bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Universal Welfare Design in a New Age: Equality versus Equity in the Debate about Universal Basic Income Policies and Health in Society
Authors: Haagh Louise
Published: January 2025

This chapter proposes a novel “human development state” concept, emphasizing shared human development risk formations in effectiveness of welfare governance given underlying cooperative problems in human economy. HD states are characterized by a high level of political security of welfare, and shared rules in human activity spheres, which play a crucial role in individual well-being and motivation. Analysing the problem of universal welfare through the HD state concept provides a way of overcoming contemporary polemics in the welfare debate around designated opposing logics of equity and equality as spearheaded in, respectively, the human development approach and advocacy of universal basic income policies. HD state governance is characterized in reality by a combination of equity and equality considerations against a background of shared-risk formations, as demonstrated comparatively in the relationship between broad-based fiscal systems and human development processes in OECD states.
Global Development Actors and Country Ownership in Indonesian Social Policy Making
Authors: Kaasch Alexandra , Wilmsen Brooke
Published: January 2025

The importance of social policy in the developmental trajectory of low- and middle-income countries has been increasingly recognized alongside a heightened focus on universal social protection in global dialogues. International entities, such as the International Labour Organization and the United Nations, have prioritized this in their goals; yet, views on how best to implement these objectives often differ between donor and aid recipient countries. Focusing on Indonesia, an emerging economy, this chapter evaluates the role of external actors in the nation’s social policy development. Despite the challenges posed by donor interests often overshadowing those of recipients, Indonesia showcases notable strides in its social policy, particularly in health. This chapter emphasizes the Paris Principles on Aid Effectiveness, particularly the “country ownership” concept, arguing for greater control by recipient nations over their developmental policies. The findings, based on Indonesia’s experience, show varied adherence to this principle among international donors, offering a nuanced understanding of social policy development in emerging Southeast Asian economies.
Paternalist street-level bureaucrats and virtuous recipients: the consequences of institutional weakness in a pensions programme in Uganda
Authors: Jacquin Ronan
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the origins and effects of institutional weakness on the work of SLBs in a pension programme for old persons in Uganda. Institutional weakness stems from conflicts between promoters and critics of pensions within the bureaucratic and political fields, resulting in low investments in capacities. Thus, the programme does not rely on a professional, specialised bureaucracy but on local political and administrative authorities that are linked to recipients of pensions through local networks of ‘relationality’, although socially distant from them. Institutional weakness and social inequality have strong effects, as local authorities successfully impose a paternalist control on recipients’ financial practices. As a consequence, recipients understand pensions as a favour rather than a right and adapt their behaviour in search of material gains, social respectability, and moral affirmation of the self. The chapter thus highlights the importance of administrative design on street-level bureaucracy and implementation.
Coping with violence and precarious working conditions: law enforcement through the eyes of municipal police officers in Morelia, Mexico
Authors: Guzmán Linares Paulina Yunuén , Peeters Rik
Published: January 2025

How do police officers cope, both behaviourally and emotionally, with the double challenge of precarious working conditions and a dangerous social context? And how does this impact the nature of law enforcement and the police’s interactions with citizens? In this chapter, we discuss the case of the municipal police of Morelia, a large city in central Mexico, among the world’s 50 most dangerous cities, and where municipal police officers face shortages in basic materials, receive low salaries, work long shifts, and have limited training and psychological support. Based on original interviews with police officers and complementary document analysis, we demonstrate that such conditions can lead them to move away from dangerous situations, act out aggressively towards citizens, and rely on colleague support and substance abuse to deal with their everyday reality at work. Their response to social and institutional complexities fundamentally changes the face of law enforcement and leaves police officers to fend for their own physical survival and mental health.
‘You can tell they are just villagers when you look at them’: a phenomenological study of street-level bureaucrats’ differential treatment of clients in a Ghanaian rural hospital
Authors: Mohammed Abdul-Rahim
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines the role discretion plays at the frontlines of the implementation of Ghana’s NHIS. Relying on participant observations and one-on-one semi-structured interviews with (1) hospital staff and (2) officers of a health insurance office, this exploratory study demonstrates how hospital and national health insurance staff subject their clients to differential treatments based on their subjective views of their clients’ socio-economic status. Due to a combination of high caseloads and limited staff, hospital and health insurance officers categorise and prioritise their clients as the basis for delivering services. Formally dressed clients are categorised as people who genuinely need care and quickly, while informally dressed patients are categorised as ‘difficult’, ‘villagers’, or time wasters who are thought to be abusing the NHIS. Overall, this chapter contributes towards furthering our understanding of the ad hoc discretionary coping behaviours of SLBs at the frontlines of implementing public policy.
When frontline work functions as an enclave: insights from Turkey
Authors: Massicard Elise
Published: January 2025

