Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
This chapter looks at the sometimes contradictory ideas of fairness underlying particular current national and local education policy and practice and tries to assess implications for a fair education system. Flagship educational policies including efforts to tackle the attainment gap are considered, which draw on ideas of equality of opportunity and meritocracy. Policies that focus on choice, based on ideas of libertarianism and the extension of a marketised economy to education are also considered. Additional aspects of fairness which are not central to policy, but which are important to broaden current conceptions beyond distributive justice, are then considered, such as relational justice. The chapter concludes by suggesting seven principles of educational fairness as a way to operationalise both distributive justice and relational justice.
This chapter uncovers social injustice in the lives of urban older people in North East England by mapping their narratives of experience onto Iris Marion Young’s framework of oppression. Drawing on the voices of more than fifty older people across a broad range of age and circumstances the chapter uncovers the toll of unsupported care work; the impact of poverty of resources, of mobility and relationships; the corrosive effect of incivility and invisibility and the erosion of self esteem caused by powerlessness. How can older people be treated with parity and have their voices heard in arenas of power? The chapter concludes by outlining the work of the Elders Council in Newcastle upon Tyne to gain recognition and respect, while noting that it remains unclear whether this leads to transformation.
This concluding chapter draws on the arguments and evidence provided by the contributors to this volume to discuss different conceptions of justice in and of the city, the diverse theoretical traditions that underpin them and different ways of studying them. It argues that this diversity reflects the complexity and the contested character of the interrelationship between justice and the city, and suggests that alternative perspectives can help develop a more sophisticated understanding of the multiple ways in which cities can be unjust. The chapter highlights the difficulties that city governments have in translating rhetorical commitments to fairness into actual reduction of injustices in and of the city, and the resistance to unjust processes and practices that are experienced in everyday life, pointing to the importance of the connection between justice and democracy. The chapter concludes by summarising some of the key points for future research and political action.
This chapter engages with the Newcastle Fairness Commission’s (NFC) report (published in 2012) which sets out the principles that would help Newcastle upon Tyne to become a fairer city. The chapter discusses the report’s vision about how salaries ought to be allocated within organisations, which it recognises as an important dimension of fairness. More specifically, the chapter considers whether or not this vision ought to guide the practical allocation of financial resources within Newcastle University which is a major employer in Newcastle upon Tyne. A system of pay reform is proposed to increase fairness within and beyond this organisation.
In recent years there has been much criticism of the spatial injustices caused when cities, especially of the developing world, strive for ‘world class’ status. Against this backdrop, this chapter discusses justice and fairness in one such city, Delhi, in India comparing it with what might be thought of as just the ‘ordinary city’ of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The chapter highlights that, while the scale and form of that injustice might be different, we should not be complacent about injustice in ordinary cities. Further, it argues that injustice in both cities is underpinned by the pursuit of a new urban orthodoxy and a desire to overlay the city with what is perceived as acceptable urban behaviour and how those who are perceived as ‘misfits’ are addressed.
This chapter introduces and critically discusses the concept of food justice; broadly conceived as the inter-relation between social justice and environmental justice as these issues are expressed within food systems. The chapter takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring food justice and builds on a range of literatures to explore the development of this important and powerful organising concept for contemporary society in challenging structural inequalities and environmental problems. The discussion explores the application of justice in relation to urban food systems more generally through focusing on particular actions within the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. However, the chapter concludes that without radical reform of the institutional arrangements and practices in this and other urban food systems the pervading structural inequalities and injustices risk remaining.
Fairness has been claimed as part of a language of governance in Newcastle upon Tyne which emphasises greater equality and citizen control. However, translating such abstract ideals into change on the ground is not easy. Concrete power struggles between residents in different parts of the city and the potential for unelected citizen voices to be perceived as threatening or discordant both have a significant influence on policy action while rarely being acknowledged during the drafting of abstract policies. Political vogues, such as fairness, may be challenged by established cultures for resolving these difficulties. The chapter explores the implications of these issues for the likely success of Liberalism as a means of pursuing fairness and argues that more attention is needed to the history of policy implementation if fairness is to be made real.
With more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas, ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ within the city are key concepts in contemporary political debate. This book examines the theory and practice of justice in and of the city through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on a wide range of expertise. By bringing diverse disciplinary and theoretical perspectives into conversation with each other to explore the (in) justices in urban environment, education, mobility and participation the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of justice and fairness in and of the city. It will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and students across a range of disciplines including urban and environmental studies, geography, planning, education, ethics and politics.
This book examines the theory and practice of fairness and justice in and of ‘ordinary’ cities through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on expertise in planning, politics, geography, ethics, education, law and urban design. The importance of understanding, identifying and addressing injustice in the contemporary city cannot be over estimated. More than half of the global population live in cities and ‘the city’ plays a key role in 21st-century global political economy yet we find a stark juxtaposition of radically unequal lives within contemporary cities. The contributors to this book address key questions about economic, social, educational, environmental and spatial justice in cities. In each chapter, the authors contribute to a multi-disciplinary conversation about unfairness and injustice in the city by placing their empirical research on a particular city (or cities) within their own disciplinary and theoretical framework. The book focuses on ‘ordinary’ cities, challenging the hierarchical classification of cities and the focus in much of the literature on ‘global’ cities. The city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom provides common ground for many of the chapters. Together, the contributions to this book show the complexity of the relationship between justice and the city, and deepen our understanding of the multiple ways in which cities can be unjust. They also highlight the importance of different forms of resistance to unjust processes and practices that are experienced in everyday life, contributing to discussions of the ‘right to the city’.
This book examines the theory and practice of fairness and justice in and of ‘ordinary’ cities through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on expertise in planning, politics, geography, ethics, education, law and urban design. The importance of understanding, identifying and addressing injustice in the contemporary city cannot be over estimated. More than half of the global population live in cities and ‘the city’ plays a key role in 21st-century global political economy yet we find a stark juxtaposition of radically unequal lives within contemporary cities. The contributors to this book address key questions about economic, social, educational, environmental and spatial justice in cities. In each chapter, the authors contribute to a multi-disciplinary conversation about unfairness and injustice in the city by placing their empirical research on a particular city (or cities) within their own disciplinary and theoretical framework. The book focuses on ‘ordinary’ cities, challenging the hierarchical classification of cities and the focus in much of the literature on ‘global’ cities. The city of Newcastle upon Tyne in the United Kingdom provides common ground for many of the chapters. Together, the contributions to this book show the complexity of the relationship between justice and the city, and deepen our understanding of the multiple ways in which cities can be unjust. They also highlight the importance of different forms of resistance to unjust processes and practices that are experienced in everyday life, contributing to discussions of the ‘right to the city’.
