Stephen Sinclair

Dismissing Disaffection: Young People's Attitudes Towards Education, Employment and Participation in a Deprived Community

This article examines whether young people in a deprived area are disaffected with education, training and employment, or disengaged from participation in their community. It draws upon evidence from the Drumchapel Aspirations Survey, a study of the attitudes, aspirations and skills of young people from one of the most deprived areas of Glasgow. The study involved a survey of young people in two secondary schools in the Drumchapel area, and focus groups with recent school-leavers. The research explored young peoples outlooks at a critical life-stage transition: their levels of social participation, existing skills, future employment and training ambitions, and their understandings of the processes involved in the transition to employment. These data are analysed to examine whether there is evidence of any rejection of mainstream values or an oppositional culture among young people in this deprived community or among any sub-groups within it. The Drumchapel Aspirations Survey study demonstrates that there is no evidence that young people in Drumchapel are disaffected or disengaged; however, indications of skills and aspiration gaps between different types of young people merit further attention and action.

Dilemmas of Community Planning Lessons From Scotland

Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) are a central feature of a programme of local government modernization and public service reform in Scotland. CPPs are intended to ensure that local authorities, other local public agencies, the voluntary, community and private sectors develop a shared vision for their area and work in partnership to implement this. CPPs therefore have much in common with similar initiatives in other parts of the UK, such as communities strategies, Local Strategic Partnerships, and proposals contained in the 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill in England. This article discusses how the development of CPPs relates to devolution in Scotland. It identifies systemic dilemmas, if not contradictions, encountered in implementing community planning in Scotland. Tensions exist reconciling partnership working with local authority leadership; between community planning as an additional or core duty of public agencies; between community engagement and the practical demands of policy making; and between central government direction and local partnership autonomy.

Social Innovation and Social Policy – Promises and Risks

Social innovation (SI) is an increasingly prominent but contested issue in discussions of social policy reform. Although not yet a familiar concept, nor widely understood (least of all by policy makers), it has entered mainstream policy discourses. However whether SI marks a significant departure in either theory or in practice, or merely in rhetoric, remains to be determined. This Review Article, and the Themed Section as a whole, aims to set out some of the questions social policy analysts should ask about SI, and to help clarify whether or not it is a significant development which merits attention. The Review begins by considering some of the reasons for the recent interest shown in SI before clarifying the meaning of the concept and outlining some of the different forms SI has taken. This discussion is followed by a consideration of some of the practical and theoretical questions which SI raises for social policy analysis. The Review concludes that social policy analysts cannot afford to ignore SI, but that the most effective contribution the discipline can make is to apply a critical empirical perspective to test the significance, value and impact of SI.

Beyond Virtual Inclusion - Communications Inclusion and Digital Divisions

Access to and engagement with information and communications technologies (ICTs) are increasingly important aspects of social inclusion. This paper draws upon analyses of UK survey data and a review of research on communications and social exclusion published in the UK between 2001 and 2006 to examine the social distribution of access to and uptake of ICTs and to explore key factors restricting the digital engagement of young people from lower income households and communities. It argues that effective strategies to bridge digital divisions in the UK must pay more attention to the social rather than technological barriers which inhibit communications inclusion.

Partnership or Presence? Exploring the Complexity of Community Planning

Abstract Partnership working between the public, private and third sectors is a defining feature of the contemporary local public policy landscape in the UK. Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) in Scotland involve representatives from different sectors working in partnership, led by the relevant local authority. CPPs resemble local governance reforms elsewhere in the UK and encounter similar problems, among which are difficulties in successfully integrating voluntary sector organisations. This article draws upon research which explored the influence of voluntary sector participants in relation to community planning processes at the strategic, managerial and operational levels. It examines the suspicion that voluntary sector representatives have a ‘mere presence rather than a voice’ in local policy-making (Cameron, S. & Davoudi, S. (1998) Combating social exclusion – looking in or looking out?, in: G. Madaanipour et al. (Eds) Social Exclusion in European Cities, pp. 250 (London: Jessica Kingsley), and explores the potential contribution of complexity theory to interpret the relationships involved in local partnerships. It is concluded that voluntary sector participants are junior partners in CP and have to adapt how to operate and convince the leading public sector partners that they are business-like in order to exert influence.

Failing young people? Education and aspirations in a deprived community

Recent UK government statements and education policies have emphasized the need to instil a ‘culture of aspiration’ among young people in deprived communities to address social exclusion. Specific proposals include raising the school leaving age to 18 and extending compulsory employment training.These statements and measures express the employment-oriented model of citizenship that underpins New Labour’s approach to social justice. This article reflects on this approach by discussing survey evidence that explored the attitudes towards education and employment among young people in a deprived community in Glasgow. These data show that the majority of these young people were ambitious regarding their post-school career paths and optimistic about their employment prospects. Emphasizing the alleged low aspirations of young people in deprived communities fails to address the socio-economic conditions and opportunities that limit educational attainment and inhibit their accomplishment of full citizenship.

Financial inclusion and social financialisation: Britain in a European context

Purpose – The article aims to discuss findings from a knowledge exchange review of financial inclusion in Britain and compare these to key features of financial exclusion evident from European analyses. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on an innovative knowledge exchange project. Rapid research reviews analysed evidence on financial exclusion in Britain in relation to access to banking services; to credit; to household insurance; personal savings and assets; money advice provision; and financial capability. The findings from these reviews were discussed by stakeholders representing the private, government, community and civil society sectors in a series of evidence review forums. The results of these discussions were summarised and reconsidered at a national knowledge exchange conference. Throughout the project, stakeholders exchange opinions about the state of financial exclusion knowledge through an online discussion forum. Findings – The research identified agreement among British stak...

Introduction: Social Innovation and Social Policy

This themed section discusses the conceptual development and related empirical applications of social innovation (SI), a concept acquiring a prominent position in both academia and the world of policy. When SI started being used in the early 1990s relatively few social scientists were familiar with it, mainly those interested in urban policy. Less than two decades later, not only is SI at the heart of the largest public research funding programme in Europe ( Horizon 2020 ), it is also constantly referred to in the discourses of senior level policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic.

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