How do structurally adverse working conditions impact the behaviour of frontline workers? And how does this affect public service provision, and citizens’ experiences of the state? To address these questions, this chapter focuses on a specific figure of frontline work in Turkey: muhtars (headmen/headwomen) operating at the outer edge of institutions, at a very local level. Muhtars are elected by the residents and are socially embedded in their neighbourhood or village. Drawing on in-depth qualitative empirical research, the chapter argues that the muhtarlık – a word referring to the institution itself – operates as a non-bureaucratic frontline enclave mitigating between a distant state and a mistrusting public, and ends up significantly impacting state-citizen interactions. However, the forms of policy repair that muhtars implement do not necessarily mitigate citizens’ lack of trust in institutions, instead tending to reinforce it.
Creative applications of biographical research: time–space interactions in walking biographical methods
Authors: O’Neill Maggie , Nurse Lyudmila
Published: January 2025

What are the challenges for theorising, experiencing and doing biographical research in post-pandemic time, a time that was characterised by social, physical/material distancing, isolation and, for some, ruptures to the biographical trajectory? Physical distancing altered and narrowed the nature of space/time of social interactions; it brought billions of people to interact via screens, while some people reconnected with nature and the natural world. What specific biographical research method can inform a sense of our past, present and possible futures and their interconnections? In this chapter we address these questions by focusing upon theorising, experiencing and imagining the relationships between biographical research, space and time in pandemic times; the importance of revisiting biographical theories in relation to the reconfiguring of temporalities/time and the meanings of ‘future’. We provide examples from the use of the walking interview biographical method (WIBM), which demonstrate the benefits of the WIBM as the creative combination of sensory experiences of storytelling with sensory immediacy of the visual/performative experience of walking, that opens up a discursive space, where embodied knowledge and experience are shared in post-pandemic times.
Walking new horizons for critically reflexive pedagogy and research
Authors: O’Neill Jerry
Published: January 2025

Working, as I am epistemologically inclined, in the spaces between critical pedagogy and research, I reflect, in this (auto)biographically-charged chapter, on the methodological emergence of a small-scale podcast project called Walking It, created from five dialogic walks with fellow adult educators, developed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The premise for this reflexive inquiry was simple: each participant invited me on a walk through a space of some significance in their lives for an open, fluid and slow conversation on the biographical significance of the space and walking itself in their lives. Returning to, and reflecting on, the audio-artefacts that emerged from the process, and in the context of shifting global awareness of the human relationship with the environment and other species in a (post)pandemic world, I begin to see the possibility of new epistemological, pedagogical and methodological horizons in walking with dialogic openness both with participants and with the spaces we walk through.
The ‘new normal’ for oral history? Challenge and opportunities of interviewing during the global pandemic and its aftermath
Authors: Gałęziowski Jakub
Published: January 2025

COVID-19 has affected every aspect of human life globally, including the field of oral history. The pandemic has presented a challenge to oral history practice, which is based on personal encounters. Oral historians, who traditionally favour face-to-face interviewing modes, have been forced to change their working methods. The crucial dilemma was to conduct interviews online or record in person; and, if face to face, how to do it in a way that ensures health and safety for both parties: the interviewees and the interviewers. Academic communities as well as international and national organisations of oral historians have considered possible new ways of proceeding in these circumstances, without compromising the principles of oral history. This chapter discusses the implications of the pandemic for the field, including its local characteristics as well as present and future challenges.
Reframing focus groups as deep collective and (sometimes) collaborative conversations: biographical vulnerabilities, antiracist East and Southeast Asian solidarities and protective silences
Authors: Barber Tamsin , Yeh Diana
Published: January 2025

