bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Negotiating vulnerability
Authors: Mitchell Emma
Published: September 2023

Chapter 5 foregrounds the experiences of the most marginal welfare claimants in the study. It builds on Kathleen Miller’s concept of ‘everyday emergencies’ to show how everyday disruptions and obstacles unsettle yet settle into daily life in poverty. The chapter also builds on Mark Peel’s concept of ‘performing poverty’ and Kate Brown’s concept of ‘performing vulnerability’ to argue that welfare users are often required to reperform vulnerability for the welfare system. Individuals on both sides of the welfare frontline may be aware of the performative aspects of describing hardship, but performing does not equal pretending. The chapter shows how the compulsion to perform vulnerability shapes welfare users’ encounters with welfare agencies even if it does not determine the outcome of those encounters. Some seeking support choose to remove themselves from the welfare rolls rather than make themselves repeatedly vulnerable to the audience of experts.
Conclusion: From problems to possibilities
Authors: Mitchell Emma
Published: September 2023

The Conclusion reiterates the value of bringing together Anglo-settler, Indigenous and minority ethnic stories of life on welfare and the strengths and limits of ethnography in this endeavour. It foregrounds participants’ insights about the need for more understanding in Australia’s welfare system, particularly in the form of centring welfare users’ knowledge of the system. However, it also draws together lessons from the preceding chapters on practitioner ambivalence about welfare users’ knowledge and the limits of a system based on repeated disclosure, even when geared towards support. Finally, it returns to Ghassan Hage’s concept of the social gift to argue for a magnamanous rather than maligning spirit of welfare provision. In the face of mounting evidence that mean welfare exacerbates and entrenches the poverty and vulnerability it claims to tackle, the book ends by advocating a welfare system that creates possibilities rather than problems for the people who rely on it.
Friendship in academia: the moral economy of academic work
Authors: Cederholm Erika Andersson , Sjöholm Carina , Dredge Dianne
Published: September 2023

Using notions of the gift economy and friendship, Chapter 7 investigates personal and professional relationships in the academic workplace. Based on interviews it focuses on how boundaries between friendships and more formalised relationships are negotiated among university-employed scholars. Through the theoretical lens of relational work the unspoken norms of a gift economy in the academic workplace is analysed. The analysis shows how informal social exchange may collide with formal work roles and pave the way for interpretive misalignments, relational mismatches and potential conflicts. Through the notion of ‘invisible gifts’ it is discussed how the unspoken character of reciprocal support and favour exchanges may increase the vulnerability to exploitation, particularly when such gift giving is not reciprocated. It is argued that this outcome may be particularly precarious if a marketised logic of exchange undermines traditions and structures of collegial exchange that has been the culture of many universities.
Academy in my flesh: affective athleticism and performative writing
Authors: Gherardi Silvia , Cozza Michela , Hoppe Magnus
Published: September 2023

Chapter 9 aims to explore the affective dynamics of contemporary academic capitalism, interpreting the neoliberal, corporate academia as the icon of an affective economy in which affect takes the place of money. The theoretical framework is delineated through the concept of affective economy, and is grounded in the literature on affective capitalism. It avoids a definition of ‘what affect is’, following instead the traces of ‘what affect does’. One particular academic practice of management through affect is illustrated, with the focus on how the academic body is trained for performing what Kristiina Brunila (2016) calls ‘academicity’ – the dynamics in between control, self-managing and passion. Two main concepts are discussed. One is ‘academic fetishism’ and the second is ‘academic affective athleticism’. The chapter concludes with a discussion of old and new ‘forms of resistance’ as a necessary ingredient for practices of management through affect: to be affected and to affect cannot be separated.
Getting texts done: affective rhythms of reading in quantified academia
Authors: Venäläinen Juhana
Published: September 2023

Chapter 10 investigates the transformations in academic working rhythms and how they contribute to reshaping the academic working subject. In recent decades, doctrines and techniques of performance management have transformed the university sector into a ‘quantified academia’, a regime largely driven by numerical indicators. The chapter examines the affective dynamics of quantification through a particular subset of scholarly work, namely, academic reading. For many academics, reading still seems to sit at the core of academic proficiency and professional identity. However, from the perspective of quantifiable outcomes, reading remains mostly hidden and ‘beyond measure’. In the analysis, a set of affective rhythms is proposed as analytical clues for understanding how academic reading feels today. The three rhythms discussed are insufficiency, jumpiness and hastiness. Each expresses a distinctive affective and temporal perspective to reading as a pivotal aspect of academic work.
Introduction: Progressive politics needs therapy
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

