By Sarah Baz In popular media and discourses the struggling hard working lone mother is often presented through images of White lone mothers. In contrast, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim (PBM) women are depicted as passive, lacking agency and embedded in old fashioned and authoritarian families (Qureshi 2016). Diversity in experience and family structure has hardly… Continue reading Marginalised Mothers: The Everyday Struggles of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim Lone Mothers.
By Majella Kilkey The ongoing pandemic has spotlighted the underlying fragility of England’s social care system. Much of the attention has been focused on residential care homes, in which the first wave of the pandemic saw an extraordinary number of excess deaths among residents. The majority of older people in England who receive care for… Continue reading ‘Ageing in place’: austerity, hostility and the pandemic
By Thea Shahrokh, Majella Kilkey, Hannah Lewis and Ryan Powell Over the last year the context in which young people with migration experiences are building their lives has become increasingly insecure in the UK. Young people are navigating a continued hostile immigration environment, which works powerfully to create uncertainty and undermine futures. Most recently, young… Continue reading The politics of deservingness and belonging in youth research on ‘integration.’
By Harrison Smith The “short squeeze” of GameStop stock has given rise to predictions that we are on the verge of witnessing a revolution in finance capitalism thanks to the power of social networks, mobile platforms, and investing apps. The story goes that in late January of 2021 a subreddit called WallStreetBets mobilized its users… Continue reading When Memes, Money, and Myth Hold the Line
By Tim Highfield There are over one billion Instagram users worldwide, using what started as a basic photo-sharing app to visually showcase lives, businesses, events, and causes. In doing so, Instagram and other apps have become part of the everyday life of many, and together with my co-authors Tama Leaver and Crystal Abidin at Curtin… Continue reading Instagram and visual social media cultures in 2020
By Calum Webb "The poorer you are in this country, the more likely you are to have social work intervention in your family life. Nobody is talking about challenging the government on poverty and the poverty that their policies have created, sustain, and are making worse." - Moraene Roberts, September 2019 In preparation for writing… Continue reading Child protection and removal: the hidden inequality
By Julie Walsh and Asma Khan It’s Monday 23rd March, and Boris Johnson broadcasts the historic statement: ‘From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction – you must stay at home’. On April 1st – just a week later – we are due to start fieldwork for the ESRC… Continue reading Collaborative research: the potential of COVID contingencies.
By Robin Sen and Christian Kerr (Social Worker) The recent removal of procedural safeguards for children in care in England without consultation, via Statutory Instrument 445 (‘SI445’), has reignited concerns about the de-regulation of children’s services in England (Sen, 2020). Linked to questions of de-regulation has been growing consternation about increasing private sector involvement in… Continue reading Privatisation, Profit Making and Children’s Services – A Tangled Web?
By Lizzie Richardson Working lives have changed quite dramatically since the social distancing measures implemented in March as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the privileged minority who can continue to work from home, this period has in some cases provided an opportunity to get stuck into a backlog of working tasks that have… Continue reading Productivity: just common sense?
Dr Andrea Wigfield, Director Centre for Loneliness Studies, The University of Sheffield. Before the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people in the UK - nine million - of all ages, said they felt lonely, either always or often[1]. However, the social distancing, self-isolation, and shielding measures put in place to protect lives, as well… Continue reading COVID-19 may widen and worsen loneliness
Sociological Studies Research 