He was a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, but resigned following disagreement with its 2015 pre-election report, The Business of People.
[1] He is also the founder of the Campaign for the Public University, a group promoting an 'alternative white paper' for British higher education, particularly in response to funding cuts.
He then worked as a teaching assistant at the University of California, before returning to Cambridge to complete a PhD.
In 2000 he became Dean of the Social Sciences and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex.
[3] In academic year 2015–14, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.