This report examines the formal social housing pathways set out in policy and how these differ across jurisdictions. It uses a systems thinking approach to examine how actors, levers, feedback loops, incentives and disincentives influence formal social housing pathways. The discussion presents evidence from a comprehensive policy review, as well as data from interviews and a workshop with key stakeholders, including government representatives and community housing managers.
This article presents findings collected in 2016-17 from a multi-method ethnographic study of Shirebrook, Derbyshire in the English East Midlands, examining the narratives used by the local authority (LA) and local residents that construct immigration as a social problem. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on race and migration by extending analysis beyond metropolitan localities with long histories of multi-ethnic settlement, to consider a relatively small, peripheral former colliery town. The paper demonstrates how migration is framed as a social problem by central government funding streams with consequences for localities, and the influence this has on local narratives of social change. The construction of immigration as a social problem is rooted in the constraints of austerity and longer-term processes of deindustrialisation and economic restructuring, with representations and understandings of place being constitutive of anti-immigrant sentiment. This article deepens our understanding of responses to immigration in the UK, and has broader implications for understanding the relationship between place, state polices and local narratives.
This article presents findings collected in 2016-17 from a multi-method ethnographic study of Shirebrook, Derbyshire in the English East Midlands, examining the narratives used by the local authority (LA) and local residents that construct immigration as a social problem. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on race and migration by extending analysis beyond metropolitan localities with long histories of multi-ethnic settlement, to consider a relatively small, peripheral former colliery town. The paper demonstrates how migration is framed as a social problem by central government funding streams with consequences for localities, and the influence this has on local narratives of social change. The construction of immigration as a social problem is rooted in the constraints of austerity and longer-term processes of deindustrialisation and economic restructuring, with representations and understandings of place being constitutive of anti-immigrant sentiment. This article deepens our understanding of responses to immigration in the UK, and has broader implications for understanding the relationship between place, state polices and local narratives.
Contrary to the idea that "Brexit means Brexit", the article demonstrates that, in spite of leaving the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the United Kingdom (UK) is not automatically seeking to distance itself from the EU's activities and approaches to these policy fields. Using the concepts of disengagement, continued engagement and re-engagement and drawing from historical institutionalism, the article further clarifies that present and future trajectories of UK positions in respect with the EU action are conditioned by a path dependence created by the evolution of UK opt-ins and opt-outs in this field, by the politicization of the Brexit negotiations in the context of the UK-EU relations, and by domestic UK politics. We explore this argument across three policy areas: 1) police and judicial cooperation, 2) immigration, borders and asylum and 3) cybersecurity.
Cooperative housing is experiencing a resurgence of interest worldwide. As a more democratic and affordable alternative to dominant housing provision, it is often heralded as a blueprint for 'housing commons'. Despite its long history, however, cooperative housing has rarely gone beyond a 'niche' in the housing market. Recent critical housing scholarship is beginning to address this marginalisation and understand how a more widespread development of the sector can be supported. In times and places where cooperative housing has expanded beyond a 'niche' solution, the role of the state, through policy making at national, regional and municipal scale, stands out as an important enabling factor. Drawing on ten international cases, this study presents a framework for a rigorous and politically meaningful comparative approach to public-cooperative policy mechanisms for 'housing commons'. Three key phases in the housing process (production, access and management, and maintenance of the model in time) are identified and discussed through concrete examples of policy areas and mechanisms. The article contributes to scholarship on cooperative housing policy making and 'housing commons' and argues for a shift in attention to questions of accessibility over time, and the thorny issue of permanent decommodification.
Background: Co-creation in policymaking is of increasing interest to national governments, and designers play a significant role in its introduction. Aims and objectives: We discuss instances from our fieldwork that demonstrated how UK Policy Lab used design methods to gain insight into the design-oriented methods introduced to policymakers' practices, and how these may influence conventional policy design processes. Methods: This paper reports on the learnings from a two-month participant observation at UK Policy Lab conducted in early 2019. Findings: We found that, beyond human-centred and future-oriented practices, the designers working at this unit appropriate design as a reflective practice for the context of policymaking. We discuss how the use of visual and creative methods of design are utilised by policy designers to facilitate co-creative reflective practices, and how these make a valuable contribution to policymaking practices in UK Government. Discussion and conclusions: As deliberation and decision making is influenced both by what is thought about as well as who is doing the thinking, reflective practices allow notions and assumptions to be unpicked. Moreover, when done as a group activity, reflection leads to a co-production of a deepened understanding of policy challenges.Consequently, we argue, the reflective practices introduced by Policy Lab are an essential contribution to developing a co-creation tradition in evidence-informed policymaking processes Key messages Beyond human-centred and future-oriented methods, UK Policy Lab appropriates design as a reflective practice, to contribute to policymaking by supporting deliberation and decision making. Creative and visual methods from design enable collaborative policymaking processes, as they externalise thinking and surface overlaps and differences among policymakers' perspectives. We argue that design can support the reflective practice of policymakers, highlighting explicit and implicit frames structuring decision making.
