Turning Brass to Muck? A Small Scale Exploration of Charities Use of Charity Bags Collections

The title of this paper is an inversion of the usual cliché of turning muck to brass, which it is arguable that charity bag collections do, by providing an in income for charities for goods that would normally be thrown away. While previous research has highlighted that charity bag collections are becoming an increasingly significant source of income for charities, enabling charities to metaphorically turn muck into brass, research has been rather disparate in its analysis of four main issues highlighted as pertinent to this growth. These are: the frequency of collection requests; the amount of materials collections provide; the amount of commission received by charities from outsourced collections, and the extent of bogus/fraudulent collections. This paper uses data collected over a 12 month period using a convenience sampling method to explore these issues in some empirical detail. The findings particularly suggest in that there are a number of processes through which charities undertake their collections which risks undermining the current and future income from charity bags, and which thereby has the potential to invert the metaphor, and turn what has become muck to brass into brass to muck, thereby losing out on a significant income stream

Whither Multiculturalism? – an Analysis of the Impact on Welfare Practice and Theory of Policy Responses to an Increasingly Multicultural Society in the UK

The UK is becoming an increasingly multicultural society, driven by a variety of demographic changes, particularly increased net migration from EU10 and the EU2 enlargement over the last 20 years. In response to this, there have been two main policy focus, that of reducing immigration and limiting entitlement to welfare benefits for migrants. This article will analyse the challenges that the latter of these policy changes in particular pose for practice, both in terms of its application and its theoretical implications. In terms of practice application, the paper outlines how the limitation of entitlement to welfare benefits on the one hand amplifies already existing issues, and on the other creates new challenges for social welfare practitioners with migrant groups. In terms of theoretical implications, the paper will outline how these policies reflects a retreat in policy away from multiculturalism towards assimilation, such as in relation to specifying the assimilation of ‘Britishness’ and ‘British values’ in daily life. Underpinning this retreat from multiculturalism is a changed citizenship, or more specifically the diminution of social citizenship rights integral to being complete citizens

Contrasting Greek and UK youths’ subjective responses to austerity: lessons for other European countries

Since 2010, many European countries have faced severe economic crises, resulting in the implementation of various forms of ‘austerity’ social policies, and Greece and the UK have been at the forefront of the implementation of such policies. While it is important to note that these austerity measures are affecting different groups in different ways, the impact on young people can be seen as particularly deleterious. For example, in contrast to previous generations, young people in these countries are now experiencing intense social, political and economic transformations that have impacted particularly on their current and future lives, and are very likely to be the first generation to do worse than their parents

How the UK's migration regime negatively affects the lives of transnational couples

Clive Sealey and Daniel Nehring discuss how the recent changes to UK migration policy have redefined the way that transnational marriages are created and maintained. The explain that, on the one hand, legal and financial requirements can force couples to marry earlier than they otherwise would have, but on the other hand they also limit their ability to function as a couple once married

Social Exclusion: Re-examining its Conceptual Relevance to Tackling Inequality and Social Injustice

This paper rationalises the continued conceptual utility of social exclusion, and in so doing addresses the prevailing question of what to do with it. This is relevant from social exclusion’s declining relevance in contemporary UK social policy and academia, where its consideration as a concept to explain disadvantage is being usurped by other concepts, both old and new. The paper analyses criticisms of limitations of social exclusion which have typically centred on the operationalisation of the concept, but I will argue that there are distinctive operationalisation and conceptual strengths within social exclusion which make it value-added as a concept to explain disadvantage. Specifically, there will be an analysis of both New Labour’s and the present Coalition government’s conceptualisation of the term in policy in relation to work.The analysis highlights the significant difference that a focus on processes rather than outcomes of social exclusion can make to our understanding of inequality and social injustice, and locates this difference within an argument that social exclusion’s true applied capabilities for social justice requires a shift to a conceptualisation built on the processes that cause it in the first place. The paper acts as a rejoinder to prevailing theoretical and political thinking of the limited and diminishing value of social exclusion for tackling disadvantage. In particular, the paper shows how social exclusion can be conceptualised to provide a critical approach to tackling inequality and social injustice, and in doing so foregrounds the truly applied capabilities of social exclusion for transforming social justice

Britishness and British Values: The Diminution of Migrants’ Social Citizenship Rights

Increasing net migration has been the main driver for the increasing UK population over the last 20 years, and reducing immigration and limiting benefit tourism entitlement for migrants have been the two key policy foci to deal with this. This article focuses on the latter of these. This article will analyse how such changes in welfare entitlements for migrants is also impacting in an exclusionary way on the citizenship rights of the wider native population

A comparison of subjective experiences and responses to austerity of UK and Greek youth

Following previous research carried out by Chalari (2014; 2015), this qualitative study explores the ways in which the younger generation in Greece and UK has been affected by austerity policy measures. These two countries have been at the forefront of intense social, political and economic transformations that have impacted particularly on young people’s current and future lives. This study aims to explore similarities and differences in young people’s subjective experiences and responses, as from this it may be possible to discern whether there is a general, long-term negative effect of austerity across Europe. The data shows that there are some similarities in the two cohorts’ subjective experiences and responses, but perhaps more interestingly some significant differences. The study discusses what the implications of these differences might be for young people and society in these countries, in terms of their impact on the abilities of the younger generation, in a way that has the potential to destabilize their personal and professional lives now and in the future

Intimate Citizenship and the Tightening of Migration Controls in the United Kingdom

This article examines recent changes in British family migration policy. It explore the reasons for these policy changes. It highlights that these changes have affected the legal, financial, social and lived experiences of transnational couples. It uses primary research to exemplify these changes, For example, it highlights that the changes in policy has had some negative impacts on the ability of transnational families to have intimate relationships with each other. Some of these changes have led to the separation of couples. Other changes have led to what couples outline as an involuntary separation from the UK. This research has current and future relevance in the context of the focus of the current government, and the likelihood that policy will be tightened even further in the aftermath of Britain leaving the EU, post-Brexit

An Impact Evaluation of the 'Joy Project'

This report gives an overview of research undertaken to evaluate the impact of the JOY Project which is based in the City of Worcester, England. The project is "a woman only community project which provides support to enable women to gain a variety of skills, enhance their confidence and empower them to make their own informed decisions" (WCT, 2018a). The evaluation considers the extent to which the project serves the local community by comparing data on service users with local socio-demographics and outlines the extent to which the project's aims and outcomes set by the funder, The Big Lottery Fund) are met. It highlights additional outcomes and captures the impact of project activities on service users. Ultimately, it draws conclusions about the quality, impact and value of the JOY Project