Emma Williams – författare

Realist Evaluation: Principles and Practice offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary realist evaluation, showcasing how skilled practitioners navigate diverse fieldwork contexts.

Authored by experts spanning academia and evaluation backgrounds across five continents in fields including climate change, criminology, health, and international development, the book provides a rich tapestry of perspectives. Covering participatory approaches, digital and visual data collection, interpreter-mediated interviews, and innovative methods like refuse data analysis, the authors delve into contemporary social research methodologies while addressing issues such as power, insider/outsider research, the nature of evidence, critical and scientific realism philosophies of science, and confirmation bias in qualitative research. Practical advice is provided in areas such as developing a topic guide, combining a realist review with an evaluation, and managing large, multi-site cross-national projects. This collection underscores the creative nature of the realist imagination, highlighting ongoing innovations by scholars and evaluators.

With contributions from an outstanding group of internationally renowned experts in realist evaluation including Nick Tilley, a key figure in the development of realist evaluation alongside Ray Pawson, this is the ideal text for students, researchers and professionals including policy makers, professional evaluators, and those at organisations such as thinktanks and NGOs, who require an accessible guide on how to use realist evaluation methods.

Realist Evaluation: Principles and Practice offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary realist evaluation, showcasing how skilled practitioners navigate diverse fieldwork contexts.

Authored by experts spanning academia and evaluation backgrounds across five continents in fields including climate change, criminology, health, and international development, the book provides a rich tapestry of perspectives. Covering participatory approaches, digital and visual data collection, interpreter-mediated interviews, and innovative methods like refuse data analysis, the authors delve into contemporary social research methodologies while addressing issues such as power, insider/outsider research, the nature of evidence, critical and scientific realism philosophies of science, and confirmation bias in qualitative research. Practical advice is provided in areas such as developing a topic guide, combining a realist review with an evaluation, and managing large, multi-site cross-national projects. This collection underscores the creative nature of the realist imagination, highlighting ongoing innovations by scholars and evaluators.

With contributions from an outstanding group of internationally renowned experts in realist evaluation including Nick Tilley, a key figure in the development of realist evaluation alongside Ray Pawson, this is the ideal text for students, researchers and professionals including policy makers, professional evaluators, and those at organisations such as thinktanks and NGOs, who require an accessible guide on how to use realist evaluation methods.

Operation Soteria—a major Home Office-funded initiative—examined how police investigate rape and serious sexual offences. This book focuses on a critical but often overlooked aspect of that project: the role of learning, development, and officer wellbeing in these challenging investigations.

The book challenges a widespread assumption: that more training and continuous professional development will fix the persistent failures in rape investigation. The research reveals something more troubling. The way police training is currently designed and delivered isn''t solving the deep-rooted problems; in fact, it has become part of the problem itself. Organisations retreat into training programmes as a comfortable response that creates an illusion of progress to an external audience, whilst the underlying cultures and structures that produce failures remain unchanged and unchallenged.

For students, this book offers fresh perspectives on organisational justice and change theories in action. You''ll see how organisations can fail to support their own people even when they appear to be taking positive steps, and understand why genuine transformation requires confronting uncomfortable truths rather than deferring difficult conversations.

For practitioners and leaders, this is about moving beyond performative solutions. Officers investigating these crimes need real empowerment and support, not just training courses whose learning is neither valued nor embedded. We examine how the current approach affects officer welfare, shapes demand management, impacts victim services, and ultimately undermines organisational health. Most importantly, we explore how policing organisations can achieve genuine transformational change by addressing core systemic issues.

The book provides practical, evidence-based tools for demand modelling, strategic change planning, and assessing officer learning—all grounded on rigorous theoretical foundations. The aim is to help prevent the incremental build-up of burnout whilst building investigation capacity that serves both officers and victims effectively.

This collection speaks to police professionals, criminal justice practitioners, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand why meaningful change in this critical area of policing remains so elusive—and what we can actually do about it.

Operation Soteria—a major Home Office-funded initiative—examined how police investigate rape and serious sexual offences. This book focuses on a critical but often overlooked aspect of that project: the role of learning, development, and officer wellbeing in these challenging investigations.

The book challenges a widespread assumption: that more training and continuous professional development will fix the persistent failures in rape investigation. The research reveals something more troubling. The way police training is currently designed and delivered isn''t solving the deep-rooted problems; in fact, it has become part of the problem itself. Organisations retreat into training programmes as a comfortable response that creates an illusion of progress to an external audience, whilst the underlying cultures and structures that produce failures remain unchanged and unchallenged.

For students, this book offers fresh perspectives on organisational justice and change theories in action. You''ll see how organisations can fail to support their own people even when they appear to be taking positive steps, and understand why genuine transformation requires confronting uncomfortable truths rather than deferring difficult conversations.

For practitioners and leaders, this is about moving beyond performative solutions. Officers investigating these crimes need real empowerment and support, not just training courses whose learning is neither valued nor embedded. We examine how the current approach affects officer welfare, shapes demand management, impacts victim services, and ultimately undermines organisational health. Most importantly, we explore how policing organisations can achieve genuine transformational change by addressing core systemic issues.

The book provides practical, evidence-based tools for demand modelling, strategic change planning, and assessing officer learning—all grounded on rigorous theoretical foundations. The aim is to help prevent the incremental build-up of burnout whilst building investigation capacity that serves both officers and victims effectively.

This collection speaks to police professionals, criminal justice practitioners, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand why meaningful change in this critical area of policing remains so elusive—and what we can actually do about it.

The Ways We Think critiques predominant approaches to the development of thinking in education and seeks to offer a new account of thought informed by phenomenology, post-structuralism and the ‘ordinary language’ philosophical traditions.

The Ways We Think critiques predominant approaches to the development of thinking in education and seeks to offer a new account of thought informed by phenomenology, post-structuralism and the ‘ordinary language’ philosophical traditions.

The early career research stage is tough. Interesting, intellectually challenging, pushing back frontiers of knowledge, working with talented people from around the world - all fantastic things. But have you ever ...

The gender pay gap in UK Universities is 15.5%. Only 25% of professors are female. Big battles.

But as a researcher you are focused on your own battle: your career

Time to embrace the UNIque you and