Prior to the 2010 general election the 'Big Society' was the major political narrative created and sustained by the Conservative party under David Cameron. The Big Society as a narrative was formulated to become an approach to governance that would fix Broken-Britain and repair the nation's economy and public services. This type of overarching political narrative was not new. In fact, the 'Big Society' in many ways can be viewed as both the response to New Labours 'Third Way' and a continuation of the political rebranding initiated by New Labour. The purpose of this paper is to contextualise this argument in relation to education policy and education reform under the Coalition government. The reason for focusing solely upon the field of education refers to the growing connection between education as both a social and also an economic policy priority. Secondly, the paper makes the argument that the 'Big Society' much as the 'Third Way' under New Labour, is a product of neoliberal governmentality. Finally, attention turns towards conducting a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the policy discourse around education reform under the Coalition. The data sample for this analysis consisted of fourteen political speeches made by policy-makers and politicians that speak for the Coalition on education reform. The analysis uncovers several layers of the political discourse in relation to education reform. Alongside this illustration of the construction of political discourse the paper draws attention to some of the paradoxes and contradictions present within neoliberal governmentality. The concepts of 'freedom' and 'responsibility' which are central to the 'Big Society' narrative were also key aspects of the Coalitions education reform agenda. However, the dichotomy between autonomy and accountability is presented as paradoxical when transmitted towards policy intentions and policy outcomes.
Research has shown that neoliberal economic policies may increase violence. In this study we extend this logic to create a "neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis." We test this hypothesis using two global measures of neoliberalism (the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the Index of Economic Freedom) and 2014 homicide rates for 142 nations. Regression analysis provides little support for the neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis using the global indexes. However, when examining factors that make up these indexes we discover that as size of government and tax burden become more neoliberal across nations, homicide rates increase. A post hoc exploratory analysis suggests that the association between government size, spending, taxes, and homicide is largely indirect and manifests through economic inequality and poverty. That is, neoliberal government policies appear to increase poverty and inequality which, in turn, lead to higher rates of homicide. We situate our findings within the broader literature on neoliberalism and violence and suggest directions for future research.
The British government's strategy to tackle violence against women and girls cements an approach seeking to prevent and protect. Within this context, local initiatives to tackle domestic abuse have proliferated. This article draws on an evaluation of an innovative Multi-Agency Tasking and Coordination (MATAC) approach to tackling serial perpetrators. Though the evaluation showed positive outcomes, tensions surfaced within this holistic strategy. In reflecting on the shifting economic and political context in which local agenda setting and commissioning is occurring, perceived concerns about victim safety are reported. Where initiatives have a heightened focus on perpetrators, and in the effort to responsibilise, there are tensions around safeguarding and risk. These are discussed with reference to divergent political cultures and translations of the problem of tackling domestic abuse.
During the consolidation of the welfare state in the 1940s, and its reshaping in the 2010s, the boundaries between the state, voluntary action, the family and the market were called into question. This interdisciplinary book explores the impact of these 'transformational moments' on the role, position and contribution of voluntary action to social welfare. It considers how different narratives have been constructed, articulated and contested by public, political and voluntary sector actors, making comparisons within and across the 1940s and 2010s. With a unique analysis of recent and historical material, this important book illuminates contemporary debates about voluntary action and welfare.