This chapter explains why psychology has the potential to contribute to a progressive vision for society. First, because people’s wellbeing is determined (at least in part) by psychological factors; second, because progressive visions for a better society need to understand what people really need and want; and, third, because psychology can help in the development of a radical acceptance of others – a position of ‘psychological equality’. The chapter goes on to explain the particular psychological approach that will be taken in the book: humanistic psychology, based around an understanding of the other in terms of their subjective lived-experiences. This chapter also introduces the idea that psychology can be useful to progressivism because it reveals parallels between optimal functioning on the intrapersonal (‘within’ people) and interpersonal (between people) levels. The chapter concludes by defining progressivism and introducing the author’s own background and aims.
Wellbeing and distress: a directional account
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

Building on the previous analysis (Chapter 3), the aim of this chapter is to provide a means of conceptualising wellbeing and distress that can underpin a psychology-informed progressivism. The chapter begins by defining psychological wellbeing in terms of the realisation of fundamental needs and wants – with distress as the failure to realise such directions. The chapter then discusses four reasons why these failures may come about: the first due to ‘external’ (that is, socioeconomic) restrictions; and the subsequent three due to more ‘internal’, psychological problems: internal conflicts, ineffective means of realising our highest-order needs and wants, and unrealistic expectations. In this way, the chapter indicates how greater wellbeing can be brought about by both external, sociopolitical changes; and by internal, psychological changes. By demonstrating the centrality of cooperation, at an internal level, to psychological thriving, this chapter lays the groundwork for developing common, intra- and interpersonal principles for good functioning.
Common principles of positive change
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

The aim of this chapter is to describe, across different levels of organisation, the principles that are associated with positive change: that is, with the development of cooperation and synergy, and thereby greater overall benefit. The principles described in this chapter are: see the ‘bigger picture’ (that is, mentalisation); take responsibility (that is, leadership); trust; be nice; prize difference and diversity; be assertive; communicate; and be fair (that is, equality). A discussion of these principles shows, again, the striking parallels across different levels of organisation, whether within individuals, between individuals, or between communities and nations. Some of these common principles are established elements of progressive thinking. Here, the chapter demonstrates support for a progressive perspective by showing how such principles are underpinned by a more encompassing, system-wide logic. Some of these principles, however, tend to be less central to current progressive thinking (for instance, trust). Here, the chapter lays out a particular, ‘re-visioned’ way of thinking about progressivism – that is psychological and relational, as well as socioeconomic, in nature.
Making it happen: concrete strategies for a psychology-informed progressivism
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

This chapter focuses on five areas for activism and policy work that can be key levers to the implementation of a psychology-informed progressivism. These are concrete ways of implementing the cooperative principles discussed in Chapter 6. Action points for each strategy are given – for both policymakers and laypeople. The first strategy is positive parenting: a way of supporting the wellbeing and capacity for cooperation of children and young people. The second strategy, social and emotional learning, extends the development of these skills into the school environment. Nonviolent communication is a set of guidelines by which all people can relate to others – particularly in situations of conflict – in more constructive and cooperative ways. An emotionally intelligent politics extends these principles of intra and interpersonal cooperation to the political arena, proposing that progressives adopt a politics of understanding rather than a politics of blame. The development of a wellbeing economy is a nation-wide means of putting wellbeing at the centre of a progressive agenda. Through mapping these strategies out, the chapter demonstrates what a rounded and integrated progressive agenda might look like: one that can support positive change in psychological as well as socio-economic ways.
A day in utopia
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

In the tradition of literary utopias, this chapter presents a narrative, fictional account of what it might be like to actually experience the psychology-informed progressive society discussed in Chapter 8. That is, the chapter aims to give a concrete and vivid sense of what that better world might look and feel like. The focus is particularly on a future in which people are able to realise their creative and relational abilities; with the skills to communicate honestly, warmly, and effectively with each other – and their world. In the narrative, the author accompanies a ‘somatic artist’ as she strives to complete an installation for her city’s community arcade. As the author and artist meet the artist’s friends and colleagues, and journey to the installation space, the artist explains the workings of her society. This is not a perfect and final world, but one in a constant process of questioning and evolution. Although this chapter presents just one particular vision of a progressive utopia, the hope is that it can stimulate progressives to develop – for themselves – a clearer, more concrete, and more compelling sense of the society that they, ultimately, want to see.
In conclusion …
Authors: Cooper Mick
Published: September 2023

