Michael Young, Baron Young of Dartington

Lise Butler argues that the Institute drew upon existing bodies of research in social psychology and sociology to highlight the relevance of the extended family in modern society and to offer a model of socialist citizenship, solidarity and mutual support not tied to productive work.

Young promoted the supportive kinship networks of the urban working class, and an idealized conception of the relationships between women, to suggest that family had been overlooked by the left and should be reclaimed as a progressive force.

Young co-authored (with Peter Willmott) Family and Kinship in East London, documenting and analysing the social costs of rehousing a tight-knit community in a suburban housing estate (known affectionately by sociologists as Fakinel and invariably pronounced with a cockney accent).

The book critiques the concept of "meritocracy" as unachievable and undesirable, describing a dystopian future of a society in which "IQ + effort" have replaced all other values.

[7][irrelevant citation] Although unwilling to maintain a conventional academic career, Young was a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, from 1961 to 1966, and president of Birkbeck, University of London, from 1989 to 1992.

An energetic and resourceful man, Young established many new organisations with the aim of providing "bottom-up" practical help to ordinary citizens.

He also founded Language Line, a telephone interpreting business, to enable non-English-speaking people to have equal access to public services.

Although hitherto largely aloof from the factionalism then devouring Labour, Young's disregard for the statist and trade union-oriented aspects of its post-war social-democratic philosophy meant he was receptive to the idea of a new progressive party forming in its stead (he had already tentatively advocated the formation of a "Consumers' Party" in The Chipped White Cups of Dover[15]).

Upon joining the SDP, he became a member of the party's policy committee and director of its in-house think tank, The Tawney Society.

"[17][18] Young remained sceptical of Labour's ability to win the next election and believed that it still had to face up to the task of modernising socialism, which had, he said, "lagged so badly since Tony Crosland died.

"[19] According to Young's friend Eric Midwinter, "All his thought, all his incisive writing, all his brilliantly conceived schemes, all his astutely handled initiatives were guided by a salient method.

His thinking stemmed from the views of 19th-century radicals like Robert Owen, Saint-Simon or Charles Fourier, with their hatred of massive institutionalism, be it in the hands of the public authority or of the large commercial company.