Round up of items this week

(1) This week's Education Guardian reports on a recently published study that seems to show a link between the spread of education (ie the extent to which it is available within the country) and the growth of democracy.

(2) The idea of the "public intellectual" which is a recurring theme in this blog, was brought to the fore at a meeting of the British Sociological Association this week, as reported in the Times Higher. Interestingly, and no doubt provocatively, one speaker commented that the decline in such work isn't just to do with the changing managerial and economic thrust of modern HE, but actually a lot to do with academics not having anything of value to actually say to the public!

(3) Plagiarism? A new case of potential plagiarism is revealed in a recent publication about the works of DH Lawrence, which Cambridge University Press are now investigating.