Book review: working for policy

Dave O’Brien opens up the black box of policy making in this diverse collection of essays for the academic eye. The essays paint a picture of policy emerging from politicians, bureaucrats, professional experts, advocacy and interest groups, as well as academics, media and citizens, in situations where policy is never a linear process with clear beginnings, middles and ends

Derry’s year as UK City of Culture holds great promise but its success should not be measured in narrow economic ways

The programme for UK City of Culture (UKCoC) in Derry was launched at the end of October with the usual narrative of culturally led urban renewal. Dave O’Brien argues that while it is unlikely that Derry will replicate the economic success of previous UKCoC’s, it is possible that other less easily quantifiable gains will be accrued by the city

Book review: parliamentary socialisation: learning the ropes or determining behaviour? by Michael Rush and Philip Giddings

How and from whom do MPs learn about their role in the Commons? In Parliamentary Socialisation, Michael Rush and Philip Giddings consider the range of sources that provide socialisation for MPs as they enter the House of Commons. Dave O’Brien finds limitations in the book’s theoretical analysis, but gives much credit to the authors for providing a readable and engaging account of how the House shapes its members.

The arts and cultural sector faces ‘apocalyptic’ cuts in austere Britain. But new ways of looking at economic value can help to make the case for culture.

In the government’s programme of cuts it has become clear that the arts may well be hit the hardest. While historically it has been hard to pin down an ‘economic value’ on art, Dave O’Brien argues that the sector should learn from the green movement in applying an economic valuation based-approach, which may help the sector to make a better case for culture in a time of austerity.

Class and the problem of inequality in theatre

Theatre stakes a claim to represent individuals, communities, and nations. Yet both the workforce and the audience are marked by significant inequalities. There are absences of people of colour and those from working-class origins, along with significant gender inequalities in specific roles and specific productions. Awareness of these issues has, in part, been driven by recent research from social science. The techniques from social science that make inequalities visible can be at odds with the preferred modes of understanding inequality favoured by theatre practitioners. This paper is situated at the intersection of social scientific and theatre practice, considering the potential and pitfalls of methods of making inequality visible. In doing so, it frames the discussions that follow in the special issue, as well as suggesting ways that theatre and social science might have productive working partnerships

Connecting community to a post-regeneration era

This chapter aims to bridge the discussion of the history of community in urban regeneration with the rest of the book. It does this by advancing a central argument- that urban policy has entered a post-regeneration era- along with a specific discussion of the Connected Communities programme. The chapter begins by outlining how and why the era of urban regeneration came to an end, building on the discussion in chapter two, with a specific focus on the combination of broader socio-economic structures and ideological decisions that have shaped urban policy since 2010. The ideas of localism, city mayors, big society and de-centralisation are all considered, along with practical developments such as the National Planning Policy Framework. These agendas and events are then used to understand the Connected Communities programme and the way that its focus, specifically on co-production and co-development with communities, has come to represent the leading edge of academic research in this area

Inequality talk:How discourses by senior men reinforce exclusions from creative occupations

Cultural Studies has drawn attention to the way that cultural and creative industries are marked by significant inequalities. This article explores how these inequalities are maintained, through fieldwork with senior men making decisions in cultural and creative industries. Drawing on 32 interviews with senior men across a range of cultural and creative industry occupations, conducted as part of a larger (N = 237) project, the analysis shows that misrecognition and outright rejection of inequalities are now not the norm. Rather, ‘inequality talk’ and the recognition of structural barriers for marginalised groups is a dominant discourse. However, individual careers are still explained by gentlemanly tropes and the idea of luck, rather than by reference to structural inequalities. The distance between the discourse of career luck and ‘inequality talk’ helps to explain the persistence of exclusions from the workforce for those who are not white, middle class origin, men. This has important implications for inequalities in cultural production and consumption, and in turn for wider social inequality

Deflecting privilege:Class identity and the intergenerational self

Why do people from privileged class backgrounds often misidentify their origins as working class? We address this question by drawing on 175 interviews with those working in professional and managerial occupations, 36 of whom are from middle-class backgrounds but identify as working class or long-range upwardly mobile. Our findings indicate that this misidentification is rooted in a self-understanding built on particular ‘origin stories’ which act to downplay interviewees’ own, fairly privileged, upbringings and instead forge affinities to working-class extended family histories. Yet while this ‘intergenerational self’ partially reflects the lived experience of multigenerational upward mobility, it also acts – we argue – as a means of deflecting and obscuring class privilege. By positioning themselves as ascending from humble origins, we show how these interviewees are able to tell an upward story of career success ‘against the odds’ that simultaneously casts their progression as unusually meritocratically legitimate while erasing the structural privileges that have shaped key moments in their trajectory

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing? Patients' and Healthcare Professionals' Perceptions of Oxygen Therapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Background: Despite emerging evidence and guidelines, poor prescribing and administration of oxygen therapy persists. This study aimed to explore healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) and patients’ perceptions of oxygen. Design: Semi-structured interviews with 28 patients and 34 HCPs. Findings: Three master themes uncovered: oxygen as a panacea, the burden of oxygen, and antecedents to beliefs. Patients used oxygen for breathlessness and as an enabler; they were grateful to oxygen and accepted it as part of the disease. HCPs used oxygen because it helps patients; it works; and it makes HCPs feel better. But oxygen is not benign and a burden is evident with potential antecedents to beliefs revealed. Summary: The findings suggest that a set of fixed beliefs regarding oxygen exist, influenced by several impacting factors. The perception that oxygen is a universal remedy presides, but is, at times, contradictory. These findings will raise awareness of entrenched cultures, influence future educational and research strategies, and inform policy