Paul is a writer, broadcaster and the former Editor of the social affairs magazine New Society and is a Senior Research Fellow at The Young Foundation.
He was awarded a research fellowship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 for his work on suburbia. The Freedoms of Suburbia, his book based on this research, was published in 2009. (Chinese publication 2012).
His previous book was 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).
In 2012 he published Hebden Bridge: A Sense of Belonging, in which he seeks to pin down what “a sense of place” means, and how communities interact. The book weaves together social history, detailed interviews and personal/family memories. It has been described as “a classic in the making.”
From 1968-86 he was the Editor of the social affairs journal New Society. In 2010 the V&A mounted an exhibition of social documentary photography, under the title The Other Britain Revisited, selected from a set of New Society original prints he donated to the museum.
He was a chair and trustee of the Institute for Community Studies.
Publications (as author, 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)
The Freedoms of Suburbia (2009)
The Banham Lectures: Designing the future (2010)
Hebden Bridge: A Sense of Belonging (May 2012)
Post material to Paul Barker, Senior Research Fellow, Young Foundation, 18 Victoria Park Square, London E2 9PF, UK – marking envelope “Please forward.”
