Frank Furedi

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, and received a PhD from the University of Kent in 1987 with a thesis on the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.

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. 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.

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 Critics of Furedi are drawn from a wide spectrum of left and progressive opinion who criticise as cultish and reactionary the organisations in which he has been a leading figure. Furedi's views on race have been described as a "colourblind racism" by blogger Benjamin Doxtdator. 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. 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.

Personal life Furedi is married to Ann Furedi. Their son Jacob edits online publication Dispatch.