bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Institutional Culture Change
Authors: Levy Bopape Malekutu
Published: September 2022

The purpose of the paper is to explore the architecture of the institutional culture with the aim of proposing a programmatic template to use to implement culture change initiatives in the higher education (HE) sector in South Africa. The need for institutional culture change has been flagged in numerous studies as a barrier in the implementation of substantive and qualitative transformation. Through document analysis, this paper argues that the problem in implementing institutional culture change interventions aligned with the humanising mission of the sector is related to the failure to adopt a social inclusion approach that is based on a systems thinking paradigm. The paradigm is a holistic analysis of a system with the purpose of identifying elements of that system, which this research manifests and explicates. The findings of the research show that changing institutional culture is inextricably linked to the objectives of transformation. Second, the article highlights the significance of adopting the social inclusion framework, including understanding the politics and practices of social inclusion.
Review of Pumla Dineo Gqola’s Female Fear Factory
Authors: Martin Jamie
Published: September 2022

This paper reviews the book Female Fear Factory (2021) by Pumla Dineo Gqola. An overview and evaluation of the book are provided, emphasising the important deepening of the central concept and its relevance to anti-rape and feminist work, activism and scholarship across the world.
Diversity Is an Asset to Science Not a Threat
Authors: Blackie Margaret A. L.
Published: September 2022

In this paper, Critical Realism is used as a theoretical framework to show that diversity is an asset to science not a threat. Critical Realism situates the reliability and reproducibility of science in the realm of the real and thus relocates the notion of “objectivity” from the person of the scientist to the process of science. This means that it no longer necessary to attempt to minimise the person of the scientist in pursuit of rigorous knowledge. The implication is that diversity both in terms of intellectual training (within limits) and in terms of being multicultural, gender, sexuality, multilingual, is revealed to be an asset. This is because the construction of knowledge draws on personal experience and having people with divergent experience interrogating the same problem is more likely to provide a reliable, reproducible solution. In the latter parts of the paper, the implications for teaching are described. In addition, it is demonstrated that this argument can be extended into different knowledge areas.
Filial support behaviours: associations with filial piety, reciprocity and parent-child contact in China
Authors: Ko Kwangman , Su-Russell Chang , Proulx Christine M.
Published: September 2022

With the emphasis on children’s responsibility for the care of ageing parents, this study examined how Chinese adult children’s support provided to parents was associated with filial piety, support from parents and parent-child contact frequency. With the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey, we used structural equation modelling with 1,452 adults with two living parents and tested the model for sons and daughters separately. For both groups, the results showed that (1) filial piety was positively associated with emotional support provided to parents; (2) support received from parents was positively related to instrumental and emotional support to parents; and (3) parent-child contact frequency was linked to instrumental support. For adult daughters, financial support was positively associated with the support received from parents and negatively related to parent-child contact frequency. This study suggests that the traditional norm of filial piety may be less influential than other factors for adult children’s support behaviour.
Person and environment
Authors: Peace Sheila
Published: September 2022

The constructs: person (P) and environment (E) are defined in this chapter. First, the older person, considering terms - ‘baby boomers’, third and fourth age - alongside the importance of life course perspectives. Diversity in ways of living identifies family structure, living arrangements and the impact of social and economic capital on the context of ageing. Second, the environment, outlining meanings of space, place and materiality through multi-disciplinary perspectives and key authors. Complex interactions in public and private space are assessed, alongside the value of materiality in terms of design, planning, the value of possessions to place attachment and developing assistive technology. Finally, the dichotomy of person and environment are coalesced to consider how people in specific circumstances (experiencing cognitive change and dementia; sensory loss and mobility) may find their environment enabling or disabling. The coming together of biopsychosocial issues underpins the following reconsideration of theoretical perspectives.
The global context
Authors: Peace Sheila
Published: September 2022

To complete discussion of underpinning conceptual and theoretical issues, this chapter returns to levels of spatiality for population ageing and discusses the macro global context where parallel challenges of urbanisation, climate change, migration, built environment, and technological development interact. These issues are part of the ‘big picture’ impacting at all spatial scales and raising initial concerns regarding inequalities and the social inclusion and exclusion of older populations. The content is drawn primarily from the western developed north with some comparison with developing countries. The need for this breadth of study was raised by authors looking to the future of environmental and geographical gerontology in the previous chapter and is developed further in the final chapter.
Environmental living
Authors: Peace Sheila
Published: September 2022