Doing ‘focus group’ research with young East and Southeast Asian people on the racialised politics of belonging in Britain reveals rich and complex dynamics of vulnerability and resilience. Inviting young people to share their views and reflect upon their experiences as racially minoritised and underrepresented groups in Britain often entails the sharing of sensitive life stories. This includes the divulging of biographical traumas but also the joyful discovery of shared commonalities, differences, humour and mutual empathy. This chapter reframes focus groups as deep collective and (sometimes) collaborative conversations to explore both their empowering and disempowering potential as a forum for sharing biographical experience. We argue that these collective conversations, when collaborative, can provide opportunities for overcoming vulnerabilities through listening to shared experience, developing solidarity with others and de-individualising experiences of racism. However, they can also generate discomfort when differences between participants and facilitators are too great or too small or where power dynamics are too asymmetrical. In these situations, participants use ‘protective silences’ to shield themselves from sharing vulnerabilities and experiencing potential retraumatisation, and the collective conversations fail to be collaborative.
Research opportunities and challenges during COVID-19: the case of volunteer firefighters
Authors: Seifert Fabienne
Published: January 2025

This chapter examines voluntary firefighters’ routines, situational awareness and social practices within the context of COVID-19 from two perspectives. The first perspective deals with the demands and changes of data collection during a pandemic. The second addresses the experiences of volunteer firefighters and points out some research questions, challenges and opportunities for research, for example the differences between meeting in person and meeting virtually. The author was confronted with the experiences of firefighters in real time. They shared with her, in photos and videos, traffic accidents, injured persons and fires. These impressions changed her understanding of vulnerability, created an awareness of risk and a way of thinking that helped her to recognise the need for emergency preparedness. The chapter provides examples, and the author reflects on her research experiences working with an emergency service.
Digital platforms for the co-creation of public value
Authors: Meijer Albert , Boon Wouter
Published: January 2025

This chapter provides a theoretical understanding of the potential contribution of digital platforms to the co-creation of public value. On the basis of insights from different academic disciplines, a layered model is developed for the relations between technology, governance, users and societal outcomes. The theoretical model proposes that these layers can result in basic configurations – consistent combinations of the four elements – but also hybrid configurations. We identify three basic configurations: (1) a closed platform controlled by a private sector organisation, (2) an open platform controlled by a government organisation and (3) an open platform run by a civil society organisation. The configurations are illustrated with examples of digital platforms from all over the world. The configurational understanding of digital platforms for the co-creation of public value provides the basis for a systematic analysis of these rapidly growing practices in countries around the world.
Collaborative governance and innovation in public services settings
Authors: Gestel Nicolette Van , Grotenbreg Sanne
Published: January 2025

Collaborative governance is believed to lead to more innovative solutions to complex problems in public services. This chapter analyses whether this hypothesis applies in the case of decentralisation of labour market policy to regional networks of various actors in the Netherlands. We first develop a theoretical argument that integrates theories of collaborative governance with theories of innovation, distinguishing between a wide and a small option for innovation in relation to the structure, process and output/outcome of collaborative governance. Our findings show that, despite a variety of partnerships and ambitions across the regions, new and bold solutions to complex problems are scarce. In particular, wide innovation, which creates public value beyond the existing policy frameworks and services, is limited in practice. The chapter advances the theory by specifying barriers and conditions for network innovation in the public sector, and provides some suggestions for further research.
Concluding discussion: key themes in the (possible) move to co-production and co-creation in public management
Authors: Ferlie Ewan
Published: January 2025

The chapters in this edited collection add to a rapidly developing literature on co-creation in public services management. This final chapter focuses what might otherwise be a wide ranging discussion by addressing core themes proposed in the volume’s introduction. We consider:• basic definitions of co-production and co-creation; the claim of a possible move from lower order co-production to higher level co-creation;• the link with different models of strategic management, why strategic management is important and which models are promising;• the potential role of digitalisation in the move to co-production and co-creation;• the possible link with co-creation informed innovation which contributes to the pursuit of public value outcomes.We examine the potential role of strategic management along with the nature of any ‘metagovernance’ of associated policy networks. The conclusion makes general observations and considers future research direction.
How to change our neighbourhoods, regions and the world: using symptoms, systems and transformation as a framework for social innovation and social work
Authors: Prosser Sarah , Pedersen Ole
Published: January 2025

