PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009

NEWSLETTER OF THE SOCIAL POLICY ASSOCIATION

sPeCial issue: Peter townsenD 1928-2009 SPA News

Editors - Social Policy and Society: The Social Policy Pete Dwyer Association (SPA) Nottingham Trent University is a professional sPa eXeCutiVe [email protected] association open for membership Sharon Wright to academics and ContaCt Details University of Stirling practitioners working [email protected] in social policy, and to others with an interest in UK and JUC SPC Representative: international social policy. The association 2009 - 2010 Jim Goddard hosts an annual conference and funds University of Bradford smaller seminar events, as well as producing [email protected] journals and other publications. In addition, Chair: Caroline Glendinning the Association’s executive committee University of York SWAP Representative: represents the interests of the membership in [email protected] Rebecca Johnson communication with other professional and University of Southampton academic bodies. The annual SPA awards Vice Chair: Nicola Yeates [email protected] are presented at the conference, including The Open University a lifetime achievement award and best [email protected] Website Manager: Steve McKay newcomer award. There is also a thriving University of Birmingham SPA postgraduate network with a dedicated Honorary Secretary: Tess Ridge [email protected] annual postgraduate conference and regular University of Bath seminars. More information is available at [email protected] ESRC: Catherine Palmer www.social-policy.com. Durham University Honorary Treasurer: Rana Jawad [email protected] University of Warwick [email protected] Conference Organisers 2010/11: [email protected] Hugh Bochel ADVERTISING IN POLICY WORLD University of Lincoln Do you need to reach social policy academics, Press and Policy World Editor: [email protected] practitioners and post-graduate students? Chris Blunkell Policy World is published three times a year [email protected] Mailbase Manager: Simon Prideaux for the 700 members of the Social Policy University of Leeds Association, and is an obvious choice to Membership Secretary: [email protected] publicise forthcoming conferences, new Karen Rowlingson publications and more. You will see that our rates, which assume the supply of artwork, CONTENTS University of Birmingham Teaching and Learning and Email: [email protected] Recruitment Convenor: are more than competitive. Alternatively, Adam Whitworth our designers will prepare artwork to your Postgraduate Representatives: University of Oxford instructions for a small fee. Rachael Dobson [email protected] University of Leeds Full page £120.00 [email protected] Simon Pemberton Half page £60.00 University of Bristol International Relations incl: overseas [email protected] Quarter page £30.00 Learned Societies: Chris Holden London School of Hygiene Policy making and research relations: For more information contact the Editor. and Tropical Medicine Alan Deacon [email protected] University of Leeds [email protected] Nicola Yeates PolicyWorld The Open University Special interest group conveners [email protected] International/Comparative Group Nicola Yeates National Relations incl: UK Learned [email protected] PolicyWorld is published three times a Societies and Festival of Science: year. Letters, opinions, suggestions and Simon Prideaux Zoe Irving contributions for future editions are EDITORIAL University of Leeds z.m.irving@sheffi eld.ac.uk welcomed. Please contact the editor for [email protected] more information. Health Policy Group: Awards Offi cer: Majella Kilkey Stephen Peckham EDITOR: University of Hull [email protected] CHRIS BLUNKELL [email protected] Telephone: 01227 772747 Environment and Welfare Group: Mobile: 07941 831341, Editors - Journal of Social Policy: Tony Fitzpatrick Email: [email protected] Tania Burchardt tony.fi [email protected], London School of economics Michael Cahill PRINT DESIGNER: [email protected] [email protected] NICK HUNT The Lavenham Press, 47 Water St., Hartley Dean Service User group Lavenham, Suffolk CO10 9RN London School of Economics Guy Daley, Rachel Harding Telephone: 01787 247 436 [email protected] Neil Steelwell Email: [email protected]

2 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com SPA News

swaP CONTENTS 18 news CHair’s introDuCtion sPa ConferenCe anD 4 sPa news 20 awarDs rePort in triBute to international/small Grants 8 Peter townsenD 22 rePort PostGraDuate news anD refereeinG for 16 ConferenCe rePort 23 aCaDemiC Journals EDITORIAL

Welcome to the Autumn 2009 issue of Policy World – and my fi rst as editor. During the short time I have been in post, I have been struck by the passion members have for academic endeavour in the area of social policy, and your insistence that it should contribute to a world that takes better care of those who cannot always take care of themselves. This shines through in the time and attention devoted to the tribute to Peter Townsend that dominates these pages, and I hope Nick (Policy World designer) and I have served that investment well.

I hope you enjoy this issue, and I look forward to meeting more of you before too long.

Chris Blunkell Editor

www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 3 SPA News

groups are a good way of developing links CHair’s introDuCtion among members with similar research Caroline GlenDinninG interests – who knows, they could eventually lead to collaborations on papers or research researCH bids. But they depend entirely on you – the members - to initiate and organise. eXCellenCe Perhaps refl ecting the demography of UK social science, we have been deeply framework saddened by the recent deaths of two leading social policy academics. Professor Peter Townsend had been a source of great Consultation inspiration to many of us, at all stages of our careers. His commitment to using rigorous research in the quest for social justice was an Hot on the heels of the last Research example we could try to emulate but never Assessment Exercise (RAE) comes news equal. We were privileged to have been of HEFCE’s next major assessment of able to give Peter a Lifetime Achievement research quality to inform the allocation Award at our 2008 Annual Conference. of research funding. The Research Much of this issue of Policy World is devoted Excellence Framework (REF) will involve to remembering Peter’s many achievements submissions in 2012 for assessment and celebrating the impact that he had on in 2013. so many of us and on social policy across Welcome to the Autumn 2009 issue of the world. Thanks to Adrian Sinfi eld and A well-attended meeting at the SPA Policy World. And welcome, too, to our Nicola Yeates for editing this tribute. Annual Conference in Edinburgh in new Policy World editor, Chris Blunkell. July heard of the developing REF plans Chris is a writer and editor with years of When Peter died, SPA wrote expressing from Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby. After experience working with government, our sadness and thanks for his work. The Chairing the 2008 RAE Social Policy and academia and other organisations that acknowledgment we received from his Administration and Social are relevant to the SPA and its members. widow Jean included the words she spoke at Work subpanel, Chris has taken over the editor’s role his funeral: Peter has been from Kate Merriam, to whom we are very a member of grateful for her creativity and hard work in “… I knew that I was the love of his life, as one of HEFCE’s relaunching Policy World a couple of years he was of mine, but I also knew that I only expert advisory ago. had half of him. I knew I had to share him. I groups developing shared him with older people who were not guidelines for the As announced at the AGM in Edinburgh in treated with dignity and respect. I shared him new REF - now July, this year the SPA Executive Committee with disabled people treated as second class published for will have several new priorities on top of the citizens. I shared him with people whose consultation (www. more routine activities of ensuring all our life chances and expectations were blighted hefce.ac.uk/pubs/ members’ services run smoothly. We will by poverty. I shared him with his students hefce/2009/09_38/). be redesigning the SPA website; looking at and colleagues, and knew that the sponge how to increase our media and wider public pudding and custard at LSE was a high point Contrary to earlier rumours that profi le, including developing closer links with of the week. And I shared him with millions major changes to the previous RAE policy-makers and others in local, regional of children all over the world, who will never methodology would be proposed, the REF and national government; and extending our know his name but owe him so much.” may in the end have more similiarities membership base. We will also continue to than differences. It will not rely primarily extend our links with social policy academics Sadly, Dennis Marsden, one of the many on citation indices - HEFCE has in other countries and generally increase the social scientists whose career was profoundly concluded that these “are not suffi ciently international profi le of the SPA. shaped by Peter, has also recently died. mature to be used formulaically as Dennis was one of Peter’s former colleagues a sole indicator or to replace expert One new development this year has been in the (then) new Department of Sociology at review”. Instead, peer review of selected the establishment of the Welfare Service the University of Essex in the 1960s and 70s. outputs will continue to form the basis Users Special Interest Group within SPA As Alan Walker wrote in the Guardian, Peter of assessment, with outputs assessed (see page 5 for a report of the Group’s and Dennis shared a great deal in those against criteria of ‘rigour, originality and fi rst meeting at the Edinburgh conference). early years at Essex, not least a commitment signifi cance’. The quality of submitted This is a good opportunity to remind you to social justice and a belief in the power outputs (three or four per individual) will that any SPA member can set up a special of social science to bring about progressive constitute 60% of the overall assessment, interest group and receive fi nancial support social change. Dennis’s work is also quality of environment 15%, and – the from SPA for meetings, seminars etc. These commemorated in this issue. one major new development – the impact