Across Chapters 4-8 ‘environmental living’ moves from meso (national) to micro (local) settings, providing a UK/British platform for research regarding P-E interaction. This chapter introduces the running theme ‘meaning of home’, explored through different contextual lens. Spatial discussion then turns UK-wide before focusing on England where the multi-culturalism is considered. This leads to an examination of seminal ageing research concerned with rural and urban communities addressing detailed findings and the concept of connectivity. Consideration moves to the global WHO - the Age-Friendly City and Community initiative and associated domains alongside British policy strategies for lifetime neighbourhoods. Finally, through UK planning to be more ‘age-friendly’, consideration is given to issues concerning transportation, communication, and outdoor spaces before reflecting on an understanding place as part of the meaning of home.
Alternative environments: specialised housing (with care)
Authors: Peace Sheila
Published: September 2022

Chapter 7 introduces forms of specialised housing (with care) and alternative ways of living that are age-related, opening with the case study of Cynthia now in her 90s living in retirement housing. This case study as a precursor to the discussion of post WW2 development of sheltered housing historical scene-setting for the development of diverse forms of age-related housing with, or without care; rented, owned outright or shared ownership with a range of providers. Discussion of HAPPI design principles from Ch.5 is extended focusing particularly on extra-care housing initially government supported. Detailed research on housing with care is reviewed and the chapter ends by raising issues of dementia friendly design, racialised inequalities in age-related housing, and the development of collaborative and intergenerational co-housing. A final reflection on the meaning of home within these age-related environments asks whether such alternative settings could replace care home living.
Methodological development
Authors: Peace Sheila
Published: September 2022

This Chapter focuses on innovative research methodology looking at: participatory (action) research (PAR); interdisciplinary and interprofessional study, and forms of measurement with implications for policy and practice. First, PAR involves researchers and participants working together to develop and tackle research questions through post-positivist methods. Attention is paid to four projects involving older people as co-researchers where their knowledge of specific places enable engagement. Generic benefits and challenges include: skills development, ethical understanding, reliability and validity, ways of making a difference. Second, in applied research funding has supported interdisciplinarity. The impact of mixed disciplines and practices across social gerontology raises ideological difference, valued mixed methods, and the development of new, reliable skills. Lastly, forms of measurement relate to participation and practice. Examples show: a ‘bottom’s up’ approach where older respondents generate research procedures, and how experienced research practitioners (gerontology/occupational therapy) develop reliable validated assessment instruments over time.
Theoretical framework
Authors: Denis Jean-Louis , Germain Sabrina , Régis Catherine , Veronesi Gianluca
Published: September 2022

This chapter presents the conceptual framework underpinning the research undertaken. It looks at elements of the legal and political context that have had an influence on the role of medical doctors in healthcare reforms. It also provides an overview of scholarly work on the sociology of professions and the interface between professions and organisations to better understand medical doctors’ predispositions in the context of reforms. The chapter concludes with a presentation of the theoretical model that guides the empirical inquiry. In this model, healthcare reforms are framed as being in a constant state of becoming, inhabited by drivers of change and stasis within the distal and proximal context and the interactive dynamics between two main interdependent actors: government and the medical profession.
Comparative analysis
Authors: Denis Jean-Louis , Germain Sabrina , Régis Catherine , Veronesi Gianluca
Published: September 2022

This Chapter presents a comparative analysis of medical politics and health reforms within three empirical cases in Canada and England. The aim is to understand the medical doctors–healthcare reform nexus and to test the theoretical model’s ability to explain key variations and points of convergence across the cases. The chapter first examines the impact of bargains and policy parameters set at the inception of PFHS on healthcare reforms. Second, it describes how governments address core policy dilemmas in the context of PFHS, such as escalating costs and problems with access to care. Third, it characterises the institution of medical politics as a core feature of contemporary PFHS that acts as a determining influence on healthcare reforms. Fourth, it focuses on the interface of medical doctors and governments’ agentic manifestations to investigate their influence on the evolution of their respective strategies. Finally, the chapter assesses how configurations of the four dimensions of the medical doctor–healthcare reform’s nexus have influenced the content of reformative templates over time. To various extent, the comparative analysis reveals that the interdependent relationship between the medical profession and the PFHS limits prospects for reform.
Care, Crisis and Activism
Authors: Jupp Eleanor
Published: September 2022

What kinds of care are being offered or withdrawn by the welfare state? What does this mean for the caring practices and interventions of local activists? Shedding new light on austerity and neoliberal welfare reform in the UK, this book considers local action and activism within contexts of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenting compelling case studies of local action, from protesting cuts to children's services to local food provisioning and support for migrant women, the book makes visible often unseen practices of activism. It shows how the creativity and persistence of such local practices can be seen as enacting wider visions of how care should be provided by society.
Care, austerity and the politics of everyday lives
Authors: Jupp Eleanor
Published: September 2022