This chapter takes its starting point in the recognition of multiple challenges that are being felt at all scales of society and the need to examine the root causes behind them if we are to find new pathways that benefit humanity and ecology for the long term. A framework for social innovation is presented that differentiates between addressing symptoms and designing for systems change and transformation. Three case studies at different geographic scales are given: an ‘Unlimited’ style of neighbourhood incubator, a Bioregional Weaving Lab and the World Social Forum. The examples illustrate that designing innovation according to symptoms, systems or transformation is relevant whether working locally, regionally or globally. Also, that social work and community development approaches are fundamental to all kinds of social innovation, whatever the scale or depth of the methodology. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the need for decision makers to have the knowledge and capacity to work in these frameworks, while additionally including factors such as place, replication through trust-based relationships, the diversity of local context, multi-stakeholder ecosystems and a faith that we can indeed change the world for the better.
Potential for social innovation in social work: applying the capability approach
Authors: Brummel Annica , Jansen Erik , Yerkes Mara A. , Javornik Jana
Published: January 2025

To guide the direction and approach of social innovation a normative framework is highly useful and perhaps even indispensable, particularly for social workers engaging in or with social innovation. In this chapter the capability approach (CA) is proposed as one potential and promising framework for social workers who are, or aspire to be, involved in social innovation projects to provide normative grounding in social values consistent with the global definition of social work. Let alone that the CA is not the only possible normative framework to serve such a purpose, the chapter describes how we succeeded in operationalising the CA by co-creatively developing an instrument that enabled us to work with the rather abstract normative notions in the CA in concrete participatory action research studies. This instrument takes the form of the Capability Cards, a conversational tool in which dialogue cards based on Martha Nussbaum’s central capabilities facilitate professional–client or professional–professional conversations on the essence of the preferred good life and what enhances or hampers it as it is lived. Several case examples show that the application of the Capability Cards indeed guides reflections, dialogue, decisioning and actions towards the key normative notions of the CA.
The art of co-creation: service innovation in Europe
Authors: Fox Chris , Baines Susan
Published: January 2025

We are living in the age of rapid change characterised by an ageing population, mass immigration, digitalisation, interconnectedness and transformation of the political landscape. The pace of the change is fast and it poses new challenges for the design of public services, but also many new opportunities. This chapter is based on the findings of the Horizon 2020 CoSIE project, building on the idea that public sector innovations can be best achieved by creating collaborative partnerships between service providers (public sector agencies, third sector organisations, private companies) and citizens who benefit from services either directly or indirectly. The goal is to contribute to democratic renewal and social inclusion through co-creating public services by engaging diverse citizen groups and stakeholders in varied public services. This chapter draws together ideas about co-creation, social innovation, social investment and individual and collective values and shows the relationship between these concepts and how they can support innovation in public services.
Promoting social services innovation: regional and local examples from across Europe
Authors: Lara-Montero Alfonso
Published: January 2025

Theories of social innovation point to a new way of addressing a social problem that should be both transferable and sustainable. But how is social innovation promoted and implemented in social services? There have been two significant approaches. The first set of innovations relates to investments in new models of social care that promote an overarching community and home-based approach, through local care ecosystems, for example. The second refers to innovations in social work, such as social services outreach and coordination with employment services for people farthest from the labour market or integrated services for vulnerable families. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a series of social services innovations covering both approaches based on preliminary analysis and identification of innovative social services programmes of public authorities who are members of the European Social Network. This methodology aided in developing patterns of innovation in social services, which could help identify areas for future investment.
Regional learning networks in the social welfare domain: drivers of social innovation in social work
Authors: van der Pas Suzan , Jansen Erik
Published: January 2025

Since 2015 the Netherlands has undergone a welfare system transformation which has impacted healthcare governance and the redistribution of responsibilities and austerity measures. Key was the devolution of formerly centralised services and support to municipalities, which in turn necessitated a strategy for social innovation in which local partners develop new practices for social care and well-being. Regional learning networks (RNSWD) have been set up to address wicked problems and encourage innovation in the social welfare domain. Although the RNSWD are highly diverse in structure and approach, they do share a common transformative rationale for their approach. Learning facilitators hold key, preconditional roles, often being (politically neutral) action-researchers from the affiliated RNSWD, but sometimes also boundary workers from (stakeholder) practice organisations. Agenda formation was generally determined collaboratively by network members, comprising themes such as collaborative issues and new conceptions of care and well-being practices. All networks apply peer supervision or deliberative procedures. The main conclusion is that processes of liberation and empowerment of network professionals are fundamentally intertwined with a learning approach to social innovation: dialogue and supervision create a space for reflection on existential questions regarding the organisation of care and social support, and what this means for professional and personal identities.
Learning from innovation processes: introducing Easy Language in adult protection services
Authors: Parpan-Blaser Anne
Published: January 2025