To conclude the book, this chapter focuses on specific political strategies by which a psychology-informed progressive politics might be brought about. The chapter discusses collaboration across political parties, the development of contemporary fora in which such collaboration might happen, and the possibility of developing a progressive political organisation, party, or campaigning organisation that might have a specific psychology and wellbeing focus. The chapter also considers whether there is a natural human and social tendency towards forms of organisation where there is more cooperation and synergy. The second part of the chapter then draws together and summarises the principal thesis of the book – that we can develop a more comprehensive, coherent, and compelling progressivism through the integration of psychology. In summing up, the chapter emphasises the revolutionary nature of what is being proposed. However, this is a revolution of compassion, cooperation, and openness rather than a revolution of conflict or antagonism. This is a progressivism that truly embraces humanity (both ours and that of others) – as well as our planet – as a diverse, creative, and beautiful whole.
Defund the Police
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

How accurate is the view in western liberal democracies of the police as guardians of public safety and enforcers of the law? Given police violence and the failure of many attempts at reform, attention has turned to other models of managing criminality, including defunding the police and instead funding alternatives to criminalisation and incarceration. This book is the first comprehensive overview of police divestment, using international examples and case studies to reimagine community safety beyond policing and imprisonment. Showcasing a range of practical examples, this topical book will be relevant for academics, policy-makers, activists and all those interested in the Black Lives Matter movement, protest movements and the renewed interest in policing and abolitionism more generally.
Time for change
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

The Black Lives Matter movement galvanised protest movements against police and state violence around the globe. A common theme in many protests was the demand to ‘Defund the Police’. Increasing attention to the idea of defunding or divesting from police forces is gaining in mainstream politics and media. We need to seriously consider what is required to fundamentally change the way policing operates. The option of divestment opens up this discussion. Defund the Police is not another book about police reform. It is an engagement in the contemporary debate on the politics and possibilities of police abolition. To date, the majority of popular and academic literature in policing studies, law reform, and criminology has been preoccupied with conventional ideas related to top-down police reform. These reforms include efforts, for example, to recruit diverse and inclusive police officers, to implement cultural-awareness training, to introduce technical solutions like the use of body cameras, to place limitations on the use of force, and to introduce police-led programs aimed at cultivating localised or community policing. We have had decades of these types of reforms, and part of the explosion of protest internationally is driven by the profound sense of frustration at the inability of police to reform themselves. This chaper outlines the nature of the international protests and argues that, although local conditions generated what became an international movement for change, there were common themes among the protesters across different countries. The chapter outlines in brief the demands of the Black Lives Matter movement and how in the US there were various responses from local, city, and state governments. The link between Defunding the Police and the broader challenges to mass incarceration and the carceral state is also discussed.
Don’t police solve crime?
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

Chapter 2 provided an historical setting to contemporary policing. How do police see their role today? Police define themselves primarily by their functions, including preventing, detecting, and investigating criminal activities, enforcing the law, maintaining public order, and ensuring community safety. We need to be sceptical of the ability of police to solve crime – rates of reporting crime to police are low and the ability of police to solve crime is limited. A distrust of police and the criminal legal system, an unwillingness to cooperate with the police, and various forms of racism and discrimination by police impact on whether people will report and whether they will be believed. Through the use of discretion, police reproduce the social boundaries of who is problematic and who is not. It is a power utilised at an organisational and individual level that is one of the core attributes of policing. It enables police power to be exercised in a targeted and economical way – it is the filter device of criminalisation. Two examples are drawn on is this chapter: the policing of children and young people, and the policing of violence against people from LGBTQI+ communities. Discretion and the policing of young people highlights the discriminatory nature of many police interventions, and in particular how racialisation becomes embedded in police practice – pushing racialised young people into the furthest reaches of the juvenile legal system. Police discretion also impacts on murder investigations. The research into police responses to the killings of people within the LGBTQI+ community strongly suggests a situation where negative perceptions of victim status reproduce heteronormative assumptions and normalise violence.
The protest movement never stopped: from Black Power to zero tolerance
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

