Letters: AH Halseys view of sociology was always a broad one

The Oxford department that AH Halsey headed at Barnett House for 28 years trained graduate social work and probation students. His role as an activist ran through what it did: his view of sociology was always a broad one, encompassing social and community work at the applied end.

After his appointment as research adviser to Tony Crosland in 1965, he and Michael Young campaigned hard to get a government response to the Plowden report on primary education, and to launch pilot action-research projects in educational priority areas. The result was a national programme run directly by the Oxford department, with Margaret Thatcher, a later education secretary, keen to meet Dr Halsey to learn the results for her 1972 white paper. He took a similar role in launching the Home Office community development projects in the wake of Enoch Powells rivers of blood speech.