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The Covid-19 pandemic closed schools, but this hiatus provides an opportunity to rethink the fundamental principles of our education system. This book examines how, before the pandemic, the education system assumed that ability is measurable and innate, and how this myth of meritocracy reinforced educational inequalities. Since the Covid crisis began, educational inequality has become a central issue. Inspired by a project on grouping practices based on ‘ability’, the book analyses how the recent educational developments of datafication and neuroscience have reinvigorated ideas about how we classify and label children, with unequal effects. It sets out a post-pandemic hope that we can rethink the idea of innate and measurable intelligence, and thus disrupt the inequalities that result from this idea.

International children’s rights law has established standards for the treatment of children in detention that are widely accepted. Yet, challenges in their implementation continue to persist around the world. Ireland has been undergoing significant reform in this area, in line with international standards, adopting a child-centred and rights-based model of detention for all children who come into conflict with the law. Drawing on theory and practice, this book analyses Ireland’s experience of translating children’s rights into the practice of detention, providing a model for international reform. The book documents and analyses the changes to Irish law and policy and explains the steps taken and challenges faced in their implementation. Particular focus is placed on the development of Ireland’s national detention facility – Oberstown Children Detention Campus – and the journey it has taken towards a children’s rights approach to detention. The book presents an original model for advancing children’s rights in detention – encompassing children’s rights to Provision; Protection; Participation; Preparation and Partnership. It explores child detention from the international perspective, traces the development of the Irish youth justice and detention systems, tracks the process of change in developing a specialist model of child-centred detention, documents the learning of implementing children’s rights in practice and assessing the international and national influences on change. It considers that the reform of child detention is a gradual and collaborative process requiring a series of interconnected steps and measures. The book presents the learning from a challenging change process which is designed to inform and influence the international application of a rights-based model of child detention.

This book contains a selection of articles and papers by Andrew Gamble on political economy and British politics which have appeared over the last forty years. The essays attempt to understand the shifting agendas, issues, outcomes and debates in British politics through an analysis of the political economy of the British state, exploring the historical, institutional, and ideological contexts which have shaped it. The book has four main themes – political economy, Europe and America, Thatcherism, and the British constitution. It provides a frame for thinking about how the increasing Europeanisation of Britain’s laws, institutions, policy-making processes and its regulatory regime over the four decades of membership intersected with other domestic issues and debates, including the response to the relative decline and poor performance of the economy, the character of Britain’s hybrid Anglo-liberal model of capitalism, the reshaping of the post-war Keynesian welfare state, the rise and fall of Thatcherism, the transformation of both the Conservative and Labour parties, the relationship between Britain and the United States, the new regulatory state, and the changing constitutional order. The book includes a biographical introduction, notes on the essays and an epilogue which reflects on what the essays got wrong and what they got right.

Developing a trilayer analysis of global, national and individual perspectives, this book examines ageing and the health and social care crisis. It begins with an examination of how broad structural and discursive trends, such as neoliberalism and globalisation, have influenced the financing and provision of health and social care for older people in Western countries including Germany, Sweden and the UK. It then goes onto discuss the impact that privatisation, ‘choice’ and competition has had on service provision, including how declining social protections have impacted upon employment practices. Three UK case studies (active ageing, pre-emergency, and end of life care) provide insight into individual’s (both older people and health care workers) experiences of navigating the risky, fragmented and complex health and social care system. Then the UK’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic is compared with Sweden and Germany’s, and the UK government’s intended solutions to the health and social care crisis is discussed. Finally, the book ends by showcasing examples of innovative care solutions that have been trialled in the UK, and what broader cultural and political changes are necessary to provide a more sustainable and dignified health and social care system for older people.

This edited collection profiles the sites and subjects of arts practices in different geographical contexts, including Hong Kong and mainland China, India and Sri Lanka, Finland, Chile, Brazil, Lebanon, Mexico, the USA, Germany, Canada, the UK, and Ireland. Chapters capture how collective hopes, fears, allegiances, frustrations, and memories, are sung, danced, played, etched on walls, or conveyed through puppets and theatre. Contributors to the volume thus draw attention to some of the diverse ways that groups of people collectively make sense of, re-imagine or seek to change the personal, cultural, social, economic, political, or territorial conditions of their lives, while using the arts as their means and spaces of engagement. Across its chapters, the book explores a number of broad themes and questions. How can we conceptualise the relationship between community development and arts/cultural practice? What diverse forms does this relationship take in contemporary contexts? How do communities of people engage with, utilise, make sense of and through particular artforms and media? How can we understand the aesthetic and associated meanings of such engagements? How are the power dynamics related to authorship, resources, public recognition, and expectations of impact negotiated within community-based arts processes? How do economistic and neoliberal rationalities influence arts processes and programmes in community contexts? Together, the chapters also critically interrogate if, and how, dominant rationalities are being resisted and challenged through arts practices.

