Robert Dingwall

Robert Dingwall is a professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University. He also serves as a consulting sociologist, providing research and advisory services particularly in relation to organizational strategy, public engagement and knowledge transfer. He is co-editor of the SAGE Handbook of Research Management.

quartet in face masks

Face Masks and COVID – A Failed Technology

A model is only as good as its underlying simplifying assumptions and data, notes Robert Dingwall, and in the case of testing the effectiveness of face masks to combat the spread of COVID those data are, he argues, at best fragile.

1 month ago
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Stack of unused face masks in hospital setting

Face Masks for COVID: An Obituary?

While the full story will probably have to await the attention of historians, writes Robert Dingwall, but anyone who criticized masking was labeled as a peddler of disinformation.

2 months ago
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The Covid Pandemic in France: A Review

Henri Bergeron et al. Covid-19: Une Crise Organisationelle Sciences Po: Les Presses, 2020. 9782724626650Jean-Paul Gaudillière et al Pandémopolitiqiue La Découverte, […]

5 months ago
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King Canute and the Cult of Zero Infection

The humility of King Canute in the face of nature is worth recalling as a check on the enthusiasm for zero-infection. It is a fine-sounding slogan but do we really want to live in a society where everything else is sacrificed to this goal?

9 months ago
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Scene from video showing Queen and paddington bear at table in ornate room

The Meaning of the Platinum Jubilee

Robert Dingwall recalls the observations of Edward Shils and Michael Young regarding to coronation of Queen Elizabeth II to offer an insight in the Platinum Jubilee.

10 months ago
1099
Signs in English, Swedish and Arabic

Pandemic Management – The Path Not Taken

New data from the WHO show that during the pandemic’s first two years, Sweden had half the excess death rate of the UK, Germany or Spain – and a quarter of the excess death rate of many countries in Eastern Europe.

10 months ago
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