In many areas (such as education, work, politics or administration, among others) information access is not yet fully realised. Therefore, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities holds considerable potential for innovation in this regard – namely in social work. This chapter reflects on introducing information in Easy Language in adult protection service as an innovation and learning process. In this chapter, the project ‘Einfach leicht verständlich’ [Just Easy to Understand] – the first R&D project in Switzerland to address questions relating to the transfer of official texts into Easy Language – is discussed form an innovation-specific perspective. In particular, light is shed on the framework conditions, success factors and emerging challenges. The chapter thus aims to: (1) show which innovation-specific aspects become apparent, (2) establish links to different forms of learning and (3) draw conclusions that allow further refinement of the concept of social innovation. A key finding is that innovative results in the form of concepts, tools or media are not yet sufficient to bring about innovation.
Innovating social work practices to better address homelessness: participatory action research with community services in Italy
Authors: Gaboardi Marta , Licursi Sabina , Pascuzzi Emanuela
Published: January 2025

The chapter illustrates two community participatory action research (CPAR) projects carried out with social practitioners working in services for homeless people in Italy. One project was carried out in the north-east, where local welfare is well structured and organised. The second was implemented in the south, where social care services are underdeveloped and institutions less attentive to extreme poverty. In both cases, the local university promoted and participated in the CPAR process. The projects showed that the CPAR can help in the co-creation of innovation in social work, encouraging equal inclusion and collaboration of social professionals in the identification, research and resolution of community issues. Additionally CPAR supports the group re-elaboration of their own experience working with homeless people. The comparison between the two cases confirmed that contextual factors can be critical in social innovation.
The growing rhetoric of entrepreneurship in times of crisis: future challenges of social work in the case of Portugal
Authors: Jesus Antonela , Amaro Maria Inês
Published: January 2025

This chapter analyses the development of entrepreneurship in the political discourse. Committed to the promotion of social change, we seek to develop a macro-level analysis of entrepreneurial activity in the EU context, but also, a particular look at Portugal, a country that as a Member State integrates the community guidelines. The research is both qualitative and quantitative, presenting (1) results of a literature review process and content analysis of the European and Portuguese programmes and policies, and (2) a frequency analysis of entrepreneur/​entrepreneurship references in Portuguese government programmes. The analyses suggest that the attention of this type of activity guided by individualistic principles, typical of a neoliberal wave, gains expression in times of greater socio-economic fragility. Also, the results allowed understanding the effectiveness of the entrepreneurial activity and the representations of the subjects about the respective access, operationalisation and adequacy. We also explored the positioning of social work around this activity, allowing us to recognise potentialities and constraints in the accomplishment of a closer proximity between the two fields.
The contextualised construction of youth justice policy
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

The opening chapter explores the extent and nature to which youth justice policy can be understood as ‘made’ through complex processes of social construction within and between different policy-making contexts. It asks what makes youth justice, outlining the complex, constructed and contextualised nature of youth justice policy making across its socio-historical trajectories. This leads into discussion of the nature of policy principles, which implicates a degree of coherence and order across ostensibly random and chaotic youth justice policy trajectories. There follows a critical discussion of what is understood by youth justice ‘policy’. The analysis then turns to who are the ‘makers’ of youth justice policy – the key stakeholder groups or ‘policy actors’ operating in governmental and non-governmental contexts in England and Wales. This is followed by an exploration of how youth justice policy is made, evaluating the ‘Policy Cycle Model’ through a lens of necessary complexity, focusing on the competing discourses and rationales that have shaped socio-historical trajectories of youth justice policy making. The chapter concludes by exploring power as an influence on policy-making relationships within and between youth justice contexts and stakeholder groups, with a particular focus on the exercising of power to govern, the power of experts and the generation of evidence.
Expansionist ‘new youth justice’ policy
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

