bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The influence of policy analysis in the United States on the international experience
Authors: Peters B. Guy
Published: September 2018

The principal roots for policy analysis were in the United States, and the ideas and structures associated with studying public policy have been diffused to much of the world. This chapter analyses the types of influences that the American tradition has had, and the extent to which this tradition has had a pervasive influence. It does, however, point to certain areas in which American scholarship and practice have lagged behind other areas of the world.
Introduction
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2018

This book examines the impact of neoliberalism and austerity politics on the role of social work, and welfare provision more generally, in the UK. It considers the social, political and cultural contexts within which social work has developed as a profession and revisits debates about the nature of class and inequality in the country, arguing that the profession is committed to social justice but also the majority of social work takes place with marginalised groups. Drawing on the work of Imogen Tyler and other contemporary critical theorists, the book also analyses the nature of ‘advanced marginality’ and ‘stigma’ and how neoliberalism has created economic conditions which give rise to spatially concentrated areas of poverty and disadvantage. Finally, it discusses the welfare and penal systems during the period of neoliberalism and proposes a new or revised model of a social state based on notions of equality, mutuality and reciprocity.
Advanced marginality and stigma
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores the social and psychological impacts on poverty and inequality through the concepts of ‘advanced marginality’ and ‘stigma’. The analysis of social stigma is influenced by Loïc Wacquant's argument that the ‘underclass’ discourse corrodes not only social ties, but also the sense of self-worth of people living in the poorest areas and communities. The majority of social work takes place in these communities, where high rates of poverty, poor housing, high rates of crime and problems such as substance misuse are common. The chapter first considers the term ‘underclass’ before discussing the notion and implications of the term ‘advanced marginality’. It then examines E. Goffman's notion of stigma, Wacquant's arguments regarding ‘territorial stigmatisation’, and the impact of stigma and its links with modern representations of poverty. Finally, it describes the dynamics of anti-welfarism and uses the case of Mick Philpott to illustrate the ‘benefits brood’ stereotype.
Poverty, inequality and contemporary social work
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines contemporary social work practice in an era when poverty and inequality have become more deeply entrenched. It first considers the broader current position of social work as it relates to poverty and inequality, which are fundamental issues of social justice and human rights, before discussing R. Lister's taxonomy of the potential ways in which individuals and families respond to living in poverty: ‘getting by’, ‘getting (back) at’, ‘getting out’ and ‘getting organised’. This taxonomy of agency can also be used as the basis for the positioning of anti-poverty social work. The chapter also explores social work approaches to issues of poverty and inequality, as well as the areas of children and families' social work, mental health practice and work with asylum-seekers and refugees as a means of analysing the complex relationship between poverty, social work and social justice.
Reimagining a social state
Authors: Cummins Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers a new or revised model of a social state based on notions of equality, mutuality and reciprocity. It looks at ethical and philosophical approaches that can be used to develop an alternative model of welfare, citizenship and social provision, with the goal of finding an opportunity for social work and social workers to challenge the orthodoxy of a focus on risk management. To this end, the chapter draws on the work of Emmanuel Levinas to examine the notions of the duties we, as humans, owe each other. It first provides an overview of the politics of discourses of human rights and dignity before discussing the notion of ‘Othering’, Martha Fineman's concept of the vulnerable subject, the Capabilities Approach (CA), and Marian Barnes' ethic of care.
Income support policies and labour market reforms under austerity in Greece
Authors: Matsaganis Manos
Published: September 2018

This chapter reviews the changes in labour market policies under conditions of harsh austerity and mass unemployment in Greece in 2010-2015. Three policy areas are covered: income support to the unemployed, active labour market policies, and employment protection legislation. We find that labour market policies in Greece have failed to rise to the challenge of harsh austerity and mass unemployment. A legacy of backwardness, neglect, and general lack of sophistication proved difficult if not impossible to overturn under the emergency conditions prevailing since 2010. Moreover, as regards the less controversial aspects of the structural reforms demanded by the country’s creditors under the bailout agreements (for instance, supporting job creation, upgrading the Public Employment Service, and improving the absorption, as well as the effectiveness of EU funding), the domestic actors’ preferred approach of passively adjusting to European funding opportunities, rather than genuinely puzzling for solutions, left no room for a more constructive engagement. The adverse effects of the resulting handicap are there for all to see.
The German exception: welfare protectionism instead of retrenchment
Authors: Eichhorst Werner , Hassel Anke
Published: September 2018