The demonstrations, protests, and uprisings against police internationally, and the rise of the BLM movement, are inextricably connected to police violence and deaths in custody, and especially the deaths of Indigenous, Black, and people of colour. While there is a long history to policing as the violent arm of colonialism and slavery as discussed in Chapter 2, the more recent history of the struggle against police violence arises in the global revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The anti-imperialist struggles against the US war in Vietnam and opposition to its interventions and support for dictatorships in Latin America and elsewhere, the anti-apartheid movement, the civil rights movements, the rise of worker’s and student’s militancy, and the women’s rights and gay rights movements, brought a generation of people into direct contact with the ferocity of state power. Police in various countries were at the forefront of often violent repression of these popular movements. The other important lesson from the resistance to police violence is that the popular movements were not simply oppositional – they were concerned with responding to the needs of communities in areas such as access to health, education, legal services, and housing, and in building solidarity across groups. Taking Australia and the US as examples, the struggle against police and state violence was central to the radical politics of the Black Panther and Indigenous liberation movements. The Chapter also explores the Black struggle against police violence in the UK and the various strategies that developed as a result. The chapter concludes that new forms of community-based organisations and resistance grew out of the activist movements which developed in opposition to police violence and racism.
Police violence is the pandemic
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

Widespread outrage at police violence, fatal shootings, and deaths in police custody created the current international protest movements and calls to Defund the Police. However, as shown in previous chapters, there is a long history to protests against police violence, and there are multiple movements to change policing globally which draw on localised contexts. Police violence is experienced at a local level, however, it has global reach and is pervasive to the institution. It directly costs the lives of tens of thousands of people annually – and many more if we include the numbers of forced disappearances – and leaves incalculable numbers of people with permanent injuries and disabilities. The victims are overwhelmingly from the most marginalised communities whether defined by race, religion, class, Indigeneity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship, or immigration status, and their various and compounding intersections. One of the main causes of death, disability, and injury for people deprived of their liberty are the acts of violence and use of force by police and other state agents.1 This chapter sets out what we know about the nature and context of police violence, shootings, and deaths in police custody – including overt violence and the violence of neglect – and it attempts to do so with reference to contexts of both the global north and south. It considers some of the wider drivers which are international but impact on domestic policing such as expanded militarisation, the impact of the war on drugs and the intersection of policing with security forces, border control, and other law enforcement bodies.
The protection racket
Authors: Cunneen Chris
Published: September 2023

One of the core public rationales for policing is that it provides a necessary institutional response to protect citizens from crime and to maintain order. This is a powerful rhetoric that plays on people’s fears and insecurities, even where they have witnessed or experienced police violence or the failure of police to provide protection or assistance. This chapter considers perhaps one of the most contested points of argument in calls to Defund the Police: are police necessary to ensure the safety of women against harassment, violence, and sexual assault, and do they provide these outcomes? It is argued that the evidence shows that police as an institution fail to protect women and this particularly (although not exclusively) impacts on specific groups of women from Black, First Nations, Brown, racialised, poor, and other minoritised communities. Rather than protecting women from violence, there are significant failures by police in taking violence against women seriously – through the failure to record reports, to act on information, to investigate serious crimes and through the use of demeaning stereotypes of racialised women. In addition, police are a major source of violence especially for Black, First Nations, women of colour and other marginalised women. The chapter discusses the problems with carceral feminism which underpins the public policy approach to violence against women and its reliance on stronger policing, criminalization, and penal sanctions.
Philanthropy’s place in community-based capacity development for disaster resilience
Authors: Conway Megan
Published: September 2023

The ‘external’ actors of fundraising intermediaries and international organisations, well-resourced philanthropic foundation and firms are essential contributors in disasters. Yet so much of disaster response and longer-term rebuilding and mitigation depends on local communities. This chapter discusses how communities mobilise to build local capacities to help manage disasters in inclusive, adaptive and place-responsive ways. ‘Community’ refers to both place-based and identity communities, and more specifically the intersection between them. ‘Community philanthropy’ is the production and distribution of resources of all types by communities, and their stakeholders, in ways that seek to promote mutual aid and solidarity and overcome inequities. However, community philanthropy is not a plug-in and play solution. It is only as strong as its local partners and the local institutions it works with. It is often constrained by the uneven distribution of resources within communities, lack of organisational and adaptive capacities, and an absence of understanding and integrated planning of who will do what. This chapter is a call to more effectively problematise, research and assess these concepts and their application in disaster contexts.
The promise and reality of philanthropy in disasters
Authors: Schlegelmilch Jeffrey
Published: September 2023

