People in carceral institutions are at increased risk for COVID-19 infection. Applying critical race theory to the problem of COVID-19 provides tools to analyze the risk of infection and evaluate the public health response within the imprisoned, jailed, and detained population. On the surface, this is due to factors related to a lack of hygiene products, an inability to physically distance, a low quality

While the focus on emotions has been associated with the rise of psychosocial welfare and has promised a gateway to accommodate individually diversified needs of citizens in policies, the article shows that the role of emotions needs to be better understood. Highlighting emotions can serve both to empower and to patronize those who experience them. Referring to emotions can thus strengthen hierarchies

Social care provision across high-income countries has been transformed over the last ten years by personalisation – a policy agenda to give people with eligible support needs more choice and control over their support. Yet the ideological underpinnings of this transformation remain highly mutable, particularly in the context of reduced welfare provision that has unfolded in many nations advancing

This article discusses the findings of a small-scale study investigating the impact of food poverty on youth work in community based open access settings. It documents the growing impact of food poverty on the role of youth work in deprived communities and explores the role youth workers play in addressing it. Firstly this ‘community response’ addresses the issue of food poverty in localities where

Between 2010–2015, the Coalition’s pursuit of a radical austerity programme saw Britain’s Jobcentre Plus experience some of the most punitive reforms and budget cuts in its history. Focusing on the outcomes of these reforms, a growing body of research has found that claiming processes became a more ‘institutionally violent’ and injurious experience for out-of-work benefit claimants. The present article

This article draws on interviews with 41 Australian separated mothers, and the government forms, information and instructions used to administer their child support and benefit entitlements, to reveal four tactics through which women’s decision-making was coordinated to produce financial benefits to the state. The state pursued its preferred outcome by foregrounding women’s obligation to seek and collect

The Prevent Strategy tasks the British education sector with preventing radicalisation and extremism. It defines extremism as opposition to fundamental British Values and requires schools to promote these values and refer students and staff believed to be vulnerable to radicalisation. Little research examining the enactment of the Prevent and British Values curriculum has included students. To fill

Using a Foucauldian perspective, we explicate the systems of power which shape the lives of women in or at risk of ‘food poverty’. We develop a theoretical framework of power for analyses of contemporary food poverty, which we apply to data from focus groups with women on low incomes in two cities in the north of England. Our data underlines the repressive power of the state as well as the broader

This commentary discusses the implications of the changes made to the social security system by the UK government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government did not veer from its programme of welfare reform. However, emergency legislation made significant concessions including: an increase in the value of the UK’s main means-tested benefit Universal Credit

Nadie es Perfecto (Nobody’s Perfect, or NEP) is a parenting skills workshop aimed at ‘sharing experiences and receiving guidance on everyday problems to strengthen child development’. This article explores this workshop in terms of its relationship with the daily lives of participants, based on one year of fieldwork focused on families with young children in a low-income neighbourhood in Santiago.

In 2012, Home Secretary Theresa May told a newspaper that she wanted to create a ‘really hostile environment’ for irregular migrants in the UK. Although the phrase has since mutated to refer to generalised state-led marginalisation of immigrants, this article argues that the hostile environment is a specific policy approach, and one with profound significance for the UK’s border practices. We trace

In recent years, a discourse of ‘ethical artificial intelligence’ has emerged and gained international traction in response to widely publicised AI failures. In Australia, the discourse around ethical AI does not accord with the reality of AI deployment in the public sector. Drawing on institutional ethnographic approaches, this paper describes the misalignments between how technology is described

Despite the fact that the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic is one of the lowest in Europe, the country suffers from stagnating long-term unemployment. At the same time, there is a large number of people who fall out of the system as a result of harsh sanctions. The article aims to examine how the activation policy is implemented from the perspective of job seekers and to identify street-level

In 2012, the ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) condition was extended to long-standing migrant families in the UK who had previously achieved rights to residence and welfare through human rights mechanisms. Through close examination of policy, political statements, and media coverage, we make the case that the NRPF extension was – and continues to be – intentionally subjugating and punitive, most