Recent developments in the organisation of work and production have facilitated the decline of wage employment in many regions of the world. However, the idea of the wage continues to dominate the political imaginations of governments, researchers and activists. This edited collection revitalises debates on the future of work by challenging the idea of wage employment as the global norm. Taking theoretical inspiration from the Global South, the authors compare lived experiences of 'ordinary work' across taken-for-granted conceptual and geographical boundaries. Their contributions open up new possibilities for how work, identity and security might be woven together differently. This collection is an invaluable resource for academics, students and readers interested in alternative and emerging forms of work around the world.

This book is an account of an ethnographic study designed to learn more about how families handle everyday life in the context of dementia, with the idea that if what families were already doing was better understood, their own efforts could be better supported. By following, and learning from, family arrangements for care, the question of what makes care for a family member living with dementia possible or impossible, easier or more difficult, is foregrounded. This question is also traced beyond the specific site of home to consider the ways that health and social care services and policy orientations are organized to support and/or hinder family arrangements. The book contributes to theorizing the intersections between what often seem unrelated: the formal care policies that articulate strategies to ‘manage’ populations of older people living with a diagnosis of dementia, the care practices of those at the frontlines who are responding to what often seem like overwhelming needs, and the care practices of families working to make everyday life liveable. The methodological approach and theoretical lens taken locates this work in a growing field of care practices research that is informed by the relational logic of material semiotics. This lens shifts the reader’s gaze from the isolated caregiver-care recipient dyad, and draws attention to the practical arrangements of bodies, objects, discourses, spaces and relations that constitute everyday living for persons living with dementia and their carers.

This book considers the impact of neoliberal policies and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. With new research perspectives and empirical analyses, the book assesses challenges for care work including technologies, management and policy-making. Arguing that there is a care crisis even in the supposedly feminist Nordic ‘nirvana’, the book explores understandings of the care crisis, the serious consequences for gender equality and the hitherto neglected effects on the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states. This astute take on the Nordic welfare model provides insights into what the Nordic experience can tell us about wider international issues in care.

This collection of original essays explores the myriad expressions of austerity since the 2008 financial crisis. Case studies drawn from Canada, Australia and the European Union provide extensive comparative analysis of austerity --fiscal consolidation and structural reforms to labour and the public sector. Contributions examine such themes as privatisation, class mobilization and resistance, the crisis of liberal democracy and the rise of the far right. The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in shaping future austerity and alternatives is signalled. The controversies around the pandemic’s merciless revelation of the status of public health infrastructures after decades of austerity capitalism and the sudden visibility of the fragility of globalized neoliberal capitalism at large at the same time help to anticipate alternative scenarios: a) another return to the status quo ante crisis, b) selective escape from the prerogatives of austerity capitalism mainly in the areas of immediate concern for public health and c) more comprehensive departures from what then could finally be understood as late austerity capitalism and post-neoliberalism. What is needed is a transition to a mode of economic governance that not only opens up scope to overcome austerity and structural reform policies, but which also offers a functional framework for the indispensable social-ecological transformation of the economy. Such an objective calls for democratic economic governance to overcome the austerity regime and combine environmental and social policy objectives. Given the rapidly shifting terrain, this comprehensive handbook provides important insights into a complex and fast changing period of politics and policy.

This book explores Chinese young men’s views of manhood and how they construct and negotiate masculinities in everyday lives. Drawing from empirical research, it uses the term shenti (body-self) as a central concept to investigate the Chinese male body and explores masculinity within intimacy and kinship. The book proposes and develops a new concept of ‘elastic masculinity’ which can be stretched and forged differently depending on the context. At the same time, the men’s masculinity formation is constrained by the availability of resources, structural constraints, cultural traditions and diverse personal relationships. The book showcases how Chinese masculinities reflect the resilience of Confucian notions as well as transnational ideas of modern manhood. By doing so, it prioritizes local knowledge while setting the scene in a global framework. The book provides a unique dialogue with ‘western’ discourse on masculinity, and a timely study of how ordinary men actively engage with China’s global modernity, increasing individualisation, shifting gender values and changing local realities.

Adult social care was the first major social policy domain in England to be transferred from the state to the market. There is now a forty-year period to look back at to consider the thinking behind the strategy, the impacts on commissioners and providers of care, on the care workforce and on those who use care and support services. In this book, Bob Hudson meticulously charts these shifts. He examines the shift from philanthropic endeavour to state planning and provision, through to the marketisation of services and support. He challenges the dominant market paradigm, explores alternative models for a post-Covid future and locates the debate within the wider literature on political thinking and policy change.

This book compares the health systems of 11 countries to find out what the most successful, in terms of health outcomes, health equity and other measures, having in common. It considers patterns of social determinants, health funding and health expenditure, as well as the ‘first wave’ COVID-19 response of a wider sample 25 countries. Making use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis, it combines detailed studies of its eleven countries with robust, comparative analysis of them.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and particularities of regional organizations across Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe since 1945. The authors analyze the membership dynamics and policy scopes of 76 organizations, and compare their opportunities and challenges in regional governance. They consider organizations’ competencies in eleven different policy areas, including trade, security and environment, and trace patterns in their development. For those with interests in comparative regionalism, international relations, political science and international law, this is an essential companion to some of the world’s most significant organizations.