Offering candid reflections on first-hand experiences of a variety of responses to disasters, this chapter provides a ‘view from the field’ and assesses how philanthropy could do better. The problems created by restrictions of funding for short-term use are noted, as well as the value of holding some contributions back as reserves to address needs that are not at first apparent. Generally, established organisations quickly secure resources through government and non-government sources, and exit when immediate relief work is completed. Emergent groups, typically from the communities affected, are the ones meeting long-term needs that none of the more established players were able or willing to address. We also need to recognise that social inequities exist not only across but within communities. The chapter also reminds us of the importance of the small things and of improvisation in disaster management: child-friendly spaces or knitting circles. These, too, need to be supported and measured. This reinforces one of the recurring themes of this volume, which is that disaster philanthropy must provide more resources to preparedness, mitigation and long-term recovery.
An introduction to policy analysis in Korea
Authors: Oh Cheol H.
Published: September 2023

Policy analysis was introduced to Korea in the late 1970s as part of policy studies. Since then, however, it is policy evaluation rather than policy analysis that has developed rapidly and become widespread. Therefore, understanding policy analysis in Korea cannot be complete without looking into policy evaluation. This chapter examines the overall state of policy analysis in Korea and offers a set of suggestions for its future development.
Policy analysis and government capacity
Authors: Yoon Jiwoong
Published: September 2023

A preliminary feasibility study (PFS) was adopted to support rational decision making in large fiscal investments, such as railroad and large infrastructure in Korea. This PFS is perceived as a cost-effective tool ensuring fiscal integrity in public programmes and enhancing bureaucratic capacity, which is a social benefit greater than the additional costs incurred from the administration of PFSs and related preparations. However, there is a concern that too many resources are being poured into the PFS process, given the limited reflection of the PFS on the budget formulation by the policy decision makers. Moreover, even though the results of a PFS have no legal binding, many people believe that the result can be used as an arbitrary policy tool increasing uncertainty for the stakeholders and public.
Policy analysis in quasi-governmental institutions in Korea
Authors: Park Hyung Jun , Ju Jiye , Park Hyung Gun
Published: September 2023

Public institutions are key agencies in the policy implementation stage that provide public goods and services. They are not strictly central or local subordinate agencies of the government but are subject to government oversight and control. It is not only because they are partially funded by the government but also because the policy outcomes they (semi-) monopolistically provide are crucial for the public. Oversight of the performance of public institutions requires the disclosure of information to the public, thereby improving accountability and performance. However, there are still issues to be resolved in the performance management of public institutions (Lah 2015). Due to the qualitative evaluation of some immeasurable aspects of performance, certain assessment metrics are highly subjective. As the grades finalised by the steering committee only rank public institutions on a relative scale, they do not fully capture the different characteristics and nature of services provided. The evaluations are also associated with substantial financial incentives, which makes public institutions prioritise measurable policy outcomes over the actual roles expected of them as quasi-governmental organisation, leading to inconsistent performance in the long run.
Policy advisory bodies in Korea
Authors: Kim Tae Hee
Published: September 2023

This chapter introduces policy advisory bodies in South Korea. In South Korea, policy advisory councils in the central government serve the function of providing professional opinions and assisting in decision making through deliberation, mediation and consultation. This chapter provides general overviews of the councils, followed by a review of their operational records to assess their activities and influence by analysing news coverage and number of meetings held. Three example cases are selected and used to illustrate the impacts and limitations of policy advisory bodies. Recommendations to enhance the influence and effectiveness of councils are also discussed alongside ideas for further research in this area.
Schooling in a Democracy
Authors: Riddell Richard
Published: September 2023

This book is based on a study of schools governance, specifically of the academisation of English schools and its logical and organisational consequences such as the growth of MATs. It shows that the focus of Education Policy on progressively narrower student outcomes has driven a formerly open and local basis for governance to one increasingly conducted privately and behind closed doors. Increasing centralisation of government, allied with the deliberate reduction of local government, has led to governance arrangements conducted more and more remotely. The chaotic muddle and chaos of organisations between schools and central government makes the realisation of new policies extremely difficult, and this has led gradually to the inability of both officials and politicians to recognise any need for change. This has been compounded by their respective professional (and social) backgrounds and these overall weaknesses are reflected elsewhere in the public service and in the private sector. Policy has become empty, futile and immersed in only one way of seeing the world. It is argued, in addition to ensuring their students succeed and progress, that schools need to have the capacity to work much more closely with their communities to help them succeed. There needs to be a more open and democratic approach to governance matters, building on good practice. Two illustrative case studies suggest what this might mean. Given current events in UK government, an addition to the Nolan principles is suggested and it is argued that different Education governance structures will need to emerge in time.
Governance change in England
Authors: Riddell Richard
Published: September 2023

