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This article examines the experiences of a newly formed detached youth work project in Scotland and its relationship to neo-liberal ideology. The growth of neo-liberalism has, as with other social professions, made detached youth work vulnerable to a deficit-based approach. This has come hand-in-hand with managerial practices focused on efficient, targeted interventions delivered through short term budgets. The article, drawing on ethnographic data, describe a team of youth workers challenged with reconciling their deep commitment to delivering a programme of relational youth work with the targeted focus of the project on 'risky' youth and associated local apparatus of community safety. Throughout youth work's history the dividing line between youth work and mechanisms of social control has been slippery to navigate. The article argues that emergent neo-liberal ideology presents a further professional challenge to youth work. In the context of austerity and a widening neo-liberal policy agenda from Westminster, Scottish youth workers are being required to work harder to demonstrate that the service is not simply there to target 'risky' social groups or 'plug the gaps' that the state can no longer provide. Youth workers, in this context, must continue to make the case in defence of well-resourced, universal youth work and its potential to contribute to tackling social injustice and inequality.

This article reflects on the evolution of public libraries in Scotland and, in particular, the impact and consequences of austerity measures on Andrew Carnegie's foundational belief that public libraries are for the 'good of the people'. It does this first by situating Scottish libraries in their historical context and examining MacDougall's (2017) rich accounts of those working in the sector from the 1930s to late 1990s. This was demonstrably a period of profound social change, and one which offered the sector multiple opportunities. Library services were able to evolve and expand, both as a profession, and in their position as a core public service in local communities. The second part of the article turns to data collected as part of ongoing research funded by the Leverhulme Trust on the value of the modern public library. The accounts presented are from those currently working with, and for, public libraries. Continuity is observed in the fundamental principles that library staff aspire to uphold. The critical change is in their ability to deliver these principles in the face of ever-increasing austerity cuts, experienced as a continual 'chipping' away of services. This, combined with growing demands for welfare services from communities increasingly burdened by poverty, means the library service is more important than ever before – yet in a greater position of precariousness.

Developments in the conceptualisation of childhood have prompted a fundamental shift in young people's position within social research. Central to this has been the growing recognition of children's agency within the landscapes of power between child participants and adult researchers. Participatory research has rooted itself in this paradigm, gaining status from its principles of social inclusion and reciprocity. While participatory research has benefitted from a growing theoretical analysis, insight can be deepened from reflexive accounts critiquing participation "in the field". This article presents one such account, using the example of an ethnographic study with young people living in a "disadvantaged" housing estate in the UK. It describes how efforts to "enable" young people's participation were simultaneously embraced, contested, subverted and refused. These, often playful, responses offered rich insight into how the young participants viewed themselves, their neighbourhood, and "outsiders" efforts to give them voice. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of conceptualising participation not simply as a set of methods, but as a philosophical commitment which embraces honesty, inclusivity and, importantly, the humour that can come from this approach to research.

Anxieties about young people's use of public space are closely connected to strategies aimed at tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB). In Scotland, legal measures were introduced through the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004, which included police powers to disperse groups, impose parenting and antisocial behaviour orders. Legal interventions affecting young people were received with caution in Scotland and, in comparison to the rest of the UK, their use has been limited. In 2009 the Scottish Government conducted a review of ASB policies, signalling an official move away from punitive measures, towards a more holistic approach which balances enforcement with prevention, early intervention and rehabilitation.

In an attempt to understand youth-related antisocial behaviour, UK social policy has typically sought answers from the edge; investigating the motivations of young people perpetrating deviant behaviour or exploring the experiences of victims. Equally polarised and sensationalist narratives are present in journalistic accounts, with Knight's Hood Rat and BBC documentary The Scheme both depicting the lives of young people in 'disadvantaged' neighbourhoods as on the margins of society. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in a Scottish housing estate, this paper calls for a localised and situated approach to understanding 'the antisocial'. The empirical data shows that young people do not fit easily into the dualist categories of 'perpetrator' or 'victim'. Despite living in what could be classed an 'antisocial' place the majority of young people's everyday experiences were not spent on the margins but rather somewhere in-between, while their own identities were described as normal and unspectacular. The paper concludes by emphasising the value of research that situates understandings of 'the antisocial' within its everyday social context. This offers us the opportunity to take a broader analysis of young lives and crucially re-establish the connection between lives on the margins and the 'missing middle'.