The premise of the book is that building and construction practices are insensitive to the needs of many people, and implicated in the widespread despoliation and degradation of ecological systems and the environment. From the construction of transport networks and major commercial and residential property in rapidly urbanising countries, to the popularisation of self-build and home improvements, we are living in a period of incessant and unprecedented building. Few places are untouched by construction and infrastructure projects that are part of an ideology of building that has little regard to what is needed and, instead, are shaped by political and economic values that regard building and construction as ‘a good thing’. Using examples from around the world, the book identifies the mentalities of construction and building that are failing people and places in many different ways, and calls for radical changes to city living and environments by building less, but better.

Over the last twenty years, a resurgence of craft food industries occurred across the U.S. Drawing on consumers’ desire for slow/local food craft breweries, traditional butchers, cheesemongers, and bakeries have been popping up in across the United States. These industries are typically found in major urban areas, staffed by middle class, college educated, often white men and sometimes women who view working in these industries as part of an alternative lifestyle existing in opposition to the mainstream emphasis of industrial consumption. Yet this emphasis on urban craft industries obscures the complex reality behind the craft food movement and the diverse communities that have supported craft and artisanal foods for centuries. Across the Southern U.S. these slow and local foods are a traditional part of daily life, and their continued practice sits at the intersection of financial sustenance, knowledge, and art. Exploring a variety of Southern artisanal foods from Virginia wineries to shrimping in coastal communities and Mississippi tamales, the producers of these foods show how traditional, not necessarily “new” these movements are within the region and the U.S. as a whole. Arguably, it is the diversity of who is central to these products and foodways that render it and the related history invisible to most U.S. consumers.

How can higher education contribute to tackling today's complex challenges? In this wide-ranging book, the author argues that, in order to inspire and equip students to generate better responses to global challenges, we need a pedagogy that develops their imagination, creativity, emotional sensibilities and practical capabilities. The author proposes a critical-creative pedagogy that incorporates design-based activities, experiential teaching, serious play and future-oriented practices. Crucially, the book demonstrates the importance of moving beyond analysing limitations to working towards alternatives for more equitable, just and sustainable futures. Presenting concrete ideas for the reimagination of higher education, this book is an essential read for both educators and students in any field studying global challenges.

Criminal Justice is popularly conceptualised as a pursuit of the truth. This book considers the extent to which this view reflects reality by exploring a number of key themes. The ‘pursuit of truth’ suggests an obtainable, single truth and the book considers the extent to which truth is a far more complex, nuanced phenomenon. Often the criminal process appears to be more about constructing a narrative and telling a convincing story. The book explores the extent to which a pursuit of truth can conflict with other values such as justice and the protection of human rights, with particular focus on illegally obtained evidence and confessions. The concluding chapters discuss the extent to which the pursuit of truth has shaped the modern trial process and assesses alternative approaches to criminal justice including restorative justice and truth commissions. The conclusion highlights some fundamental themes in the book and points to the limitations of the current criminal justice system not only in terms of establishing truth but in terms of realising significant social benefit. Three areas of focus are taken to assess the current system’s ability to find the truth: blame, juvenile justice, and the pursuit of justice. The book argues that the current criminal process adopts a person, rather than a system, approach to bad events with a focus on identifying individuals to blame rather than addressing the wider problems resulting from crime.

Focusing on the Criminalisation of Social Policy, this book explores the intersections between crime and social policy and the ways in which contemporary social policies in many different countries look more like crime control policies. From anti-immigration agendas, which criminalise vulnerable populations, to the punishment of the poor and the governance of parenting, the book engages with the ways in which certain constituencies in our societies, who need help and support, are made to feel criminal in their relationships with the state and its agents. Specific policy examples chosen from across countries show that the criminalisation of social policy has resonance internationally. These are selected from the fields of work and welfare; borders and citizenship; family policy, urban planning and offender reintegration. In illuminating intersecting, and at times very troubling policy interventions, the book wrestles with ideas as to what social policy and welfare states should look like in our societies. It incites the reader to continue this process so that we reclaim the best of the ‘social’ in social policy for the twenty-first century.

There is increasing pressure on the humanities to justify their value and on criminology to undertake interdisciplinary research. In this book, the author establishes a new interdisciplinary methodology, ‘criminological criticism’, harnessing the synergy between literary studies and critical criminology to produce genuine interventions in social reality. The author practices criminological criticism on George Miller' Mad Max: Fury Road, Prime Video's Carnival Row, and J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling, demonstrating how these popular allegories provide insights into the harms of sexism, racism, and class prejudice. The book proposes a model for collaboration between literary studies and critical criminology that is beneficial to the humanities, the social sciences, and society.

Drawing on original research from the Women, Family, Crime and Justice research network, this book sheds new light on the challenges and experiences of women and families who encounter the criminal justice system in the UK. Each chapter demonstrates how these groups are often ignored, oppressed and repeatedly victimised. The book addresses crucial issues including short-term imprisonment, trauma-specific interventions, schools supporting children affected by parental imprisonment and visibility and voice in research. Bringing together contemporary knowledge from both research and practice, the book offers valuable insights and practical recommendations for positive action and change.