This article critically examines the Danish ‘ghetto initiatives’ of 2004, 2010, 2013 and 2018, with a particular focus on their implications for ‘social citizenship’. Its approach is twofold: firstly, it explores how each of the four major ghetto initiatives constructed ghettos and their residents as a problem for the welfare state, and what policy measures were proposed to address the problems identified

This article discusses the growing presence of police officers in British schools, under a resurgent police–school partnerships policy agenda in the ‘war on gangs’ and serious youth violence. It argues that while efforts to coordinate law enforcement and education implicate schools in general, evidence on race and policing raises concerns about the disproportionate impact of such strategies on black

There is significant research evidence which demonstrates that LGBTQI+ young people experience higher rates of homelessness than their straight and cis peers. However, estimates of the scale of their over representation in homelessness vary significantly. This partially reflects difficulties in identifying and researching LGBTQI+ homeless youth due to their invisibility within homeless services. Drawing

Failure to take climate change seriously enough has resulted in the world now facing a climate emergency, with rising global temperatures, melting polar ice caps, increasingly frequent and severe storms, floods and droughts, and rising sea levels. Despite being the first country in the world to set statutory carbon emissions reduction targets (in the Climate Change Act 2008), the UK government since

The involvement of prisoners on license in the recent London Bridge and Streatham, London attacks have triggered a series of policies aiming to restrict community release. These aim to address not only the point at which prisoners in England and Wales are released, but also the level of engagement prisoners can have with the community before release. They have been introduced with little consultation

NHS charging for ‘overseas visitors’ is recognised as deterring migrants from accessing necessary health care. Even though maternity care does not have to be paid in advance, fear of four-figure bills and Home Office sanctions against people with unpaid debts has significant adverse effects on women affected. Undocumented migrant women, without the right to work or benefits, are among the most excluded

Reform of the family leave system has been on the Finnish political agenda for a long time but has proved to be a challenging task. The challenges relate to ideological differences between the political parties and to non-decision making in tripartite working groups, where the labour market parties participate in policy formulation. The article analyses the recent attempt to reform the Finnish family

In recent years British welfare policy and immigration policy have intertwined in new ways, with widespread cuts alongside increasing conditionality, rationing, and differentiation of rights. This article explores perspectives among activists attempting to resist these developments, with a focus on those that go beyond narrow reactions and engage in systemic critiques. It draws on in-depth qualitative

Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) cash transfer programme has been widely characterised as ‘home grown’. This article challenges such accounts of the LEAP by showing how donors used their financial muscle to shape the LEAP both at the level of programme adoption and implementation. However, the extent to which donor interests and ideas influenced the programme’s design and implementation

Utilizing Foucault’s insights on neoliberalism, his notion of governmentality in relation to the State, and his insights on the processes of subjectivity (2007; 2006) the following article seeks to...

The UK funeral industry is a frequently overlooked sector within critical policy discussions of State practice and welfare provision. In this article, we propose three ‘ideal types’ for making sens...

agency, and thus possibilities to reconfigure their dynamic expression and operation (McIntosh and Wright, 2019: 455–456). Equally, the apparently idiosyncratic experiences and behaviours of welfare service users are – through this edited collection – shown to be part of a ‘shared typical’ when it comes to those at ‘the sharp end’ of behavioural requirements and how these are formed through policy

Bilson A and Martin KE (2016) ‘Referrals and Child Protection in England: One in Five Children Referred to Children’s Services and One in Nineteen Investigated before the Age of Five’, British Journal of Social Work 47(3): 793–811. Cooper V and Whyte D (2017) The Violence of Austerity. London: Pluto. Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC) (n.d.). Available at: https://dpac.uk.net/ research/ MacAlister

Presented here are the findings of a research study undertaken between 2015 and 2018 that focused on existing arrangements and mechanisms for front-line identification of the victims of forced labo...