Purpose: With encouragement from the World Health Organisation, national suicide prevention policies have come to be regarded as an essential component of the global effort to reduce suicide. However, despite their global significance, the construction, conceptualisation and proposed provisions offered in suicide prevention policies have, to date, been under researched. Methodological approach: This article addresses this gap, critically analysing eight contemporary UK suicide prevention policy documents in use in all four nations of the United Kingdom between 2009-2019, using Bacchi and Goodwin's post-structural critical policy analysis. Findings: We argue that across our sample of suicide prevention policies, suicide is constructed as self-inflicted, deliberate and death-intentioned. Consequently, these supposedly neutral definitions of suicide have some significant and problematic effects, often individualising, pathologising, and depoliticising suicide in ways that dislocate suicides from the emotional worlds in which they occur. Accordingly, although suicide prevention policies have the potential to think beyond the boundaries of clinical practice, and consider suicide prevention more holistically, the policies in this sample take a relatively narrow focus, often reducing suicide to a single momentary act and centring death prevention at the expense of considering ways to make individual lives more liveable. Originality: UK suicide prevention policies have not been subject to critical analysis; this study represents the first attempt to examine the way in which suicide is constructed in UK suicide prevention policy documents.
The 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a marked increase in positive discussion of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in political and media circles. However, we do not know whether there has been a corresponding increase in support for the policy in the public at large, or why. Here, we present two studies carried out in April and May 2020 in UK and US samples. In study 1 (n=802), we find that people express much stronger support for a UBI policy for the times of the pandemic and its aftermath than for normal times. This is largely explained by the increased importance they attach to a system that is simple and efficient to administer, and that reduces stress and anxiety in society. In study 2 (n=400), we pit UBI against an equally-generous but targeted social transfer system. We find that, for pandemic times, support shifts towards UBI. This is partially explained by a number of perceived advantages, such as simplicity of administration and suitability for a changing world. Our results illustrate how a changing social and economic situation can bring about marked shifts in policy preferences, through changes in citizen's perceptions of what is currently important.
The onset of the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic led to a marked increase in positive discussion of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in political and media circles. However, we do not know whether there was a corresponding increase in support for the policy in the public at large, or why. Here, we present three studies carried out during 2020 in UK and US samples. In study 1 (n = 802, April 2020), people expressed much stronger support for a UBI policy for the times of the pandemic and its aftermath than for normal times. This was largely explained by the increased importance they attached, in the pandemic context, to a system that is simple and efficient to administer, and that reduces stress and anxiety in society. In study 2 (n = 400, May 2020), we pitted UBI against a conditional targeted social transfer system. Preferences for UBI were stronger for pandemic times than for normal times. This was partially explained by a number of perceived advantages, such as simplicity of administration and suitability for a changing world. In study 3 (n = 397, September 2020), we found that the headline results of studies 1 and 2 persisted six months after the onset of the pandemic, albeit with attenuated effect sizes. Our results illustrate how a changing social and economic situation can bring about markedly different policy preferences, through changes in citizens' perceptions of what is currently important.
This article examines and reviews the evidence surrounding the UK Government's Troubled Families Programme (TFP), a flagship social policy launched in 2011, following riots in towns and cities across England. The programme aims to work with over 500,000 'troubled families' by 2020, using a 'whole family' intervention. It has been beset by controversy and criticism since its inception, but it has been described by the government as 'promoting social justice'. Drawing on Nancy Fraser's work around recognition and redistribution, this article assesses the subjective aims and achievements of the TFP and locates this analysis in the wider objective conditions experienced by disadvantaged families in the UK at the current time.
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act (CTSA) mandates specified authorities to demonstrate due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism; what is better known as the ?PREVENT Duty?. As part of this duty, public sector workers are required to identify a person?s proclivity for radicalisation, and, in turn, report concerns as a safeguarding measure. Drawing upon Rose and Miller?s matrix of political analysis, this article explores the PREVENT Duty through three theoretical areas: political rationalities; problematisations; and technologies of government. Framing the CTSA as a political rationality helps conceptualise the justifications and exercise of power in and between diverse authorities. Central to this is the way problematisations of risks connect to forms of knowledge, practices and technologies which become reproblematised and (de)politicised to create (un)stable assemblages of (in)security. The utility of governmental technologies helps situate PREVENT as it permeates the actuarial practices of mundane social care environments. Related to this, I draw attention to the governance of PREVENT which, I argue, is realised discursively through language. Through these theoretical frameworks I explore PREVENT as having undergone a process of rectification; this entails the mutation of PREVENT towards safeguarding. At a broader level, this article contributes to a reconstituted understanding of PREVENT by examining the intertwining of social care structures and counter-radicalisation.
