Towards a Contemporary Sociology of Children and Consumption

This research explores children’s consumption practices, and through doing so contributes to the sociology of children and of consumption. Although there exists a growing body of research on children’s consumption, children and childhood are often only viewed as one of the contexts in which consumption takes place. Furthermore practices of consumption are seen as something which children are socialised into, moving from incompetent (child) to competent (adult) consumer. There are many taken for granted yet ambiguous conceptualisations of children’s relationship with consumer culture, for example the dichotomy between empowered and exploited child consumers. Consequently this research attempts to go beyond these taken for granted assumptions by engaging in face-to-face empirical work which explores the ways in which a group of children, aged between six and ten years old consume. The children took part in interviews and accompanied shopping trips, as well as completing journals in order to provide a detailed account of their practices of consumption. The ways in which children come to consume were explored and in particular the influence of family, peer groups, and the market was examined. Ultimately, this research provides one of the first empirical explorations of Daniel Cook’s (2010) theory of ‘commercial enculturation’. In doing so this thesis recognises that children are not mini-consumers in need of consumer socialisation, instead they are agentic social actors who constantly create and re-create their own social worlds which includes aspects of consumption. For the most part consumption is not something which stands outside of childhood experience and it is neither inherently exploitative nor empowering. Additionally, an exploration of moderation provides an original insight into children’s consumption practices. Children do not simply pester significant others in order to get what they want, instead they adopt and maintain a sophisticated understanding and relationship with consumption. Furthermore an examination of children’s consumption practices acknowledges consumption as a relational practice firmly located within the wider social relationships of the family

The creation of interactive activity pods at a Recycling Education Centre

This paper describes the creation of interactive, educational activity pods at an education centre at a recycling depot. The project originated from a new waste management contract between Cheshire West and Chester Council and May Gurney (now Keir Waste Management), which included the provision of educational facilities. Representatives from May Gurney and the council’s waste management team approached the Faculty of Education & Children’s Services looking for input into the proposed education centre to be set up in Winsford, Cheshire. An already existing module on Education for Sustainable Development was modified to enable trainee teachers on a specialist global learning route of an undergraduate programme to devise and create interactive exhibits and activities for the Centre. Although a quite unique opportunity to create learning resources about recycling issues, the process described in the paper illustrates ways in which higher education, the private sector and local authorities can co-operate effectively for mutual benefit and the benefit of learners. Trainees’ ideas also illustrated ways in which the, sometimes quite abstract, concepts of Education for Sustainable Development can be translated into engaging activities with implications at local and more global levels

Are Police-Led Social Crime Prevention Initiatives Effective?: A Process and Outcome Evaluation of a UK Youth Intervention

Police-led interventions with ‘at risk’ young people, raise a number of debates around policing in society including the allocation of resources at a time of fiscal austerity, the extent to which the police should prioritise the safety and wellbeing of young people, and the role that the police should take in preventing youth crime. This article explores the impact and effectiveness of a police-led social crime prevention initiative in England. It adopts the QUALIPREV approach by Rummens et al (2016) on behalf of the European Crime Prevention Network to analyse the data allowing for a detailed and replicable analysis of core aspects including police engagement, risk management, offending rates and police-community relations. Drawing on comparisons between the UK case study and previous studies on police-led social crime prevention projects in Australia and Canada, the article identifies a number of common challenges for schemes of this nature including problems with multi agency working, developing a clear project identity, unequal resources across different locations, and the difficulty in recruiting and retaining volunteers. However, there were also significant benefits to such schemes, including positive impacts on offending rates, engagement of at risk young people, and wider benefits to the communities within which the young people live, including participation, volunteering and reduction in risks of community harm. A cost-benefit analysis also shows such scheme have the potential to offer significant savings to the criminal justice system as a whole

Creating Community and Belonging in a Designated Housing Estate for Disabled People

In recent years there has been an ideological push within social care away from segregated housing provision towards supported housing integrated within the wider community (McConkey, Keogh, Bunting, Iriarte, & Watson, 2016; Merrells, Buchanan, & Waters, 2019; Overmars-Marx, Thomése, Verdonschot, & Meininger, 2014). Despite this, many housing solutions for older and disabled people continue to be built on a designated basis, with physical and emotional wellbeing outcomes being both contested and mixed. After reviewing key policy relating to social care housing alongside some of the theoretical and ideological positions, this article explores the social and emotional outcomes of a diverse group of disabled people living with mental health difficulties, physical and intellectual impairments, illnesses and age-related conditions, who moved into a small, purpose-built estate of smart homes. Drawing primarily on qualitative data collected from tenants prior to moving and again seven months following relocation, the impact of moving into the estate on tenants’ sense of wellbeing and feelings of inclusion will be analysed and discussed in relation to efforts to build a new community