Books published by Bristol University Press

Many health, education and social service initiatives aim to implement better multi-agency working between agencies and professionals. But what difference does this sort of change make to those on the receiving end? This book explores the impact of multi-agency working on disabled children and the families and professionals who support them.

This book charts Gypsies Romany and Travellers community activism, and the community and voluntary organisations which support them. It describes the communities' struggle for rights against a backdrop of intersectional discrimination across Europe.

This book brings together leading figures in democratic reform and civic engagement to show why and how better state-citizen cooperation is needed to improve democracy and achieve positive social change across a range of policy areas and in varied national contexts.

Combining social, psychological and child development aspects, this book provides a holistic view of how children develop agency.

Digital technologies should be making life easier. And to a large degree they are, transforming everyday tasks of work, consumption, communication, travel and play. But they are also accelerating and fragmenting our lives affecting our well-being and exposing us to extensive data extraction and profiling that helps determine our life chances. Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown seemed to create new opportunities for people to practice 'slow computing', but it quickly became clear that it was as difficult, if not more so, than during normal times. Is it then possible to experience the joy and benefits of computing, but to do so in a way that asserts individual and collective autonomy over our time and data? Drawing on the ideas of the 'slow movement', Slow Computing sets out numerous practical and political means to take back control and counter the more pernicious effects of living digital lives.

What is it like to travel to Europe over land and sea in order to secure a future for yourself and your family? Why are so many people willing to risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean? What are their hopes and fears? And why is Europe, one of the richest regions of the world, unable to cope? Drawing on compelling first-hand accounts from 500 people who arrived on the shores of Europe in 2015, this important new book unpacks their routes, experiences and decisions. It provides a framework for understanding the dynamics underpinning recent unprecedented levels of migration across, and loss of life in, the Mediterranean, casting new light on the 'migration crisis' and challenging politicians, policy makers and the media to rethink their understanding of why and how people move.

At a time when education and school choices are under increasing scrutiny, this topical book considers education more broadly than ever before. The author, an experienced teacher and researcher, highlights what happens when parents discover that an alternative to school education exists and is legal. This under-researched topic highlights the lack of governmental interest in alternative education and also considers the human rights issues, conflation with safeguarding, the relationship of the state to education and parental education choice. Focusing on the discovery of elective home education (EHE) in England as a case study for new and necessary arguments, the ideas discussed are also relevant internationally. The book considers the global fact of education as not just mainstream schooling, but how the dominance of schooling has affected our ability to conceive of education as diverse and different. This thought-provoking book will appeal to academic, teaching and policy-making audiences.

This much-needed volume, part of the Ageing and the Lifecourse series, combines insights from different disciplines and real-life experiences to argue that the lifecourse perspective helps us understand causes and effects of population ageing.

Understanding crime and social policy explores the interface between crime and social policy, drawing upon international theoretical developments and empirical research from within Criminology and Social Policy. Written by an experienced author, it uses analysis of policy-making under the New Labour and Conservative-Liberal Democrat governments to reflect upon the multiplicity of influences which shape the formulation and delivery of crime control policies, the changing nature of government and governance in neo-liberal societies, and the enhanced role of the welfare state in 'solving' crime 'problems'. A unique feature of the book is the inclusion of policy examples including the resettlement of prisoners, problem drug use and 'troubled' families. Understanding crime and social policy encourages readers to reflect upon the close connections, and sometimes tensions, between crime reduction and social policy agendas and is aimed at two audiences. The first is students on courses in criminology, criminal justice and social policy. The second is practitioners from across the public, private and voluntary sector.

Evaluation research findings should be a key element of the policy-making process, yet in reality they are often disregarded. This valuable book examines the development of evaluation and its impact on public policy by analysing evaluation frameworks and criteria which are available when evaluating public policies and services. It further examines the nature of evidence and its use and non-use by decision-makers and assesses the work of influential academics in the USA and UK in the context of evaluation and policy making. The book emphasises the 'real world' of decision-makers in the public sector and recognises how political demands and economic pressures can affect the decisions of those who commission evaluation research while providing recommendations for policymakers on adopting a different approach to evaluation. This is essential reading for under-graduate and post-graduate students of policy analysis and public sector management, and those who are involved in the planning and evaluation of public policies and services.

This unique book explores the interaction between the academic research community and those who use its research to inform their social policy interventions, thus raising awareness of the linkages between research and social policy in particular in the area of ethnic relations.

This inter-disciplinary study considers the past, present and future of mental health services and community care. From the origins of provision as we know it in the 1960s, it sets out the political, economic and bureaucratic factors behind recent crises and considers what the founding principles of community care tell us about the way forward.

Available open access under CC-BY-NC license. This book brings together the insights and experiences of a diverse group of government leaders, academics and third sector practitioners to set out new evidence-based strategies and solutions to end homelessness for good.

Drawing on access to prominent policy makers, Purcell examines the origins and impact of children's services reform under recent Labour and Conservative-led governments, including Labour's Every Child Matters programme and the Munro Review. He also reassesses the impact of high-profile child abuse cases, including Victoria Climbie and Baby P.

The complex and self-serving nexus behind the UK's housing crisis is laid bare in this passionate book from Bob Colenutt. Investigating the network of landowners, house-builders, financial backers and politicians, he reveals how we have been forced to accept the cycle of low supply and high prices, and proposes solutions to the housing emergency.

As the population ages, this book reveals how divides that are apparent through childhood and working life change and are added to in later life.

One of the most important manuscripts surviving from thirteenth-century England, the documents known as the Hundred Rolls for Cambridge have been incomplete until the recent discovery of an additional roll. Offering new translations and additional appendices, this invaluable volume updates the inaccurate transcription of 1818.

A Feminist Investigation of Doing Activism and Being Activist.

At a time of close scrutiny of police culture, this is a thorough and accessible study of its impacts on both practitioners and the people they serve. Tom Cockcroft's evidence-based approach contextualises our understanding of police culture in relation to both contemporary police agendas and wider social change.

Employing a generational analysis, this book offers an original approach to the study of Higher Education and documents the changing nature of the relationship between academics and students. Examining wider issues of culture and socialisation, this is a timely contribution to current debates about the University around higher education.

This illuminating book offers a fresh and contemporary guide to the field of sociology. By demonstrating the versatility of the sociological imagination, the authors reveal the ways in which thinking sociologically can help us understand the personal, social and structural changes going on in the world around us.

This unique study of social work provides a bold and challenging view of the subject from an anthropological perspective. Combining research and personal reflection, it explores cultural and symbolic representations of social work, evolving identities of social work practitioners and the ways in which they and society now view one another.

From scarcer resources to greater stresses, this book charts how policies and cuts have compromised workers' ability to undertake their professional roles. Combining research and practice experience, it assesses the extent of de-professionalisation in recent years, and how workers have responded.

This book reconsiders traditional policy-analytic concepts, and re-develops and extends new ones, in a melded approach defined as systemic institutionalism. This links policy with governance and the state and suggests how real-world issues might be substantively addressed.

Re-examining C.Wright Mills's legacy as a jumping off point, this original introduction to sociology illuminates global concepts, themes and practices that are fundamental to the discipline and rethinks and re-imagines what a critically committed, politically engaged and publicly relevant sociology should look like in the 21st century.