This chapter explores the nature and extent of the revolutionary youth justice reforms under the Labour government and the ideas that influenced them (1997–2010). This socio-historical period is presented as being underpinned by an expansionist approach to youth justice, with large amounts of money, resources and time invested into sweeping policy reform, mobilised by the construction of a plethora of youth justice systems, structures, laws, sentences, strategies and practices. The chapter begins by tracing the emergence of Labour’s radically new youth justice policies, strategies and practices. It outlines the recommendations from the Audit Commission’s ‘Misspent youth’ review of youth justice in the United Kingdom (1996) and the subsequent ‘No more excuses’ government White Paper (1997), which formalised a set of strategies that coalesced to form the ‘new youth justice’. There follows a detailed discussion of the radical reconstruction of youth justice through the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, most notably the creation of the Youth Justice System of England and Wales, with its central aim/policy of prevention. The chapter concludes with an investigation of youth justice developments in the two years following the first decade of ‘new youth justice’ under Labour (2008–10), evaluating the extent to which these developments evidenced an extension of and progression from ‘new youth justice’.
Austerity youth justice as tentative policy ‘progress’
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

Chapter 4 examines youth justice policy development from 2010 (post-Labour government) under the Coalition and then Conservative governments during a period shaped by significant socio-economic austerity and socio-political insecurities that rendered the expansionist ‘new youth justice’ approach to prevention increasingly infeasible – financially, politically, practically and evidentially. It argues that socio-economic austerity and socio-political insecurity have exerted a reconstructive influence on youth justice policy making since 2010 by motivating a more pragmatic retraction and retrenchment of policy and practice, supported by the reimagining of alternative, evidence-based, principled youth justice approaches. The chapter charts the evolution of youth justice policy since 2010, from a consolidated, rebranded ‘new youth justice’ into a more explicit strategic focus on integrating progressive ‘Child First’ principles to meet prevention goals. It concludes by asserting that the ‘3Es’ of expansionist youth justice policy, be they ‘effectiveness, efficiency and economy’ (Home Office, 1998) or ‘expedience, evidence and experience’ (Smith, 2014), have been tentatively replaced by the ‘3Ps’ of austerity youth justice: politics (change), pragmatism (necessity, rationality) and principle (Child First).
Exploring youth justice policy-making contexts and mechanisms
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

Chapter 5 begins the analysis of the semi-structured interview data that affords more situated and privileged insight into the constructed, dynamic nature of policy making by eliciting the perspectives and experiences of expert stakeholders actively involved in youth justice contexts that shape the mechanisms of policy making. The chapter begins by asking ‘What is youth justice policy making?’, analysing interview data to identify expert stakeholder perceptions of the complexity and lack of consensus around understandings of policy and policy making. The following section, ‘Who makes policy?’, identifies the broad contexts of youth justice policy making and focuses on the key governmental and non-governmental stakeholder policy makers across the Youth Justice System. The third thematic section asks ‘HOW does youth justice policy making happen?’, framing its analysis in terms of the stability and change discernible in policy making since 1996, which can be understood as indicative of the messy complexities and conflict and ambivalence of the social construction of youth justice. The chapter ends with a general overview of the implementational ‘mode’ of policy making and the role of managers and practitioners in policy-making contexts, including their responsibility and culpability (relative to governmental actors) for policy implementation failures/gaps, which are discussed further in subsequent chapters.
Professional identities, expertise and evidence
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

Chapter 6 explores the contexts and mechanisms of youth justice policy making in more detail by focusing on the relational nature of contextualised policy making. It focuses on how relational contexts influence the identities of policy-making organisations and professionals, including the expert identities often prioritised when soliciting and generating evidence and implementing evidence-based policy/practice. The chapter identifies macro-level policy discourses as representing the identity of governments, for example, contrasting populist punitiveness with the prevention–support–diversion discourse and the distinct ‘dragonised’ identity of youth justice policy in Wales. There follows discussion of governmental open-mindedness and receptiveness to civil servant influence in meso-level relational contexts when making youth justice policy, which challenges dominant discourses of governmental prescriptiveness and agenda as shaping policy. The chapter then explores the policy-making identity, role, status and influence of the Youth Justice Board as a policy influencer, as a strategic influencer and in empowering practitioners as experts. The penultimate thematic section explores the policy-making role of practitioners as experts by experience in the youth justice sector and as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ engaged in bottom-up policy making through the localised mediation and moderation of government policy. Finally, there is an exposition of the broader role of experts, expertise, experience and evidence in youth justice policy making.
Discussion: towards a contextualised understanding of youth justice policy making
Authors: Case Stephen
Published: January 2025