4 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com SPA News

of research will count for 25% of the pointed out that other publication overall assessment. Signifi cantly, HEFCE sPa welfare serViCe opportunities such as a themed has resisted suggestions that ‘impact’ section in Social Policy and Society should be restricted just to economic may be worth pursuing. impact, and has proposed a much wider users sPeCial defi nition covering economic, social, public policy, cultural and quality of interest GrouP Welfare Service Users life impacts. Research impact will be Special Interest Group convenors assessed at the level of the overall unit of assessment, not the individual. The inaugural meeting of the special Dr Guy Daly, Associate Dean, Faculty interest group on ‘Social Policy and of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry This innovation was anticipated in a Welfare Service User Involvement’ took University. seminar on assessing the impact of place on the evening of June 30th at the research, organised last July by the SPA 2009 conference in Edinburgh. Guy’s interest and involvement is mainly in Academy of Social Sciences. Speakers two areas. First, service user involvement from HEFCE, ESRC and learned societies Around 20 people attended the meeting, in teaching and learning - where and how noted the challenges in assessing with apologies noted from several others universities encourage and facilitate the research impact, including the common who were not at the conference but who involvement of service users in the design time-lag between publication and had previously registered their interest via of courses with a social policy component evidence of impact; and the problems the group’s recently established JISC MAIL or context; course delivery; student selection of attribution in increasingly crowded discussion page SPA-WSU@JISCMAIL. and assessment; and course review. research and policy environments. The AC.UK. To date 37 people - mainly but Second, the effective involvement of service politics of research utilisation could also not exclusively interested academics and users in social policy research. adversely affect us. Robust, scientifi cally researchers - have expressed an interest rigorous research may have no impact in joining the group, and it is hoped Email: [email protected] because its fi ndings are unpopular that others from welfare service user (research on the implementation of organisations and the policymaking/ tax credits was cited) and, conversely, practitioner and academic fi elds will sign methodologically poor research may up as the group becomes established. Rachel Harding, Research Co-ordinator have major impacts on policy and at Framework Housing Association, a practice. More positively, speakers An initial discussion about the remit charity providing housing-related support drew attention to the wider ways that and the aims of the group highlighted a for homeless and vulnerable people in research can have impacts - on defi ning number of themes and issues, including: Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. problems and developing concepts; in developing research capacity; in m the need for an agreed statement Rachel has carried out several research providing evidence of what works and to clarify the group’s purpose projects into homelessness and associated why; and in methodological innovation. within and beyond the SPA, and issues involving and training peer Moreover, evidence of research impact is a commitment to ensure that researchers. Rachel is particularly interested not restricted to government and policy- discussions/communications on the in exploring methodological issues involved makers - many charitable and private JISCMAIL web site are accessible to in peer research and developing theory organisations also utilise research. all who may wish to engage with about user involvement. them. Participants from learned societies Email: [email protected] pointed out that research users also have m three people who had expressed responsibilities and may benefi t from an interest in acting as convener of ethical guidelines on commissioning, the group were invited to say a few supporting and using research. Overall words about themselves to those Neil Stillwell, previously a user of the debate highlighted the importance of present. Rather than choose one Framework Housing Association’s services. on-going dialogues between researchers person it was unanimously agreed and research users – engagement as that all three - Guy Daly, Rachel Neil is interested in promoting welfare well as dissemination will be increasingly Harding and Neil Stillwell - be service users’ involvement in policy research important. elected. to inform service delivery and practice. Neil has previously been involved as a peer SPA will be responding to HEFCE’s m Majella Kilkey, co-editor of Social researcher and volunteer with a number of consultation document. If there are Policy Review, discussed plans for agencies on a range of projects concerned points you would like us to include in our a themed section of the Review with homelessness and tenancy support. response, please do email me at cg20@ focusing on user engagement to be york.ac.uk, before 30th November. published in 2010, and invited those Email: [email protected] present to contact her if they were Caroline Glendinning interested in contributing. It was also Peter Dwyer www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 5 SPA News

Speaking at the recent annual Government Social Research Cressy maCDonalD (GSR) conference, she explained her priorities would lie around nameD as GoVernment strengthening the role of social research in government and maximising its contribution to soCial researCH unit HeaD tackling complex policy and delivery issues. Cressy MacDonald has been named as the new head of the Government Social Research Unit (GSRU), the professional body She said: “It is important that we for the Government Social Research Service. talk collectively with other analysts “We must continue to and scientists, and that we share good develop our links with Cressy joins GSRU from the Home Office where she was practice. And we must continue to the external research responsible for the team providing research and analysis on develop our links with the external community” crime and policing. Her previous experience includes a range of research community, including working Cressy MacDonald, social research and policy roles in the private sector, at the Audit with learned societies and research Government Social Commission and the Home Office. councils.” Research Unit

policy, public services and campaigning and administrative data sets. In a report priorities. It will also be a resource for launched today on the development of journalists, voluntary sector groups and the EMF, recommendations are made equality academics to find out more about the state to develop measures for the remaining measurement of equality and human rights in Britain. indicators not covered by existing data. After extensive consultations across The report also recommends expanding Britain, consensus was reached on a list of the coverage to include all seven equality framework fundamental things people need in order to groups set out in the Equality Act 2006 thrive in life. An initial list of 48 ‘indicators’ and social economic status. Specific A new framework for monitoring progress includes things such as being healthy, recommendations are made for groups that towards equality and human rights in engaging in lifelong learning, an adequate are often invisible in data such as Gypsies England, Scotland and Wales, has been standard of living, physical and legal and Travellers, transgender people, and developed for the Equality and Human security, and the right to self-expression. those living in institutions. Rights Commission and the Government The EMF aims to monitor how people are Equalities Office by a team based at the doing, how they are treated by others, and A web-based tool showing how individuals London School of Economics. the level of choice and control they have in and groups are faring in relation to the various aspects of their lives. 48 indicators will be developed early next The Equalities Measurement Framework year, making the data accessible to anyone (EMF) will provide information for The EMF will in large part use existing with an interest in promoting equality and government and public bodies to inform information sources from national surveys human rights in Britain. sPa ConferenCe 2010 – linColn The SPA 2010 annual conference will be held at the University Call for papers of Lincoln from 5-7 July. The theme, ‘Social Policy in Times of Proposals are now invited for conference papers on any aspect of Change’, allows for consideration of the full range of social social policy – particularly those reflecting high quality research or policy interests while highlighting the implications for social which explore questions of social policy in practice or the teaching of policy of developments such as the financial crisis and economic social policy. Proposals for symposia linking three or four abstracts recession, the Obama presidency in the US, and the forthcoming to a particular theme, with the potential for allowing participants to UK general election. engage more deeply with their special interests, are also invited.

Since previously hosting the annual conference in 1997 and 1998, For papers, abstracts of up to 400 words indicating the appro- the University of Lincoln has significantly expanded its campus, and priate stream should be submitted as an email attachment to will provide a relatively compact base for delegates within a few [email protected]. Proposals for symposia should consist of a minutes walk of the city centre, including Lincoln’s historic Cathedral 200 word outline of the aims of each symposium together with the and Norman castle. relevant abstracts. The closing date for the submission of abstracts

6 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com SPA News

autobiography’ – for his ‘ten classic studies’ o B ituary (In Praise of Sociology, 1990).

Mothers Alone (1969; revised, 1973) emerged from pilot interviews for the Townsend-Abel-Smith poverty study. Dennis Challenging conventional public and policy views of fatherless families, his meticulous analysis of what poverty meant and the variety of ways in which mothers marsDen had to struggle with stigma, blame and 25 June 1933 - 6 sePtemBer 2009 harrassment had a major impact. Workless (1975; revised and enlarged, 1982) remains a classic study of the labour market in societal context. The subtitle, ‘Some unemployed men and their families’, CeleBration is a typically Dennis understatement. The long introduction, ‘the Social Contract There will be a celebration of the life of between Society and the Worker’, provides Peter Townsend at 11am on Thursday the counter-argument to those who demand 19th November, at St. Martin-in-the- more conditionality with little regard for any Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N Dennis Marsden was a consummate counter-responsibility to provide adequate 4JJ. All are invited. craftsman in C. Wright Mills’ sense. benefits and services. Any evaluator of Dennis’s works of ‘sociological imagination’ is faced with Beautifully-crafted and path-breaking studies CHARITY DONATIONS the problem of how many times to use that still have a resonance today were not Rather than send flowers for Peter’s funeral, the only ways Dennis engaged with policy, the word ‘classic’. Yet he learned the Jean Corston asked people who wished actively writing, lobbying and campaigning trade of sociology and social policy his to do so to make a donation to the charity own way, arriving ‘from a “respectable” on comprehensives, better support for lone ‘The Friends of Deepalaya’. Deepalaya (Methodist and deeply moral) working- parents and other issues. He influenced early class background’ (his own words) in responses to what he insisted on calling is a non-governmental development Huddersfield via grammar school and a ‘wife battering’. Later, with his second wife organisation working on issues affecting the science degree at Cambridge. Jean Duncombe, he turned to the study of urban and rural poor, with a special focus relationships, intimacy and love. on children. For the past 30 years it has At the Institute of Community Studies he worked in the urban slums of Delhi and has and Brian Jackson broke the then rules by Dennis spent most of his working life in the studying their own background and the Department of Sociology at the University of also made inroads into rural development. impact of selective education - ‘an attempt to Essex. His ‘matter of fact’ style concealed a Peter visited Deepalaya in India many years understand and locate our own experience remarkable combination of bluntness and ago and has supported it since. in the broader context of the lives of others gentleness. Self-deprecating to a fault, he could be trenchant: his defence of qualitative in similar circumstances’. Education and If you would like to make a donation, the Working Class (1962; revised, 1966) research and its ‘findings’ could strike please send a cheque made out to ‘The is still one of those books to which people sparks. He was an outstanding teacher and respond very personally. Gordon Marshall a marvellous colleague and friend. Friends of Deepalaya’ to: selected it - ‘the epitome of sociology as Adrian Sinfield The Friends Of Deepalaya Delvyns Gaston Street and proposals is Friday 12 February 2010, 11. Housing and welfare East Bergholt with these being reviewed by a programme 12. Ageing and the lifecourse Colchester committee prior to acceptance. 13. Demographic and environmental CO7 6MD. change Streams 14. Service design, delivery and use Alternatively, you can donate on-line at 1. Children and families 15. The future of social policy www.deepalaya.org. 2. Work, economy and welfare 16. Open stream 3. Governance and the policy process 4. Comparative social policy and research Postgraduate students may be eligible for memorial ConferenCe into international institutions, policy and support – further information will be made practice available on the conference web pages. A Peter Townsend Memorial Conference will 5. Poverty, inequalities and human rights be held on Friday 20th November at the 6. User perspectives Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 7. Teaching and learning Further information about the conference 4RL, (nearest tube Holborn) from 10am till 8. Health and social care will be available at: 4pm. Admission free, but please e-mail: 9. Innovations in social policy research www.lincoln.ac.uk/conferences/spa2010. [email protected] 10. Crime, policing and criminal justice www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 7 Peter Townsend © Sarah Lee/Guardian News & Media Ltd 2009

IN TRIBUTE TO PETER TOWNSEND Peter Townsend, Sociologist, Social Policy Analyst and campaigner, born April 6, 1928, died on June 8, 2009, aged 81.

