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
Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
During the cost-of-living crisis, schools and nurseries have had to step beyond their educational purpose to offer free food to families through food banks. This book explores how these food banks operate, why families use them and how they affect children’s participation and wellbeing. Drawing on case studies of 12 primary schools and early years settings across England, it examines the impact on family wellbeing, home-school relationships and staff.
The authors argue that the situation will remain unsustainable if this welfare work continues to be unfunded and unrecognised, raising a significant question of who should and who can be responsible for alleviating child poverty.
This chapter is the first of three chapters which focus on research data based on interviews with staff working in schools and early years settings with food banks. The chapter explores how schools supply food to families, including where food comes from and how it is distributed to families. It is argued that schools use their knowledge of the local community to decide how food is given out, and the role of choice in affording families dignity. The ‘origin stories’ of the food banks are also explained, in order to consider in more depth why schools have decided to offer this provision. Central to this chapter is the concept of policy enactment which emphasises the importance of context. We discuss how context guides the operation of a school’s food bank, even though a policy is not being enacted in the strictest sense. Schools and early years settings can be vastly different, and this necessitates food bank provision on different scales and of different types.
The education sector has in recent years experienced significant challenges due to rising levels of need among communities, as families have struggled with poverty, including experiencing food insecurity during the cost-of-living crisis. This chapter outlines this context for the food banks in schools and early years projects by exploring existing research on the relationships between poverty and education, the impact of Covid and austerity, and how hunger affects learning and family stress. The literature on community food banks is also explored, including the key issues relevant to food banks in schools: the role of stigma, the social role of food and how food banks relate to the withdrawal of the state from responsibility for welfare.
This second chapter of findings explores the impact of having a food bank from the perspective of those who work in a school or early years setting. The impact is significant for many of the participants, but diverse, and goes far beyond an impact on children’s learning. This chapter explores how adults perceive the effect of families having regular access to free food on children’s learning, participation and motivation. The wider social impacts of receiving food and other goods, including how children are able to experience and enjoy ordinary childhood activities, are then examined. These are important in understanding the impact of food banks in schools, and can be seen as part of a school’s practices of inclusion. A third section of the chapter focuses on the impact of families, which is seen by teachers to be far more diverse than simply reducing hunger. School staff’s perceptions of families include some deficit discourses, and it is argued that these form part of a continued deserving/undeserving poor narrative that persists. This points to the complexity of food banks as a social practice, but it is argued that schools are well placed to understand and cater for these needs.
In this concluding chapter, the wider policy implications of food banks in schools are discussed. Returning to the central argument relating to the responsibilisation of schools to address the problem of child poverty, the chapter begins an exploration of staff views of food banks as a phenomenon. The impact on budgets and staff, and the lack of recognition for this work within accountability systems are also discussed. The lack of policy in this area for schools is a key point in this chapter. Tools from policy sociology relating to policy enactment are insufficient to understand this topic, and require some evolution to consider how schools act when faced with a policy vacuum. The issue of responsibility is then considered in more depth, as the focus shifts to whether the argument made in relation to public food banks and the withdrawal of the state applies to school food banks. This leads to an argument for a more nuanced understanding of how responsibilisation is operating within the neoliberal state. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how we might conceptualise educational responses to the cost-of-living crisis, and why this research matters in terms of how we view schools and welfare state.
This third chapter of research findings explores how leaders balance the advantages of operating a food bank with the additional costs, beginning with a discussion of the impact on home–school relationships. This includes discussion of how difficulties can arise in relationships. Justifications for the food banks are examined here, drawing on both moral and practical reasons. Schools offer a practical solution, in that parents attend the site regularly and there is reduced stigma. School leaders are pragmatic about their unique position as the service which sees children regularly, arguing that if they did not provide food, no one would. This chapter examines the ambiguity of feeling about stepping beyond education into welfare-related work, and the complexities of decision-making around what can and should be done by schools.
This book is about how growing levels of child poverty have resulted in schools and early years/early childhood settings stepping beyond their educational purpose to feed hungry families during the cost-of-living crisis. Schools, nurseries, nursery schools and pre-schools offer free food to families experiencing food insecurity through food banks which operate on-site, in various forms. This chapter sets out our rationale for the research, which relates to the cost-of-living crisis in the early 2020s, and some background on the primary and early years education sectors. The chapter then sets out the theoretical framework for our analysis, and discusses the key concepts of enactment and responsibilisation. The research design and methods are then outlined. A final part of the chapter sets out the structure of the remaining chapters.
How can we help children make a difference, allowing them to shape their communities, locally and globally? Drawing on a rich blend of academic research and case studies, Alison Body critically examines societal structures, including education, communities and cultural narratives, that shape children's understanding of active, philanthropic citizenship.
Children as Change-Makers calls for a reimagining of philanthropy as a form of participatory citizenship, advocating for a philanthropic ecosystem framed by justice, solidarity and collective action. It serves as a roadmap for all stakeholders – from individuals to institutions – to empower children as agents of positive social change, fostering a more just world for generations to come.
In this concluding chapter I offer a summary of the key arguments in this book, alongside a critical examination of raising children as philanthropic citizens, challenging conventional notions of philanthropy and citizenship. Through highlighting the role of children as change agents in philanthropy, I advocate for a shift towards fostering critical thinking, collective action and social justice. I emphasise the importance of defending spaces within in youth work and education for children’s agency, advocating for their right to voice, fostering collective action and redistribution of power. By challenging institutionalised notions of the ‘good citizen’ and advocating for allyship and solidarity, the chapter calls for a transformative approach to philanthropy rooted in justice. It concludes by urging a shift in funding practices towards community-led initiatives and involving children in decision-making processes, thus promoting a more inclusive and equitable philanthropic ecosystem.
This chapter critically explores the pressing concerns facing children in our ever-changing world. While climate change, human rights limitations and global conflicts loom large, there’s also hope in the form of remarkable individuals and initiatives. Here I focus on the evolving concept of childhood citizenship, examining the tension between viewing children as current stakeholders or future citizens. The UNCRC catalysed this debate, challenging traditional notions of citizenship. I advocate for a balanced approach that acknowledges children as citizens while accommodating their developmental needs. However, challenges persist, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and governmental restrictions on civil liberties. As children navigate this complex landscape, this chapter concludes by arguing that it is imperative to empower them as active participants in shaping their world.