Households have a role to play in the so-called ‘energy turn’ in Switzerland, a policy framework that calls for more efficient energy usage. Against this backdrop, this article critically analyses ...

census and other linked research databases to profile clients of unemployment programs. I particularly appreciate Grundy’s work to map the overlapping vocabularies and logics of each cycle of reform because this mapping helpfully illustrates ways in which the affirmative talk of expert problem solvers can be so difficult to negotiate in practice. In fact, I was struck when reading Grundy’s work by

This is a book review of Kelly Bogue's The divisive state of social policy. Divided into seven chapters and an appendix with participant information and demographics, the book weaves together several theoretical and empirical strands. Chapters 1 and 2 set the stage for the subsequent empirical chapters, describing the genesis of the Bedroom Tax and outlining the history of social housing in the UK

In the 40th anniversary of Critical Social Policy (CSP), this activist edition on ‘Living Activist Struggles to End Social Injustice’ foregrounds the relationship between activism and social policy. The contributions in this edition, bringing grass-root voices from the margins to the centre (hooks, 1984), expose an uneasy, disturbing and, at times, alarming relationship with social policy and welfare

not possibly have the transformative effects that Haagh claims are achievable. Even an insufficient UBI that paid token sums to everyone would absorb funds that are sorely needed for other potentially transformative measures such as developing more and better collective services and a Green New Deal. No practical trials have provided any evidence that UBI as envisaged by Haagh could have the results

and class, and the temporally cyclical nature of ‘the housing question’. She aptly constructs the book so that the reader is guided to understand that the Bedroom Tax is a process not a single government action that arrived unanticipated with the Welfare Reform Act of 2012. Bogue’s deliberate, dignified yet impassioned writing highlights how the Bedroom Tax is simply the most recent manifestation in

Using policy frameworks and author expertise to identify relevant literature, four academics and two student-activist-authors, critically review literature upon student activist responses to sexual...

In the UK, individuals with limited English-language proficiency (LEP) self-report poorer health and face challenges accessing health and social care support. Health and social care policies in Eng...

Abolishing ‘modern slavery’ has now achieved international policy consensus. The most recent UK initiative – the 2015 Modern Slavery Act (MSA) – includes amongst other aspects tougher prison senten...

The Turkish Government is under pressure to accommodate the Syrian population in its territories. Several strategies including devolution, co-production of public services and finally institutional...

The UK Immigration Act 2016 is central to the Conservative Government’s drive to create a more hostile environment for potential migrants and current ‘illegal’ migrants residing in the UK. The Righ...

In 1977, Jones (in Bryson and Mowbray, 1981: 255) described the term ‘community’ as ‘the aerosol word of the 1970s because of the hopeful way it is sprayed over deteriorating institutions.’ They ar...

This article engages with the shift towards an emphasis on ‘resilience’ in local government discourses. Using the London Borough of Newham as a case study, it will argue that contradictory definiti...

Vulnerability has been a guiding narrative to state interventions towards children and their families in New Zealand. This article shows how this progressive notion has been systematically managed to fit pre-established political and policy priorities. These processes have emphasised: (i) categorisations of risk to those who demonstrate vulnerabilities; (ii) pre-emptive, multi-agency involvement in

This article provides a critical reflection on Birmingham Black Sisters’ (BBS) experiences of fighting racism and sexism during the 1980s, having lain dormant for three decades and now attempting to regalvanise, the article explores some of the key tensions they faced and reflects on the possibilities for future activism. The article is based on both individual contributions from BBS members, who loosely

Research has shown that mental healthcare policies aimed at achieving autonomy and integration for people with mental disorders have been developing all over the world. Critics working from a gover...

This article critically engages with the voices of South Asian, Muslim women living in Rotherham to provide an emic gaze (Pike, 1967) of the intersectional lived experience of the ‘cultural others’. Everyday voices of South Asian, Muslim women activists living in the UK are marginalised based on prejudicial cultural assumptions. We demonstrate our challenge of negative discourses of the ‘passive and

Despite widespread recognition that housing is a serious social concern, policy responses have tended to be inadequate. After a brief review of the magnitude of the problem, this paper focuses on recent experience in the UK where, during a period of political volatility, housing has been the subject of significant government interventions, which in turn have provoked noteworthy reactions. However,

Beatriz Espejo has worked in Barcelona as a trans-sex-worker since the 1980s, and in 1993 she founded the CTC, one of the leading activist organisations in the Spanish trans movement during the ’00s. The CTC had a direct impact on the definition of the Spanish law on gender identity. Although it may seem like a success story, this activist articulation has been conflicted and complicated: alliances