This paper assesses the existence and the extent of austerity–oriented policies in Germany in the aftermath of the 2008–9 recession. In contrast to the intensive phase of labour market and welfare state reforms in the early 2000s aimed at 'welfare readjustment', we do not see austerity policies in Germany, rather a continuation of the path that was adopted earlier. This can be explained by the economic conditions which were, and still are, much more favourable than in many other EU Member States. Most recently, we can identify a partial reregulation of the labour market, most notably the introduction of a national minimum wage, a potential increase in the regulation of non‐standard contracts and a reintroduction of early retirement for labour market insiders. These policies can be classified as 'welfare protectionism'.
The Netherlands and the crisis: from activation to ‘deficiency compensation’
Authors: Hoogenboom Marcel
Published: September 2018

As regards unemployment provision programmes and job protection law in the Netherlands surprisingly little was changed during the crisis. In this chapter, this absence of reforms is attributed to a ‘silent uprising’ on the part of the low and lower-middle classes. Through their support for two new political parties in the Dutch parliament and a change of course by the largest trade union in the Netherlands, they prevented the main political parties from implementing new reforms after two decades of fundamental change in Dutch unemployment provision and job protection systems. At the same time, as a result of attempts to cut back government spending, activation programmes in both unemployment insurance and social assistance were run down. However, it will be claimed in this chapter that a new active labour market policy paradigm is emerging in the Netherlands, which will be dubbed ‘deficiency compensation’.
Retrenchment, conditionality and flexibility – UK labour market policies in the era of austerity
Authors: Heins Elke , Bennett Hayley
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the changes and continuities in the areas of unemployment benefits, employment protection legislation, active labour market policies, training and human capital formation, and needs-based social protection for the unemployed in the United Kingdom. A number of significant welfare reforms driven by the aim of deficit reduction since 2010 led to increasing labour market flexibility and less income protection despite growing problems of precariousness. Many training programmes have been redefined either as a work test or turned into an opportunity for employers to undercut existing employment protection legislation and the minimum wage. Rather than being a turning point, the crisis led to a continuation of policies that further retrenched social investment-type policies that were already weak to begin with.
Czechia: political experimentation or incremental reforms?
Authors: Sirovátka Tomáš
Published: September 2018

This chapter assesses substantive and governance-related policy changes in labour market policies and regulation in Czechia during 2008-2014. It aims to explain the changes coming from new institutionalism and discursive institutionalism perspective, this is shedding light on the aims of actors interested and their discourses. In Czechia, labour market and related reforms have been rapid, incomplete and strongly associated with political developments. The main thrust of reforms encompassed cuts in public expenditure, limited access to benefits and other measures, increased conditionality and activation and divergence between policies aimed at insiders and at outsiders. The factors behind were a lack of path dependency from the past in employment policies; crisis as a critical juncture; and finally, a discursive shift aimed at blaming the unemployed, ‘outsiders’ in particular. This discursive change and consequent labour market policy change were intended to legitimize the political project of far-reaching welfare state reform.
Slovenian labour market policies under austerity: narrowing the gap between the well- and the less well‑protected in the labour market?
Authors: Ignjatović Miroljub , Hrast Maša Filipovič
Published: September 2018

The economic crisis stimulated several reforms of the Slovenian labour market. In this chapter we present the major labour market policy changes, with emphasis on the period after 2010. These changes are also presented in relation to the retrenchment/expansion of policies, the adoption of activation and flexicurity, and their consequences for the living standards of the most vulnerable groups.
The objective of labour market changes seems to be to increase flexibility and to implement activation (and social investment) more fully, as well as to improve the position of the most vulnerable groups on the labour market.
Despite that, retrenchment has also been evident. The changes in labour regulations in 2014 reduced the employment protection legislation index for regular contracts, and the cuts in unemployment benefits, along with the changes in the social security system, have affected the unemployed, who remain among the groups most at risk of poverty.
Conclusions
Authors: Theodoropoulou Sotiria
Published: September 2018

