Browse

This book asks what can be learned from the problem-solving focus of crime prevention to help face the challenges of climate change in this call to arms for criminology and criminologists. Industries such as energy, food, and tourism and the systematic destruction of the environment through global capitalism are scrutinized for their contribution to global warming. Ideas of ‘state–corporate crime’ and ‘ecocide’ are introduced and explored in this concise overview of criminological writings on climate change. This sound and robust application of theoretical concepts to this ‘new’ area also includes commentary on topical issues such as the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement.

The author of this book is a pioneer in the field of sociological research. In this classic re-issue, the author interviewed 60 women to find out what it is really like to have a baby. Covering pregnancy, birth and child care, the book relies on the stories mothers tell to discuss whether and why women want to become pregnant, how they imagine motherhood to be, the experience of birth, post-natal depression, feeding and caring routines, and the challenges for the domestic division of labour and to fathers. It shows that most women are unprepared for the birth or the work of caring for a baby, but also for the joys that a baby can bring. As topical today as the day it was written, this important book was the first to examine first-time motherhood in the words of those experiencing it, and it continues to influence generations of researchers today.

This book is a sequel to Contemporary grandparenting, published in 2012 (Arber and Timonen, 2012). Both macro and micro level issues are covered, with a particular focus on gender, welfare states, economic development, and grandparental agency; this ensures that the book covers many topic areas of greatest relevance and interest. It emphasises that grandparenting takes many diverse forms and cannot be reduced to a small number of ‘types’. Grandparenting has evolved considerably, and continues to evolve, as a result of both socio-demographic and economic influences, and grandparents’ own agency. The book contains analyses of topics that have so far received relatively little attention, such as transnational grandparenting and gender differences in grandparenting practices. It is the only collection that brings together theory-driven research on grandparenting from a wide variety of cultural and welfare state contexts - including chapters on Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia - drawing broad lines of debate as well as outlining country-level analyses. The book therefore combines up-to-date empirical findings with new theorising that will be relevant to academics, researchers, students, and experts working in the realms of family and old-age policy and practice.

This book provides a qualitative account of working conditions within the contemporary service economy. As the largest employer in the modern labour market, investigating its realities demonstrates a number of problematic issues. The quest for profitability, efficiency and customer satisfaction drive a number of practices that can be interpreted from a social harm perspective. The use of zero-hours contracts, temporary work agencies, just-in-time management, lean working, and emotional labour, underpinned by targets and performance management reflect the imperatives of capital and the requirement for profitability. In relation to the employees who work in such precarious forms of employment, a number of harms appear. The ‘Victorian’ working conditions noted at individual operators such as Sports Direct are not anomalies but instead represent the normal functioning of the sector. In considering work from a social harm perspective, the book offers a unique contribution to the sociology of work and criminological or social harm studies. The social harm consideration of systemic violence is extended by an ultra-realist perspective that accounts for the symbolic violence of ideology and the problematic subjectivities willing to inflict harm on others. In its conclusions, the book asks for a consideration of the role of ideology and political economy in debates which seek to fix the harms of work.

Radio produced and broadcast behind prison walls is redefining traditional meanings of ‘public service broadcasting’ and disrupting traditional power structures within the prison system. Focusing on one of the most interesting developments in UK prisons over the past ten years, this book examines the early history of the Prison Radio Association (PRA) and the formation of the first national radio station for prisoners. Highlighting the enduring importance of social values in broadcasting, this book shows how radio can be used as a powerful force for social change. It will be of interest to those involved in media, criminal justice, and social activism.

Prison suicide is a global problem, but little is known about about investigatory processes occurring after prison suicides. This book addresses this gap, providing a case study of the investigations that follow prison suicides in England and Wales. Despite the large range of prison oversight institutions in England and Wales, prison suicides reached a record high in 2016, with the rate having doubled between 2012 and 2016. These deaths represent the sharp end of a continuum of suffering, self-harm, despair and distress within prisons, which affects prisoners, their families and prison staff. This book details and critiques the lengthy and expensive police, ombudsman and coroner investigations that follow prison suicides. Drawing on extensive document analysis, including over 100 Prison and Probation Ombudsman fatal incident investigations, and original semi-structured interviews with stakeholders undertaken between 2016-2017, this book provides a novel analysis of prison oversight. This book argues that post-suicide investigations create a significant burden for bereaved families and prison staff. The investigations are valuable, but can manufacture mystery around entirely manifest prison problems and obfuscate the role of deliberate political decisions in creating those problems.

The challenge of violence against women should be recognised as an issue for the state, citizenship, and the whole community. This book examines how responses by the state sanction violence against women and shape a woman's citizenship long after she has escaped from a violent partner. Drawing from a long-term study of women's lives in Australia, including before and after a relationship with a violent partner, it investigates the effects of intimate partner violence on aspects of everyday life including housing, employment, mental health, and social participation. The book contributes to theoretical explanations of violence against women by reframing it through the lens of sexual politics. Finally, it offers critical insights for the development of social policy and practice.

This book brings together international academics, policy makers, and practitioners to build bridges between the real world and scholarship on breastfeeding. It asks the question: How can the latest social science research into breastfeeding be used to improve support at both policy and practice level, in order to help women breastfeed and to breastfeed for longer? The book includes discussion about the social and cultural contexts of breastfeeding and looks at how policy and practice can apply this to women's experiences. This will be essential reading for academics, policy makers and practitioners in public health, midwifery, child health, sociology, women's studies, psychology, human geography, and anthropology, who want to make a real change for mothers.

Drawing on vast experience as an academic researcher and writer, the author develops a sociology of the research process itself, telling the story of how a research project is undertaken and what happens during it, to both researchers and those who are researched. The book focuses on a topic of great importance in the provision of health services — caring and social support. Setting neglect of this topic in the wider context of an ongoing crisis in gendering knowledge, this book is now reissued for a contemporary audience. It has much resonance for social science researchers and others interested in the experiences of mothers, and in the relations between social research, academic knowledge and public policy.

In this ground-breaking book, the author undertook one of the first serious sociological studies to examine women's work in the home. She interviewed 40 urban housewives and analysed their perceptions of housework, their feelings of monotony and fragmentation, the length of their working week, the importance of standards and routines, and their attitudes to different household tasks. Most women, irrespective of social class, were dissatisfied with housework — an important finding which contrasted with prevailing views. Importantly, too, the author showed how the neglect of research on domestic work was linked to the inbuilt sexism of sociology. This classic book challenged the hitherto neglect of housework as a topic worthy of study and paved the way for the sociological study of many more aspects of women's lives.

What's it really like to be a mother with a career working flexibly? Drawing on over 100 hours of interview data, this book is the first to go inside women's work and family lives in a year of working flexibly. The private labours of going part-time, job sharing, and home working are brought to life with vivid personal stories. Taking a sociological and feminist perspective, the book explores contemporary motherhood, work–life balance, emotional work in families, couples and housework, maternity transitions, interactions with employers, work design and workplace cultures, and employment policies. It concludes that there is an opportunity to make employment and family life work better together and offers unique insights from women's lived experiences on how to do it.

After the financial crisis of 2008, youth unemployment soared across Europe, leaving a generation of highly qualified young people frustrated in their search for secure, meaningful work. This extensive collection summarises the findings of a large-scale EU funded project on Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe (STYLE). Including the often overlooked and unheard voices of young people themselves, this eclectic range of chapters discuss the distinctive characteristics of the current phase of youth employment. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the causes of European youth unemployment and assesses the effectiveness of labour market policies across the region.