9781800084049
9781800084056
Distributed for UCL Press
Social Research for our Times
Thomas Coram Research Unit past, Present and Future
A collection of research and findings from the Thomas Coram Research Unit.
For fifty years, researchers at UCL’s Thomas Coram Research Unit have been undertaking ground-breaking policy-relevant social research. Their main focus has been social issues affecting children, young people, and families and the services provided for them. Social Research for our Times brings together different generations of researchers from the Unit to share some of the most important results of their studies.
Two sections focus on the main findings and conclusions from research into children and children services and on family life, minoritized groups, and gender. A third section is devoted to the innovative methods that have been developed and used to undertake research in these complex areas. Running through the book is a key strategic question: what should be the relationship between research and policy? Or put another way, what does “policy-relevant research” mean? This perennial question has gained new importance in the post-COVID, post-Brexit world that we have entered, making this text a timely intervention for sharing decades of experience. Taking a unique opportunity to reflect on the research context as well as research findings, this book will be of interest to researchers, teachers, students, and those involved in policy-making both in and beyond dedicated research units, and it can be read as a whole or sampled for individual standalone chapters.
For fifty years, researchers at UCL’s Thomas Coram Research Unit have been undertaking ground-breaking policy-relevant social research. Their main focus has been social issues affecting children, young people, and families and the services provided for them. Social Research for our Times brings together different generations of researchers from the Unit to share some of the most important results of their studies.
Two sections focus on the main findings and conclusions from research into children and children services and on family life, minoritized groups, and gender. A third section is devoted to the innovative methods that have been developed and used to undertake research in these complex areas. Running through the book is a key strategic question: what should be the relationship between research and policy? Or put another way, what does “policy-relevant research” mean? This perennial question has gained new importance in the post-COVID, post-Brexit world that we have entered, making this text a timely intervention for sharing decades of experience. Taking a unique opportunity to reflect on the research context as well as research findings, this book will be of interest to researchers, teachers, students, and those involved in policy-making both in and beyond dedicated research units, and it can be read as a whole or sampled for individual standalone chapters.
382 pages | 13 color plates, 4 figures, 1 table | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2023
Education: Higher Education
Sociology: Individual, State and Society
Table of Contents
About the contributors List of figures and tables Acknowledgements Foreword 1 Social research and spaces for possibility: an introduction to the Thomas Coram Research Unit and the book Claire Cameron, Alison Koslowski, Alison Lamont and Peter Moss Part 1 Services and Policies For Children, Young People and Families Introduction Claire Cameron 2 Jack Tizard and the Children’s Centres: visions for policy relevant social research and transforming early childhood services Peter Moss 3 Which way for the ‘care’ workforce? Antonia Simon, Charlie Owen, Claire Cameron and Peter Moss 4 Introducing social pedagogy for children in care in the UK: From policy to research and from research to policy? Pat Petrie, Claire Cameron, Helen Jones and Robyn Kemp 5 Educating children in out of home care: 40 years of research and action Sonia Jackson and Claire Cameron 6 Child abuse and neglect: how can healthcare services enact a public health approach? Jenny Woodman 7 The development of an international research field: The case of parenting leaves Alison Koslowski, Margaret O’Brien and Katherine Twamley Part 2 Family Life, Gender and Minority Communities Introduction Alison Koslowski 8 Young people, diversity, wellbeing and inclusion: towards values-led research and practice Peter Aggleton, Elaine Chase and Ian Warwick 9 Children and young people navigating a complex world: coping, motivation and resilience Katie Quy, Lisa Fridkin and Marjorie Smith 10 Minority stress in same-sex parented families: extending minority stress theory to thevfamily level Mário A. Tombolato, Isabel C. Gomes, and David M. Frost 11 Life course transitions and global migration: conceptual reflections on the biographical trajectories of young African migrants in Italy Michela Franceschelli 12 My name is not ‘asylum seeker’: countering silencing, unhearing, and labelling in the UK asylum system through co-research Mette Louise Berg, Eve Dickson, Faith Nyamakanga and Nelson Gómez. Photos by Rasha Kotaiche Part 3 Innovative Social Resarch Methodologies Introduction Alison Lamont 13 Change and continuity in men’s fathering and employment practices: A slow gender revolution? Julia Brannen, Charlotte Faircloth, Catherine Jones, Margaret O’Brien and Katherine Twamley 14 Collecting Stories of Identity and Culture with Young people: The Synallactic Collective Image Technique (S.C.I.T) Humera Iqbal, Sarah Crafter and Evangelia Prokopiou 15 Politics, position and personality in ethnographic research: a conversation and a response Jonathan Galton, Ashraf Hoque and Victoria Redclift 16 Designing ways of listening to young children: the development and growth of the Mosaic approach Alison Clark 17 Research with children in changing families Catherine Jones, Sophie Zadeh and Susan Imrie 18 International collaboration: Practice and praxis Julia Brannen and Rebecca O’Connell 19 Participatory childhood research: Histories, presents and reflections Veena Meetoo, Hanan Hauari and Ann Phoenix 20 TCRU at 50: Conclusion Alison Lamont, Claire Cameron, Alison Koslowski and Peter Moss