This chapter draws together the empirical material of the preceding chapters and some additional quantitative evidence on labour market policies and reforms to answer the questions of the book: has labour market policy retrenchment or expansion taken place and if so, in what form? Has there has been a shift in the logic of activation policies? How have retrenchment and expansion of protection been distributed across the well-protected and the less well-protected labour market populations? Looking at the big European picture, do we see a convergence or a divergence in labour market and unemployment policy trends and outputs? Do the patterns of change vary across member states and, if so, how? The chapter also explores the evolution of labour market insecurity and examines whether there seems to be convergence or divergence in that respect. Finally, the chapter also discusses any emerging questions for future research.
Wholistic well-being and happiness: psychosocial-spiritual perspectives
Authors: Parnham Andrew
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the psychosocial-spiritual dimensions of wholistic well-being and happiness. Current and previous UK governments have made efforts to address the issues of happiness and well-being, stimulated by economic and political interests supported by the ‘new science of happiness’. One initiative is the Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the Nudge Unit, established by the cabinet with a view to understanding and influencing people's behaviour. The chapter first explains what well-being is before discussing the concept of wholistic living. ‘Wholistic life’ encompasses and integrates the physical, mental, emotional, relational, societal and spiritual. In this regard, Aaron Antonovsky's term ‘salutogenesis’ is relevant. According to Antonovsky, three beliefs are necessary for a ‘sense of coherence’ that produces resilience under stress: comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness. The chapter goes on to explore the spiritual and faith dimensions of wholistic well-being and happiness and concludes with an assessment of the ‘Happiness Course’.
Nutrition in marginalised groups
Authors: Fallaize Rosalind , Lovegrove Julie
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines key nutritional issues and contemporary advances in human nutrition in marginalised groups. Evidence suggests that the dietary choices of communities on low income, including the homeless and families residing in temporary accommodation, are compromised. Homelessness in particular is associated with increased physical and mental health needs. The chapter reviews the evidence for the nutritional requirements, dietary intake and associated health and lifestyle factors in homeless individuals. It considers the unique challenges faced by single homeless adults and homeless families (residing in temporary or bed-and-breakfast accommodation), along with possible interventions to overcome these. It also discusses the potential benefit and community responses to dietary intervention, food banks and voucher systems within the context of complex nutritional needs, food insecurity and marginalised housing scenarios. UK policies and guidelines, including the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and specialist groups, are analysed as well.
Alcohol-related harm and health inequalities
Authors: Smith Katherine , Foster Jon , Brown Katherine
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the relationship between alcohol use and health inequalities. It first reviews the evidence and theories concerning health inequalities in morbidity and mortality as well as evidence and theories that specifically relate to the role of alcohol within these broader inequalities. The available evidence suggests that alcohol-related harms follow the expected social gradient; greater harms are suffered by more disadvantaged groups, at least for men and for younger women. However, some statistics indicate that people living in deprived communities consume less alcohol than more advantaged communities. The chapter analyses potential explanations for this apparent tension, often referred to as the alcohol harm paradox, along with evidence concerning the impact of alcohol-related interventions, such as minimum unit pricing (MUP), Reducing the Strength (RTS) schemes and welfare spending, on inequalities. It concludes with a range of relevant research and policy recommendations.
Health and well-being in the digital society
Authors: Critchlow Nathan
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the negative effects of increased use of technology on health and well-being using two case studies that illustrate the influence of alcohol use on young people. It first provides an overview of the digital society and Internet use before discussing the ways in which growing engagement with technology has affected sedentary behaviour and how it can also influence mental health. It then considers how the content created by other Internet users may encourage or reinforce health risk behaviours and how digital marketing can affect behaviour. The two case studies show that extensive Internet use, particularly among the youth, emphasises the importance of identifying and addressing determinants of health and well-being in a digital society, and that it is increasing sedentary behaviour that leads to a range of adverse physical and mental outcomes.
Support for people with learning disabilities: promoting an inclusive community
Authors: McIntosh Barbara
Published: September 2018

