Frank Furedi (; born 3 May 1947) is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent. He has studied the sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, sociology of knowledge, and what he calls "paranoid parenting".
Early life and education Furedi's family emigrated from Hungary to Canada after the failed 1956 uprising, and he completed a bachelor's degree in international relations at McGill University. He has lived in Britain since 1969. He completed an MA in African politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies,Curriculum Vitae , University of Kent website and received a PhD from the University of Kent in 1987 with a thesis on the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.
Revolutionary Communist Party and offshoots A former student radical, he became involved in left-wing politics in Britain in the 1970s, in particular, as a member of the International Socialists (IS), under the pseudonym Frank Richards. He and others were expelled from the IS in 1973 and formed the Revolutionary Communist Group, then in 1976, he and his followers were expelled from this group and formed the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, refounded in 1978 as the Revolutionary Communist Party.
The RCP was distinguished by its contrarianism, commitment to theoretical elaboration and hostility to state intervention in social life. Key positions for the party were involvement in anti-imperialist politics, including removal of British troops in Northern Ireland and opposition to the Gulf War.
In December 1990, the RCP's magazine Living Marxism ran an article by Furedi, entitled "Midnight in the Century", which argued that the corrosive effect of the collapse of both Stalinism and reformism on the working class meant that "for the time being at least, the working class has no political existence".Frank Furedi (as Frank Richards). "Midnight in the Century", Living Marxism, December 1990 This signalled a re-orientation of the party towards more libertarian positions, its formal dissolution by the end of the decade, and the founding of the right wing website Spiked Online with which Furedi is now associated.
Academic career Furedi's academic work was initially devoted to a study of imperialism and race relations. His books on the subject include The Mau Mau War in Perspective, The New Ideology of Imperialism and The Silent War: Imperialism and the Changing Perception of Race. In recent years his work has been oriented towards exploring the sociology of risk and low expectations. Furedi is author of several books on this topic, most recently Wasted: Why Education Isn't Educating (Continuum 2009) and Invitation to Terror: The Expanding Empire of the Unknown (Continuum 2007), an analysis of the impact of terrorism post 9/11. His more recent publications, On Tolerance: A Defence of Moral Independence (Continuum 2011) and Authority: A Sociological Introduction (Cambridge University Press) deal with the inter-related problem of freedom and authority.
He was, according to research from 2005, the most widely cited sociologist in the UK press. Furedi frequently appears in the media, expressing his view that Western societies have become obsessed with risk. He writes regularly for Spiked. He has also written several books on the subject of risk, offering a counterpoint to the analyses of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, including Paranoid Parenting, Therapy Culture, and Culture of Fear.
Notable PhD students he has supervised include Munira Mirza, political advisor who served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
In November 2021, Furedi assumed the post of director of the MCC Brussels centre, an offshoot of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium funded by the ruling Hungarian Fidesz party, citing the need for an alternative to mainstream pro-European think-tanks.
In May 2023, Furedi spoke at the National Conservatism Conference in London on the topic "The War Against National Belonging".
Views In the 1990s he was actively involved in campaigns for free speech. Furedi maintains that society and universities are undergoing a politically driven 'dumbing down' process which is manifest in society's growing inability to understand and assess the meaning of risk. The rise of the environmental and green movements parallels society's growing obsession with risk. Furedi also attacks the scientific consensus on global warming, and has criticised the prominent role played by science in policy formation.
In 2008 he criticised opponents of American vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the Spiked website. He claims: "It seems that even fervent advocates of women's rights will adopt outdated and chauvinistic moral rhetoric when targeting a woman they do not like."
In 2008 he co-authored a book with Jennie Bristow published by the think tank Civitas titled Licensed to Hug: How Child Protection Policies Are Poisoning the Relationship Between the Generations and Damaging the Voluntary Sector, arguing that the growth of police vetting (see Criminal Records Bureau) has created a sense of mistrust and advocating a more common-sense approach to adult/child relations, based on the assumption that the vast majority of adults can be relied on to help and support children, and that the healthy interaction between generations enriches children's lives.
Reception
Praise The philosopher Mary Warnock wrote in 2011 that Furedi is "to be respected in the strongest sense, indeed greatly admired" for his exposure of hypocrisy and intolerance in contemporary culture."Review: On Tolerance: A War of Moral Independence, Times Higher Education, 29 September 2011
In reviewing Furedi's Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? for The Times in 2004, the traditional conservative philosopher and writer Roger Scruton said:
Criticism Left and progressive critics of Furedi maintain that the organizations he has supported are cultish and reactionary. Blogger Benjamin Doxtdator has described Furedi's views on race as a "colourblind racism." George Monbiot has accused Furedi of overseeing extreme right-wing libertarian campaigns "against gun control, against banning tobacco advertising and child pornography, and in favour of global warming, human cloning and freedom for corporations". Monbiot has also accused him of leading entryism of ex-RCPers into "key roles in the formal infrastructure of public communication used by the science and medical establishment", to pursue an agenda in favour of genetic engineering."Invasion of the entryists", The Guardian, 9 December 2003 The journalist Nick Cohen has described the RCP as a "weird cult" whose Leninist discipline, disruptive behaviour and selfish publicity-seeking have remained unaltered during the various tactical shifts in the face it presents to the wider world."Wireless: Long March to the Microphone" , Standpoint, July/August 2010
Personal life Furedi is married to Ann Furedi. He lives in Faversham, Kent. Their son Jacob edits online publication Dispatch.https://dispatch-media.com/about/
Bibliography The Soviet Union Demystified: A Materialist Analysis, Junius Publications, 1986, The Mau Mau War in Perspective, James Currey Publishers, 1989 Mythical Past, Elusive Future: History and Society in an Anxious Age, Pluto Press, 1991 The New Ideology of Imperialism: Renewing the Moral Imperative, Pluto Press, 1994 Colonial Wars and the Politics of Third World Nationalism, IB Tauris, 1994 Culture of Fear: Risk Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1997, . 2nd edition: 2002, Population and Development: A Critical Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan, 1997 The Silent War: Imperialism and the Changing Perception of Race, Pluto Press, 1998 Courting Mistrust: The Hidden Growth of a Culture of Litigation in Britain, Centre for Policy Studies, 1999 Paranoid Parenting: Abandon Your Anxieties and Be a Good Parent, Allen Lane, 2001 Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age, Routledge, 2003 Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?: Confronting Twenty-First Century Philistinism, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2004 The Politics of Fear. Beyond Left and Right, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005, Invitation to Terror: The Expanding Empire of the Unknown, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2007, Licensed to Hug: How Child Protection Policies Are Poisoning the Relationship Between the Generations and Damaging the Voluntary Sector with Jennie Bristow, Civitas, 2008, . 2nd Revised edition: 2010, Wasted: Why Education Isn't Educating, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009 On Tolerance: The Life Style Wars: A Defence of Moral Independence, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011, Authority: A Sociological Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2013 Moral Crusades in an Age of Mistrust: The Jimmy Savile Scandal, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, First World War: Still No End in Sight, Bloomsbury USA, 2014, Power of Reading: From Socrates to Twitter, Bloomsbury, 2015, Populism and the European Culture Wars: The Conflict of Values between Hungary and the EU, Routledge, 2017, How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century, Bloomsbury, 2018, Why Borders Matter: Why Humanity Must Relearn the Art of Drawing Boundaries, Routledge, 2020, 100 Years of Identity Crisis: Culture War Over Socialisation, de Gruyter, 2021, The War Against the Past: Why The West Must Fight For Its History., Polity Press, 2024
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