This chapter focuses on the politics of care, which is an everyday and ongoing set of practices and relationships. Forms of care involve vulnerabilities, needs, and dependencies. According to early feminist contributions, care can be a significant and progressive perspective that frames new politics and ethics while simultaneously recognising human vulnerabilities and interdependencies. Caring labour had been deemed as a key site of oppression and inequality as the job could be mentally and physically taxing. Due to the danger of essentialism, defining gender roles, and equally distributing care in society, the role of men in care should also be challenged if gender identities are to be unpicked.
Citizenship and community in times of crisis
Authors: Jupp Eleanor
Published: September 2022

This chapter covers citizenship and community in times of crisis. It starts with the debate over the definition of community as it could refer to either location or identity. The government highlighted the ideology of communities being the third way following the importance of the state and market. However, the concept of austerity correlates to political energy and horizons. Amidst the austerity period in the UK, the country experienced a rise in anti-austerity activism and localised interventions to put attention on the social and spatial injustice of austerity cuts. The chapter also includes the struggles of women to enter spaces of political agency and take formal citizenship.
Small stories and political change: local activism across time and space
Authors: Jupp Eleanor
Published: September 2022

This chapter covers varying narratives on local activism across time and space. It notes the impact and politics of storytelling, which conveys a different reality or social science commentary. Thus, considering the articulation of a vision is the key to the politics of activism and anti-austerity activism. Young children and toddlers in activist practice bring an intervention into a political space and emphasised how children often do not have voices in decision-making. The closure of Children's Centres sparked activism, but it was not generally correlated to wider anti-austerity activism and political discourse. Strategies to expand local activism to the national level involved lobbying MPs, government, and media.
The 1980s: a storm builds and breaks
Authors: Hyslop Ian Kelvin
Published: September 2022

This chapter focuses on the child protection imperative in the 1980s. In the 1960s, child protection had grown to include broadening categories of concern, such as the visibility of intrafamilial abuse and post-war human rights. Then, the cross-disciplinary management of child abuse was recorded by the 1970s in Aotearoa after a medico-legal group promoted child protection as a new frontier that needed specialist expertise. The chapter discusses the foster-care arrangement issues of Māori children being cared for outside kinship networks in line with identity and cultural cosmology. Thus, the interplay of political and cultural views created an underlying tension within the debate on Aotearoa’s child protection and state care.
Revolution from above: the neoliberal turn
Authors: Hyslop Ian Kelvin
Published: September 2022

This chapter explains the neoliberal turn of child protection in Aotearoa. A series of structural reforms was caused by swings between centralised administration and localised frameworks in the mid-1980s. Child protection policy and practice were the only mechanisms operating whether it was appropriate to the political visions of the day. The chapter discusses the Te Ara Hou, which presented a serious yet superficial commitment to the recognition of cultural differences and the capacity of the family to care for their own. It raises the incompatible logic of enforcing neoliberalism and genuine biculturalism. Policy implications of rangatiratanga are necessitated to be meaningfully negotiated with Māori.
Introduction: The flexibility paradox and contexts
Authors: Chung Heejung
Published: September 2022

This chapter introduces the basic premises of the book, what is meant by the flexibility paradox, and presents the take home message. It further discusses some key trends that has driven the rise in flexible working, including the rise in female labour market participation, increased demand for work-life balance from all workers including fathers, and the developments we see in digital technologies. It also explores key contexts that helps us understand why the flexibility paradox phenomenon happens, namely work-centred cultures, and the rise in passion at work, the rise in insecurity among workers, and decline in worker’s negotiation powers. Finally, the chapter introduces the book and the chapters, how to read the book, and a brief note on methodologies.
Gendered flexibility paradox
Authors: Chung Heejung
Published: September 2022