The final chapter, coalesces the project findings into a central argument for improved understandings of policy making that move beyond reductionist, linear frameworks by examining youth justice ‘policy’ and its ‘makers’ and ‘making’ through a lens of necessary complexity. This leads into a discussion of youth justice policy making as a series of dynamic constructive influences/mechanisms, trajectories, processes, relationships and interactions that are constantly re/constructed by a range of governmental and non-governmental policy actors in relational contexts. It is concluded that while these contacts present as ostensibly chaotic, random and unpredictable, suggesting it is impossible to discern a degree of ‘coherence from chaos’, consistency and predictability or ‘patterns in the noise’ can explain and enhance the effectiveness of policy making in terms of sustainability, coherence, validity, and the faithfulness of its transfer into practice. The chapter then outlines and explores a tentative selection of lessons learned and recommendations for enhanced policy making, which cohere around: rejecting reductionism - embracing complexity, rejecting fear - embracing challenges and rejecting power - embracing expertise, experience and evidence in the youth justice sector.
“Step outside”
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

In the Introduction, the author reflects on his experiences of being an educator in the state school system in England and discusses why a more developed perspective on the nature of exclusion in schools is necessary. The phenomenon is set out that the vast majority of all formally recorded school exclusions in the UK take place in England, most of these exclusions are of secondary school students and of these excluded students, those who are disadvantaged make up a disproportionate number. It is argued that there are, potentially, a wide array of practices in schools that may be popularly regarded as ‘inclusive’, but when scrutinised closely are actually exclusionary. This approach encourages readers to consider exclusion not as a binary – in/out – process, but as taking place in layers.
Educational collateral damage
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

This chapter outlines concerning longstanding trends regarding outcomes for disadvantaged students in England’s secondary schools. This group is disproportionately excluded from schools and these students, on average, attain much worse academic results than their peers. Although the utility of all the data about disadvantaged students is recognised, the chapter calls for a more critical perspective on datafication – the role that these data play in the education system. It is argued that because this narrative often ignores wider socioeconomic disparities, this is resulting in an uneven approach to tackling the inequalities which are leading to poorer outcomes for disadvantaged students. Consequently, concerns are raised about the implications for social mobility in the country. The chapter also introduces the research presented across the book – the experiences and perspectives of students who have found themselves permanently excluded from the mainstream schools they used to attend and are now attending pupil referral units (PRUs). Additionally, there are interviews with staff in the PRUs and senior leaders in mainstream schools.
Exclusion
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the nature and impact of exclusion in England’s education system. At present, this is generally heavily influenced by conceptions directed by the state – suspensions (fixed period) and permanent exclusions – and under both of these categories, disadvantaged students find themselves disproportionately excluded. Yet, it is observed that exclusion is wider and deeper than it is generally conceptualised and, therefore, it is argued that utilising a spatial lens helps to develop more nuanced judgements about the position of disadvantaged students who are finding themselves excluded in the education system. Consequently, this chapter also considers other ways that disadvantaged students can be excluded in their schools. The chapter also discusses how schools use managed moves and alternative provision to avoid permanently excluding students.
Mainstream space
Authors: McLean Anton
Published: January 2025

This chapter discusses the nature of mainstream space in the education system. It draws from the author’s research – interviews with various students who have found themselves permanently excluded from mainstream schools and who now attend pupil referral units (PRUs), the staff who support those students and senior leaders working in mainstream schools. Three themes are presented: firstly, closing the gap which is the distance between the outcomes of disadvantaged students and their peers. It is argued this can lead to a focus on the surface-level features that can result from datafication, rather than the wider socioeconomic factors that feed into the gap. Secondly, the ways schools use rules to shape the mainstream space is discussed. Acquiescence with the rules leads to rewards and defiance of the rules results in sanctions which involve exclusion from mainstream space in some form or other. Thirdly, the perspective gap is presented, which is a disjunction in outlook between the students and staff about the purpose of school.
The Classical Perspective
Authors: Husted Emil
Published: January 2025