This chapter considers inclusive communities as a form of support for people with learning disabilities (LDs). There are one-and-a-half million people with LDs in the UK. Many of these people believe that a gap exists between UK policy and reality, made worse by recent cuts in public spending. Nevertheless, there has been progress in this area. The chapter first explains what a learning disability is and how it presents before providing a brief historical background on UK government policies aimed at protecting and promoting the rights of people with LDs. It then discusses some of the major challenges involved in providing care and support for people with LDs, focusing on issues relating to health inequalities, employment, mental health, improving decision-making by people with LDs, housing, and financial constraint. The chapter concludes with an assessment of future prospects for services for people with LDs.
Social enterprise and the well-being of young people not in education, employment or training
Authors: Coles Steve
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines how social enterprises can improve the well-being of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). NEET or NEETs refer to young people aged 16–24 who are not in education, employment or training. There are two subcategories of NEETs: unemployed young people (those who are actively seeking work) and economically inactive young people (those who have not actively sought work recently and/or are unable to start work imminently). The chapter first explains what we mean by ‘NEET’, ‘well-being’ and ‘social enterprise’ before providing an overview of the prevalence and make-up of the NEET population. It then considers the risk factors of becoming NEET and the consequences of NEET status, along with the social impact of social enterprises. It also uses the case of the Cambridgeshire County Council in Scotland to show how budget cuts adversely affect NEETs and concludes by emphasising the importance of entrepreneurship for NEETs.
Health and homelessness
Authors: Hetherington Katy , Hamlet Neil
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the opportunities to improve the health of homeless people and the challenge for the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, working with its partners, to play a full role in the prevention of homelessness. It first considers why homelessness is a public health and health equity issue before discussing the Scottish government's emphasis on the prevention of homelessness through housing. It then explains how public services, through a better understanding of the diverse causes of homelessness and routes into and out of homelessness, can lead a collaborative approach to creating the right conditions for people to flourish. This can be summed up by the ‘5Rs’: Rafters, Relationships, Resources, Restoration and Resilience in the prevention and mitigation of homelessness.
Brain injury and social exclusion
Authors: Oddy Michael , Ramos Sara da Silva , Fortescue Deborah
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines the link between brain injury and social exclusion. Evidence suggests that people belonging to socially peripheral and disadvantaged groups are more likely to have suffered an acquired brain injury (ABI), particularly a traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, it is not clear whether this association is due to common risk factors for social exclusion and for brain injury, or whether each increases the risk of the other. The chapter first considers screening for brain injury, with particular emphasis on the Brain Injury Screening Index (BISI), before discussing a number of potential risk factors for brain injury such as homelessness and offending. It then describes a low-cost, low-intensity intervention known as the Linkworker system developed by The Disabilities Trust Foundation (TDTF) and concludes that self-reports of brain injury are an important source of evidence that TBI is prevalent in socially marginalised groups such as offenders and homeless people.
Health and well-being of refugees and migrants within a politically contested environment
Authors: Munro Gayle
Published: September 2018

This chapter examines how living in a politically contested environment affects the health and well-being of refugees and migrants, with particular emphasis on three main and interconnected factors: control of access to health care, individual response to pre-migration factors, and the effects of a general political ‘shift’ (Brexit). It first provides an overview of the sociopolitical contexts of health and migration before discussing the contexts of support for refugees and migrants. It then describes the segregation of services for trafficked people, the politicisation of health care in terms of accessing services and the gatekeeping of treatment based on immigration status in the UK, and the correlation between health and the experience of (forced) migration. It also analyses the public/political discourses regarding the health and well-being of migrants and refugees and concludes by assessing the potentially far-reaching implications of Brexit for the health of migrants in the UK.
Introduction
Authors: Edmiston Daniel
Published: September 2018

This introductory chapter begins by briefly outlining the regressive and exclusionary effects of recent political and policy developments in the UK. The implications of this are considered by pointing to the diverse and multi-dimensional inequalities emerging from welfare state retrenchment, or rather, recalibration. The chapter specifies the key themes, focus and remit of the book. This situates the book’s analysis and findings within existing academic, political and policy debates regarding; poverty and inequality; the changing relationship between social citizenship and inequality; and the current functions and limits of welfare and redistribution. In particular, the chapter outlines the relative merits of examining poverty alongside affluence in times of welfare austerity. Through a schematic consideration of the existing theoretical and empirical literature, the case is made for an explanatory account of the relationship between social citizenship, inequality and welfare. This account attends to the political agency of unequal citizens and the deliberative character of welfare politics. Details are then provided about the research design and methodological approach of the study upon which this book is based. Finally, the chapter closes by providing an overview of the structure and organisation of the book.
Heterodox citizens? Conceptions of social rights and responsibilities
Authors: Edmiston Daniel
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores the extent to which the rich and the poor deviate or conform to the dominant ideals of citizenship. To do so, the chapter starts by outlining the key welfare discourses and moral repertoires that individuals draw upon to validate their understanding and enactment of citizenship rights and responsibilities. The evidence presented suggests that affluent citizens tend to adopt a contractarian understanding of the relationship between citizenship rights and responsibilities. Overall, lived experiences of deprivation appear to cultivate a heterodox conception of social citizenship that is enacted through private and public strategies to either challenge, subvert or overcome the prevailing paradigm of welfare austerity, including its distributional effects. Across both socio-economic groups, these differences appear to give rise to unique strategies of resistance, endorsement and resignation to existing citizenship structures. The chapter concludes by exploring the differing character of citizen engagement exhibited by those experiencing affluence and deprivation and what implications this has for the future direction and character of welfare politics.
Identity, difference and citizenship: a fraying tapestry?
Authors: Edmiston Daniel
Published: September 2018