This sets out the changes, especially since 2010, that have reduced the so-called middle tier in English Education. It sets out the distrust of central government and its contempt for its local counterpart. It details the gradual development over time of a national arrangement and cadre for school improvement and the effects of ‘conversion’ to academy status, including the withering of local authorities. There is a first discussion of MATs and their nature.
More muddle: English Education’s unstable assemblage
Authors: Riddell Richard
Published: September 2023

The chapter begins with the limitations of nationally driven policy making in Education. It examines difficulties of realising national prescription and how there are always unforeseeable consequences. The constantly changing market for private companies is explored whose presence helps secrecy, and ends new thinking. The chapter ends with a review of arms-length bodies, their role and that of Ofsted
The construction of central governments that find it all too difficult
Authors: Riddell Richard
Published: September 2023

This chapter describes the paradox of centralisation: focus on the minister while officials have been progressively weakened; how notions of strategy at national level became anathema and the problems with the backgrounds and self-view of senior officials’ roles, NPM and its current weaknesses and irrelevance, the end of expertise and its consequences, and how ignorance of social and economic processes makes policy realisation weak.
Critical debates and themes on ageing, masculinities and social relations
Authors: Willis Paul , Pietilä Ilkka , Seppänen Marjaana
Published: September 2023

This chapter introduces the broader field of gender, masculinities and ageing studies that forms the theoretical backdrop to this edited collection’s prime focus on social relations across diverse groups of older men. Key debates in studies of ageing, masculinities and social life are identified and critical gerontological scholarship on ageing, gender and social relations are foregrounded. Contemporary discourses on ageing, including notions of active ageing, successful ageing and precarity in later life, are introduced and discussed in the context of how these impact the social connections of men in later life. The chapter concludes by introducing contributors’ work across the two parts of the collection.
Sexual health challenges, masculinity and responsive help-seeking among older Yoruba men in Ibadan, Nigeria
Authors: Agunbiade Ojo Melvin , Gilbert Leah
Published: September 2023

This chapter explores what constitutes sexual health, risky sexual practices and the implications on social relations, sexual activities and responsive help-seeking in old age. Findings presented in this chapter are based on six vignettes-based focus group discussions held among 56 urban-dwelling older Yoruba men (60 years and above) in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria. The findings indicated that older male adults questioned cultural expectations regarding sexual health and invoked notions of masculinity when sexual performance or the resolution of sexually transmitted infections or illnesses were a concern. A cultural notion of the exemplar elder was invoked when faced with sexual health challenges and the social appropriateness of help-seeking. Concurrent usage of biomedical and traditional medical systems was considered potent and normative in resolving a sexual health challenge, while only the traditional medical system can handle magun – a folk sexual infection that leads to the immediate death of the male partner. The adoption of effective protective measures against all forms of sexually transmitted infections and responsive help-seeking behaviour are exemplar social responsibilities sexually active older men should possess. Sensitisation and availability of culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive sexual healthcare services must promote healthy sexual practices among older male adults.
Sexuality ‘in apps’? Older men who have sex with men and their use of dating apps in Brazil
Authors: Luz Nunes Queiroz Artur Acelino Francisco , Sousa Álvaro Francisco Lopes , de Sousa Anderson Reis
Published: September 2023

This chapter investigates social app use by older men who have sex with men (MSM) and discusses the impact on their sexuality. As part of this rediscovery of one’s own sexuality, middle-aged and older MSM gradually release themselves from the social restrictions and norms historically imposed on people of that age concerning their sexuality, recreating and reshaping norms to better address their sexual experiences, needs and desires. Dating apps play an important role in this process, which is little investigated in the literature. A total of 412 Brazilians MSM comprised the sample of this study. Our data show that the older MSM who use apps in Brazil have specific patterns of consumption, behaviour and expectations that differentiate them, especially from the younger audience. It is undeniable that the absence of safe places to exercise ‘offline’ sexuality led older MSM to search for apps, as something practical, safe and discreet that meet their expectations. Understanding the role of these apps is crucial for health professionals to be able to appropriate this space, to know the daily life of socio-affective interactions that take place in digital sociotechnical networks.
Mobility and the impact of the physical and built environment on older men’s social connections
Authors: Musselwhite Charles
Published: September 2023