The chapter unfolds what I call the ‘classical perspective’. Drawing on the work of Moisei Ostrogorski and Robert Michels, I describe the classical perspective as a way of approaching the study of parties with a range of qualitative methods, including participant observation and personal communication, and focusing on the ability of political parties to deliver representative democracy. Classical studies conduct detailed empirical explorations of the inner life of party organizations to understand how power dynamics unfold. While Ostrogorski arguably pioneered the study of party organization with his meticulous descriptions of English and US parties in the late 1800s, Michels’ work has certainly had the most lasting effects on political science and social science. His ‘iron law of oligarchy’ has been used to describe the drift from horizontal to vertical modes in a wide range of organizations. Besides unfolding the work of both authors, I discuss what organization scholars might learn from engaging with them, highlighting the merits of the type of functional analysis that Ostrogorski employs and the strictly moral character of Michels’ writings as being particularly interesting.
Alternativet in Configurational Perspective
Authors: Husted Emil
Published: January 2025

In this chapter, I apply the configurational perspective to Alternativet. I explore and map the structural anatomy the party as an organization, and clarify whether it fits into one of the ideal-typical configurations in the previous chapter. I start by moderating the party’s official origin story and challenge the ‘founding father’ narrative that characterizes most descriptions of Alternativet. Next, I go through each of the distinctions that Duverger uses to construct his general theory of party organization, thereby establishing Alternativet as a branch-based organization that relies directly on its members for support. In keeping with this diagnosis, I conclude that Alternativet is a highly decentralized organization in terms of authority structures, but that collaborative ties mostly run vertically. I further revisit some well-known party configurations and argue that Alternativet is best described as a combination of mass party (because of its branch-based structure) and movement party (because of its persistent focus on membership participation and deliberation), and that elements usually associated with the digital party support the party’s participationist stance.
Alternativet in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Husted Emil
Published: January 2025

In this chapter, I apply the comparative perspective to Alternativet. The chapter explores similarities and differences between Alternativet and two other movement parties: Podemos in Spain and the Icelandic Pirate Party (Píratar). Since all three parties were founded within 15 months, I begin by outlining their histories and how they relate to one another. I then move on to consider the level of institutionalization achieved by each party, concluding that Alternativet and Podemos are currently more institutionalized than Píratar, but that the Icelandic political system provides a fertile ground for movement parties to thrive. Next, I compare the three parties in relation to the overall themes outlined in the previous chapter: political support, financial strength and intra-party democracy. I conclude that Alternativet is the only party that has managed to turn the tide in terms of political support, but that Podemos is the strongest party financially, and that Píratar is the most democratic party. I draw out insights across the three cases and discuss what movement parties elsewhere might learn from the analysis.
Introduction
Authors: Gallas Alexander
Published: January 2025

From a North Atlantic vantage point, it may be tempting to think that strikes are a relic from the industrial revolution, and that they share the fate of food riots or machine wrecking and play a marginal role as a mode of protest in contemporary societies. A superficial look at existing data suggests that there has been a steep decline in strike activity in Europe and the US in recent decades. According to the European Trade Union Institute, the weighted European average of days not worked due to industrial action was 62.7 per 1,000 employees in 2000 and 26.4 in 2020. Likewise, numbers for the US from the Bureau of Labor Statistics say that ‘days of idleness’ due to strikes were 34 times higher in 1970 than in 2021 (see also Brecher, 2009: 75). It is tempting to conclude that workers rarely choose the strike weapon as means of negotiating of wages and working conditions or of protesting more generally. In fact, some commentators suggest that labour relations have been pacified (Pakulski and Waters, 1996: 86; Meyerson, 2012), rendering the collective act of refusing to work meaningless. Unsurprisingly, scholars sympathetic to labour disagree with this assessment.
Introduction
Authors: Boeger Nina
Published: January 2025

The Introduction, as scene setter, briefly introduces the new UK procurement legislation and political debates that arose in the context of its enactment, highlighting ongoing and serious problems in public service outsourcing. It outlines the aim of the book. It then briefly introduces each chapter by way of summary.
Solutions in Ownership
Authors: Boeger Nina
Published: January 2025

Chapter 4 examines solutions to public outsourcing problems that rely on a specific form of supplier ownership. These include, on the one hand, the possibility of insourcing public services – taking them back in-house – to reinstate public ownership. Public ownership comprises variations beyond traditionally centralized administrative control, including, for example, the majority state-owned company. But, on the other hand, the state may select private providers that commit to a sustainable corporate ownership form in which internal governance elements relating to purpose (beneficiary rights), power (control rights) and profit (economic rights) are reconfigured so as to temper financialization within the firm, ensuring that the governance incentives of public and private contracting partners align more closely and reducing exploitation and formalization of outsourcing contracts.