Liberal citizenship is often critiqued for its failure to recognize and accommodate heterogeneous identities and social differences. Amidst rising structural inequality and an increasingly bifurcated system of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ citizenship, this chapter illustrates how the tensions arising between citizenship status and identity politics are aggravated by the asymmetrical effects of welfare austerity. The chapter starts by exploring how gender, ethnicity and race differentially structure the lived experiences of ‘poor’ and ‘rich’ citizens. By drawing on a number of examples from qualitative fieldwork, I explore how gender affects experiences of single parenthood and the relations between racial inequality and residential segregation. Within the context of welfare austerity, the warp of citizenship and the weft of contemporary identity politics have begun to unravel with those failing to fulfil the ideals of neoliberal citizenship increasingly alienated from the equality of status notionally guaranteed through collective membership. As a result, those experiencing socio-material marginality lack the discursive resources and means of collective identification to engage in sustained political struggle for their identity, rights and recognition. This significantly affects the political subjectivity of marginalised citizens and their engagement with citizenship structures in a way that stifles the progressivity of welfare politics.
Introduction
Authors: Rivas Althea-Maria , Browne Brendan Ciarán
Published: September 2018

This introductory chapter written by the editors of the volume sets the tone for the book. It identifies the need for the volume, and then lays out the main objectives of the book and the key themes that run throughout the contributions. After a brief overview of the chapters it ends by highlighting the implications of the contributions and some ideas for ways forward.
Conducting unleashing interviews where control means life or death
Authors: Løvgren Rose
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses ethical concerns about empathetic engagement in interviews about violence. It discusses cases from fieldwork in Rwanda where emotional investment in the field can be experienced as deeply intrusive, and explores the ethical and political meaning of the author’s own doubts and insecurities with regards to these encounters. The chapter argues that interviewees living in violent settings may at times subdue their sense of self as a survival tactic. When the research interview works to affirm the interviewee’s sense of self, it is often experienced as a threat. The chapter discusses a case where insecurity in the aftermath of a research encounter took part in structuring the author’s gendered and sexed positionality in the field. The cases discussed are used to illustrate that empathetic engagement in violent research settings can cause interviewees experience of harm through loss of control in a setting where control means life or death.
The play I could not publish
Authors: Borisenko Laurel
Published: September 2018

This vignette begins with a scene from a reader’s theatre play, written by the author about her research experience. The author’s creative reflection through her own storytelling provides a poignant description of the tensions and complex questions that arise from conducting research that can put both researcher and respondents in a place of insecurity and even violence. The play and following reflection poses questions about vicarious traumatization, resilience, whose voices are heard or suppressed, and what level of insecurity is acceptable to community participants and to researchers.
Intervention, autonomy and power in polarised societies
Authors: Jentzsch Corinna
Published: September 2018

The chapter builds on fieldwork conducted in rural Mozambique on community mobilisation against insurgent violence during the country’s civil war (1976-1992) to reflect upon some of the unintended consequences of fieldwork in polarised societies. It focuses on the ways in which the autonomy of both the researcher and the researched may be affected during the research process. In analysing the simultaneous empowerment and disempowerment of research participants, the chapter discusses the challenges raised around issues of power and neutrality during fieldwork and suggests that conflict research needs to be understood as a form of intervention in local affairs.
Formidable fieldwork: Experiences of a lesbian researcher in post-conflict Northern Ireland
Authors: McEvoy Sandra M.
Published: September 2018

The chapter examines the experiences of a lesbian researcher from the United States conducting fieldwork in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It outlines the author’s fears that her sexuality would hamper her ability to access Protestant paramilitary networks and explores her concerns that her familial affiliation to such communities in Northern Ireland might compromise scholarly analysis. Drawing on data from interviews conducted by the author with Protestant women paramilitaries, the chapter provides a first-hand account of the often disordered and untidy nature of fieldwork in conflict-affected environments. In light of these challenges, the chapter asserts that feminist research methodology offers promising tools and frameworks that can assist researchers in preparing to enter the field. Lastly, the chapter solidifies the critical importance of researchers acknowledging how their own identities impact the process of meaning making.
Thinking about race and gender in conflict research
Authors: Rivas Althea-Maria
Published: September 2018

