Ruth Levitas

Ruth Levitas is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bristol. She is well known internationally for her research on utopia. Her book, The Concept of Utopia (1990), addresses the notion of the ideal society throughout European history. She is recently credited for formulating a program of sociology which is fundamentally utopian-focused in conventional sociological discourse. She also introduced the concepts of MUD (the moral underclass discourse), SID (the social integration discourse), and RED (the redistribution discourse), as tools for analysing social exclusion. One of Ruth's most notable books is The Inclusive Society?: Social Exclusion and New Labour, which introduced the idea of social exclusion as part of the new political language.

Ruth Levitas is the daughter of trade unionist and Spanish Civil War International Brigade fighter Maurice Levitas, niece of Communist Stepney councillor and Battle of Cable Street veteran Max Levitas and sister of theatre historian Ben Levitas.

In 2012 Levitas was awarded the Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American Society for Utopian Studies.