Why?

A personal web-site like this is bound to be narcissistic, but I hope it has a wider social purpose of making my writing and photography more easily available to anyone who has a serious interest in sociology, politics and culture.  In particular, I hope it is useful those who are committed to thinking about and developing practice which will support radical social change.  

Who?

I was born in 1949 in Northallerton, Yorkshire, UK. I’ve lived in Leeds, UK, since 1968. I formed myself in the varied mileux of loving friends and family, Royal Air Force camps, private and state schools, the University of Leeds’ Sociology Department, and the libertarian revolutionary movements of the 1960s, 1970s (in Big Flame) and early 1980s. I have worked in factories, as an unqualified social worker, in adult and community education, for the Runnymede Trust and for the Harehills and Chapeltown Law Centre, and as a freelance journalist and photographer.

My utopian longing continued to guide my work when I became a cultural sociologist at Leeds Met University in the mid-1990s. I took voluntary redundancy from Leeds Met in 2010, ending my career there as Professor for Community Engagement.  Currently I’m an Emeritus Professor, freelance consultant, volunteer, holiday-maker and active grand-dad.

I’ve lived with Jane Storr since 1971. We married in 2003.  We have two children, Rose (b. 1975) and John (b. 1979), a son-in-law, Guy Dixon, a grand-daughter, Miranda (b. 2006), a grand-son, Robert (b. 2008), and an almost daughter-in-law, Anabel Leibovic.  Their child, Olivia Maria (b. 2011) is another very welcome addition to our family. All of them are making their own futures.