Publications

This article critically explores data generated within a participatory research project with young people in the care of a local authority, the (Extra)ordinary Lives project. The project involved ethnographic multi-media data generation methods used in groups and individually with eight participants (aged 10—20) over a school year and encouraged critical reflexive practices throughout. The article…

In recent years, research into grandparenthood has gained considerable momentum, particularly in the United States and increasingly in Europe. However, there has been little research focusing on understanding the contribution of grandfathers. While the perception of grandmothers as more involved than grandfathers remains commonplace, some recent research provides indications of a more changing picture. In…

This paper is written by a geographer and discusses the importance of ‘thinking space relationally’ in, and for, the social sciences. According to its advocates, relational thinking insists on an open-ended, mobile, networked and actor-centred geographic becoming. I position relational space within the lineage of philosophical approaches to space, drawing on examples taken mainly from…

Since devolution in 1999, the Welsh Assembly Government has developed an increasingly ambitious agenda for education in Wales. Local authorities in Wales, perhaps more so than elsewhere in the UK, are seen as playing a crucial role in interpreting, delivering and evaluating this programme. However, they face combined difficulties of resource constraint and diseconomies of…

The freedom of movement of persons is one of the core tenets of the European Union. Immigration however is often seen as a cause for concern amongst native workers, as rising labour supply may threaten jobs and create downward pressure on wages. National politicians are increasingly under pressure to guard against it – in times…

In this paper I propose that identity is momentary, fluid, and multiple while simultaneously providing us with a sense of sameness and continuity. Building on Valsiner’s ideas about human sense-making I suggest that we can reasonably deal with the multiplicity/unity paradox if we conceive of this process as resulting in the construction of a fuzzy…

This article examines the post-application employment consequences for individuals registering complaints to Employment Tribunals following dismissal or redundancy. We consider several pieces of evidence: (a) the probability of finding another job, (b) the time taken to get a new job and (c) the pay/status of the new job. Our results indicate that age plays a…

A recent study of the educational attainment of British children found that boys who live in poverty are more educationally disadvantaged even than girls in similar circumstances (Mensah and Kiernan, 2010). The author’s recent work in the south Wales ex-mining valleys has brought her into contact with boys who are disaffected from school and who…

Who, or what, is English? Drawing on qualitative interviews with white majority interviewees in three locations in England, this article explores local interpretations of English and Englishness. The article investigates the way members view their local environment as being ‘English’, and examines the criteria underpinning such interpretations. While various meanings are identified, it is found…

In 2005, we conducted research that focused on the experiences of African American undergraduate students at a large U.S. university (Inwood and Martin 2008). Our goal was to better understand how race –or more accurately, “whiteness”- was evoked in the landscape of the university. As part of this research we employed two ‘roving focus groups’…