Physical space and the built environment is gendered. This chapter draws on recent UK research on how older men’s connections are enabled or restricted by different aspects of the built environment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 48 participants (24 male; 24 female) aged over 65 years to explore their mobility needs. The findings are framed around mobility capital theory (Musselwhite and Scott, 2019) of infrastructure capital (physical properties of space, pavements, roads, bridges), individual capital (people’s skills, abilities, aptitudes, resilience), social capital (friends, family, other significant people) and cultural capital (societal norms, rules, laws). Key to successful connectivity in later life is good quality infrastructure, but men are much more likely to rely on this alone to connect to the things they want to do and people they want to. They are less likely to use social connections than women and have less cultural and individual capital to draw upon which have been richly formed during the life course for women. Recommendations are formed around improving men’s social capital and creating more opportunity for older men to socialise is important.
The social world of dying older men: between autonomy and ‘bad deaths’
Authors: Ågren Axel , Nilsson Magnus
Published: September 2023

This chapter examines dominant points of departure and perspectives in social science literature regarding issues of social relations, masculine identities and autonomy among dying older men. The authors argue that these issues are of significance as ageing in contemporary society often means to approach death in a manner where notions of masculinity as well as masculine identities such as being strong, stoic and in control are challenged. Furthermore, notions of ‘good deaths’ in Western societies stipulate the importance of being autonomous and not dying alone. This raises the question of what this means for older men who are dying and experience frailty, disease and increased dependency or who wish to die alone or end their lives. Thus, the chapter highlights the complex tension of, on the one hand, strivings towards ‘good deaths’ through enabling autonomy and upholding masculine identity, while on the other hand facing the loss of control through increased frailty and dependency. Throughout the chapter, the implications these issues have for older men’s social world is discussed.
Narratives of long-term loneliness: case study of two older men
Authors: Tiilikainen Elisa
Published: September 2023

This chapter examines long-term loneliness from the perspective of two older men. The data is derived from a longitudinal qualitative study and analysed using a narrative approach. The findings show that later life loneliness can be a long-lasting experience intertwined in past life events and experiences. In the examined case studies, loneliness was narrated through two key life experiences: loss of mother in childhood and sexual abuse. Both experiences had an impact on the older men’s social relations throughout the life course. The findings highlight the importance of acknowledging the role of past life experiences in later life loneliness. Approaches recognising individual life courses of older people are needed for the theoretical and conceptual understanding of loneliness, as well as the development of intervention strategies.
Supporting social inclusion in community-dwelling men with dementia
Authors: Hicks Ben
Published: September 2023

This chapter is concerned with social inclusion in community-dwelling men with dementia. Drawing on theories of masculinities and intersectionality it explores how sociodemographic determinants continue to shape the lived experiences of men following a dementia diagnosis. The chapter then examines the role digital technology may play in the future dementia care agenda. Drawing on recent research it highlights how off-the-shelf digital gaming technology can support social inclusion among this hard-to-reach population by providing activities that appeal to their multiple masculinities. It concludes by outlining ways policy makers and practitioners can consider these gendered experiences within their work to ensure they are more inclusive of community-dwelling men with dementia.
A Political Sociology of Education Policy
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2023

The segregation of education services is based on an education reform claimocracy that espouses eugenicist beliefs in order to sustain oligarchic club sovereignty as modern and modernising. This book presents empirical data and conceptual analysis from a range of projects to understand and explain segregation through undertaking a political sociology of education policy. Thinking tools from Arendtian and Bourdieusian scholarship are used to reveal policy violence through how policy is authorised, legitimised, and presented as intelligent. The book is in two parts: Part I examines the education reform claimocracy through presenting eugenicist populism as a modernising agenda, governing by knowledge production, and how modernising and knowledge are used to promote policy mortality. Part II provides a Thinking Politically-Sociologically Framework in order to describe, understand, and explain the education reform claimocracy through examining vantage points, viewpoints, regimes, and exchange relationships. The knowledge production that serves the education reform claimocracy is examined, and the plurality of intellectual history is revealed and so presents intellectual activism as integral to thinking about and for education policy.
Modernising education
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2023

Segregated education services are enabled through eugenicist populism, and the chapter examines five main modernisation trends in general and in education policy that enable and sustain the eugenicist fabrications that are used to justify selection and secession. Policy violence is examined through a focus on social mobility as a form of legitimised violence. While the ERC uses the language of aspiration and opportunity, the continued investment in segregation based on natural inferiority–superiority limits aspirations and opportunities for the majority of children.
Governing by knowledge production
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2023

