Young at Eighty

by Michael Dunlop Young, Tony Flower

Michael Young has been involved in such initiatives as the Consumers' Association and the Open University. This is a collection of essays presented to Young on his 80th birthday. The contributors such as Asa Briggs reflect on the range and influence of Young's work.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Michael Dunlop Young, Baron Young of Dartington, English sociologist, social activist and politician.

Reviews

[David Civil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays to honour the social innovator, sociologist and political figure, Michael Dunlop Young on his eightieth birthday. The essays are a rather eclectic collection, loosely grouped into 3 categories: ‘Qualities’, ‘Activities’ and ‘Ideas’. They feature authors of some stature (Runciman, Halsey, Bell) and others who have shared an intimate working relationship with Young in one, or more, of the constellation of social institutions the sociologist has established or led. In this sense the collection provides a useful insight into the thinking of the man who brought us the Open University, the Institute of Community Studies, the Consumers’ Association and many more.

It is quite clear that the collection has been thrown together in a short amount of time, as is referenced in the introduction, and some of the ‘essays’ amount to only a couple of pages. In this sense the contributions can only provide a fragmentary, largely personal, interpretation of Young and his institutions. The lack of systematisation leads to overlap and the section on Young’s ‘ideas’, probably the most important, remains relatively underdeveloped. The task falls to future intellectual and political historians to establish a prominent role for Young’s ideas, particularly meritocracy, in the history of post-war Britain.