Research reports by Marjorie Mayo
An exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community enga... more An exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community engagement are to be genuinely inclusive of newcomers as well as more established communities.
Papers by Marjorie Mayo
Policy Press eBooks, Mar 19, 2014
The research explored the impact of public service modernisation agendas as these were being expe... more The research explored the impact of public service modernisation agendas as these were being experienced by public service professionals and volunteers engaged in Law Centres. Law Centres were providing front-line advice to individuals and communities in disadvantaged areas, information and advice services that have been identified as centrally important to public service modernisation agendas, as governments have been aiming to shift the balance of power and accountability away from public service providers towards more active and informed citizens and service users. Were these policy agendas facilitating the development of more effective, more accountable services? Or conversely were they being experienced as demotivating and demoralising, potentially undermining the occupational values and identities of those involved? More specifically the research also aimed to identify the ways in which these changes were being addressed, what strategies were being adopted to manage competing pressures and demands whilst maintaining professional ethical standards. There are potential implications here for debates on the future of the public service ethos, more generally. The first stage of the research consisted of a postal/electronic survey of 107 Law Centre staff, volunteers and management committee members and trustees. This survey was followed up with two rounds of interviews, 112 interviews in total, the first round being with Law Centre staff and volunteers (including management committee members and trustees) and the second round being with other stakeholders, including local authority officers and councillors and representatives of other advice agencies. Including the views of other stakeholders gives added weight to the research’s conclusions about the value of Law Centres, as well as the values of those who work in them.
Journal of social intervention: Theory and Practice, Feb 16, 2009
An exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community enga... more An exploration of the challenges to be addressed if government policies to promote community engagement are to be genuinely inclusive of newcomers as well as more established communities. Community engagement and community cohesion are both current public policy priorities. But there have been gaps in our understanding about how to promote community representation in ways that take account of diversity and population change. This research explores: • whose views were being heard and whose were not; • what were the barriers to being heard and how they could be overcome; • how these barriers could be addressed in ways that would promote community cohesion, rather than increasing competition within and between communities. Through three case studies, the study also identifi es ways in which new communities can be involved effectively, together with more established communities, thereby increasing cohesion and mutual solidarity. This publication can be provided in other formats, such as large print, Braille and audio.
Social Policy & Administration, Dec 1, 2006
There has been considerable recent discussion of the impact of public service reforms on the work... more There has been considerable recent discussion of the impact of public service reforms on the work ethics and motivations of public service workers. In this article we draw upon recent research on the ethical dilemmas facing regeneration workers in order to look more closely at the role of values in the working lives of public service professionals. Focusing on the commitment to social justice, we argue that such values find expression in two interlinked ways, as something workers have and as a process of giving value to different goods. Our research reveals that while both aspects of values are rooted in people's life experiences the second dimension is more contingent and relational. While public service reforms appear to have less impact upon workers' pregiven values, they can and do have an impact on the way in which these values find expression in attachment to different goods. To understand the effect of such reform processes on workers' motivations we therefore need a more complex conceptual framework than that provided by either simple public sector ethos/private sector ethos distinctions or by models of economic individualism offered by writers such as Julian Le Grand.
Violence against women is a worldwide yet still largely hidden problem. One in three women worldw... more Violence against women is a worldwide yet still largely hidden problem. One in three women worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime’ (Walby, et al, 2017. 2). This matters. Violence wrecks lives (Ibid). But freedom from the threats of harassment and sexual assault are freedoms that so many women can hardly imagine, because violence is such a deep rooted aspect of so many cultures. These issues are becoming increasingly recognised for the social injustices and human rights violations that they are – and increasingly challenged. This has been especially so in India, following the national and indeed the international publicity that followed the horrific rape of a young woman in Delhi, in 2012. Although the victim subsequently died from her injuries, this was not before she had time to give evidence about the attack, and so to raise wider awareness of the urgent need for action in response.
Access to justice for disadvantaged communities, 2014
Cultures, Communities, Identities, 2000
The previous chapter on cultural strategies and community economic development included some disc... more The previous chapter on cultural strategies and community economic development included some discussion of tourism, with a focus on the varying implications for the local host communities. This chapter shifts to focus upon those who travel, and more specifically upon those who travel in response to wider pressures, rather than predominantly as a matter of individual preference. Leaving the homeland raises potential questions about culture, community and identity and processes of change, both for those who leave and for their children, second generation migrants, raised in another place. How might cultural strategies for community development address the issues faced by migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, those who have left home, whether as a result of wider economic, social or political pressures? And how might such strategies take account of diversities within as well as between these communities as these develop and change over time including differences relating to gender, age, class and political perspective?
Changing Communities
This chapter starts by summarising previous definitions and approaches to the contested concept o... more This chapter starts by summarising previous definitions and approaches to the contested concept of ‘community’, typically defined in terms of ‘communities of place’, ‘communities of identity’ and ‘communities of shared interests’. Reflecting upon the experiences of communities in response to migration and displacement, the chapter concludes that such previous definitions need to be expanded. They need to take account of the ways in which communities form and re- form, in response to displacement and dispossession. And they need to take account of the multiple ways in which people identify with varying communities simultaneously, both locally and as members of faith communities and transnational communities.
Challenging the third sector, 2015
The Crisis of the Inner City, 1979
For a decade now, British governments of varying political complexions have been more or less com... more For a decade now, British governments of varying political complexions have been more or less committed to community intervention programmes, from the Educational Priority Areas, the urban programme, CDP, inner area studies and CCPs to the current partnership schemes for the inner cities. Despite all the indications to the contrary, official sponsorship of citizen participation and community action has remained on the political agenda. The White Paper on the inner cities made the commitment clear: ‘Involving local people is both a necessary means to the regeneration of the inner areas, and an end in its own right.’1
The dilemmas of development workEthical challenges in regeneration, 2008
Access to justice for disadvantaged communities, 2014
Progress in Development Studies, 2001
... 290 Young people, development in the South, urban regeneration in the North at Google Indexer... more ... 290 Young people, development in the South, urban regeneration in the North at Google Indexer on June 24, 2010 pdj.sagepub.com Downloaded from Page 14. emerged as a key issue, with teachers being seen as more authoritarian than youth workers (with implications for ...
International Journal of Social Welfare, 2007
Community Development Journal, 2005
The British government and powerful international agencies present investment in social capital a... more The British government and powerful international agencies present investment in social capital as a way of promoting neighbourhood renewal, community health and educational achievement. This book confirms the significance of social capital as an analytical tool, while challenging the basis on which current policy is being developed.
Community Development Journal, 2005
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Research reports by Marjorie Mayo
Papers by Marjorie Mayo