Soundings

Soundings is a journal of politics and culture founded in 1995 by Stuart Hall, Doreen Massey and Michael Rustin, with the aim of providing a forum for democratic and pluralist left discussion, broadly in the New Left tradition. It has been published from its inception by independent radical publisher Lawrence & Wishart. Soundings is edited by an editorial collective convened by Sally Davison.

Soundings seeks to include within its remit the widest possible range of issues. It has published themed issues on subjects such as young Britain; the echoes of Windrush; emotional labour; frontier markets; well-being; bare life; ecowars; and living in cities.

Previous contributors have included: Zygmunt Bauman, Beatrix Campbell, Cynthia Cockburn, Alan Finlayson, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, Paul Hirst, Jackie Kay, Ernesto Laclau, Bruno Latour, Doreeen Massey, Angela McRobbie, Chantal Mouffe, Mike Phillips, Anne Phoenix, Michael Rustin, Jonathan Rutherford, Steven Rose, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Anne Showstack Sassoon, Valerie Walkerdine, Jeffrey Weeks, Nira Yuval-Davis, Lola Young, Gary Younge.

‘Soundings helps to keep my faith in an intellectual left alive. In a world of shrinking media outlets for serious reflection about what’s going on and what can be done about it, Soundings consistently challenges my assumptions and opens my mind to new questions, ideas and possibilities.’
Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

‘Soundings has sounded for me quite a few ideas which I wouldn’t be able to fathom on my own. And they go on doing it – for which I am immensely grateful…’
Zygmunt Bauman, Universities of Leeds and Warsaw

‘Soundings is willing to ask the biggest questions, but is always rooted in the here and now: it’s a vital link between the tradition of progressive thought in Britain and the futures which all of us are working for.’
Jeremy Gilbert, University of East London