Our new book, Beyond Woke and Anti-Woke, is available for pre-order now!

Finally, I’m thrilled to let readers know more about our book

Battles over ‘wokeness’ take place on well-established lines. On the one hand, certain left-liberals dispute the validity of the term. This argument has earthier versions – the actor Kathy Burke declares that ‘I love being woke. It’s much nicer than being an ignorant f*cking t*at’ – yet some academics also deny differences with liberalism. In a 2023 opinion piece, Letitia Meynell, a Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, equates ‘wokeness’ with vocal opposition to offensive language. As an example, Meynell recalls a Jewish friend who opposed use of the word ‘Jew’ as a synonym for ‘cheat’. Scholars of public opinion have made similar arguments.

Yet such authors do not address a more difficult question: the extent to which ‘wokeness’ – or, as we prefer, social justice ideology – represents a new cleavage among progressives. Liberals would certainly condemn the racism directed at Meynell’s friend but would differ from supporters of social justice ideology in several areas. For example, both would agree that statues of slave traders should not be on public display, yet would disagree on whether appeals to authorities or direct action against the statues themselves would be appropriate. Both would agree that speakers who praise colonialism are offensive, yet would disagree on whether such speakers should be tolerated or no-platformed on university campuses. Both would agree that minority cultures should be respected, yet would disagree on whether someone wearing ‘native’ dress (at a costume party, for instance) amounts to ‘harmful’ cultural appropriation.

On the other hand, an anti-woke camp emphasizes the distinctiveness of ‘wokeness’ and its threat to liberal democracy and/or the West. Intellectually, a ‘heterodox’ movement defends this position and is becoming increasingly organized; this June, the Buckingham Heterodox Social Sciences Conference featured key figures from the movement and there are plans for an annual event.

Yet this school has considerable problems. Many researchers bear the scars of cancellations and, mirroring patterns in those social justice fields which they criticize, can end up adopting activist stances with little empirical support and/or engagement with academic theories. The inclusion of anti-woke polemicists with minimal academic credentials – such figures were prominent at the 2025 Heterodox Conference – further reduces credibility.

Given these problems, we argue that there is a need for academic literature which investigates social justice ideology from an analytic perspective. Pace certain left-liberals, such work would recognize the distinctiveness of social justice ideology. Pace certain heterodox scholars, such work would adopt an impartial tone and be anchored in empirical evidence. Research on radical right populism is a striking example of the potential of analytic work to contribute to the study of ideology. Across hundreds (if not thousands) of studies, researchers have established both the support base and economic and cultural drivers behind this particular ideology.

In our new book, Beyond Woke and Anti-Woke: Explaining the Rise of Social Justice Ideology, Edmund King and I develop such an analysis of social justice ideology, building on our expertise in ideology, political economy, employment relations and digital culture studies. This entails the development of appropriate measures of social justice ideology. Using multiple surveys such as the American National Election Study, British Election Study and Cooperative Election Study, we develop scales which complement existing ones such as the Progressive Values Scale.

This enables us to identify the drivers of social justice ideology. In recent decades, the West has undergone profound demographic change. Mass higher education has spread progressive values. As women have entered public life, the feminine-coded values of care and equality have become much more influential. Mass migration has made societies more racially diverse. Gradually, this has created the preconditions for ideological change. Our analysis shows that demographic variables such as female gender, youth, education and race have strong and consistent associations with support for social justice ideology. The relationship with youth is particularly conspicuous, being prominent across datasets.

Demography alone does not make ideological change inevitable, yet an ideology which corresponded with the needs of such groups predated such trends. For decades, social justice ideology had been popular in parts of academia. Slowly, its appeal widened, particularly in sociocultural sectors. Though data show an ambiguous link between economic variables and social justice values, the 2008 Great Recession had a disruptive effect. Among certain groups, it discredited important parts of the justificatory frameworks of both capitalism and liberalism, encouraging the search for an alternative ideology. The rise of social media tipped the balance in favour of social justice ideology.

Crucially, social justice ideology met wider social needs, facilitating its emergence as a mass ideology. Following the 2008 financial crash, capitalism faced a generational legitimacy crisis. Social justice ideology (or at least a diluted version) is such an alternative, renewing the spirit of capitalism; therefore, corporations ran advertising campaigns and undertook audits inspired by parts of social justice ideology, despite tensions with the preferences of some consumers.

Certain political trends were complementary. In recent years, the electoral successes of radical right populists have threatened liberal democracy, creating a need for defence mechanisms. To some extent, social justice ideology offers such a defence; certain surveys indicate that supporters of the ideology tend to hold pro-democratic values and social justice movements have undertaken important mobilizations against radical right populism.

Publication and promotion

Bristol University Press (BUP) will publish the book in February 2026 and it is now available on preorder. As is customary with academic publishers, the book will be initially published as a hardback (i.e. with a price aimed at libraries), but a much cheaper Kindle/electronic version will be available at the time of publication and, in February 2027, BUP will publish a cheaper paperback. The book is aimed at an academic readership, yet we have tried to make the book as accessible as possible and hope for many non-academic readers.

Prior to its publication, we are very keen to promote the book. If you are interested and feeling very kind, you could do a few things…

• Obviously, you can buy the book. If you are an academic, please think about ordering copies for your library. If you are outside of academia, do consider getting the Kindle version or (when it comes out) the paperback version. On this Substack and elsewhere, there will be periodic discounts of the book; do look out for these.

• You could also help promote the book more broadly. We would be extremely grateful for amplifications of this Substack post on platforms such as X and Bluesky.

• We also hope that the book will be featured in podcasts, conferences and newspaper/journal reviews. If you would be interested in helping with this, I would be more than happy to send you an advance copy; just get in touch!