In this tribute we celebrate Peter Townsend’s contributions that we could have included many more and are very to the advancement of social policy study and research, conscious that major areas of his life and work are barely politics and practice in the UK and internationally. Peter’s mentioned. Our very selective list of his publications work extended over more than half a century, covering a indicates the extraordinary quality of his achievements, wide range of fi elds – poverty, disability, ageing, health, and this will be evident in the forthcoming selection of his human rights, national and global social policy – and writings. infl uencing many others besides. We also wish to thank Jean Corston, David Gordon and As students, colleagues and friends of Peter, we were the LSE for permission to include photographs and the LSE, greatly inspired by him personally and professionally. Here CPAG, the British Society of Gerontology, The Independent, we aim to convey a fl avour of that inspiration and his The Guardian, and Community Care for material dedication and infl uence as teacher, scholar and activist. originally published by them. Additional tributes can be found at the LSE website www2.lse.ac.uk/socialPolicy/ We are grateful to the contributors who have allowed PeterTownsendTribute.aspx and the further links there. us to print generally abridged versions of tributes and refl ections generated by Peter’s death. We wish Adrian Sinfi eld and Nicola Yeates

8 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com Peter Townsend

life President since 1989; and, following a PuBliC intelleCtual anD tireless CHamPion the Thalidomide scandal in 1973, co- founded the Disability Alliance, which he for tHe Poor anD eXCluDeD chaired for 25 years and remained ac- tive in until his death. His dedication to Alan Walker these causes was extraordinary and re- quired huge stamina and a commitment Sociological Studies, University of Sheffi eld to meetings, public engagements and writing pamphlets that few, if any, could With the death of Peter Townsend, one in policy terms, to arguing for equality match. This pressure group activity and of the global giants of social science instead of minimum standards: distribu- his research have led to social reforms and a leading campaigner for social tional justice for all not welfare for a few, that have affected millions of people – justice, poor and excluded people eve- as he put it. His commitment to equal- from the introduction of the Attendance rywhere have lost a tireless champion ity made him one of the 20th century’s Allowance and other disability benefi ts and complacent governments one of foremost radical campaigners, in the tra- to measures to reduce child poverty and their sharpest critics. He will be long dition of Tawney and Booth. This led to health inequalities. mourned by the thousands of students numerous skirmishes with governments, he inspired, including this one, and, per- especially Labour ones who he believed Peter was a public intellectual bent on haps, by a small fraction of those who should know better than to penalise the telling the truth to power and convinced have benefi ted from the social reforms poor while allowing the rich to prosper that a more equal society was achiev- he advanced. unhindered by progressive taxation. able. In this role he excelled his mentor, Richard Titmuss, who tried to discourage In an academic career spanning six His moral conviction determined his his move from LSE to Essex in 1963. decades he authored defi nitive studies scientifi c trajectory but Peter’s dedication Subsequently, he went to Bristol Uni- in each of his major fi elds: the defi nition to studying “very carefully the life of the versity, which established the Townsend and meaning of poverty, ageing and poorest and most handicapped mem- Centre for International Poverty Research later life, disability and health inequali- bers of society” as he wrote in 1958, in his honour and, then fi nally, back to ties. In each fi eld the landscapes of both often excluded him from the academic LSE in 1998, where he briefl y headed the scientifi c and policy debates were mainstream. A co-founder Professor at the Centre for the Study of Human Rights transformed by his work. The production the University of Essex, who was critical and retired from teaching only last year. of Peter’s mammoth book, Poverty in of his focus on the poor, ignored how the United Kingdom, published in 1979, Peter used poverty to pinpoint funda- Late in his career Peter developed a took 10 years and topped 1,200 pages. mental fl aws in the, national and global, strong interest in human rights – the sub- It will always be the standard reference distribution of resources which affect ject of his last and, he said, best work, on poverty. The reach of his analytical everyone and either diminish or enrich completed only days before his death skills, with no diminution in their power, our lives. Many who rejected his conclu- – a perspective he was introduced to by was breathtaking and he produced sions were quoting them as received his third wife Jean Corston, a Labour more than enough for a handful of very wisdom a few years later. Appropriate Party organiser, MP and now peer. He respectable academic careers. Not only recognition came eventually as a found- was in love with Jean from the moment was he able to write prodigiously, a skill ing member of the Academy of Social he fi rst saw her until his death. Her developed in student journalism at Cam- Sciences, a Fellow of the British Acad- family brought two stepchildren into his bridge in the late forties and early fi fties, emy, together with a string of honorary life (and a dog called Arrow) to add to but also beautifully in a classic style that degrees. his four sons from his fi rst marriage and made the forensic dissection of evidence one daughter from his second. Close sparkle with clarity. He had a legendary The chasm Peter leaves as a campaigner proximity to his grandchildren was an capacity to write in almost any setting. is as great as the scientifi c one. He emotional high point of recent years. was a member of the Fabian Society They all survive him and, along with a Every aspect of Peter’s career was under- for more than 60 years; co-founder of legion of friends and colleagues, are pinned by a deep moral commitment to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shocked that this exceptional life has combating poverty and inequality and, in 1965, was its chair for 20 years and come to an end.

Stuart Weir, Democratic Audit, formerly CPAG

As well as being an outstanding scholar, Peter Townsend was an inspiring presence at conferences and seminars and in the day- to-day work of the Child Poverty Action Group, taking a courteous but rigorous interest in our work. Peter was one of the authors of Manifesto, a joint enterprise that I edited. The media branded it a ‘Bennite bible’ but, thanks to Peter and our colleagues, it was a very generous and radical book. Peter made the case for the combination of a maximum and minimum income. He was also a remarkably modest man. I once gate-crashed the extravagant ASTMS reception at the Labour party conference. I saw Peter looking in, obviously wanting to join the party. I went out and ushered him in. ‘Do you know how I got in, Peter?’ I said. ‘I told them I was Professor Peter Townsend.’ © Guardian News & Media 2009 www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 9 Peter Townsend

His Commitment to Human riGHts was Consistent, unwaVerinG anD entHusiastiC

Conor Gearty, Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE

Peter’s commitment to human rights came late in his academic and activist life but was consistent, enthusiastic and unwavering. He often described how it was through talking with Jean [Corston, his wife] about her work on the Joint Committee on Human Rights that he came to a full realisation of the potentiality of the language of human rights to do good work in the fi eld of poverty allevia- tion. Peter was neither much aware of nor remotely interested in our left-based anxieties about the language of rights: to him human rights presented themselves as ideal tools with which to con- tinue his life-long work of promoting the dignity and esteem of all. Peter’s socialism was fuelled by a kind of moral indignation at injustice which made him a human rights activist before we had such words available to describe what he did.

It was Peter Townsend who laid the foundations that have made LSE’s Centre for the Study of Human Rights what it is today. As chair of our advisory board during my first five years as director, Peter was a constant source of good advice and professional support, and of personal friendship as well. We last met at our annual Alumni din- ner in May, where Peter made a well-judged and self-effacing set of comments which meant an enormous amount to me. I last caught sight of him on his way home from that dinner via a group of MSc graduates who had gathered en- thusiastically around him, not wanting to let him go. Now alas we have to. His commitment to human rights as a means of securing justice and the alleviation of poverty was total: I feel honoured to have known him.

not only CreateD new knowleDGe – UNICEF Peter Townsend will be missed by UNICEF, But aCteD uPon it but even more by the millions of poor children around the world, who never David Gordon, Policy Studies, Bristol heard his voice, but whom he never forgot either in his research or in his advocacy, nor, most importantly, in his heart. Yet his Peter Townsend did not only cre- lives. Peter also worked effectively voice will echo beyond his lifetime, and ate new knowledge - he then acted with politicians and policy makers, continue to infl uence efforts to end child poverty, in the rich and the poor world. upon it. He did not just understand such as UNICEF and the International the world - he changed it. He helped Labour Organisation (ILO), to improve Reproduced by kind permission of to found both CPAG and the Dis- the human rights of poor adults and UNICEF. The full tribute can be found at ability Alliance, organisations whose children, including campaigning for www.unicef.org/media/media_49993. advocacy and campaigning work a global child benefi t, as a means to html. have helped improve thousands of reduce poverty.

10 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com Peter Townsend

a Great influenCe

Tony Lynes, fi rst Secretary of CPAG and pensions campaigner

As a very junior member of the Titmuss/Townsend/Abel- of CPAG - the model of a research-based pressure group Smith group, I was greatly infl uenced by their ideas and which they had created. But of all Peter’s works, perhaps the have remained so ever since - in particular their work on one that impressed me most was his study of old people’s pensions - the Labour Party’s National Superannuation plan homes, The Last Refuge, as relevant today as it was nearly embodying a totally new approach to state pensions which half a century ago, despite great improvements for which was the foundation of a great deal of work I did over the Peter could claim much of the credit. In the preface to that next 40 years, including work with Peter and others in the book, he described Titmuss and Abel-Smith as having ‘a campaign headed by Barbara Castle to restore ‘SERPS’. rich capacity for asking fundamental questions and passing It was the Townsend/Abel-Smith research on poverty and on a sense of intellectual excitement’. What better descrip- inequality that led me to become the fi rst full-time worker tion could there be of Peter?