This chapter aims examines the gendered manifestations of the flexibility paradox. The chapter draws from Foucault and feminist theories of parenting such as Hays and Wall. This is done to explain why for women the patterns of the flexibility paradox may not necessarily be evident through the expansion of working hours, but through the expansion of hours spent in childcare and housework. Flexible working thus enables mothers to enact intensive parenting which is another way of perpetuating and reproducing the neo-liberal notions of self. It also presents empirical evidence of these patterns that show women expand their childcare and housework when working flexibly, while men do not. In combination with the evidence found in Chapter 6, I argue that flexible working can in fact enable heterosexual dual-earning couples to ‘do gender’, namely perform activities to adhere to their assigned gender roles engrained in our social norms. In fact, it enables a more contemporary enactment of traditional gender roles in that flexible working enables women to carry out both paid-work and domestic work without disrupting the norm around who is responsible for housework/childcare nor the ideal worker norm.
Flexibility stigma and the rewards of flexible working
Authors: Chung Heejung
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores the ideas of the flexibility stigma, namely the idea that workers who use flexible working to address work-family demands are somehow less productive and less committed to the organisation. These stigmatised views against flexible workers exist because of our work cultures which equate long-hours worked in the office/workplace as sign of commitment and productivity. The ‘ideal worker’ is considered a worker who prioritises work above all else and has no other responsibilities outside of work. These views make the flexible worker who use flexible working to meet the demands of housework and childcare, deviate away from the image of a ‘good worker’. Some scholars argue that men may experience a double stigma –flexible working for care purposes make men deviate away from both the masculine bread-winner image and the ideal worker image. However, I argue that women, especially mothers, can experience the double-whammy stigma - where existing biases against mother’s capacity to work is compounded by stigma against flexible workers. I present my own study and that of others to evidence that flexibility stigma negatively impacts women and mothers more. Actually, men are more likely to hold stigmatised views against flexible workers.
Introduction
Authors: Hogg Eddy , Dean Jon
Published: September 2022

This introduction chapter provides an overview of the field, situating the need for a new text focused on methodology in voluntary action research. In it we argued that the voluntary sector is distinct and different from other research fields given its unique position in social life and the unique set of meanings that people attribute to voluntary action. This introduction frames this debate and gives and overview of the chapters that each explore a different methodological approach and the opportunities they present and the challenges they pose.
(Un)suitable methods and reflexive considerations: an interview and focus group study of youth volunteering
Authors: Davies James
Published: September 2022

This chapter reflects on my experiences of conducting qualitative fieldwork with young volunteers and non-volunteers in deprived urban areas of Glasgow, Scotland. It focuses on the practicalities of arranging and conducting focus groups and interviews at youth organisations and schools and in doing so sheds light on the difficulties of conducting fieldwork in settings where young people’s attendance can be difficult to anticipate and engagement can be difficult to sustain. In this context, it argues that rather than viewing silences in interviews about volunteering as evidence of fieldwork failure, attentiveness to what is not said can lead to important insights into the value of volunteering among different groups of young people. In addition to this, the chapter addresses issues of reflexivity and positionality that cut across the fieldwork.
Interpretive ethnography: a UK charity shop case study
Authors: Fitton Triona
Published: September 2022

This chapter provides an overview of ethnographic research within voluntary action research, and highlights some key uses of ethnographies as a qualitative research tool. Drawing on an interpretivist approach, it outlines the utility of ethnography in a case study analysis of professionalisation within a charity retail setting. Using participant observation in two charity shops and interviews with shop workers and volunteers, the case study illustrates the importance of participation and immersion within the research setting in terms of observing, recording and analysing ‘natural’ interactions and behaviours. It also explores the role of researcher reflexivity, and how micro-level “shop floor” examination of voluntary cultures can serve as a critical measure against data-driven assumptions about contemporary charity work.
Collaborative philanthropy and doing practically relevant, critical research
Authors: Eikenberry Angela M. , Song Xiaowei
Published: September 2022

Making research relevant to practice is a key challenge for researchers, especially in an area such as philanthropy. These challenges include: making difficult and critical ideas and theories understandable, palatable, and of interest (without dumbing them down) to both scholarly and practitioner audiences; conducting grant or contract-funded research and maintaining quality and integrity; and doing work that advances knowledge in the field while also maintaining high ethical standards in engaging research participants. This chapter draws on more than a decade of research on collaborative philanthropy to argue for critical and practically relevant research despite the challenges, and what scholars and practitioners might do to balance out these challenges.
Charity advertising: visual methods, images and elicitation
Authors: Bhati Abhishek , Dean Jon
Published: September 2022

