Co-production : a defence of young people

Recent years have seen fundamental and challenging changes in the delivery of services for young people. Outcomes, outputs and interventions have become the language of service evaluations, and allocation of funding creating an instrumental environment poorly equipped to respond to young people’s developmental needs. At the same time, little progress has been made since Innocenti’s 2007 State of the World’s Children Report, placing the UK firmly at the bottom of a table focussed on children and young people’s well being indicators. Whilst recent reports seem to indicate some improvement, both the measures and list of comparator countries have changed, and the UKs young people remain more tested, more anxious, less listened to, less healthy, more likely to engage in excessive risks, and increasingly affected by than most other developed countries. The UN Commission on Human Rights has long been critical of the UK’s approach to children and young people’s rights and the June 2016 country report quite clearly identifies austerity measures as the cause of a number of breaches against the Human Rights Act, recommending that: “the State party revise its policies and programmes introduced since 2010 and conduct a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative impact of these measures on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights by disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and groups, in particular women, children and persons with disabilities” Further examination of policies implemented since 2010, and indeed before, reveal a slow ‘privatisation’ of schools and colleges and consequent removal of directed use lettings arrangements. This, together with the demise of community venues has led to the diminution of safe developmental spaces for young people to meet. At the same time, the refocus of the equivalent of the entire statutory Youth Services Budget into the cost selective , business model of the 3-4 week National Citizenship Service has enforced a professional discourse much more focused on intervention than development, - paradoxically, the lack of developmental support, creating greater need, and, in today’s context, market, for intervention services. The concept of co-production is not new, and it could be argued it is a metaphor for a range of youth work processes, but the increasing popularity of the term does offer an opportunity to refocus on empowering, rights – based work with young people and responses to developmental need. Drawing on the history and core values of Youth Work, current research on the status of young people, and previous work using biographical research methods for service evaluation, this paper will explore this opportunity.   References: E/C.12/GBR/CO/6 UN Periodic Report on Human Rights In the UK 24 June 2016 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland https://www.scribd.com/document/316993267/UN-Report-UK-Human-Rights INNOCENTI Report Card 7 2007 Child Poverty in Perspective, An Overview of Child Well Being in developed Countries https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pd

See Me! Biographies of the Hidden City Proposing Research as Advocacy (abstract only)

Cooper and Whyte (eds. 2017) outline the violent and isolating impact of austerity policies on increasing numbers of vulnerable people across the UK. The concerns outlined are reinforced by an increasing body of research, providing further evidence of the factual basis of the damning country report by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2016). This undisseminated report listed 73 action points related to the planned replacement of the Human Rights Act with a diluted Bill of Rights against a backdrop of issues relating to poverty, food insecurity, rising homelessness, increasing insecure work contracts and diminution of workers’ rights, lack of parity between mental and physical health in service planning, limited support for refugees and asylum seekers, limited childcare, removal of housing benefit to under 21s and failure to ensure payment of the minimum wage to under 25s causing poverty and homelessness, failure to regulate corporate tax and ensure income to support the population. In October 2016, in the aftermath of the BREXIT referendum, the EU Commission on Racism and Intolerance (2016) Report on the UK highlighted the role of press and politicians in normalizing overtly xenophobic and racist behavior. Despite the increasingly compelling body of evidence, and an indictment of the policy focus delivered in the results of the 2016 General election, there are only the smallest of changes to national policy, and the people affected most ‘denied recognition’, (Honneth 1995), disconnected at a structural level, socially invisible, prey to stigma and disdain. This paper represents an attempt to overcome that disconnect and link the hidden narratives of austerity across a city with those able to effect local change. It will more fully analyse the impact of, and responses to, austerity at a local level across one industrial northern city. Using established local professional networks, the paper will initially provide results from a research pilot recording the biographies of one group of those ‘unseen’ lives touched by austerity, and seek to reconnect those biographies with policy makers, and social change agents, at least at a local level. The aim of the pilot will be to trial approaches to supportive, research conversations which extend the concept of intersubjectivity to ‘recognise’ individual participants, and enable a ‘forum of participation’ (Delcroix & Inowlocki, 2007). In empowering people to co – produce local solutions to local issues, it is hoped that the research process will be a process of reconnection, rekindling a sense of control, ability to exercise influence over individual and community lives and, as a consequence, well being. The research design will seek to identify pressure points, points of disconnection and potential connection, points with the potential for support, (re) actualisation and change, with a view to helping identify specific issues and solutions

Brokering academic literacies in a community of practice

This paper examines the ‘academic literacies’ approach to supporting postgraduate international students in the business school of a post-92 English university. The support service was evaluated with appreciative inquiry methods, consulting students and academics. The most helpful support, according to students and academics, came from the ‘academic literacies’ approach, which was enhanced, and enabled, because it was linked to two other ideas: communities of practice, and the learning developer as a broker

Disconnected Biographies: : An exploration of the challenges inherent in balancing paradoxical discourses borne of both growing individualisation and dominant global constructs.

