|
Director of CRSP
I joined CRSP in September 2006 from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Sociological Studies. I have been an active researcher for over 15 years and had core responsibility in managing and running a number of large research programmes funded by the Research Councils, Government and Charities. Between 2002 and 2006 I was Director of the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth at Sheffield University. I am currently Chair of the Executive Committee of ARCISS (the Association of Research Centres in the Social Sciences)
Academic Profile
I was born and educated in Sheffield. In 1986 I returned (as a mature student) to higher education and completed my undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Sheffield. I completed my doctorate in 1994 and after working on a number of research projects in Sheffield and Warwick Universities I was appointed at the Department of Sociological Studies in March 2000. In 2002 I was instrumental in setting up the Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth. The Research Centre involved ten University Departments spread across 4 Faculties. It has a growing number of international academic partners from around the globe (USA, Europe and Australia) and has a strong interest in cross cultural and comparative research. The Centre also has a major role to play in the development of policy and practice at regional and national level.
Research
Between 2001 and 2006 I was Co-Director of the £1.3 million ESRC longitudinal Research Network: Pathways into and out of Crime. This Research Network involved 5 Universities and was concerned with researching young people´s pathways into and out of crime. I was also Principal fundholder of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Evaluation of the Communities that Care Programme and was also Principal fundholder of the £1.5 million Home Office funded evaluation of the On Track early intervention and prevention programme. More recently I have been developing research in questions of children’s transitions to youth.
Recent Publications
Books
France, A. (2007) Understanding Youth in Late Modernity, Buckingham, Open University Press.
France, A. and Homel, R. (2007) (edited collection) Pathways and Crime Prevention: Theory, Policy and Practice, Willan Publishers.
Papers
National Youth Agency Briefing Papers
The National Youth Agency (NYA) commissioned a series of five briefing papers on the Every Child Matters core outcomes for children and young people - one for each theme.
The five outcomes are:
- to be healthy;
- to be safe;
- to enjoy and achieve;
- to make a positive contribution; and
- to achieve economic well-being.
CRSP was responsible for writing two of the papers: Staying Safe (Book 3) and Making a Positive Contribution (Book 5). These papers focus on the making a positive contribution and staying safe strands of Every Child Matters. The papers also provide an overview of relevant Government policy, draw on academic research evidence and consider the contribution youth work makes to delivering services for young people across the local authority. The papers will also be used to raise awareness of youth work.
References
France, A., Sutton, L. (April 2007) Staying Safe: the implications of youth work of Every Child Matters. Leicester: National Youth Agency, Book 3.
France, A., Sutton, L., Sandu, A. and Waring, A. (April 2007) Making a Positive Contribution: the implications of youth work of Every Child Matters. Leicester: National Youth Agency, Book 5.
The remaining papers are available, under the Research Programme Series, on the NYA website.
Chapters in Books
France, A. (2009) Changing Conceptions of Youth in Late Modernity in Wood, in Wood, J. and Hine, J. (ed) (2009) Work with Young People. London: Sage Publications.
France, A. (2009) Young People and Anti-social Behaviour in Furlong, A. (ed) (2009) Handbook of Youth and Young Adulthood: New perspectives and agendas, Oxon: Routledge.
France, A. and Meredith, J. (2009) Giving Respect: the 'new' responsibilities of youth in the transition towards citizenship in Millie, A. (ed) (2009) Securing Respect: Behavioural expectations and anti-social behaviour in the UK, Bristol: Policy Press.
France, A. (2006) Changing perceptions of youth in late modernity in Hine, J. and Wood, J. (2006) Youth Policy and Practice, Sage Publications. November 2006.
France, A. (2003) 'Theoretical and methodological challenges to researching youth and youth issues', in Fraser, S., Lewis, V., Ding, S., Kellett, M., and Robinson, C. (eds.) Doing Research with Children and Young People. London: Sage, pp. 175-90.
France , A. (2002) 'Evaluating Youth Work', in Deer-Richardson, L. and Wolfe, M.(eds.) Principles and Practice of Informal Education. London: Routledge, pp. 269-87.
Blackman, S. and France, A. (2000) 'Youth Marginality Under Post-Modernism: An examination of the Theorization of Youth Culture, Globalisation and Citizenship', in N. Stevenson (ed.) Cultural Citizenship: Critical Crossroads between Sociology and Cultural Studies. London: Sage, pp. 180-97.
Journal Articles
France, A., Freiberg, K. and Homel, R. (2010) Beyond Risk Factors: Towards a Holistic Prevention Paradigm for Children and Young People, British Journal of Social Work, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 1192-1210.
Predelli, L. N., France, A. and Dearden, C. (2008) Introduction: The Poverty of Policy? Gaps in Anti-Poverty Policy for Children and Young People in Social Policy and Society, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp.471-477.
France, A. (2008) From Being to Becoming: The Importance of Tackling Youth Poverty in Transitions To Adulthood in Social Policy and Society, Volume 7, Issue 4, pp.495-505.
France, A (2008) Risk Factor Analysis and the Youth Question in Journal of Youth Studies, Volume 11, No. 1, pp. 1-15.
