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My friend and former colleague Andy Alaszewski, who has died aged 76, was an inspiring social scientist. His research spanned health policy, illness and disability, and the wider relationship between health and society.

In 1998 Andy founded the journal Health, Risk & Society with Jill Manthorpe. As its editor for 20 years, he developed it into an influential forum for risk theory and wide-ranging empirical studies, attracting global contributors and readerships.

From 2001 he was professor of health studies at the University of Kent and director of its Centre for Health Services Studies. There he developed critical social science approaches to risk and risk governance, advising the UK Research Councils on priorities on the subject (with Tom Horlick-Jones). His research showed how carefully studying organisational cultures and lived experiences can help us explain why risk-management policies have varying impacts across different groups and, moreover, how they can develop unintended consequences.

In 2008 Andy joined the government’s scientific advisory committee on pandemic influenza and later published two timely books, Covid-19 and Risk: Policy Making in a Global Pandemic (2021), and Managing Risk During the Covid-19 Pandemic (2023).

Andrzej – known as Andy – was born in Lewisham, south-east London, to Danuta (nee Piotrowicz) and Mieczysław, refugees from Nazi and Soviet-invaded Poland. Danuta later became a physiotherapist; Mieczysław worked as a property manager, but he had played football for Polonia Warsaw and Andy became an avid fan of the sport.

Educated at St Dunstan’s College, south London, Andy studied social anthropology at the University of Cambridge, completing his PhD research under the supervision of Dr Gilbert Lewis. His thesis explored the lives of patients with learning disabilities living in a local long-stay hospital. He later evaluated a Barnardo’s project providing care for former child patients in community settings, with Bie Nio Ong.

In 1976, Andy was appointed lecturer at the University of Hull, moving north with his expanding family – in 1970 he had married Helen Walker – and travelling around in various colourful Dormobiles. There he taught health policy in his characteristically relaxed style (often perched on a desk), embarking on new research on learning disability policy, professional education and risk practices. He founded MBA programmes in health and social services, and more administrative tasks followed his appointment to a professorship in 1992, but Andy’s commitment to supporting junior colleagues remained.

Some 35 years after a first cancer diagnosis during his undergraduate studies, further cancers prompted Andy’s early retirement in 2010 from the University of Kent, after which he completed an archaeology degree there. He had recently finished his 12th book, Listening to Stroke Survivors: Life after Stroke, which is due to be published later this year.

Andy was an infectious enthusiast, endlessly curious about politics, travel and culture. Empathy with others displaced by conflict led his family to host Ukrainian refugees at their home in Canterbury. His commitment to social justice was evident in his support for the city’s food bank and anti-racism demonstrations.

He is survived by Helen, and their children, Jane, Mark, Ed and Anna, and nine grandchildren.