Publications

This study explores the party politicization of animal welfare in the context of multi-level governance in the UK. It examines over 1300 pledges in party manifestos for Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish elections 1998–2017. It reveals the nature of party competition, including increasing salience over electoral cycles. This is complemented by examination of the party…

65 percent of children entering primary school today will work in employment that does not yet exist; and by 2022 approximately 22 percent of employment in the global economy will be created by digital technologies. 73 percent of company managers say they have serious problems finding specialists qualified in such technologies, compared with 10 percent…

The European anti-austerity movement is generally associated with spawning leftist electoral projects, which exemplify the domestic institutionalization of activism. That the movement also generated a number of transnational coalitions with unusually broad and far-reaching ambitions remained somewhat under the radar. Projects like Alter Summit and DiEM25 seek to expand the anti-austerity movement’s struggle to the…

Here we present a critical exploration of evaluation as a concept within a state-led social policy programme. Studies critiquing this type of evaluation often assume its purpose is to provide knowledge and understanding of a given social policy, and its relative impact upon the social issue towards which it has been directed. However, drawing on…

Discussions triggered by campaigns around the Black Lives Matter movement have prompted WISERD to reflect on our track record of research on the structural inequalities, unequal life chances and injustices associated with racism. WISERD has undertaken a significant amount of research on these inequalities. This review aims to highlight the range of research that WISERD has…

Journal of Civil Society 16(3) pp 191-215 In response to international concerns about ongoing rights violations, this benchmark study analyses the situated knowledge of civil society organizations and examines their discourse on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in India. The findings show that Persons with…

From the Handbook on the Changing Geographies of the State – New Spaces of Geopolitics This chapter examines how state spaces throughout Europe are facing structural tensions as traditional ethnic nationalism increasingly comes into conflict with urban transformations. It argues that European citizenship is experiencing a unique set of city-regional and techno-political dynamics consisting of: (1)…

Fully updated and expanded, the sixth edition of The Student’s Companion to Social Policy remains the most accessible and comprehensive review of UK and comparative social policy available for undergraduate students. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, this authoritative textbook covers all the perspectives, debates, issues and challenges in both the theory and practice…

Smart City Citizenship provides rigorous analysis for academics and policymakers on the experimental, data-driven, and participatory processes of smart cities to help integrate ICT-related social innovation into urban life. Unlike other smart city books that are often edited collections, this book focuses on the business domain, grassroots social innovation, and AI-driven algorithmic and techno-political disruptions,…

Are young people blindly self-interested? How does university shape students’ political participation? Can busy parents and grandparents find time to volunteer? Challenging conventional thinking, leading academics explore how individuals’ relationships with civil society change over time as different lifecourse events and stages trigger and hinder civic engagement. Drawing on personal narratives, longitudinal cohort studies and…