of both the causes of poverty and inequality and the tHe Peter Golding, policies needed to ameliorate them will be sorely Social Sciences, Loughborough missed. enCouraGement Peter was a writer, intellectual, academic, and political activist for whom I had an unqualifi ed admiration. of trouBlemakers Poverty in the United Kingdom is one of the tower- Bob Holman, retired but still active ing achievements of post-war British social science, community worker, Glasgow not least in its powerful combination of painstaking Jan Reed, analysis, profound analytical skill, and moral force. Peter Townsend has been Britain’s greatest poverty Centre for Collaborative His insistence that principle, moral conviction, thor- researcher, writer and campaigner. But there is more. ough evidence, and political effi cacy all went together His commitment to fi ghting poverty has also been Gerontology, Northumbria taught me more than any lesson ever gained from shown in his lifestyle. He gave half his professorial any other quarter of social science. He was always a salary to anti-poverty bodies and refused all honours. As a student nurse, I was trained model, and a source of inspiration, both as an aca- Years before I met Peter, I was infl uenced by an essay demic and as an active and potent infl uence on social he wrote in 1958 in which he said ‘you cannot live and practiced in an environ- policy. We are all the better for having learned from like a lord and preach as a socialist’.1 His words ment in which dissent was not and with him, and all the poorer for his loss. helped to shape my life. encouraged. Reading Townsend changed that. We were shown © Community Care (www.communitycare.co.uk) 1 that it was possible to challenge Hilary Rose, BIOS reprinted Social Policy and Society, April 2009, p.157 the status quo, and to connect up Not only was Peter a brilliant, hugely productive poverty and health and educa- academic, one of the world’s most famous fi gures in Tony Brown, tion, along with cultural issues. social policy, but this was no ivory tower academic. Institute of International and He worked with ceaseless energy in the politics of When I developed an interest in European Affairs, Dublin older people, this became even poverty. His commitment to forms of redistribution which preserved human dignity was at the core of In the early 1970s his ideas contributed to the initia- more important, as, in a culture both his thinking about social policy and his personal tive of the Irish Government which led to the fi rst where older people could not practice in the everyday world. European Poverty Programme, adopted as part of the escape the world they were of- 1973 Social Action Programme. Peter’s inspirational fered, because of ageism and re- input gave a real impetus to the efforts to give policies a true focus. Next year’s EU Year of Combating Social duced fi nancial power, a critique Hilary Land, Policy Studies, Bristol Exclusion should be dedicated to the memory of this was vital. This critique could Peter’s research has always been conducted at a remarkable man. foster debate and change. We number of levels. When he came to Bristol in the no longer had to humbly accept early 1980s his research continued on all fronts - at what we were given as we grew the local level for example, analysing the differential Sally Sainsbury, mortality and morbidity rates between different parts formerly Social Administration, LS older, but we could challenge of Bristol, the Black report which spelt out the causes it. Peter Townsend gave us an and consequences of health inequalities within Britain Aside from his outstanding work on poverty with example of how this could hap- and at the international level in further developing which he continued to the end, Peter made an equally pen, and set in train a practice and broadening measures of poverty. Despite his important contribution to the way in which social wide sweeping interests he never lost sight of the of asking questions and looking policy research was presented. So great was the individual human being and anyone who wrote of quality of his writing that in France it was regarded at things with a curious, rather a respondent in a survey as a ‘case’ would fi nd a as literature and at one stage used in French schools than a grateful eye. The encour- little coffi n drawn in the margin! His concern about as an exemplar of written English. I took strength agement of troublemakers is a poverty in old age never abated and he worked hard from his example of sticking with a concern when with Barbara Castle to save SERPS. Barbara Castle, worthy legacy. times were uncongenial, and from the importance he as doughty and principled a campaigner as Peter, attached to the quality of writing as an intrinsic part of was probably one of the very few people of whom the research process. Peter was a little afraid. Peter’s clear sighted analyses www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 11 Peter Townsend

an eXtraorDinary soCioloGiCal imaGination tHink more raDiCally – Chris Phillipson, Sociology and Criminology, Keele Be more Visionary There can be very few researchers in Peter Townsend brought an extraordi- Kate Green, CPAG social gerontology whose work was not nary sociological imagination to all his directly infl uenced in some way by that work. Books such as The Last Refuge of Peter Townsend. For me, trying to and The Family Life of Old People will Peter Townsend was one of CPAG’s apply sociological approaches to old continue to excite students through the founders and our president. Despite his age, back in the 1970s, his work was generations. They will do so because diverse interests and the many demands of huge importance. The rigour and of the richness of the research but also on his time, he still made the occasional scholarship was of course one thing. because of the underlying passion for visit to our offi ces, joining in with the But the quality of the writing, and the trying to understand social life. Con- policy debates and urging us to think concern for those with least power in tinuing that tradition, along with the more radically and be more vision- society, elevated his books to a level still values associated with it, must be a ary. Both courteous and challenging, unsurpassed in British social science. central task in the years ahead. I often felt that Peter thought we were just not quite bold enough. Perhaps he was right. The calls in CPAG’s recent manifesto to reduce reliance on means- tested benefi ts, increase universal child He DroVe a 2CV anD BelieVeD Professors were benefi t and provide more help for the unemployed, disabled and lone parents PaiD too muCH repeat many of the arguments that ap- peared in the CPAG manifesto of 1969. Hugh Kerr, former Essex MSc Student No wonder Peter was impatient for us to go faster and work harder to avoid another generation of children experi- Though Peter was not a conventionally fl uent lecturer, you could hear that he encing the damage of poverty. was genuinely engaging theory and practice in social policy in his case stud- ies of areas where he was advising or reviewing Labour government policy. A conversation with Peter was always a He was very supportive of us as students when we occupied the University for pleasure. His interests were wide-rang- a month in May 1968 in defence of suspended students who were protesting ing and, while this meant discussions against lectures in biological warfare - which he later maintained was the sometimes veered off course, they al- university’s fi nest hour… He drove a Citroën 2CV, and believed professors ways provided new and more imagina- were paid far too much. tive perspectives on familiar problems. He had a special place in the hearts Peter was a lifelong supporter and adviser of Labour but also a lifelong and minds of both staff and members of critic, even if he was often slated by the party for doing so. By the time of the CPAG, and he will be sorely missed. But 1996 party conference, I had advanced from being an Essex colleague we will do everything we can to ensure of Peter’s to being an MEP, and he had co-written that his legacy lives on, and his hopes with Barbara Castle a pamphlet arguing for renewal and dreams for a society free of relative of the link between pensions and wages which had poverty are fulfi lled. been broken by the Tories. It was due to be debated at the conference, and Tony Blair was in danger (Poverty 133 also has tributes from of being defeated. I was chatting to Peter in the Jonathan Bradshaw, David Gordon, rather surreal settings of the replica Coronation Tim Horton, Ruth Lister, Adrian Sinfi eld Street set in Blackpool when Blair swept into the and JohnVeit-Wilson www.cpag.org. Rovers Return, surrounded by his entourage and the uk/info/Povertyarticles/Poverty133/pe- TV cameras. Much to the chagrin of his mind- ter_townsend.pdf ) ers, I introduced the future prime minister to Peter. Blair clearly Simone Cecchini, had no idea who he was, and Economic Commission for Latin Peter later told me that he was America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) told off for daring to halt the Professor Townsend has been a great exam- progress of the great leader ple for all researchers working on poverty with a fi ve-minute explana- issues. His arguments on the importance of tion of his pensions policy. analyzing poverty and looking for solutions to this persistent scourge through a human © Guardian News & rights lens will continue to resound long after Media 2009 his departure.

12 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com a Great PositiVe forCe in BritisH soCial sCienCe

Tony Atkinson, Nuffield College, Oxford

It was a great privilege to be one of Peter’s colleagues at the University of Essex. In his office teaching, research and administration were all mingled in piles of paper and in the queues of people keen to talk to him. He encouraged me to start the course I gave on the quality of a free, democratic and prosperous so- Randall Smith, ciety is to be found in the standards of freedom, economics of inequality, attended by Policy Studies, Bristol democracy and prosperity enjoyed by its weakest quite a number of his students. He members”. encouraged me in developing research Among his huge achievements in both academe and the worlds of policy and practice, Peter was on the boundaries of economics, a seminal influence on the development of criti- including in health economics. He cal gerontology. His early research on pensions, Howard Glennerster, encouraged the establishment of the the family life of old people,nursing homes, Social Policy, LSE Colchester Poverty Action Group, residential care and “the aged in the welfare state” laid the foundations for demonstrating the Peter has been and will continue to be a towering where we set up a Saturday morning all-encompassing prevalence of age discrimina- figure in our subject. He challenged accepted welfare advice stall. At a time when the tion in our society and the need for redistribu- wisdoms and opened new avenues of work with University was trying to repress student tive policies to combat social inequality. Other an intensity that was infectious. His contribu- tion to conceptualising poverty is recognised all demonstrations, Peter provided a locus contributors have recognised Peter’s pathbreak- ing work in the fields of disability, international over the world but his vivid accounts of the life of sanity. His qualities of wisdom and child poverty, health inequalities and human of the poor will live on too, such as those in The humanity were later recognised by his rights. I would like to echo the comments made Last Refuge. It was reading his and Brian Abel- colleagues in his election as pro-vice- elsewhere on the importance of The Last Refuge* Smith’s essays in Conviction as a second year undergraduate at Oxford that made me decide chancellor, when he stood against the in particular. In revisiting this study we were overwhelmed both by Peter’s generous support to take up research in social policy. I am glad I establishment candidate. He did all that for our research and for the meticulous and managed to convey that to Peter last year. We while completing the landmark Poverty in constructively critical way he responded to our shall all miss his unique mixture of humour and the United Kingdom. queries. Thank you, Peter. passion.

