Mike Haynes

My research is eclectic. It has covered the broad area of comparative economic and social change with a strong focus on its historical determinants and in the past, the case of Russia and Eastern Europe. I have become more concerned with the human costs of development and the dark side of the global economy. The underside of how people live, whether at the top or the bottom, is fascinating which is why my research sometimes goes in apparently strange directions.

Some time ago I inadvertently set off a huge discussion about toilet paper amongst western scholars of the former USSR and Eastern Europe. A little strange? Today Armatya Sen has used the issue of the lack of toilets in India to unravel the claims about the speed with which that country is modernising. If you are interested in the worthy stuff it is here but there is also material here that people have found fascinating.