Robert Pinker

Robert Arthur Pinker (27 May 1931 – 2 February 2021) was a British sociologist and press regulator.

Early life and family Robert Arthur Pinker was born on 27 May 1931, the son of Dora Elizabeth Pinker and Joseph Pinker. In 1955, he married Jennifer Farrington Boulton, who died in 1994; they had two daughters.

Career

Academia After attending Holloway County School, Pinker went to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), initially receiving a Certificate in Social Science and Administration in 1959, and then completing a Bachelor of Science degree (BSc) in Sociology in 1962 and a Master of Science degree (MSc) in Economics three years later. when he was appointed Head of the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths College, University of London. In 1972, he gave up the post and was appointed Lewisham Professor of Social Administration at Goldsmiths. Two years later, he moved to Chelsea College to be Professor of Social Studies and then, from 1978 to 1993, he was Professor of Social Work Studies at the LSE, before finishing his academic career as Professor of Social Administration at the LSE from 1993 to 1996; he was also a Pro-Director at the LSE (1985–88) and the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Social Sciences at the University of London (1989–90).

Pinker's published works include English Hospital Statistics 1861–1938 (1964), Social Theory and Social Policy (1971), The Idea of Welfare (1979), Social Work in an Enterprise Society (1990), and, with R. Deacon and N. Lipton, Privacy and Personality Rights (2010). He chaired the editorial board of the Journal of Social Policy from 1981 to 1986. He had been elected a Fellow of the Society of Editors the previous year, and in January 2021 was awarded the Astor Award for Press Freedom by the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust.

Death Pinker died on 2 February 2021.