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The material for this article is taken from a psychoanalytically informed psychosocial pilot – Creative Practices and Processes that explores 'what makes creativity possible?' The aim of the pilot was to develop a methodology and methods that permitted an in-depth understanding of the social, psychological and material factors that facilitate creativity. The study is informed by a broadly post-Kleinian British Object Relations approach which privileges personal experience, unconscious dynamics, and the relationship between inner and outer worlds. The focus here is with the adaptation and innovative use of psychoanalytic infant observation as a psychosocial research method of 'being with' an artist in such a way as to gain a deep understanding of the unconscious dynamics, physical and material, spatial and temporal, and embodied experiences of creative processes and practice. The article considers the potential of psychoanalytic infant observation as a research method for informing us about creative practices and processes. The rich detail of the data is also explored for what it tells us about the research process and relationships. A key principle of infant observation is the importance of a 'form of knowing imbued with emotional depth' (Hollway 2012: 25) and the use of the observer's subjectivity. The article illustrates how when the researcher's subjectivity is utilised as a research tool and the researcher is open to the affective experiencing of the research process, looking and observing are not simple or straightforward research activities. Rather, we can see that they are activities that generate emotional responses, conflict, uncertainty, unease and not knowing. Using the first artist observation as an example, the research dynamics the observation are seen as involving a series of negotiations, enactments and explorations around boundaries, looking and being seen, what to observe, roles, the nature of the research and, anxiety.

Adopting a poststructural approach this article explores the intersection of sexuality and social policy, particularly the role of policies in constituting sexual norms and through these, deserving and undeserving gendered welfare subjects. It examines unmarried and lone motherhood discourses of two periods - the 1830s and the 1990s - and shows that not only do particular representations of lone motherhood persist across the centuries but also that welfare policies perform a normalizing and regulatory role in relation to sexuality. It illustrates also how policy makers dismiss the moral, economic and sexual rationalities of welfare subjects, preferring instead to impose their own set of moral values. In exploring the sexuality-social policy dynamic it demonstrates that not only is social policy 'shot through' with sexuality but also that the two are mutually constitutive. Further, the article demonstrates the shifting dynamics of the normalization process whereby that which was once abhorred is embraced, as well as the ways that sexuality is regulated through social policy without resorting to the power of law or legal method.

This article argues that there is a lack of theorizing about sexuality within social policy in what is referred to as the mainstream and more surprisingly within feminist social policy. This is particularly surprising given the presence of sexuality in recent as well as past social policies as well as in social theory. The purpose of this article is not merely to argue that a relationship between sexuality and social policy should be examined but rather to explore and outline the specific nature of the relationship and its implications for both sexuality and the discipline of social policy. Specifically, how do prevalent sexuality discourses inform and constitute social policy and what are the social relations involved in this process? Correspondingly, what role does social policy play in constituting what we know to be the 'truths' of sexuality? What exclusions and inclusions result from these dominant social relations and discourses when 'played' through social policy? That sexuality has failed to be analytically incorporated within the discipline of social policy is addressed. First, reasons for the lack of theorizing are explored. Specifically, the historical development of the discipline and the formation of an implicit consensus about what constitute the real concerns of welfare. Second, there is an examination of the ways feminist social policy has or has not engaged with sexuality. The final section posits an emergent framework for integrating sexuality into social policy analyses and critiques.

Social Policy Review is an annual selection of commissioned articles focusing on developments and debates in social policy in the UK, Europe and internationally. The Review has become recognised as a topical, accessible, well-written and affordable publication and has a substantial readership among social policy teachers, students, researchers and policy makers. Social Policy Review 13 continues the tradition of providing a different style and approach to policy issues from that found in most academic journals and books. Chapters have been purposely chosen to review a varied and interesting selection of social policy developments in Britain and internationally, and to set current policy developments in a broader context of key trends and debates