Publications

The paper reviews public discourses and research on the safeguarding of other people’s children by adults at the neighbourhood level. There is much empirical evidence pointing to the existence of thriving informal communities of support and informal childcare for parents across the social classes. There appears to be less empirical evidence related to intervening with…

This paper focuses on the links between informal care provision and labour market activity at the sub-national level within the UK. Within-country analysis of this issue has been very limited to date despite the wide regional variations in informal care provision that are often present. This issue is important in the context of policy decisions…

During the course of this article we examine data gathered from two research meetings in which coding issues and data organization are being discussed in relation to the use of the software package Atlas.ti. The meetings were concerned with the organization and coding of semi-structured interviews carried out by three different groups as part of…

This paper presents preliminary findings and a summary of the work undertaken as part of an AHRC funded review of the literature addressing community, connectivity and later life. Two key theme areas were addressed; ‘Social networks and later life’ and ‘The impact of Information and communication technologies (ICT) on community and older people’. In addition…

This chapter explores the question of how different places react to economic shocks. Increasingly, economic geographers, planners and sociologists have emphasised the importance of ‘place’ in understanding and recommending responses to short-term economic shocks and long-term socio-economic transformation. Consequently, there is a growing consensus within the local and regional economic development literature that ‘one size…

This paper focuses on the links between informal care provision and labour market activity at the sub-national level within the UK. Within-country analysis of this issue has been very limited to date despite the wide regional variations in informal care provision that are often present. This issue is important in the context of policy decisions…

Sociologia Ruralis 51(3) pp 219-237 This article explores the significance of researchers positionality for the interpretation of local cultures of rurality. Drawing on personal experience of studying the apparent emergence of a new squirearchy in an English village, it argues that backyard ethnographies, in which researchers study worlds with which they are already familiar if…

In writing the article ‘Applied policy research and critical human geography’ (Woods and Gardner, 2011), Graham Gardner and I aimed to nudge discussion of policy research in human geography along from debates about the value of such research, to engagement with the actual practicalities of conducting contract research and the challenges that arise. Through an…

This paper discusses the relationship between applied policy research commissioned by the state and the development and maintenance of critical human geographies. In contrast with recent debates, which have centred on the relative status of human geography within policy circles, we focus on the often mundane and messy realities of undertaking policy research. The paper…

Globalization is arguably the most prevalent force reshaping rural localities around the world today, and the most significant factor framing the challenge for rural development in regions from the Canadian prairies to the rolling downlands of England, from the forests of Scandinavia to the Andean mountain communities of South America, from Australian mining towns to…