This chapter addresses visual methods and examines how and why they have been under-utilised in voluntary sector research. It argues that this is surprising, given that as a creative way of understanding social problems and presenting findings to new audiences, visual research methods have a growing place in the canon of social science research. The chapter first presents a short history of visual methods and a rationale for their use, before also presenting a short scoping study of visual methods across voluntary sector journals, highlighting their lack of application. The main body of the chapter however focusses on the role visual methods can play in helping us research and understand charity advertising. This is done through a comparative study of charity beneficiaries (children in India, and homeless people in the UK), exploring what they think about their representation, and how they think the service they benefit from should be illustrated.
Restudies, surveys and what counts as volunteering
Authors: Dean Jon , Verrier Diarmuid
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores two important methodological considerations in the study of voluntary action – conducting restudies and the gap that exists between the practitioner/researcher/legal definition and the public's everyday approach to the concept of volunteering. It reflects on an attempt by the authors to replicate and update the seminal 1996 study of perceptions of public understandings of volunteering by Ram Cnaan, Femida Handy and Margaret Wadsworth. The authors argue that restudies are particularly important in the field of voluntary action because of the ways in which understandings and attitudes change over time, shaped by cultural shifts and policy shifts. They conclude that restudies are an under-utilised possibility in social science research, even though learning through looking at already existing data forms a key part of most budding social scientists’ training.
Long-term recovery for the ‘adult children’ of parents who use alcohol in Iceland
Authors: Ólafsdóttir Jóna , Clayson Amanda
Published: September 2022

This chapter focuses on the impact of substance use on the family unit, which remains an under-researched topic in Iceland. It begins by introducing the family as a key psychosocial influence, establishing a contrast between healthy family systems and the potential consequences of dysfunctional relations within families experiencing substance-use disorder (SUD). The chapter then describes the wider Icelandic public health and specific substance-use policy agenda, outlining the current support available to adult children who have grown up with parents engaged in problematic alcohol use. It also offers a broad introduction to recovery as a concept, before developing a number of models and concepts pertinent to the recovery landscape. In particular, the chapter present concepts of ‘recovery capital’ and the social identity model of recovery.
Conclusion: Critical reflections, theories and key messages
Authors: Galvani Sarah , Roy Alastair , Clayson Amanda
Published: September 2022

This concluding chapter reflects on the idea of long-term recovery. It considers whether the book manages to register anything distinctive about the ways in which this term is important and useful, and if using the language of ‘long term’ offers any new and important ways of considering and conceiving of recovery. The fact that the language and idea of recovery has been adopted in so many different national contexts in the same era demonstrates just how persuasive and plausible the idea of recovery has proved to be as a seemingly new direction for substance-use policy and practice. Ultimately, the concept of recovery provides a compelling, positive, and forward-looking approach to a future not negatively impacted by the excesses of substance use. The chapter then draws out key messages from and for people with lived experience who were partners and/or participants in the empirical research the previous chapters are based on, before presenting implications for policy, practice, and future research.
Introduction
Authors: Power Maddy
Published: September 2022

Chapter 1 introduces the key questions and concepts addressed in the book, including food insecurity and food aid. It provides an overview of the research methodology and a reflection on positionality in the research process, and briefly outlines the two case study areas. The chapter closes with an overview of each chapter in the book.
Soup and salvation: realising religion through contemporary food charity
Authors: Power Maddy
Published: September 2022

Chapter 4 explores the interplay of food aid, neoliberalism and religion in the UK. It questions whether religious food charity is a consequence of neoliberal state retrenchment or motivated by long-standing religious traditions of service, worship and communion. Drawing upon narratives of service providers, the chapter scrutinises the exclusionary implications of religious food aid and argues that power inequalities, inherent to faith-based food charity, fatally undermine possibilities for participation and solidarity advocated by some service providers.
Framing the thinking
Authors: Quinn Matthew J.
Published: September 2022

The opening chapter explains the theoretical framing of the book and the main authors on which this draws. It sets out Foucault’s critical theory of governmentality and biopower as the basis of modern society, and his interest in minimising domination in governance. This provides a framework for considering how the narratives and practices of bureaucracy constrain the possibilities for transformatory change. The chapter compares Foucault’s appeal to non-domination with using ecology rather than machinery as an analogy for governance and it draws a comparison with Pettit’s presentation of civic republicanism as non-domination and civic engagement. The focus of Foucault and Pettit on detailed practices and institutional design link directly to a consideration of the purpose and nature of public bureaucracy. The chapter suggests that the governance needs of sustainable development point to an alternative approach for bureaucracy, moving from the exercise of technocratic knowledge-power to enabling civic dialogue. This could also address the lure of right populism’s nostalgic assertions of a past order. It concludes by setting out the structure of the argument, exploring the bifurcation between emancipatory and controlling expressions of governance and bureaucracy and the learning from practical responses to the stifling of transformatory intent.
Lessons from governing for sustainable development
Authors: Quinn Matthew J.
Published: September 2022