“Needing to become what one is is the hallmark of modern living” (Baumann 2001) – prophetic words introducing Beck’s study “Individualization”. Beck raises a number of points which, accelerated by the advance of media technologies have since come to characterise society in 2016. Rather than achieving a ‘reflexive modernity’, the ‘risky venture’, which characterises Beck’s concept of biography, the removal of certainties in terms of employment, geographical location, family, leaving everything subject to decision – making, on an individual and immediate level, without considering the consequences has become even more risky, and the potential for globalisation to divide rather than unite is demonstrated in global conflicts, extreme levels of income inequality, displacement of millions, increasingly violent crime, and media – fuelled xenophobia. ‘Social crisis phenomena’, focusses blame on the individual, and the markets create ‘atomisation’, for Beck the Biography is a lifetime study adapting to rapid and enforced change, but too often in isolation, an isolation clearly identified by Putnam in recognising the demise of social capital in “Bowling Alone” (1999). The isolation created by this focus on the self as the main project is unhealthy, both for the individual and society. Prilleltensky is very clear that connectedness is a source of well being, and that this connectedness should be present at a personal, community and professional level. Prilleltensky cites studies conducted by Marmot over a 25 year period which quite clearly demonstrate that both individual autonomy and connectedness are vital elements of well being. This balance is not only absent in current society, but, conflated with ‘cultural products’ (Bourdieu) related to the acceptance of celebrity and media success as concepts of power and personal power, this imbalance has created the social conditions which support the rise to power of the narcissist, the obvious example being the Trump presidential candidacy giving rise to an unprecedented public diagnosis by American psychologists including Gardner. Such social conditions have nurtured the creeping acceptance of speeches expressing hatred for specific groups. In short, the biography of ‘the other’ has been displaced and even negated, and the disconnected biography has become a source of opinion not discourse. The very real challenge, for educators, social workers, psychologists, politicians, indeed anyone working with people, explored in this paper, is to find a means to create a more enlightened environment to promote open discourse, to redefine concepts of individual and societal success within current systemic and institutional constraints and their global drivers. To revisit existing concepts of self and our stories in a more connected way, identify means of being rather than having, (Fromm). To develop and explore the need for interpersonal connections in personal and social well – being. A focus on celebrating existing biographies and stories of hope and humanity, of connecting with local and global communities in reflective discourse, as a means to develop new ‘connected biographies’. References: Beck, U Individualization, Sage London 2001 Bourdieu (1987) Distinction, Harvard University Press, Boston Fromm, E (1993) To Have or To Be Continuum, London Gardner, H (2016) https://howardgardner.com/2016/01/28/is-donald-trump-a-narcissist/ Prilleltensky, I & O (2006) Promoting Well Being Wiley, NJ Putnam, R (2001) Bowling Alone, Schuster and Schuster, NY

Catalytic Degradation of Waste Polymers

Plastics have become an integral part of our lives. However, the disposal of plastic waste poses an enormous problem to society. An ideal solution would be to break down a polymer into its monomer, which could then be used as the building-blocks to recreate the polymer. Unfortunately, the majority of plastics do not degrade readily into their monomer units. Thermal degradation of polymers usually follows a radical mechanism (which is of high energy and requires high temperatures) and produces a large proportion of straight chain alkanes, which have low relative octane number (RON) and so cannot be used in internal combustion engines. However, a suitable catalyst can help to branch straight alkane chains and so give high RON fuels that can be blended into commercial fuels. An extensive thermogravimetric study of polymer-catalyst mixtures was undertaken and produced dramatic reductions in the onset temperature of degradation and significant changes in the activation energy, suggesting a change to a desirable Brønsted- or Lewis-acid catalysed degradation mechanism in many cases. For example, GC-MS analysis of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) degraded with Fulcat 435 clay showed the polymer forming a large number of C6-C7 single-branched alkanes of intermediate RON value. In comparison, degradation of LDPE in the presence of a ZSM-5 zeolite (280z) resulted in the production of a large aromatic content (41% of Total Mass at 450ºC) together with branched C6-C8 hydrocarbons (40%). This formation of a large proportion of high RON components from polyethylene and other polymers could move us one step closer to tackling the enormous problem of plastic waste disposal that the world faces today

Rewriting Buddhism

Rewriting Buddhism is the first intellectual history of premodern Sri Lanka’s most culturally productive period. This era of reform (1157–1270) shaped the nature of Theravada Buddhism both in Sri Lanka and also Southeast Asia and even today continues to define monastic intellectual life in the region. Alastair Gornall argues that the long century’s literary productivity was not born of political stability, as is often thought, but rather of the social, economic and political chaos brought about by invasions and civil wars. Faced with unprecedented uncertainty, the monastic community sought greater political autonomy, styled itself as royal court, and undertook a series of reforms, most notably, a purification and unification in 1165 during the reign of Parakramabahu I. He describes how central to the process of reform was the production of new forms of Pali literature, which helped create a new conceptual and social coherence within the reformed community; one that served to preserve and protect their religious tradition while also expanding its reach among the more fragmented and localized elites of the period

Developing enterprise culture in a northern educational authority in the UK: involving trainee teachers in learning-orientated evaluation

In this paper we discuss our use of innovative methods - at least in the context of regeneration evaluation - to help evaluate an enterprise project in northern England, paying particular attention to the involvement of trainee teachers. We discuss the methods used and critically appraise the methods and methodology, present some emerging findings from the trainee teachers strand and conclude by discussing the place of what might be termed 'learning-orientated evaluation' in relation to the currently dominant output-focussed evaluation paradigm.</p