Julia Johnson, Sheena Rolph and Randall Smith After we both left Essex, our contacts (forthcoming) The Transformation of Residential Anne Power, were less frequent but no less warm. Homes for Older People: Revisiting “The Last Social Policy, LSE Peter was one of those rare people with Refuge”, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. whom one could resume a conversation Peter was my most inspiring teacher when I came after several months without any need to the LSE as a graduate student in the 60s and Dianne Willcocks, he remained an admirable model ever since, for preliminaries. In academic terms, always pushing the boundaries of the possible York St. John University I was particularly won over by his in favour of the most disadvantaged. I will never ‘international turn’. At the ILO, his recent Peter’s ability to channel his passion for social forget how he made us students want to do more research was much appreciated, but he justice through an intelligent mix of gargantuan to help change the world. It would be great if we knew how to follow in his shoes. We will all miss may not have realised just how much scholarly contributions and equally significant political activism has inspired generations of him. his work influenced the post-Lisbon academics, professionals and citizens more 2000 establishment of the European widely. He was also personable and approach- able for people from all walks of life whether Union social indicators, with their multi- Alex Scott-Samuel, dimensional approach to poverty and in the somewhat ‘lofty’ green fields of Darting- ton; the conference hall; or the fringe of party Public Health, University of Liverpool deprivation. conferences. He will be sadly missed …. yet his Peter was a wonderful man who inspired every- important legacy continues. one in the fields in which he worked. A memora- I have used the word ‘encouraged’ ble day was when the chair of the Health Educa- several times, and this was Peter’s tion Council prohibited the (unannounced) press hallmark. A fierce critic of what he John Hills, launch of Margaret Whitehead’s The Health Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE Divide in March 1987, and Peter and Douglas regarded to be scientifically unjustified Black led us through the streets of Soho to the or morally wrong, he was throughout I have always thought that the last sentence of offices of the Disability Alliance, where the press his academic life a great positive force The Last Refuge was amongst the most powerful conference took place – and that procession in British social science. He is a much he wrote: “It maybe worth reflecting, if indeed a began the evening’s TV news. Peter remained a little sadly, that possibly the ultimate test of the champion of and powerful advocate for ‘social missed friend. equity as if people mattered’ to the end. www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 13 Peter Townsend

1981 – ed. with Alan Walker, Disability in Britain: A Struggle for Rights, Oxford, The Peter Townsend reader a life in Print Martin Robertson, 220pp

A selection of publications 1981 – ‘Guerrillas, Subordinates and Passers-by: The Relationship Between by Peter Townsend Sociologists and Social Policy’, Journal Edited by David Gordon, Hilary Land, of Critical Social Policy, September, pp. Ruth Levitas, Peter Phillimore, Chris 22-34 1952 – ‘Poverty - Ten Years After Bev- 1970 – with others, The Fifth Social Serv- Phillipson, Margot E. Salomon, Alan eridge’, Planning, No. 344, Political ice, London, Fabian Society, 159pp 1987 – co-authored, Poverty and Labour Walker and Nicola Yeates and Economic Planning, London, pp. in London: Survey of Londoners’ Living 21-40 1972 – co-ed., Labour and Inequality: A Standards, London, The Low Pay Unit, “A valuable selection from the writings of an Review of Social Policy 1964-1970, 134pp outstanding sociologist whose analyses have greatly 1957 - The Family Life of Old People, Lon- London, Fabian Society, 302 pp enriched our understanding of social policy and its don, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 284 1987 - co-authored, Health and Dep- impact on people’s lives and the wider society.” pp, revised Penguin ed., 1963 1973 - The Social Minority, London, Allen rivation: Inequality and the North, Adrian Sinfield, Professor Emeritus of Social Lane, 319pp – fi rst collection of papers London, Croom Helm, 214 pp Policy, School of Social and Political Studies, 1957 - with Richard Titmuss and Brian University of Edinburgh Abel-Smith, National Superannuation: 1975 - Sociology and Social Policy, Allen 1993 - The International Analysis of Report of a Technical Sub-Committee Lane, London, 371pp – second collec- Poverty, Hemel Hempstead, Harvester on the Introduction of a National tion of papers Wheatsheaf, 291pp In 2008 Peter Townsend celebrated his 80th birthday, and Superannuation Scheme in Britain, also 60 years since his first published work. His career covered different disciplines within the social sciences London, Labour Party, 122pp 2000 – with others, Poverty and Social – primarily sociology and social policy but to a lesser Exclusion in Britain, 2000, York, Joseph extent social anthropology, philosophy, international 1958 - ‘A Society for People’ in Convic- Rowntree Foundation, 101pp relations and political economy – and he worked tion, ed. Norman Mackenzie, London, alongside academics, Cabinet Ministers and human rights MacGibbon and Kee, pp 93-120 2001 – ed. with David Gordon, Breadline campaigners. The range of his work was exceptional – from inner city deprivation, older people - abridged in New Statesman, 18 Europe: The Measurement of Poverty, contemplating retirement, exclusion on the basis of class, race, gender, age and disability, individual October, reprinted in Social Policy and Policy Press, Bristol, 465pp versus state responsibility for health, the social purposes and viability of residential institutions and Society, 5:2, 2009, pp. 147-158 hospitals, child and extended family development, and persistent poverty. 2002 – ed. with David Gordon, World This reader brings together for the first time a collection of his most distinctive work. It allows 1962 - The Last Refuge: A Survey of Poverty: New Policies to Defeat an Old readers to review the changes that have taken place nationally and internationally over the past Residential Institutions and Homes for Enemy, Policy Press, Bristol, 454pp six decades, and reflect on issues that have returned to the fore today. Each section of the book is the Aged in England and Wales, Lon- introduced by an editor who is an expert in their field and who is acquainted with Peter Townsend’s don, Routledge & Kegan Paul 552pp; 2004 - ‘Sociology in University Practice: work. A particular feature of the volume is in tracing the links between empirical evidence and both abridged and revised, 1964 Sociology and Social Policy at Essex social theory and social policy and how those disciplines intersect. The volume concludes with a new 1964-1982’, 15pp http://www.essex. chapter by Peter Townsend about the present and the future. 1962 - ‘The Meaning of Poverty’, British ac.uk/sociology/documents/Townsend- Journal of Sociology, September, pp. onEssex.pdf This reader will provide a teaching and learning resource for students in different disciplines of the 210-227 social sciences, especially working on poverty, disability, health inequalities and gerontology for which Peter Townsend is best known. It will also provide an insight into the development of one 2009 – ed. Building decent societies: scientist’s entire intellectual approach – particularly in choosing to place social policy at the centre of 1965 - with Brian Abel-Smith, The Poor 1976 - Disability Rights Handbook for Rethinking the role of social security social theory and therefore the analysis of the economic and social changes taking place during the and the Poorest, London, Bell, 78pp 1977, London, Disability Alliance, fi rst in state building, Geneva, ILO with past 60 years. ed., 38pp Macmillan Palgrave, 368pp 1967 - ‘Poverty, socialism and Labour Sadly Peter passed away in June 2009 and we hope this will be a fitting memorial to his life and in power’ in Fabian Society, Socialism 1979 - Poverty in the United Kingdom: A work. and Affl uence, London, Fabian Society, Survey of Household Resources and pp. 39-69 Standards of Living, Penguin Books forthcoming – Peter Townsend Reader, PB £24.99 ISBN 978 1 84742 404 4 HB £70.00 ISBN 978 1 84742 405 1 416 pages tbc December 2009 and Allen Lane, London, 1216pp Bristol, The Policy Press. INSPECTION COPY AVAILABLE 1968 - Old People in Three Industrial Soci- eties co-authored, London, Routledge, 1980 – co-ed., Labour and Equality: A Fa- 478pp bian Study of Labour in Power, 1974- The full list of publications, 1948-2008, is www.policypress.co.uk 79, London, Heinemann, 312pp 67 pages long. Many of the edited books 1968 - with others, Social Services for All? also contain a substantive chapter as well London, Fabian Society, 122 pp 1980 – co-authored, Inequalities in as an introduction by Peter Townsend - the Orders should be sent to: Health, London, DHSS; revised Pen- last edited one has an introduction and Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4YN, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1235 465500, Fax: +44 (0)1235 465556, Email: [email protected] 1970 - ed., The Concept of Poverty, Lon- guin, 1982, 240pp; new editions 1988 four other chapters, only one co-authored. don, Heinemann Educational Books, and 1992 260pp

14 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com The Peter Townsend reader

Edited by David Gordon, Hilary Land, Ruth Levitas, Peter Phillimore, Chris Phillipson, Margot E. Salomon, Alan Walker and Nicola Yeates

“A valuable selection from the writings of an outstanding sociologist whose analyses have greatly enriched our understanding of social policy and its impact on people’s lives and the wider society.” Adrian Sinfield, Professor Emeritus of Social Policy, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh

In 2008 Peter Townsend celebrated his 80th birthday, and also 60 years since his first published work. His career covered different disciplines within the social sciences – primarily sociology and social policy but to a lesser extent social anthropology, philosophy, international relations and political economy – and he worked alongside academics, Cabinet Ministers and human rights campaigners. The range of his work was exceptional – from inner city deprivation, older people contemplating retirement, exclusion on the basis of class, race, gender, age and disability, individual versus state responsibility for health, the social purposes and viability of residential institutions and hospitals, child and extended family development, and persistent poverty.

This reader brings together for the first time a collection of his most distinctive work. It allows readers to review the changes that have taken place nationally and internationally over the past six decades, and reflect on issues that have returned to the fore today. Each section of the book is introduced by an editor who is an expert in their field and who is acquainted with Peter Townsend’s work. A particular feature of the volume is in tracing the links between empirical evidence and both social theory and social policy and how those disciplines intersect. The volume concludes with a new chapter by Peter Townsend about the present and the future.

This reader will provide a teaching and learning resource for students in different disciplines of the social sciences, especially working on poverty, disability, health inequalities and gerontology for which Peter Townsend is best known. It will also provide an insight into the development of one scientist’s entire intellectual approach – particularly in choosing to place social policy at the centre of social theory and therefore the analysis of the economic and social changes taking place during the past 60 years.

Sadly Peter passed away in June 2009 and we hope this will be a fitting memorial to his life and work.

