13 Facts About Frank Furedi

Frank Furedi is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent.

Frank Furedi is well known for his work on sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, sociology of knowledge, and what he calls "paranoid parenting".

Frank Furedi completed an MA in African politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and received a PhD from the University of Kent in 1987 with a thesis on the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya.

In December 1990, the RCP's magazine Living Marxism ran an article by Frank Furedi, entitled "Midnight in the Century", which argued that the corrosive effect of the collapse of both Stalinism and reformism on the working class meant that "for the time being at least, the working class has no political existence".

Frank Furedi was, according to research from 2005, the most widely cited sociologist in the UK press.

Frank Furedi frequently appears in the media, expressing his view that Western societies have become obsessed with risk.

Frank Furedi has written several books on the subject of risk, offering a counterpoint to the analyses of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck, including Paranoid Parenting, Therapy Culture, and Culture of Fear.

In November 2021, Frank Furedi assumed the post of director of the MCC Brussels centre, an offshoot of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium funded by the ruling Hungarian Fidesz party, citing the need for an alternative to mainstream pro-European think-tanks.

In May 2023, Frank Furedi spoke at the National Conservatism Conference in London on the topic "The War Against National Belonging".

Frank Furedi maintains that society and universities are undergoing a politically driven 'dumbing down' process which is manifest in society's growing inability to understand and assess the meaning of risk.

The philosopher Mary Warnock wrote in 2011 that Frank Furedi is "to be respected in the strongest sense, indeed greatly admired" for his exposure of hypocrisy and intolerance in contemporary culture.

Critics of Frank Furedi are drawn from a wide spectrum of left and progressive opinion who criticise as cultish and reactionary the organizations in which he has been a leading figure.

George Monbiot has accused Frank Furedi of overseeing extreme right-wing libertarian campaigns "against gun control, against banning tobacco advertising and child pornography, and in favour of global warming, human cloning and freedom for corporations".