This vignette explore the ways in which race and gender can influence the research process, the experience of the researcher, and the perceptions of the research participants and communities through short narratives on fieldwork conducted in Afghanistan and Burundi. It ends with a few reflections on the need for more discussion within academic circles about intersectionality and research praxis.
Bodies of cyberwar: Violence and knowledge beyond corporeality
Authors: Cristiano Fabio
Published: September 2018

This chapter explores how violence unfolds in the context of cyberwar. It does so through a theoretical analysis of understanding the body that transcends corporeality. It reflects on the implications this entails for the production of knowledge on this phenomenon. This chapter suggests rethinking cyberwar in view of violence as an experience that discloses through the interplay between embodied proximity and distance, rather than corporeality. Drawing on the author’s research experience on Palestinian cyberwar, an understanding of violence is reconciled with its implications for the study of war in cyberspace, at often times considered as a disembodied, and thus non-violent, warscape.
Fields of insecurity: Responding to flows of information
Authors: Goede Meike de , Ligtvoet Inge
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on the impact of flows of information through information and communication technologies (ICTs) on the decision-making processes for researchers working in instable, volatile regions. Drawing on the authors’ experiences in Nigeria and Congo-Brazzaville, the paper argues that while ICTs have become important tools for research, they also create new dilemmas for the researcher. These dilemmas emerge from the interface between us as researchers, and constant flows of information about insecurity in our fields that reach us via social media. Paradoxically, in an information rich world, a lack of information can also create such dilemmas. Flows of information – or the lack thereof – are not only data, but also affect us on an emotional level. As such new subjective fields of insecurity emerge for the researcher that produce emotional responses such as anger or disorientation, and that in turn inform decision-making processes, such as an inclination for deeper engagement, or to disengage.
Visual ethnographic encounters and silence in post-conflict Banda Aceh
Authors: Jauhola Marjaana
Published: September 2018

This vignette provides reflection of visual ethnographic and life-historical research in the city of Banda Aceh in Indonesia. It focuses on gendered everyday of (post)conflict urban life and an ethnographic encounter with an elderly ex-combatant and explores ways in which silence marks negotiated limits to public disclosure of thirty years of experience as a husband, father, combatant, and follower of Sufism. It explores how the research encounter can both allow and disallow narration of one’s experiences and similarly. It also reflects upon the choices and ethnographer must make given the complexities of the post-conflict situation where there are clear limits to the sayable, recordable, and going public with research results. Instead of purely producing researcher’s representation of the “uncivilized other”, the vignette suggests that ethnography co-creates reality and its limits.
The limits of a part-time political ethnographer
Authors: Heathershaw John
Published: September 2018