This article examines the growth of resilience-focused youth policy in Scotland, and its association with the proliferation of the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) agenda. To do this, it critically compares policy discourse with qualitative data on young people's experiences of growing up in two similar, low-income neighbourhoods. This combination leads us to problematise resilience-informed practice, relative to the voices of young people. Our review demonstrates that by emphasising individual protective factors, resilience discourse reframes inequalities embedded within certain neighbourhoods, and the specific impacts on young people who live there. The consequence is not an assets-based youth policy that supports all young people, but rather a form of resilience which promotes the 'steeling' of young people; making them stronger and more resistant to adversities. These adversities, we conclude, may be preventable within a more just social order.

This article reflects on the contribution of qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) to understandings of homeless peoples' experiences of support service interventions in an era of austerity in the UK. It brings into 'analytic conversation' data from qualitative longitudinal evaluations of homeless support projects operated by voluntary sector organisations in Scotland. With fieldwork spanning 2014-2019, the analysis expands the analytical potential of pooling small-scale studies through an interrogation of individuals' 'journeys' through homelessness services and their rough path to 'home'. By reflecting on our substantive findings, the article explores the added value and challenges of a longitudinal approach. It concludes that while QLR can deliver deep insight into lives lived by vulnerable populations and potentially reduce the distance between policy makers and those affected, its benefits must be balanced against pragmatism and the ethical responsibilities associated with the method.

An established body of multi-disciplinary evidence demonstrates that children and young people's lived experiences and spheres of influence are fundamental to their wellbeing and realisation of rights, with adversity suggested to have significant and long-term consequences. For the past two decades the Scottish Government has responded with a sustained strategic commitment to children and preventive policy measures. Only recently have Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) assumed a prominent role in this context. A corresponding policy development in Scotland has been on children's rights, with significant steps taken towards implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This has involved a focus on incorporation, with the tag line 'making rights real'. By analysing key literature and policy documents, this article considers the extent and shape of the interconnections between these policy areas. Informed by Carol Bacchi's problem representation framework, we identify evidence of conceptual pairing. However, deep engagement in children's rights appears to be lacking, as is children and young people's active role in national ACE-policy review and development.

AbstractThe last 20 years have seen exponential growth in participatory research methods in child and youth studies, social work, education and allied disciplines. Scholars internationally have highlighted the ways these methods can connect with other areas of scholarship including children's rights, citizenship and activism. The Binks Hub is a new initiative committed to supporting, promoting and delivering transformative, co‐creative research. The funding, monitoring and impact regimes within higher education can mean that delivering these commitments is challenging. This article uses three empirical cases involving participatory methods to reflect on these challenges and examine the connections and disconnections between participatory research and activism. The work of Sassen (2014) is employed to make spaces before and beyond method more visible. These spaces, we conclude, are critical to creating the foundations for relational participatory practice, and ensuring initiatives like the Binks Hub have long‐term meaning and value.

In recent years, tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has become a central dimension of early years, education, youth and family policy. In this Scottish Affairs special issue, we discuss why this public policy has galvanized so much attention in Scotland, and the possible consequence its popularity might have in theory, policy and practice. How, for example, has ACE research shaped how policy is responding to poverty and social inequality? What moral judgements are made by the ACE-agenda, and how might it obscure alternative ways of thinking about the problem of adversity, and cultivating lasting solutions. With contributions from academics and practitioners across different disciplines and practice settings, the collection points to an ongoing need for critical engagement in ACE-policy, and a greater commitment to understanding how ACE-policy is being translated into different practice settings. While theoretical debates are important, future research must prioritise the experiences of practitioners, and those with lived experience of adversity.

