Paul Barker

Paul is a Senior Research Fellow at The Young Foundation. He has been awarded a research fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for his work on suburbia. He contributes regularly to all the quality London press and the BBC. His latest book is a revised edition of Arts in Society (Five Leaves Publications, 2006). He wrote on Michael Young's legacy in The Rise and Rise of Meritocracy, edited by YF fellow Geoff Dench (Blackwell 2006). From 1968-86 he was the Editor of the social affairs journal New Society. He was a chair and trustee of the Institute for Community Studies.

Publications (as editor or contributor)

  • A Sociological Portrait (1972)
  • Arts in Society (1977, new edition 2006)
  • The Other Britain (1982)
  • Towards a New Landscape (1993)
  • Living as Equals(1996)
  • Town and Country (1998)
  • Non-Plan (2000)
  • From Black Economy to Moment of Truth (2004)
  • Porcupines in Winter (2006)
  • The Rise and Rise of Meritocracy (2007)

Recent articles:

  • On 9 February 2007, he wrote in the Times Literary Supplement about the British and their obsession with posessions
  • On 30 January 2007, he wrote about the botched 'regeneration' plans for putting a supercasino inside the Millenium Dome on the Greenwich Peninsula
  • On 22 January, Paul wrote in the Evening Standard a commentary on London's affordable housing crisis :"Now build in the right places."
  • In the April issue of Prospect, he wrote about 'Englishness in the mirror' - an interpretation of Hogarth
  • In the February issue of Prospect, Paul wrote about London crime in fiction : "The skull beneath the skin."

Post material to Paul Barker, Senior Research Fellow, Young Foundation, 18 Victoria Park Square, London E2 9PF, UK - marking envelope “Please forward.”