France, A. (2007) Juventud, Ciudadana y gestion de la inclusion en Reino Unido in Sistema 197/198.
France, A., Meredith, J. and Sandu, A. (2007) Youth Culture and Citizenship in Multicultural Britain in Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 307-320.
France, A. and Homel, R. (2006) Societal Access Routes and Developmental Pathways: Putting Social Structure and Young People's Voices Into the Analysis of Pathways Into and Out of Crime. Australian New Zealand Journal of Criminology Vol. 39.
France, A. and Homel, R. (2006) Pathways into and out of crime: A review. Editorial Introduction to the Special Edition of the Australian New Zealand Journal of Criminology, Vol. 39.
Crow, I., Hacking, S. and France, A. (2006) The Evaluation of Three Communities that Care Projects in the UK, Security Journal, Vol. 19 No. 1.
France, A. and Utting, D (2005)‘The Paradigm of ‘Risk and Protection-Focused Prevention’ and its impact on Service for Children and Families’. Children and Society Vol. 19 pp77-90.
France , A. and Crow, I. (2005) ‘Using the Risk Factor Paradigm’ in Prevention: Lessons from the Evaluation of Communities that Care’ Children and Society Vol. 19 pp172-183.
France, A. (2001) 'Involving Communities in the Evaluation of Programmes With "At Risk" Children and Young People', Children and Society, vol. 15, pp. 39-45.
France, A. (2000) 'Towards a Sociological Understanding of Youth and Their Risk Taking', Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 3, pp. 317-31.
Hoogvelt, A. and France, A. (2000) 'New Deal: The Experience and Views of Clients in One Pathfinder City', Local Economy, vol. 15, pp. 112-27.
Postgraduate Supervision
I have a strong research interest in the following areas:
-
Youth and Citizenship: Issues of inclusion and exclusion
-
Youth, risk and risk taking in late modernity
-
The criminalizing process and its relationship to the youth experience
-
Questions of Identity and transitions for young people
-
The development and impact of ‘youth services’ for young people.
Current and Recent Research Projects
The Children's Market: characteristics, trends and strategies
As part of its ongoing commitments under the Children’s Plan, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport commissioned an independent assessment of evidence relating to the impact of the commercial world on children’s well-being. The assessment examined children’s commercial world in the broadest sense, not limited to a focus on advertising and took account of the beneficial aspects of children’s engagement with commercial activities, as well as potentially problematic outcomes. CRSP and the Department of Social Sciences were commissioned to undertake a review of the marketing and advertising industries strategies towards children and young people. These findings are available as Appendix H, Children and Marketing, in the published report.
Related Publication
France, A., Meredith, J. and Murdock, G. (2009) Appendix H - Children and Marketing in Buckingham, D. (2009) The Impact of the Commercial World on Children's Wellbeing: Report of an Independent Assessment. DCSF: Nottingham.
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the New Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB)
The Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), in partnership with the Centre for Children and Family Research (CCFR), undertook an evaluation of the effectiveness of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) in England. The issues covered by this study are central to the current government agenda for children’s services, underpinned by the Children Act 2004, to ensure an integrated approach to service provision and that children are safeguarded and their welfare promoted. This project, sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health, commenced in January 2008 and completed in March 2010.
Publications
France, A., Munro, E. R., Meredith, J., Manful, E. and Beckhelling, J. (2009) Effectiveness of the New Local Safeguarding Children Board in England: Interim Report. DCSF Report Report RR126.
France, A., Munro, E. R. and Waring, A. (2010) The Evaluation of Arrangements for Effective Operation of the New Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England. DCSF Research Brief DCSF-RBX-10-03.
Understanding the Experience of Ethnic Minorities at Loughborough University
Loughborough University commissioned CRSP to undertake a research project into the performance and experiences of ethnic minority students at Loughborough. The University sought to understand whether existing data demonstrated anything about the experience of its applicants and students, and whether ethnic minority students were having less positive experiences at Loughborough than white students. The research approach was both quantitative and qualitative - it drew on existing data available through the University systems and developed a range of focus groups and one-to-one interviews with a wide-range of participants.
Ex-Prisoners Study: An Exploratory Investigation into Links Between the Criminal Justice System, Jobcentre Services and the Labour Market
This project ran from February 2005 - February 2008 and was an exploratory study of ex-prisoners. This group is particularly disadvantaged in the labour market, experiencing high levels of unemployment, low grade or no qualifications, poor health, especially in relation to substance misuse, personal barriers such as low self-esteem and confidence, and gaps in support and services. There were four strands to the work: qualitative interviews with key staff from employment services; qualitative research with a cohort of ex-prisoners with three waves of interviews, the first one being prior to release from prison; focus group discussions with ex-offenders; and a synthesis report to draw together the findings from the various strands of the work. The final research report was published by the sponsor, the Department for Work and Pensions in July 2008.
Related Publication
Hartfree, Y., Dearden, C. and Pound, E., (2008) High Hopes: supporting ex-prisoners in their lives after prison, Department for Work and Pensions Research Report 509.
top
|