This chapter draws lessons from legislating for governance for sustainable development in the devolved government of Wales, UK. It sets the context of the Welsh legislation and analyses it as an example of a transformatory approach to bureaucratic governance. It considers the provisions of the Act against the tests of non-domination and a move away from narratives of economic efficiency. The focus of the Act is on behaviours and common goals for public administration, rather than controls and targetry. Its structural expressions are largely reterriorialisation: local collaboration, planning and public engagement. The Act has been critiqued from the perspective of competing narratives of bureaucracy and governance, including for lack of targetry, impact on business and being overly bureaucratic. The implementation of the Act has also been partly constrained by old narratives of economy, representative politics, sectoralism and land use planning. The chapter concludes with examples of other international legislation and the lessons for legislating for change in bureaucratic purpose and practice.
A new civic bureaucracy
Authors: Quinn Matthew J.
Published: September 2022

The closing chapter sets out the characteristics of a new civic bureaucracy which moves from exercising bounded rationality to promoting reflexive, place-based, discursive democracy. It reiterates the poor fit of present practice with contemporary challenges and suggests a new model of civic and ecological governmentality. The bureaucracy would have a new legitimacy – the neutrality of supporting the deliberation of the polity as a co-producing partner and reconnecting society to itself and to nature. The necessary changes in practice can draw on heterodox arguments in economics, organisational development and from sustainability science. The creation of a new civic bureaucracy can be informed by civic republican principles of the safeguards against domination and would address each of Foucault’s aspects of governmentality. It would need to go across all forms of bureaucratic function. The elements of the new bureaucracy would be deliberation and discourse, place-based working, unbounding of rationality, enabling not control, heterarchies and networks, and express new purpose and values. The chapter closes with the potential benefit of an express constitutional expression for bureaucracy and summary comparisons of the proposed and the traditional bureaucratic practice, organisation, and purpose.
The durable flotsam of the binary view
Authors: Ryan Phil
Published: September 2022

The binary view is so rooted in our broader culture that its “gravitational pull” can capture even those who seek to distance themselves from it. Social constructionism, for example, can be a promising starting point for a critique of the binary view. But one variant of constructionism that has been very influential in the policy world, that of Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, paradoxically rests upon the binary view.
Similarly, Thomas Kuhn’s work undermines the commonsensical claim that we have easy access to “brute” facts, which is a vital support for the binary view. But many in the social sciences, and a number of leading policy theorists, have taken Kuhn’s concept of “incommensurability” to mean that paradigms are conceptual prisons from which escape is unlikely, and between which dialogue will probably be fruitless. The possibility of critical dialogue between people holding different “worldviews” and different normative commitments is thus discounted in advance.
The chapter also critiques variants of “historical revisionism” that appear to break with the binary view, but reproduce a key element of it, by insulating nationalist values from all questioning and positing them as a dogmatic basis for history curricula.
Networks of belief
Authors: Ryan Phil
Published: September 2022

This chapter presents some implications for policy analysis of the networked nature of our beliefs. Networked beliefs can be held to a greater or lesser degree. This heightens the importance of who is “in the room where it happens.” In an unrepresentative policy-making bureaucracy, certain issues may be intellectually understood, but not viscerally felt, and thus vanish from view during the policy process. Further, we are never fully aware of just what we do and don’t believe. Objectivity can thus only emerge within communities of analysts, or citizens.
Finally: any particular belief, whether normative or factual, is sustained by other beliefs in our network, sustained more or less solidly. Any element in the network has its supports. On the other hand, any belief can be called into question, and may crumble in the face of serious scrutiny. In this sense, values can be true or false; so too can our understanding of our interests, including the “national interest.”
Experts and expertise
Authors: Ryan Phil
Published: September 2022

Chapters 10 and 11 consider potential dangers of a non-binary policy analysis. Various thinkers have identified threats posed by experts and expertise. One is the emergence of technocracy, or expert domination, which Weber viewed as an inevitable byproduct of bureaucracy. As the bureaucratic elite is generally drawn from a narrow segment of society, technocracy can reinforce class and racial bias in state decision-making.
On its own, a non-binary approach will not resolve all the problems of expertise, as these are rooted in the nature of society as a whole. Indeed, by emphasizing the centrality of ongoing deliberation on positive and normative matters, it runs the risk of favouring the domination of a new type of expert, experienced in what Alvin Gouldner termed the “culture of critical discourse.”
Still, if supporting structures are in place, a non-binary approach can alleviate some problems of expertise. It encourages the development of alternative spaces for deliberation, in which experts engage in serious dialogue with ordinary citizens. Because it emphasizes the intricate interplay of positive and normative questions in any policy debate, it can challenge the monopoly of influence of narrow expertise (such as that of economists on questions such as the minimum wage).
Conclusion
Authors: Ryan Phil
Published: September 2022