PB £24.99 ISBN 978 1 84742 404 4 HB £70.00 ISBN 978 1 84742 405 1 416 pages tbc December 2009 INSPECTION COPY AVAILABLE

www.policypress.co.uk

Orders should be sent to: Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4YN, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1235 465500, Fax: +44 (0)1235 465556, Email: [email protected] Postgraduate

Welcome to Policy World’s postgraduate [email protected], and don’t forget pages. As we enter a new academic to sign up to the SPA Jicsmail (social- year, plans are underway to develop [email protected]) to find welCome more exciting events for the postgraduate out the latest on social policy and events, community - in response to feedback and, and communicate and share information in particular, from delegates who attended with fellow members. You can also keep postgraduate events throughout 2009. an eye on future events at http://www. This included suggestions for networking social-policy.com/postgradnetwork.aspx. opportunities so that postgraduates If you have any information about up and can support and learn from each other coming events, you can request that it be - especially around shared research posted onto the website by emailing me at interests. There were also requests for the above address. support in relation to substantive themes relevant to the modern PhD candidate, Finally, keep an eye out for information such as methods and analysis of empirical about the SPA annual conference in June material. 2010 where, in a fresh twist, postgraduates will be integrated into the main conference. Above all, we aim to create an inclusive This will provide fantastic opportunities for and vibrant space where members can networking with peers and experts in your explore what it means to be a social policy research field, and you can also submit an academic, both now and in the future, and abstract to present your work or a poster we will continue to develop events and presentation. advocate for members with that in mind. Rachael Dobson with SWAP representative Rebecca Johnson at the 2009 postgraduate The SPA’s mission is to respond to Rachael Dobson conference in Edinburgh. members’ needs. So, if you have any ideas Postgraduate Representative, SPA for future events, please contact me at

sPa memBersHiP for PostGraDuates POSTGRADUATES

SPA membership for postgraduates is fantastic value at just £20 per calender year and gives all the usual STAY IN THE LOOP benefits of membership, as well as events tailored for postgraduate researchers:

m free copies of the Journal of Social Policy, Social SPA news and event announcements for Politics and Society, Social Policy Review, and the postgraduates, as well as adverts for funding and Policy World newsletter job vacancies, are distributed via email - why not sign up now? It’s quick and easy to do - sign up to m reduced rates at the annual SPA Postgraduate the SPA postgraduate community ‘Jicsmail’ (social- Conference, and [email protected]) at http://www. jiscmail.ac.uk/. This website will allow you to access m postgraduate workshops and access to the SPA’s a whole range online academic communities. Postgraduate Network.

The start of the year is the perfect time to encourage Lecturers and reseachers, you can help postgraduates joining your department to find out by making sure postgraduates in your about the SPA’s activities for postgraduates. For more department know about it. on membership, or to join, visit www.social-policy.com.

16 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com Postgraduate

Above all, presenters appeared to have Asked for one thing they intended to do as gained confi dence (“I also have more a result of the day’s experience, delegates ConferenCe confi dence to present at other conferences” commented that they would: was a typical response); to have learned useful lessons around presenting; and to m use Turning Point for classes have discovered common research interests m explore particular references and and made new colleagues. resources (including Ethos) rePort m sign up to SWAP sPa PostGraDuate ConferenCe Resource focus m check out the NCRM website Presentations from Sean Moley (National m join the British Library eDinBurGH 2nD July 2009 - Centre for Research Methods), and Jane m develop their academic skills, and soCial PoliCy futures: Wellens and Julia Meek (ESRC Training m explore bodies of literature around Researchers in Online Research Methods organisational decision making and researCH eXPerienCes, TRI-ORM project), introduced delegates policy implementation. PraCtiCes anD DeVeloPments to the breadth of support and resources available under the umbrella of the National Equally, invited to articulate what they had Centre for Research Methods (www.ncrm. learned from the day, delegates reported: This is the fourth time that the SPA has ac.uk/) and an on-line virtual training sponsored a one-day event for postgraduate research methods environment (www.geog. m ESRC resources available to PhD students to follow the full three-day SPA le.ac.uk/ORM/). Jane and Julia also created students conference. On this occasion the SPA a Twitter session so that delegates could see m ideas regarding elite interviews, teamed up with the Subject Centre for how the software might be used for instant researching policy-related decision Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP) to commentary. making in public sector organisations, offer a varied programme of presentations and what’s available at the British from postgraduate researchers and Library resource centres (The British Library, the m training opportunities and the use of new National Centre for Research Methods and technologies in research, and the Subject Centre for Social Policy and m Turning Point and Twitter. Social Work). Throughout the day the 24 delegates either presented or sampled an The healthy attendance at this event excellent showcase of new research from continues the upward trend of take-up by postgraduates at all stages of their study, postgraduates of events organised and with papers grouped under fi ve headings: sponsored by the SPA. As postgraduate membership of the SPA has grown, so m informal networks and identities has emerged a group of social policy Sean Moley (National Centre for Research m social policy, service user involvement postgraduate researchers who would like Methods), Jane Wellens and Julia Meek and voices (ESRC Training Researchers in Online the opportunity to meet up and share m social policy and practice Research Methods TRI-ORM project), and ideas, practices and experiences. Those m governance: machinations of democratic Rebecca Johnson (SWAP). attending clearly saw scope for more systems, and SPA-led events and meetings, with specifi c m social policy, race and inequalities. recommendations including: Joanna Newman, Head of Higher Comments from those presenting suggest Education at the British Library, drew m social networking/training programmes that the experience was a valuable one. delegates’ attention to the newly created m networking events/possible training Asked what they had found most valuable Social Sciences Reading Room and online sessions about the event, delegates told us: gateways and support freely available to m methodological debates or input – social science researchers registered with UK more on the ‘how’, the innovations in m “The experience of presenting at a universities and the library itself www.bl.uk/ theorising in social policy conference and opportunity to network” reshelp/fi ndhelpsubject/socsci/. m more themed events m “A number of the papers were really m regional groups/meetings useful and pertinent to my research/ Rebecca Johnson (SWAP) used Turning Point m researching policy-related decision- situation” software to ascertain that 75% of delegates making in public sector organisations m “meeting other PhD students and were social policy postgraduates with m methodology related event devoted to discovering others working in similar teaching responsibilities at the instiutions qualitative methods, and areas. Also discovering we all experience where they were studying. The same number m training in on-line research methods. the same problems and concerns – very considered it important to gain experience in re-assuring!”, and teaching. Delegates were then shown some The SPA will continue to offer a m “I’m now in contact with other people of the SWAP resources which might aid their postgraduate programme of workshops for interested in this area – hopefully we will teaching practice. 2009/2010 - watch this space. organise some kind of event.” www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 17 in foCus suPPortinG new aCaDemiC staff learninG from eXPerienCe

The third edition of SWAP’s New case studies m face-to-face interviews newsletter in focus showcases m ‘The Use of Creative Arts in the teaching experiences of Care Settings’, a case study m fair access practices included in Refl ections on academics new to social work creativity in social work and m international student issues degree teaching, accompanied social work education (www. by an interview with SPA swap.ac.uk/docs/creativity07. m experiences of revising postgraduate representative pdf). selection procedures and offers Rachael Dobson on her m any other experiences of experience as a postgraduate Call for case studies on recruitment and admissions not teacher. The edition includes admissions listed above. many tips, ‘things we wished we’d Do you have an interesting known’ and strategies for dealing approach to recruiting or with some of the unexpected admitting students which you Send your ideas to swapeditor@ would like to turn into a case soton.ac.uk or complete the case issues facing teachers new to study?. We welcome short case study template at www.swap.ac.uk/ higher education. studies on: getinvolved/casestudies.html. If your case study is published on the SWAP m pre-entry activities website you’ll receive £25 in Amazon To request a copy please contact vouchers. m recruitment processes [email protected].

19 November 2009: 30 November – 1 December 2009: 2nd Symposium for Course Leaders Devolution and Divergence: Health and FORTHCOMING Teaching Substance Misuse and Addiction Social Care in the UK. in Higher Education. Cardiff University. Centre for Excellence in Interdisciplinary EVENTS Mental Health, University of Birmingham.

18 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com

national PostGraDuates stuDent teaCHinG satisfaCtion soCial PoliCy surVey results surVey

The Subject Centre for Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP), in conjunction with the SPA and the Joint Universities Council for 2009 Social Policy (JUC-SP), is conducting a ‘Postgraduates Teaching Results from the 2009 National Social Policy’ survey. Student Satisfaction Survey (NSS) can be downloaded from www.hefce. ac.uk/Learning/nss/data/2009/. This The desired outcomes of this survey are: includes a complete set of data for all higher education institutions between m to identify areas of practice (e.g. teaching practices or support the years 2005-2009. mechanisms) and resources which might be usefully shared and developed across the postgraduate social policy community, and Nationally, respondents to the survey were up this year (by around 3,000 to m to inform professional bodies and networks (such as those sponsoring the 223,363) giving an overall response survey) about areas where postgraduates teaching social policy can be rate for the UK of 62%. Analysis of usefully supported over and above the guidance they receive through their JACS 55 (social policy’s distinguishing own institutions. identifier – sociology is JACS 54) shows that around 1,100 of these were social policy students from across 22 HEIs How to take part (more students completed the survey but the Higher Education Funding If you are a social policy postgraduate who teaches, you can go directly to Council for England (HEFCE) operates https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/survey/postgraduates to complete a threshold requirement of 23 students the survey. If you are a head of department or convenor of a course which per institution). employs postgraduates as teachers, please encourage students to complete the survey. Useful websites HEFCE website report on National Student Satisfaction Results for 2009 can be found at Survey availability www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2009/nss.htm Results will be available from June 2010, when a report will be published on NSS data is made available for prospective the SPA (www.spa.ac.uk) and SWAP (www.swap.ac.uk) websites. We will alert students, their parents and advisors on you to this using the social policy Jiscmail discussion list (www.jiscmail.ac.uk). the Unistats website (www.unistats.com). Analysis will inform the events and guidance planned for postgraduates in the Unistats is developed and maintained by academic year 2010-2011. UCAS and Hotcourses.

