The Stigma Conversations

What is stigma? Who does it serve? And how does it shape a world broken by poverty, prejudice, and injustice? Welcome to The Stigma Conversations, with leading activist sociologist Imogen Tyler. Join Imogen as she meets inspirational academics, activists and frontline workers to show that while stigma is certainly about feelings and experiences, it’s also about power, politics and history. We are in a state of emergency, and we need to take action, now.Through intimate and urgent ...

What’s missing from mainstream thinking on stigma? And why must we confront power, politics and history if we are to fight dehumanisation and shame? Imogen Tyler, author of "Stigma, The Machinery of Inequality", tells friend and fellow sociologist Michaela Benson how her thinking on stigma evolved through the time of Brexit, the “migrant crisis” and Trump – and why stigma power is alive in the widening “war on woke”. They discuss the need to celebrate movements and thinkers – from Du Bois to ...

Stigma is nothing new. In Ancient Greece the word meant ‘tattoo’ and referred to writing on people’s skin as a means of punishment and control. Recognising that, says sociologist Imogen Tyler, is a game changer; it means we can start thinking about how stigma literally marks and divides us - and start thinking about how to resist.Here, Imogen hears from sociologist Alice Bloch about her research with descendants of Holocaust survivors who have chosen to tattoo themselves with the numbers inke...

Food banks. Fuel poverty. Heating vs Eating. Why has poverty become the new normal in the UK, accepted as “just the way it is” in one of the world’s richest countries? Stigma, says sociologist Imogen Tyler, has been part of this normalisation: it’s dehumanised some of society’s vulnerable people, devaluing lives and destroying compassion to boot. Helen Greatorex, Chief Officer at North Lancashire Citizens Advice, tells Imogen what she’s seen working on the welfare frontline over the year...

How are racism and stigma power linked? How can education empower us to face the past and tell new stories? And why must we break historical silences? Sociologist Imogen Tyler talks to fellow activists from Lancaster Black History Group, formed after a Black Lives Matter Vigil in the city in 2020 – which few know was once the fourth largest slave trading city in the UK.Teacher Geraldine Onek – who came to the UK as a child refugee from Sudan – describes working with schoolchildren to teach th...

“Change can happen. Change has happened…”Poverty makes us unwell. GP Andy Knox sees this in his North Lancashire consulting room, meeting people whose lives could improve if stigma and destitution went away. He tells sociologist Imogen Tyler about the burnout facing doctors and frontline workers trying to care for their communities on scant resources, and reflects on how we need to ask “bigger deeper questions” about what’s making our society sick.But, inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s idea of hop...