In this ethnographic vignette the researcher reflects upon his experiences exploring ‘new settlement’ communities on the margins of Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. It centres on two moments of self-organization in one settlement, which took place without the knowledge or involvement of the leadership, and which were interpreted by the fieldworker as examples of the role of uncertainty, self-organization and nonviolence in successful protest. Consideration of the period of research enables self-reflections on the risks and limits of the fieldwork, and the privileges and partialities of the part-time political ethnographer himself.
What is social work research?
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter outlines what seems feasible by way of describing the nature of social work and its linked research. If scholars are to have a clear sense of what ‘research’ means, both in general and in their own field, they need to think of what ‘science’ means. This will include a brief consideration of the relationship between ‘science’ and ‘art’. Following from that, the chapter asks the curious question — curious because it seems strange but also because it encourages curiosity — of whether successful, interesting, or worthwhile research depends at all on serendipity.
Why do research in social work?
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter distinguishes different ways scholars can understand the purpose of social work research, giving examples from the literature. Having recognised a range of appropriate purposes for doing research, it considers the consequence of this for how scholars deal with the tensions between these purposes. From there, the chapter considers how the presence of multiple purposes, sometimes in tension with one another, raises the question of how the purposes of social work research are, or should be, taken forward by collaborative, cooperative work. While collaboration may seem an obvious virtue, its achievement is not straightforward. One of the difficulties stems from how best to understand the relationship between social work in the academy and social work in the outside world.
Doing research application
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter looks at several ways in which social work can be understood as being concerned with applying what people know — the application of methods and information for the solving of problems in the lives of those with whom social work practitioners work from day to day. It aims to show that the question of ‘application’ is more difficult than scholars often realise. The chapter delves into recent discussions of the meaning and importance of the ‘impact’ of research, taking as a social work example the question of doing ‘practitioner research’. The emphasis of the discussion is about what scholars know about the experience of doing practitioner research.
Mapping social work research
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter provides an overview about the actual research that takes place in social work. It suggests that social work research should be distinguished in terms of the primary substantive focus of the research and the primary problem focus. The chapter illustrates this through research by university-based researchers, service-user researchers, and practitioner researchers, while considering differences associated with the gender of social work researchers. It also shows how the process of ‘mapping’ inevitably requires some degree of simplification and reductionism. The success with which the intent of the mapping is accomplished rests in the extent to which the user — in cartographic terms, the percipient — understands, and is able to assess and engage with its purposes.
Social work research over time
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter talks about the influence of scholars' general worldview on how they see social work. Turning its gaze to the past, the chapter briefly demonstrates how the ways scholars write and speak about research have changed, giving significant space to the role of experimentation in social work. The chapter examines the idea of the experimenting society, especially through the work of Ada Sheffield; at the success story of evidence based practice; and at a forgotten strand of experimental sociology. It then moves to consider the emergence of innovations in social work, taking task-centred social work as a main example. The ground covered in this chapter distinctively exemplifies the point regarding the synthesis of scepticism and practicality.
Doing good social work research
Authors: Shaw Ian
Published: September 2018

This chapter talks about what people may learn from social work controversies, focusing on three general topics: the essential limits of science in social work, the misuses of science, and the principles and practices that help foster good social work research. In the process of evaluating if a particular example of social work research is good or not, one is likely to assume the question is about whether intelligent decisions were made about the study design, the methodology, the analysis and interpretation of the data, and so on. The direct research experience the majority of social workers have of carrying out research may be related to small projects linked to time on qualifying programmes, but it is precisely these criteria by which their work will be assessed.
Introduction
Authors: Spiers Shaun
Published: September 2018

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). CPRE's 43 country branches and 100-odd district groups aim to direct development to places where it will harm the countryside least and benefit it most. This was also the aim of the men and women who founded CPRE. They were remarkably open to the idea of change in the countryside provided that it was properly planned and provided that sophisticated and high-minded people like them helped guide it. As well as opposing inappropriate development, conservationists should propose how to do developments better and where they should go. The aim should be both less damage to the countryside and more new houses. But to make this possible, policymakers must recognise that the current system needs radical change, both to improve the affordability of housing and to make it possible for groups like CPRE to engage more constructively.
How to think about housing and planning
Authors: Spiers Shaun
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses how politicians have been deceived by faith-based, ideologically predetermined anti-planning arguments from free-market think tanks such as Policy Exchange. While ministers were fixating on the planning system as a barrier to house building, they neglected to do the obvious thing: build houses. In time, the ‘war on planning’, a steady stream of reports supported by seminars, newspaper articles, and private lunches and dinners, began to have an impact. Planning came to be widely blamed for the country's failure to build enough homes and, more generally, for holding back economic development. The chapter then looks at four related issues that help explain why a new approach is needed: the rise and fall of council housing; the economic model of the big developers; the rise and fall of the ‘property-owning democracy’; and land values.
Why it matters where we build: environmental constraints
Authors: Spiers Shaun
Published: September 2018

This chapter addresses those who doubt the value of landscapes or the importance of the Green Belt. The Green Belt is the best-known and most popular planning policy, but it is often misunderstood. To give confidence that it is worthwhile improving the Green Belt, people must believe in its permanence. If everyone assumes that it is only a matter of time until development consent is given, no one will invest in its enhancement. It would also be easier to debate the role of the Green Belt if Green Belt policy was respected. Currently, the Green Belt is more respected in politicians' speeches than in reality: when it comes to building in it, ministers look the other way.
Solutions
Authors: Spiers Shaun
Published: September 2018