30-31 March 2010: 14 April 2010: Living and Learning, Learning and Integrating Substance Use into Social For more information on these Teaching: Mental Health in Higher Work Education. Event to launch new and other forthcoming events visit Education. learning and teaching materials. www.swap.ac.uk/events University of Lancaster. Centre for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Mental Health, University of Birmingham. www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 19 SPA Conference

in George Square again proved tolerable for analysis of continental European welfare most, and was a reminder of the integration states under the title of ‘From Frozen of the University of Edinburgh in the heart of Landscapes to Structural Reforms, How did the city. the Bismarkian Welfare Systems Change?’ He argued convincingly that, far from The Edinburgh conferences have successfully being stuck in the obsolete patterns as often established the model of choice of papers in alleged by British politicians, these systems advance on the basis of submitted abstracts, have renewed themselves at much higher and papers sent weeks in advance and levels of generosity than in the UK – though placed on the conference website. The SPA increasingly ‘dualised’ by types of worker sPa has traditionally been more relaxed about according to their entitlements. ConferenCe deadlines and advanced submission, but the new practice – in line with most other The SPA has been concerned to promote academic conferences – established a higher the involvement of service users, and the level of rigour and coherence that was to third plenary was an impressive innovation. everyone’s benefi t. Marion Barmes of Brighton University led a session on ‘Participation and Social Justice’ eDinBurGH As in 2008, many papers that could not that featured two participants in involvement 29TH JUNE – 1ST JULY 2009 be accepted were placed on a reserve list activities - Pat Thomas and Colin Gell. Pat where they could be placed on the website spoke movingly of her experience of caring and moved into a presentation slot if others for her severely disabled son Trevor for withdrew. In this way we were able to fi ll over 40 years, and enabling him to live nearly all of the 152 paper-giving slots on independently. Delegates heard how she set offer (with 8 parallel sessions in the 6 time up the Birmingham Carers Association, and PoliCy futures: slots rather than 10 in 5 as in 2008). campaigns at the most senior political levels.

learninG from Conference themes need to be suffi ciently The paper sessions included an enormous capacious to encourage a range of papers, range of work, impossible to summarise in but precise enough to focus thought and a few words but available for scrutiny on the build linkages between contributions. This conference website http://www.crfr.ac.uk/ tHe Past? year’s theme of ‘Policy Futures: Learning spa2009/spa_index.html where the full texts from the Past?’ expressed the thought that can be downloaded in .pdf form. Among the in times of political and economic stress, many notable authors whose latest thoughts when the search is on for new approaches can be explored in this way are David The SPA’ s practice of and solutions, older ideas might make a Donnison, Julian Le Grand and Bleddyn running conferences for comeback. There certainly seems to be Davies. Themes that stood out included two consecutive years evidence of a renewed interest in the social employment, migration, household studies at the same venue policy tradition in British public affairs in the and the management of services. prompts thoughts of past year. lightning never striking twice and fi rst time as tragedy second time The plenary sessions turned out to be a good as farce. Fortunately, the 2009 Edinburgh mix. Peter Taylor-Gooby of Kent University SPA AWARDS conference repeated the success of 2008. started the conference with a plenary on ‘Political Legitimacy and Social Citizenship’ A highlight of the SPA conference is the To the organisers’ relief the numbers that used international data to argue that annual SPA Awards ceremony, which attracts attending bore no trace of ‘year two high-quality and equal public services large interest and even provides a hint of the fatigue’ or recession constraints. Delegate promote trust in government - a precious tension surrounding the Oscars. numbers were almost identical – 250, with commodity when shocks hit the system. 150 papers and 150 staying in conference This year’s awards were presented at accommodation. And at prices that Peter had already put in sterling service as the conference dinner in the splendid compare favourably with most professional the chair of the Research Assessment Exercise surroundings of The Hub, a Gothic revival conferences, the SPA again made a useful (RAE) sub-panel on Social Work and Social building that started life in the 1840s as an profi t for its funds. Policy and Administration, registering the Assembly Hall for the church of Scotland high level of overall quality of work in our – with a spire designed by Pugin – and The weather was again reasonably co- area. He bravely offered a session with has now been converted to become the operative – despite the descent of the delegates to discuss the RAE process and headquarters of the Edinburgh International infamous east of Scotland sea mist, or outcome. Festival. ‘haar’, on the fi rst evening. The 15 minute walk from the accommodation in the Pollock In the second plenary, Bruno Palier of The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Halls of Residence to the conference venue Sciences Poi in Paris gave a tour-de-force Michael Hill, a stalwart of social policy whose

20 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com SPA Conference

The Award for Best also housed the Postgraduate Conference, Postgraduate Paper went to held the day after the SPA Conference Christopher Deeming for closed, which through the efforts of Adam ‘Drawing Semi-Normative Whitworth and Rachael Dobson is becoming Poverty Lines in Family an important annual opportunity for paper- Expenditure Survey Data’. giving and networking. Christopher Deeming, winner of the Award for the Best Chris graduated PhD Postgraduate Paper. from Bristol University in Conferences do not run themselves and we 2008 with a thesis on the were immensely fortunate to have for the amazing productivity continues to fl ow, with meaning and measurement of poverty, and two years the services of Alison Scott, whose recent new editions of Understanding Social he offered his thanks to Peter Townsend and vibrant personality and concern for the needs Policy (now co-authored by Zoe Irving, Dave Gordon for their supervision. An article of delegates won rave reviews and whose a product of Edinburgh University Social based on his research appeared in Social robust common sense was a godsend to the Policy), and Implementing Public Policy and Policy and Administration and he was also organisers. The Public Policy Process. Michael paid awarded the journal’s 2009 Early Stage tribute to Betty, his wife of over 50 years, Career Researcher prize. Now moved to Oxford, her husband having who was also present. It is typical of his become Provost of Queen’s, Alison was dedication that he conducted an external The awards were presented by SPA president, based at the Centre for Research for Families examination of a PhD thesis during his time Nick Timmins, public policy editor of the and Relationships - a unique cross-university in Edinburgh. Very much on our minds Financial Times (FT), whose trenchant collaboration whose skills at conference this year, of course, was that in 2008 the comments on the current political scene, and organisation served us well. Its directors and Association awarded a Lifetime Achievement the way that social policy research might staff happen to be nearly all female, surely Award to Peter Townsend. Happily David make an impact on the media and the policy not coincidental to the sense of effi cient calm Donnison – a fellow octogenarian honoree process, are becoming an annual treat for it brings to all its activities. Our team of in 2008 – returned to present a paper and us. Nick’s ability to get social policy stories student helpers – many of them international contribute his wise thoughts. into prominent spaces in the FT is of great postgraduates – also provided a notably value to us. good service. The Award for Best Publication was a surprise, because it did not go to a On the following evening delegates were The phrase on conference organisers’ lips conventionally academic book. Jacqueline offered a reception in New College, built tends to be ‘never again’ although one of Walker’s Pilgrim State recalls her childhood for the other (Free) Church of Scotland us, Jochen Clasen, is suffi ciently keen to be and the story of her mother, who came to at the same time as the Hub. In heraldic- taking on ‘ESPAnet’, the European Social England from the West Indies. It is a vivid bedecked Rainy Hall the University’s Head Policy Analysis Network, in Edinburgh in evocation of the experience of social services of Humanities and Social Science was 2012. Despite the organisational challenges, in a family in an era now passed, and leaves persuaded to climb onto a table to offer we have been proud to offer the city and a deep impression upon all who read it. a welcome and reiterate to delegates and University of Edinburgh as the setting for the other invited guests that Edinburgh had SPA conference. Scotland’s capital typifi es The Award for Outstanding Contribution performed outstandingly well in the RAE. architectural beauty and social conviviality from A Non-Academic went to Labour Other hospitality was provided at the and offers a real-life distinct political system peer Baroness Hollis. She has academic Publishers’ Reception, though the organisers’ as well. We were able to show devolution at credentials in English on the faculty of concern for economy perhaps went a little work through a number of papers as well as the University of East Anglia but, more far with the Romanian Pinot Grigio on offer a visit to the Scottish Parliament in 2008. prominently now, a political career that led (the red was better). The publishers are her from local government in Norwich to an important presence at the conference, Now the conference passes to another long service as a Labour minister. Patricia making a useful fi nancial contribution for historic city, though a much more recent Hollis’s continuing campaigning to give the space they occupy, and this year we were university – Lincoln – and we look forward better social security rights to carers was glad to give them spacious and well-located to being welcomed by Hugh Bochel and his acknowledged by the award, and she made pitches in the Chrystal Macmillan Building colleagues from 5-7 July in 2010. a powerful speech on the subject. - the home of the University’s School of Social and Political Science. The building Richard Parry