PART I: FROM BIG QUAL TO THE BREADTH-AND-DEPTH METHOD -- 1. The place and value of large-scale qualitative data analysis -- 2. Introducing the breadth-and-depth method -- PART II: AN ENQUIRY-LED OVERVIEW OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH DATA SETS -- 3. Sourcing and searching for suitable data sets -- 4. 'Ariel surveying': Overviewing the data and constructing a corpus -- PART III: MOVING BETWEEN BREADTH-AND-DEPTH IN QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS -- 5. 'Geophysical surveying': Recursive surface 'thematic' mapping using data mining tools -- 6. 'Test pit sampling': Preliminary analysis -- 7. 'Deep excavations': In-depth interpretive analysis -- PART IV: REFLECTING ON THE IMPLICATIONS OF LARGE-SCALE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS -- 8. Ethics and practice -- 9. Big qual and the future of qualitative analysis.

This article explores the way people from different age cohorts and genders talk about home moves to contribute a rounded and nuanced relational understanding. We draw on a secondary analysis of qualitative longitudinal data from multiple archived studies, using a breadth-and-depth analytic approach. Conceptually, we apply a linked lives perspective that understands home moves as tied to sets of social relationships and involving the navigation of structural circumstances. We identify complex discrete and serial small stories where moving away from or returning to is interdependently linked to others staying put, and staying put to others' home moves, at local, intra-national, and trans-national levels. Home moves are shaped structurally by gender and age cohort generation. Home and moving tend to be more salient in women's accounts, articulating with familial generation as their own and others' comings and goings accumulated over their lifetime. Structural issues are also evident in the material and social resources that enable and constrain home moves, with more micro-level identification of recurrent themes of anxieties in the accounts of men who are starting/have young families, in contrast to women's anxieties concerning the relational implications of home moves.

peer-reviewed ; Background Identifying ethnic inequalities in health requires data with sufficiently 'granular' (fine detailed) classifications of ethnicity to capture sub-group variation in healthcare use, risk factors and health behaviors. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in the USA, commissioned us to explore granular approaches to ethnicity data collection outside of the USA, commencing with the European Union. Methods We examined official data sources (population censuses/registers) within the EU-28 to determine the granularity of their approach to ethnicity. When ethnic information was not available, related variables were sought (e.g. country of birth). Results Within the EU-28, we found 55% of countries collected data on ethnicity. However, only 26% of these countries (England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) had a granular approach, with half of these being within the UK. Estonia, Lithuania, Croatia, Bulgaria, Republic of Cyprus and Slovenia collected one to six categories. A 'write-in' option only was found in Latvia, Romania and the Czech Republic. Forty-five percent of countries did not collect ethnicity data but collected other related variables. Conclusions (i) Although there is reasonable attention to the diversity of ethnic groups in data collection, a granular approach does not predominate within EU-28 classifications. (ii) Where ethnicity is collected, it is conceptualized in different ways and diverse terminology is used. (iii) A write-in option provides the most granular approach. (iv) Almost half of the countries did not collect data on ethnicity, but did collect related variables that could be used as a proxy.

BACKGROUND: The Tanzania government sought support from The Global Fund to Fight AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria to reform its Medical Stores Department, with the aim of improving performance. The study sought to assess the impact of the reforms and document the lessons learnt. METHODS: Quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied to assess the impact of the reforms. The quantitative part entailed a review of operational and financial data covering the period before and after the implementation of the reforms. Interrupted time series analysis was used to determine the change in average availability of essential health commodities at health zones. Qualitative data were collected through 41 key informant interviews. Participants were identified through stakeholder mapping, purposive and snowballing sampling techniques and responses were analysed through thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Availability of essential health commodities increased significantly by 12.6% (95% CI 9.6% to 15.6%) after the reforms and continued to increase on a monthly basis by 0.2% (95%CI 0.0% to 0.3%) relative to the preintervention trend. Sales increased by 56.6% while the cost of goods sold increased by 88.6% between 2014/2015 and 2017/2018. Surplus income increased by 56.4% between 2014/2015 and 2017/2018 with reductions in rent and fuel expenditure. There was consensus among study participants that the reforms were instrumental in improving performance of the Medical Stores Department. CONCLUSION: Positive results were realised through the reforms. However, despite the progress, there were risks such as the increasing government receivable that could jeopardise the sustainability of the gains. Therefore, multistakeholder efforts are necessary to make progress and expand public health.