This chapter presents theoretical solutions and new policy proposals for the housing crisis. Local authorities should be allowed to borrow to build and the government should increase its funding for housing associations. Rural areas, in particular, need social housing that is affordable in perpetuity. Stable or gently falling house prices should also be an aim of policy. The government should consult on a range of potential changes to taxation. Moreover, local authorities in theory have the power to turn down poor-quality developments; the government and the Planning Inspectorate should encourage them to use it. Other solutions include planning for greenfield development, strategic planning, and new civic house building.
Bridging the hierarchical and collaborative divide: the role of network managers in scaling up a network approach to water governance in California
Authors: Conrad Esther
Published: September 2018

Network governance represents an important approach to managing complex environmental challenges because of its capacity to support learning. However, multi-scalar problems often require networks to interface with hierarchical modes of governance. This paper examines how network managers can help mediate the potentially constraining influence of external demands on a network’s capacity for learning. It finds that a trusted lead agency can help bridge the hierarchical and collaborative divide by brokering across regional and state-level interests, developing processes that transform external requirements into learning opportunities, and supporting the development of informal dynamics in addition to formal rule compliance.
When collaborative governance scales up: lessons from global public health about compound collaboration
Authors: Ansell Chris
Published: September 2018

Global diseases require collaboration at multiple scales – from local to global. This article examines the experience of three international global public health partnerships – UNAIDS, the Stop TB Partnership and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. These partnerships must be understood as compound collaborations. Such collaboration can often exhibit a marked tension between loose and tight coupling. Strategically designed to be loose or flexible in order to build initial support, loose institutional arrangements can also render these partnerships ineffective. Focal institutions, however, can help to align and facilitate the contributions of different partners operating on different scales.
The ‘Milky Way’ of intermediary organisations: a transnational field of university governance
Authors: Sahlin Kerstin , Wijkström Filip , Dellmuth Lisa , Einarsson Torbjörn , Oberg Achim
Published: September 2018

This chapter focuses on transnational intermediary organizations in higher education and research. We conceive of intermediaries as organizations that are actively involved in transnational university governance without having formal access to or control over policy or governmental funding. Such intermediary organizations have in previous research been shown to play central roles in the development and circulation of new themes and ideas for how to manage universities and measure university performance. Intermediaries link different types of actors and act as translators of global themes. In this respect, they are decisive in policy formulation.
Scaling up networks for starving artists
Authors: Farr-Wharton Ben , Keast Robyn
Published: September 2018

Creative industries development strategies have largely adopted a regionally embedded cluster platform to enhance the economic contribution of the sector. Such an isolated approach has done little to curb significant labour precarity and exploitation within the sector. Correspondingly, creative workers have sought to up-scale their networks, from local to global, to enhance their labour outcomes. This paper analyses the impact creative workers’ up-scaled network arrangements identifies significant policy implications concerning the support of up-scaled arrangements for economic segments that are vulnerable to labour precarity, such as the creative industries.
Institutional embeddedness and the scaling-up of collaboration and social innovation: the case of a Hong Kong-based international NGO
Authors: Lee Eliza WY , Restrepo Juan Manuel
Published: September 2018

This chapter utilises the case of an international NGO (INGO) in Hong Kong to explore how institutional embeddedness may facilitate the scaling-up of collaboration and social innovation. Adapting Hess’s (2004) framework, we contend that the scaling-up of collaboration among organisations is affected by the societal, network and territorial embeddedness of the organisational actors. These three forms of embeddedness dynamically affect each other through the agency of the actors. The concept of embeddedness also usefully illustrates how networks and collaboration can scale up beyond the local level, thus providing the conditions for the scaling-up of social innovation.
Outcome-based commissioning: theoretical underpinnings
Authors: Albertson Kevin , Fox Chris , O’leary Chris , Painter Gary , Bailey Kimberly , Labarbera Jessica
Published: September 2018

This chapter discusses some key theoretical issues that are raised by outcomes-based commissioning. It begins by outlining three potential theoretical drivers of outcomes-based commissioning. First, Payment by Results (PbR)/Pay for Success (PFS) and Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) can be viewed as the logical next step in the New Public Management (NPM) reforms aimed at improving public sector efficiency. Second, they can be explained as an attempt by policy makers to deal with complexity in the social world. Third, they can be interpreted as a means by which policy makers seek to facilitate and develop new and existing philanthropic activity and social enterprise. The chapter goes on to consider the underlying theories and objectives of outcomes-based commissioning as well as how practice and theory may differ, focusing on issues relating to perverse incentives, conflicting policy objectives, risk management, and contracting. Finally, it examines questions of delivery and outcomes.