This chapter opens with a brief review of the book. It then offers last thoughts on a core claim: a non-binary approach leads to a richer understanding of the role of the policy analyst in a democracy. A responsible analyst cannot allow themselves a “normative slumber”: a critical normative awareness is not an outlook to be held in storage, dusted off only when needed. It is always needed.
The analyst has no ethical obligation meekly to accept the normative premises of elected officials. No democratic constitution proclaims that the “preferences” of those officials are to reign supreme, that elected leaders are to decide matters without reflection and challenge. The subservient analyst model (chapter eight) does not emerge from democratic theory: it is a corruption of it, because it undermines one of the key premises for a healthy democracy, the widespread practice of deliberative judgment.
Nor should the analyst view the “will of the people” –however that is discerned– as sacred. When majority opinion supports discrimination against minorities, for example, or refuses to accept the seriousness of the climate crisis, the analyst must challenge that opinion as best they can.
The National Health Service
Authors: Spicker Paul
Published: September 2022

This chapter covers the operation of the National Health Service (NHS). While the constitution of the NHS defines the service as belonging to the people, the NHS has fronted continual criticisms with regards to its expertise in the medical profession, negligence, and malpractice. Preventative healthcare had not been one of the NHS's major focuses, and medical care had been heavily individualised. Thus, the concept of public health is not based on arguments by conventional medical care and individualisation. Occasionally, the media coverage of the NHS tends to imply that it had been slow to reform and modernise. However, the criticisms abated amidst the coronavirus crisis.
Social care
Authors: Spicker Paul
Published: September 2022

This chapter expounds on the practice of social care emphasizing independence, personal choice, and commercialised services. The central government developed the residential care sector, which then resulted in the Griffiths reforms having a significant institutional effect of expanding the role of Social Service departments to adult care. However, the growth of residential care was based on the reaction against long-term hospitalisations instead of the positive effects of residential services. Indefinite time, independence, and their respective limits are the key issues in following the policy of maintaining independence in one's residence. Thus, domiciliary care provides services to people in their respective homes without disrupting their lives.
The public services
Authors: Spicker Paul
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores how addressing public services could improve the welfare state. The key features of public services range from benefitting people, service delivery in accordance with public policy, redistribution, and trust. The chapter explains the difference between cost-effectiveness and efficiency as economic markets are not up to par with public services in terms of delivering service. Thus, some services are better out of the private markets as greater security could be offered by the welfare state. In most cases, universal services are given similar to the right to citizenship. Some services could be delivered universally to anyone and everyone beyond the constraints of the market.
Towards a stronger welfare state
Authors: Spicker Paul
Published: September 2022

This chapter focuses on the condition of the welfare state. It notes the claims of welfare wasting money and of being undermined by fraudulent claims. The arguments for personalisation are well-meaning as the option of choice becomes available in public policy. The chapter also expounds on the concept of privatisation, marketisation and individualisation, which are known to reflect the priorities of neoliberals. Then, the welfare state is a collective ideal which is based on mutual responsibility and solidarity. Thus, the welfare state has a major impact on disadvantages and securing the conditions of civilisation, wellbeing, and security, while the welfare state provisions protect people's rights.
Introduction: Policy Born Out of Racist Myth
Authors: Ketchum Paul R. , Peck B. Mitchell
Published: September 2022

This chapter introduces how structural racism affected the lives of non-White youth through their interactions with the juvenile justice system. It finds how differential treatment is the cause of disproportionate minority contact (DMC). Unlike the White youth, all Black, Latinx, and Native American youth are statistically treated to be part of DMC and racial/ethnic gang violence. Non-White kids are also typically assumed to be broken, more criminalistic, less educated, and less deserving of treatment similar to White kids. The chapter notes that industrialization and urbanization triggered the population of ‘at risk’ juveniles, youths who have potential to be a risk to society.
Data Issues and the Case for Self-Report Data
Authors: Ketchum Paul R. , Peck B. Mitchell
Published: September 2022

This chapter explores issues of data of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the juvenile justice system. It explains that the data found non-White offenders being disadvantaged. Few relative differences were found with regards to the data of White and non-White juveniles self-reporting. The validity of official data is still questioned despite being considered the gold standard. The chapter discusses the process of assessing the validity of self-report data. The issue of generalizability or external validity revolves on delivering an accurate assessment of the relationships for the specific group under investigation and its subsequent results. Thus, significant differences were found in intake and outcomes in line with race and ethnicity.
Austerity Governance, Political Resistance and Urban Transformation
Authors: Jonathan S. Davies , Blanco Ismael , Bua Adrian , Chorianopoulos Ioannis , Cortina-Oriol Mercè , Feandeiro Andrés , Gaynor Niamh , Gleeson Brendan , Griggs Steven , Hamel Pierre , Henderson Hayley , Howarth David , Keil Roger , Pill Madeleine , Salazar Yunailis , Sullivan Helen
Published: September 2022

