy browsing through.

We offered three prizes, looking for blog posts which combined an engaging and accessible writing style with good use of evidence and skilful weaving in of sociological theories from the course. I am delighted to announce the winning blogs, which you can find through the search box above or on our Prize Winning Articles page here.

Winners of the 2023 Global Social Challenges Blog Prize:

1^st Prize:

Ruby Fowler for “Green Capitalism: is this really the answer?”

Ruby gained the top prize for her critique of a profit-driven approach for finding our way out of the climate crisis. We admired her fluent, engaging writing, clear structure, and the way in which she weaved in several sociological ideas and concepts from our course.

The runners up are:

Apolline Harvey for “Why we cannot solve world poverty without gender equality”

Apolline’s rigorous use of evidence and relevant use of theory showed us why “gender inequality is not just associated with poverty, but is a direct cause of poverty” in this well-written article.

Kiera Ford for “The Development of Greener Technologies: is it really worth it?”

We enjoyed Kiera’s charismatic writing and good use of evidence in this case study of lithium mining in Cornwall which explored whether electric vehicles are worth the environmental cost.

There were very many other great blog posts, and we hope you enjoy browsing through our top selection as well as the prize-winning articles.

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