PROBATION: POLITICS, POLICY AND PRACTICE

The aim of this study is to understand changes in the criminal justice system and their effects on policy and practice within the probation service In England and Wales. Towards this aim it utilises the techniques of participant observation, interviews, documentary research and an extensive self-completion questionnaire. The study proceeds by examining the history and politics of the Service and the relationship of these to changes in internal policy and occupational practice. More specifically, it then considers the responses of one probation area. Therefore, the study does not separate the issue of environmental effects on an organisation and how that has consequences for policy and practice within the Service. Within the Treen policy process, an 'implementation gap' is found to exist between probation management (ACPO and above) and the front-line (probation officers and ancillaries). However, the study goes further by examining the issues of autonomy and accountability of probation staff in relation to the organisation itself , as well as other groups and agencies. Further, alterations in the roles of personnel are examined in relation to the changes which policy implies. Again, significant differences are found to exist between the two groups of staff mentioned above. In order to further understand these differences, the study then examines ‘everyday work’ and finds that discretion is a necessary feature for managing and controlling a probation work setting . In the process, the issue of the compatability of policy and practice is raised and found to be wanting. Utilising a model developed in chapter 2, the study then seeks to understand these tensions as stemming from the 'politics' of the ‘alternatives to custody industry’ with its emphasis on central control and punishment; a philosophy at odds with the Service's traditional humanitarian concerns. The study finds in the nature of policy, a need for both both uniformity and predictability in probation work. However, the working environment is found to be neither uniform nor predictable, with front-line personnel also firmly believing that they need discretion in order to exercise their duties effectively. Finally, from a further understanding of this 'politics of probation', the study finishes with beliefs on the future development of the Service

The future of sustainable cities: governance, policy and knowledge

The aim of this special issue is to address a conceptual and empirical gap in the existing literature on sustainable cities. Uniquely, it brings together questions about the “what” (in this case, the content and representation of urban policy) of research on urban sustainability with “how” (the social organisation of knowledge and action) through the results of collaborative and comparative work. The special issue contains curated contributions that draw upon the findings of a comparative international project funded by Mistra (Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) through the Mistra Urban Futures Centre, based in Gothenburg. The project sought to bring together two questions that are usually treated as separate in existing research approaches. They are the “what” and “how” of sustainable cities’ debates. By working in partnership with local policy-makers, practitioners and universities, each local area entered into a process of collaborative design in order to examine assumptions, expectations, processes and the outcomes of knowledge co-production. This paper introduces the conceptual ideas behind this initiative and so provides a frame for the reader to situate the contributions. It then outlines those articles to draw connections between them and concludes with a short summary of what research and societal lessons can be learnt from the project

Boundary work in collaborative inquiry: Framing the contributions

This article situates the contributions to this special issue. It does so by examining the process of methodological justification and the relations between the content of knowledge and the context of production. Boundary work concerning these dynamics, along with issues applicability and credibility, along with the university as a core site of social research practice, are discussed. Once engagement with communities comes into the process of co-production, there is an ambivalence both among academics and universities concerning the place of such work. This leads to a set of devilish dichotomies in research practice that requires intensive boundary work in a process characterized as active intermediation between varying expectations. Framing the contributions in this way enables an enlargement of the scope of research with different communities in terms of boundaries of practice, whilst also questioning the selectivity that informs the impact and engagement agendas in universities

Transformative power: a study in a human service organization

This article focuses upon the relationship between power and organizational change. It specifically considers the question of under what conditions and utilising what tactics can people be induced to see their organizational existence in new ways. At the same time it focuses upon the basis of resistance to the methods employed within the organization and in so doing delineates the limits of such transformative power. For these purposes, it draws upon a three-year study conducted in the probation service and employs Callon's concept of a sociology of translation alongside the ideas of Weber and Foucault. The argument then extends beyond the probation service to note that the form and methods of these tactics are currently being employed throughout the public sector

The english government hits limits: knowledge politics and covid-19

Tragic its consequences, the Covid-19 pandemic has ripped through societies with, at the time of writing, global death rates exceeding two and a half million people. In the process, there has been variability in terms of how effectively governments have dealt with the pandemic. Differences between political responses, forms of governance and the relationships between science and politics are apparent. This article investigates these relations in the United Kingdom with a particular focus upon the interpretations that informed the response of the English Government and their interactions with the scientific community. For this purpose, it provides an exploration of the political and socio-economic conditions prevailing in the United Kingdom prior to the pandemic. It then examines the interactions between science and politics as the pandemic unfolded during 2020. Then, building on these discussions it views the tensions that arose through a clash between two characteristics within democratic societies: the redemptive and pragmatic. What becomes apparent is the tendency for a form of the redemptive to be favoured over the pragmatic which results in an exposure of limits to usual and narrow political ways of governing

Rapid Implementation of a Novel Embedded Senior Medical Student Program, as a Response to the Educational Challenges of COVID-19

As with many OECD countries, graduating medical students have been choosing specialist careers at a greater rate than ever before. Generalism in the form of family (general practice) and more generalist medical specialties have been trending down resulting in distributional geographic challenges. With the advent of COVID-19 in March 2020, medical schools and in particular the Joint Medical Program situated in a regional and rural area in NSW Australia had the unique opportunity to rethink the penultimate year curriculum when the previous rapid rotation model through numerous medical specialities became untenable. The need to vision a new practical pragmatic curriculum spurred a rapid revaluation of assessment, placement length and model with a pivot to an “embedded senior student placement” agnostic of discipline and supported by a competency-based learning portfolio. This article explores the barriers and enablers and identifies the potential elements of this type of placement which can be adapted to community and smaller rural sites. The positive student and supervisor experience also enabled an employment model to be woven into the students learning and ensured on hand medical student workforce for hospitals throughout the rural footprint. The capacity of these placements to celebrate variation in experience and support students to learn on the job have now caused a revision of the penultimate year with expectation of gains in students’ satisfaction and in employability. It has also opened up options to deliver and increase the inherent value of generalist placements with likely long term workforce benefit

Deconstructing the policyscape for reducing deforestation in the Eastern Amazon: practical insights for a landscape approach

In international debates on climate change mitigation and forests, there is increased recognition of the importance of a landscape approach to effectively address tropical deforestation. Such an approach, although increasingly promoted, remains only loosely defined and requires further development in order to effectively integrate different interventions at landscape level. In particular, it is important to understand the possible interactions between different landscape interventions at local level—where they are intended to have effect—and the challenges associated with them. Inspired by the complexity of policy mix analysis, this article seeks to shed light on these interactions by analysing how different policies and measures for reducing deforestation and degradation have played out in a jurisdiction with wide-ranging actors and interventions aimed at shaping their behaviour. Focusing on smallholders, we examine the Sustainable Landscapes Pilot Programme in São Félix do Xingu, looking at how different policies interact—categorising interactions as “complementary,” “mutually reinforcing” (synergistic), “in conflict,” “interdependent,” and/or “redundant”—and explain how proponents of this pilot programme seek to integrate them. Most analysis is based on primary data collected through quantitative (i.e., random stratified sampling and surveys) and qualitative (i.e., observation and focus groups) methods. The São Félix do Xingu case shows that understanding effects of different policies and measures on people's behaviour requires a deeper look at local perceptions and reactions to such policies and measures, something most studies on the topic have overlooked. Ultimately, the heterogeneity and complexity of social practices that permeate landscapes must be recognised in order to integrate diverse measures to reduce deforestation