An informal lunchtime question and answer to ESRC planning on large investments (such as session was held with representatives from the centres and programmes); the breakdown by ESRC and the SPA as part of the SPA conference discipline of success rates for standard and small ESRC in Edinburgh this year. grants competitions; and the new funding proposals for quota studentships. ‘Top tips’ for early career SESSION Joy Todd and Scott Court (ESRC) and Karen researchers and prospective grant applicants were Rowlingson and Catherine Palmer (SPA) took part also discussed. in the panel discussion which covered a range of topics, building on questions that members of the It is hoped that the ESRC will be able to SPA had posed to the ESRC. Questions related contribute to the 2010 conference. www.social-policy.com PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 21 International / Small Grants ICSP STUDY DAY: This presentation stimulated some food for thought in her presentation on international anD interesting discussion around the changing the impact of the 1997 financial crisis on roles and power relations in the global social protection policy in South Korea. The arena, and led on to the subsequent two country case study theme continued in the ComParatiVe paper sessions. The first focused on the final paper session with Mairéad Considine roles of actors, with Rob Hulme talking on and Fiona Dukelow’s incisive analysis of PersPeCtiVes on the effects of crisis on patterns of policy the ‘boom-to-bust’ trajectory in Ireland and transfer and Christina Prell presenting policy response in the context of domestic- soCial PoliCy anD some thoughts on the contribution of international positioning. In a similar vein, social network theory to understanding the Zoe Irving summarised the position of processes and outcomes of big events such small but significant national actors on the finanCial Crisis as financial crises. The second paper session world stage - Cyprus, Iceland and Jersey - took an economic turn with a contribution, and, reflecting on Iceland’s ‘pot and pan 7–8 sePtemBer 2009 first, from Theo Papadopoulos whose revolution’ and political shift to the left as presentation focused on ‘Polyani’s revenge’ a direct response to its financial collapse, The International and Comparative Social - questions of market embeddedness over offered further thoughts on the potential for Policy Group (ICSP) study day took place time and the extent to which policy can value change engendered by crisis. over the 7th and 8th of September 2009, and will be reframed in the light of recent hosted by the Department of Sociological economic failures. Kevin Farnsworth then The event was drawn to a close with an Studies, University of Sheffield. This well- reminded participants that the ‘confusion, absorbing keynote talk given by Professor attended event was sponsored by the contradictions, opportunities and risks’ Armando Barrientos of the Brooks World ICSP, with support from the SPA and the brought about by economic events suggests Poverty Institute, University of Manchester. Department of Sociological Studies. This that some reflection and stock-taking is Here, discussion returned to the global was the second conference organised necessary to fully understand what has context with a presentation which by the ICSP, and we were pleased to unfolded before any ‘new economics’ and considered the impact of economic events welcome a broad range of participants policy futures can be mapped out. on the rise of social assistance programmes including several illustrious contributors in developing countries, and the capacity to the field and many postgraduate These two papers took us neatly to the of social assistance and social policy to students. second keynote presentation, delivered by combat poverty and vulnerability in the Professor Michael Hill, currently Visiting near future. This paper sparked some Bob Deacon, Professor of International Professor at the Universities of Brighton and lively debate around the importance of Social Policy at the University of Sheffield, London. His presentation drew the first day terminology, the utility of poverty measures opened the day with a keynote presentation to a close with a thought-provoking account such as the ‘dollar a day’ benchmark and on ‘Global Social Policy Responses to the of ‘Economic Crises and Paradigm Change’ the continuing significance for policy of Economic Crisis’ in which he discussed which drew attention to the historical absolute versus relative approaches to some of the central issues in the policy context of economic change, the meaning poverty. Thus, the study day demonstrated responses of key international organisations of ‘crisis’, and the complex relationships well that in international and comparative including the United Nations (UN) and between politics and economics at both perspective, very little is really ‘new’ and its various agencies and the International national and international level which that in policy development, debates may Monetary Fund (IMF). Of particular concern allow ‘revolutionaries’ and ‘counter- become dormant but never moribund. were questions of potential changes revolutionaries’ opportunities to shape of direction in global social policy, the responses to critical events. Participants then A publication is planned for 2010 which development of debate within the UN - for continued discussions over dinner in the draws on the presentations and discussion example around the establishment of a student village and, later still, at a local pub. summarised above and we would be keen ‘social protection floor’, the future of global to hear of others working in this area. This funding of social expenditure, the likelihood Day two opened with Keerty Nakray’s leaves me to thank all those involved in of a shift in IMF philosophy, and the more presentation of HIV/AIDS interventions in making this an extremely productive and general potential for a greater UN presence India, the use of the ‘gender budgeting’ stimulating event, the format of which in global social and economic governance approach as a means to achieve gender the ICSP hope to repeat in the future (but vis-a-vis the international financial mainstreaming and the impact of without the accompanying financial crisis!). agencies. international organisations in these fields. Following this, Eunna Lee provided further Zoë Irving, Co-convenor, ICSP

22 PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 www.social-policy.com International / Small Grants

of the aims, rationale, and nature of the proposed event. Applicants should also sPa small Grants sCHeme clearly demonstrate how the event will meet The SPA invites applications for its Small new SPA members (including marketing the criteria listed above. As much detail as Grants Scheme - designed to help fund via other channels, distribution of SPA possible on plans to ensure that the award seminars and workshops dealing with leaflets, use of SPA logo, etc.) will benefit SPA members should be included research and/or learning & teaching in a m make the seminar/workshop as inclusive at this stage, and a focus on activities that way that is of benefit to the social policy as possible (attendance need not be will benefit a group or network rather than community and SPA members. limited to SPA members) individuals is encouraged. m raise the profile of the SPA to external Each award offers a maximum of £500. agencies (government, independent The SPA reserves the right to pay the award Each year the deadlines for applications are sector, research centres, etc) in the UK in more than one instalment if appropriate, 1st March, 1st June, 1st September and 1st and other countries as appropriate, and and to reject applications from those who December. m provide a provisional budget which have failed to fulfil small grant award must include a full breakdown of costs, conditions in the past. Applicants will be expected to: indicating the items on which the award m be SPA members will be spent, and specify whether Applications should be sent to: m publicise their seminar/workshop as additional funding from other sources Dr Majella Kilkey, widely as possible, including through is being sought or has already been Department of Social Sciences, University SPA channels secured. of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, m write a short report after the event to SPA United Kingdom members via Policy World Applications should take the form of a Tel: 00 44 (0) 1482 466083 m use this as an opportunity to recruit letter and contain an outline description Email: [email protected] refereeinG for aCaDemiC Journals: a PriVileGe or a BurDen?

The SPA owns two academic journals however, we have noticed that while the spirit is something to include on your CV! To be - the Journal of Social Policy (JSP) and and tradition of academic collegiality remains asked to referee for JSP or SP&S signifies that Social Policy and Society (SP&S). They are strong among a stalwart core of regular your expertise is recognised and your opinion published by Cambridge University Press peer reviewers, it can be weaker elsewhere. valued. What is more, you cannot reasonably but run by editorial boards elected by the It is sometimes quite difficult to find willing expect to have your own work published in SPA membership. Between them, these two referees for certain kinds of article. The refereed journals if you are not willing to act important journals publish over 60 high growing pressures and demands to which as a referee yourself. Occasionally, inevitably, quality refereed articles every year. They are academics are subject may, perversely, be review requests arrive at a bad moment a vital part of the life-blood of social policy having a counter-productive effect upon the or may be premised on some genuine as an academic subject, and important culture of co-operation required to sustain misconception as to the nature of your indicators of the national and international an effective process of peer review. Potential expertise, and this as editors we understand. standing of our subject. Membership of referees with a conspicuous interest in the Nevertheless, while extending as always our the SPA, of course, includes an automatic subject matter of a paper we have received heartfelt thanks to those SPA members who subscription to both journals. have been known to decline to review for so readily and regularly referee for us, could us because, they say, they are too busy. Or we please urge all members to do two things: Like all academic journals, JSP and SP&S where, for example, some unique synthesis depend on the good will of their referees offered by an especially innovative paper m to ensure that their Members’ Directory or peer reviewers. The peer review process ideally requires the attention of different entries on the SPA website are accurate provides the cornerstone upon which scientific referees with diverse specialisms, potential and up to date. This will help us identify progress is built and through which scientific reviewers have been known to decline potential referees with an expertise in standards are maintained - as much in the to allow us the benefit of their particular particular topics, and help ensure that we social sciences as in the natural sciences expertise on the specious grounds that such don’t trouble members unnecessarily by (and as much, incidentally, in qualitative as expertise is limited to the very aspect of asking them to review papers on topics in quantitative social science). JSP and SP&S the paper upon which we had sought their in which they are not interested. To check draw upon an extensive pool of referees, opinion. your entry go to http://spa.lpl-uk.com/ many or most of whom are themselves index.php SPA members. We are immensely grateful Refereeing a paper for an academic journal to those members who assist in this way. does demand a little time and effort, but m to consider carefully, whenever you are There are many who regularly agree to read it need not be unduly onerous. Indeed, it approached by JSP or SP&S with a request and to provide anonymous feedback to the can be a rewarding activity. The papers we that you referee a proposed article, editors on individual papers submitted to the receive for consideration are varied, usually whether this represents an opportunity journals. interesting and quite often provocative. We to make a worthwhile contribution to the carefully seek out combinations of referees community of which you are a part. The flow of papers we receive to be able to comment on papers from different considered for publication is steady and the perspectives. We ask referees to comment Tania Burchardt and Hartley Dean content of those papers is forever developing. frankly, succinctly and from within the Editors: Journal of Social Policy Accordingly, the editors are always seeking parameters of their own expertise. Refereeing to expand and diversify the pool of referees for academic journals is part and parcel of Pete Dwyer and Sharon Wright upon whose expertise we can draw. Lately, belonging to an academic community. It Editors: Social Policy and Society PolicyWorld AUTUMN 2009 23 www.social-policy.com New and forthcoming titles from The Policy Press Understanding Welfare Social Issues, Policy and Practice series Series Editor: Saul Becker, Professor of Social Policy & Social Care, University of Nottingham

Understanding social welfare movements

Jason Annetts, Alex Law, Wallace McNeish and Gerry Mooney “This original book relates justice and equity across all forms of social policy.” Professor Chris Rootes, University of Kent The first introductory text to bring together social policy and social movement studies. It provides a much needed overview of the changing nature of social welfare as it has been shaped by the demands of social movements.

PB £19.99 ISBN 978 1 84742 096 1 HB £65.00 ISBN 978 1 84742 097 8 304 pages July 2009 INSPECTION COPY AVAILABLE Understanding equal opportunities and diversity The social differentiations and intersections of inequality Barbara Bagilhole

“... guides the reader through the conceptual, institutional and legal maze that lies behind ‘equal opportunities’ and ‘diversity’.” Professor Teresa Rees, Cardiff University This book challenges the official discourse that shapes the debates on Equal Opportunities and Diversity (EO&D) at national, regional and European level.

PB £21.99 ISBN 978 1 86134 848 7 HB £65.00 ISBN 978 1 86134 849 4 272 pages April 2009 INSPECTION COPY AVAILABLE

Also in the Understanding Welfare series

Coming in 2010 Understanding human need Hartley Dean

Human need is a central but contested concept in social policy and the social sciences. This book provides an accessible overview of the subject using concepts and debates from philosophy, psychology, economics, sociology and elsewhere. It presents a unique integrative model that characterises the main approaches and shows how they may be reflected in different sorts of social policy goals.

PB £21.99 ISBN 978 1 84742 189 0 HB £65.00 ISBN 978 1 84742 190 6 208 pages tbc February 2010 INSPECTION COPY AVAILABLE

For full details on all titles visit www.policypress.co.uk

Orders and inspection copy requests should be sent to: Marston Book Services, PO Box 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4YN, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1235 465500, Fax: +44 (0)1235 465556, Email: [email protected]