This chapter critically assesses the forms of social and political resistance that emerged across the eight cities in our study. Building on themes introduced in chapters 1 and 2, it argues that cities serve as crucibles for a diverse set of political contestations, responses and initiatives, but they exhibit differential capacities to shape their environments. It draws particular attention to the shifting locus of resistance to austerity across communities and neighbourhoods. Our analysis and evaluation suggest that the future projection of cities as “spaces of hope” rests on the twin challenges of “scaling up” neighbourhood protests into broad and anti-systemic political projects, while reinvesting in the construction of progressive relations with the local state that open local spaces of manoeuvre to challenge national regimes of austerity.
The Local State in Austerity Governance
Authors: Jonathan S. Davies , Blanco Ismael , Bua Adrian , Chorianopoulos Ioannis , Cortina-Oriol Mercè , Feandeiro Andrés , Gaynor Niamh , Gleeson Brendan , Griggs Steven , Hamel Pierre , Henderson Hayley , Howarth David , Keil Roger , Pill Madeleine , Salazar Yunailis , Sullivan Helen
Published: September 2022

This chapter seeks to better understand how austerity governance has been experienced in the eight cities, from the perspective of the local state. The chapter is divided into three parts. First, we consider literature on the local state and governance to frame contemporary changes in structure and function. Second, returning to the economic crisis of 2008 and the concerns about social solidarity and welfare measures arising from it, we consider local state responses and adaptations. Third, drawing from our case studies, we consider how local states adapt to and manage demands linked to austerity struggles.
Urban Cultural Diversity and Economic Migration in Austere Times
Authors: Jonathan S. Davies , Blanco Ismael , Bua Adrian , Chorianopoulos Ioannis , Cortina-Oriol Mercè , Feandeiro Andrés , Gaynor Niamh , Gleeson Brendan , Griggs Steven , Hamel Pierre , Henderson Hayley , Howarth David , Keil Roger , Pill Madeleine , Salazar Yunailis , Sullivan Helen
Published: September 2022

This chapter discusses the way that (neoliberal) austerity has impacted social, racial and cultural inequalities and the ability of collaboration to support more inclusive democratic cities or resist exclusions. The basic premise is that cities play a fundamental role in the dynamics of social inclusion or exclusion of economic migrants and other racial and ethnic minorities, and in the way that societies cope with the challenge of recognising and accommodating cultural diversity. The chapter argues that the social impacts of neoliberalisation and austerity have disproportionally injured cultural and racial minorities living in lower-income city areas. However, it also reveals the existence of signals of hope – signals that are intimately related with the new collaborative dynamics that have emerged in urban areas as a reaction to austerity conditions in some cities.
The Politics of Leadership
Authors: Alvehus Johan
Published: September 2022

This chapter focuses on some of the most contested terrain in all of management and organization studies: leadership. It argues that leadership becomes significant in a professional service context for three reasons. The chapter first emphasizes that professional service organizations are no exception to demands for more and better leadership. It stresses that leadership in professional service organizations is often of a particular kind: Traditionally, professional service organizations have often had various collective solutions to the ‘problem’ of leadership, involving shared leadership and different forms of collegial decision-making. The chapter notes that leadership in professional service organizations is often referred to as ‘herding cats’, implying its futility. The chapter highlights common assumptions about leadership in professional service organizations — the idea of ‘cat herding’. It also addresses the romance of leadership, and discusses leadership theory. The chapter then returns to the role of ambiguity, this time in leadership processes.
The Future of Professional Work
Authors: Alvehus Johan
Published: September 2022

This chapter talks about professional logic in relation to market logic in terms of marketization, then in relation to the logic of bureaucracy. It deals with challenges to the very heart of professionalism: the legitimacy of knowledge and the role of judgement. The chapter also examines how we can retain the values of professionalism. The chapter then shifts to take the liberty of a quite distinct normative position, involving some degree of scepticism against the power of professionals, together with an appreciation for elements of a professional ethos. It concludes by speculating on the future of professional work in the light of current trends. The chapter considers some normative conclusions about how we can relate to professional service work and what important lessons there might be also for work in general. Are there aspects of the logic of professionalism worth preserving?