We use the method of conversation as a tool of living activist struggles to end social injustice. We draw on Black feminism to create an intersectionality of diverse activist voices across time and space. We insist on an intersectional acuity to analyse Global alienation, subjugation and exploitation. We use examples from activist contexts such as the Trade Union and Rape Crisis movements. Our conversation

The authors of the article run Bisexual+ Community Perth, a grassroots collective that works to increase bisexual+ visibility and community connection in Western Australia. This article begins by providing an evidence-base for bisexual+ activism, much of it based on the poorer mental health outcomes of bisexual+ people and the pervasive invisibility of bisexual+ people in both LGBTIQ+ communities and

This article is the result of an intentional articulation between the authors’ activist and academic positions as feminists and anti-racists in Barcelona. Using a narrative construction, we discuss memories of the struggles for the rights of immigrant women in the city. Firstly, the memories interact with other trajectories of struggle that go beyond ‘immigrant’ identity. Secondly, the memories give

Smyth J (2017) The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and Neoliberal Ideology. London: Palgrave Macmillan. O’Sullivan M (2016) Academic Barbarism, Universities and Inequality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Readings B (1996) The University in Ruins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Neary M and Winn J (2017) ‘Beyond Public and Private: A Framework for Co-operative Higher Education’

terms, ‘late-capitalist body talk’ (e.g. nimble, lean etc.). Second, some words exemplify the ‘moral vocabulary of late capitalism’ (e.g. passion, resilience etc.). Third, certain words are redolent of – and help to constitute – the ‘aesthetics of late capitalism’ (e.g. artisanal, creativity etc.). The fourth category appears to draw on the ‘possibilities of technology’ (e.g. data, hack, etc.) (pp

This article draws on the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) to highlight the ways in which particular contexts – such as socioeconomic and symbolic structures – are neglected in forms of evaluation with an establishment orientation. The article problematises two key aspects of decontextualised evaluation: firstly, the privileging of pre-determined relations of cause and effect; and secondly, the unproblematized

The LGBT Action Plan (2018) represents a significant UK government commitment towards LGBTQI+ equalities, operating in conjunction with cumulative legislative advances. Yet there is room for critique within this Plan, as proposed actions and as celebratory rhetoric of lives ‘getting better’. Using empirical examples, this article examines how ‘progress’ for LGBTQI+ lives is discursively constructed

Vulnerable families are subject to a myriad of State interventions. In this article, we analyse how interventions of the neo-liberal State may undermine, rather than activate, the caring capabilities of vulnerable families across the life course. We define ‘vulnerable families’ as financially disadvantaged families with complex and enduring needs. Drawing on examples from Australia, England and the

Book review of: After Austerity: Welfare State Transformation in Europe After the Great Recession / edited by Peter Taylor-Gooby, Benjamin Leruth and Heejung Chung. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. 229 pages, £25.49 (paperback). ISBN: 9780198790273

The positives of Crippled – particularly how evocatively it presents the human cost of the policies it discusses – overwhelm any weak points. Ryan clearly draws upon her strengths as a journalist to put a ‘human angle’ to an otherwise abstract and complex story. In short, I believe that this book should be widely read. Students of disability, those who work with us in any capacity and those who study

The Danish state is preoccupied with its citizens’ social skills, which are seen as important for the nations’ competitiveness. Such skills regard self-presentation, communication, emotional control etc. This article relies primarily on interviews with Danish social workers who are involved either in assessing young marginalized welfare clients’ personal readiness for schooling or employment or in

Most recently, the role of grandmothers has been highlighted as significant in the lives of their grandchildren in South Africa. Studies have previously highlighted the contribution the Old Age Grant makes in contexts of poverty, orphanhood and the migrant labour system. Similarly, studies on the Child Support Grant (CSG) have illustrated its contribution to the well-being of children and families

Relative to other low and middle-income countries, South Africa provides a generous set of cash transfers (social grants) targeted at people with disabilities. This article explores the influence of disability-related grants on family practices and configurations, care arrangements and household composition in the Western Province of South Africa. The article draws on the findings of two studies: 1)