Segregated education services are enabled through how private and globalised oligarchies occupy the state and use governing to control the ERC through knowledge production. Oligarchies are promoters and beneficiaries of depoliticisation, and three forms in general and in education policy are identified: depoliticised privatism, corporatisation, and populism. Policy violence is examined through a focus on problem solving as a form of authorised violence. While the ERC focuses on the centrality of improvement and effectiveness through problem identification and solutions, in reality power is evacuated, relationality silenced, and action denied.
Viewpoints
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2023

Understanding and explaining the durability of segregated education requires the Thinking Politically-Sociologically Framework. Following on from examining vantage points is the need to investigate viewpoints or the knowledge production position of the person or group who create and espouse the claimocracy. Three ontological and epistemological positions are identified: positivist, interpretive, and critical, and based on this, four knowledge production and viewpoints are presented: functional science, normative instrumentalism, narrative description, and critical social justice. It is argued that a hybrid of positivist functional science and normative instrumentalism dominates that is called normative functionalism. A case study from Theme 2: The Workforce is presented, where data and analysis are used to demonstrate policy violence towards the profession regarding workload and professionality.
Critical education policy studies
Authors: Gunter Helen M.
Published: September 2023

Understanding and explaining the durability of segregated education requires the Thinking Politically-Sociologically Framework. Following on from examining vantage points, viewpoints, regimes, and exchange relationships is the need to investigate the knowledge production that underpins the claimocracy. Four policy positions in relation to criticality within Critical Education Policy Studies are identified: description, science, entrepreneurialism, and scholarship, where the primacy of entrepreneurialism is examined. A case study from Theme 4: Knowledge Production is presented where the writing and conceptualisation of intellectual histories demonstrates how policy violence is based on recognising wants, needs, and likes, and the denial of intellectual activism.
Online child sexual exploitation in the Philippines: addressing demand
Authors: Fell Imogen , Jesperson Sasha
Published: September 2023

Online sexual exploitation of children has considerable implications for the safety and welfare of children in the Philippines. Increased demand and availability of child sexual exploitation materials has influenced local networks resulting in alterations to victims’ demographics and the chain of perpetration including peer-related exploitation. The Trafficking in Persons country report for the Philippines situates the responsibility to confront demand on the national government through preventative efforts. Although local prevention is necessary, international demand presents complex problems to an under-resourced Philippine response. Drawing on field research, analysis of the TIP report and the UK government’s Online Safety Bill, this chapter argues for a more proportionate response to international demand.
The role of business in the exploitation and rehabilitation of victims of modern slavery
Authors: Theron Colleen
Published: September 2023

Colleen Theron’s chapter situates the role of business in the exploitation of individuals against their responsibility to appropriately rehabilitate these victims and remedy human rights abuses. The chapter addresses the negative impact upon human rights that businesses can have through their operations and supply chains, providing examples of both purposeful and neglectful exploitation. The chapter outlines the ineffectiveness of legislation which allows such exploitation to go on unmonitored and discusses the meaningful remedy for victims of human trafficking where businesses enable the rehabilitation of survivors. Case studies are presented to evidence businesses making positive impacts in assisting survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking directly or otherwise in their journey of rehabilitation. Guidelines for businesses interested in offering opportunities to survivors are presented.
Monitoring and evaluating anti-trafficking measures
Authors: Dyke Ruth Van , Dottridge Mike
Published: September 2023

The chapter summarises key developments in the monitoring and evaluation of anti-trafficking and anti-slavery laws, policies, projects and practice since the beginning of the 21st century. It explains why monitoring and evaluation are important, distinguishing between monitoring that consists of collecting statistics, and evaluations that assess whether expected standards have been met. It presents a typology of three categories of monitoring. The authors emphasise the importance of uncovering the effects of anti-trafficking practice on trafficking victims (‘survivors’), but note that, until recently, government officials seemed to avoid seeking this feedback. The role of international monitoring bodies, such as the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) and national-level monitoring by a government-appointed (but independent) rapporteur is described. A series of evaluations are illustrated, noting the importance of assessing the effects of assistance on individuals, as well as assessing an individual organisation’s performance. The chapter concludes by documenting how a lack of investment in monitoring and evaluation has undermined the effectiveness of attempts to improve anti-trafficking work. Despite the monitoring activities of countless regional and international organisations operating in Europe, national anti-trafficking and anti-slavery systems have been slow to make necessary improvements.