Marian Barnes – författare

Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. Written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, this book examines the initiative’s development and impact from a variety of perspectives. It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which HAZ were established and discusses enduring themes such as building and developing capacity with diverse and unequal partners within complex policy systems.

Multidisciplinary in nature, the book provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative, offering guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.

Health Action Zones (HAZ) were one of the earliest and most prominent area-based initiatives launched by the New Labour government in England soon after it came to power in 1997. Written by members of the team undertaking the national evaluation of HAZ, this book examines the initiative’s development and impact from a variety of perspectives. It outlines important features of the social, policy and evaluative environment within which HAZ were established and discusses enduring themes such as building and developing capacity with diverse and unequal partners within complex policy systems.

Multidisciplinary in nature, the book provides in-depth analysis of a key policy initiative, offering guidance on how best to design, implement and evaluate future initiatives intended to deal with fundamental social problems.

Many policy and practice initiatives that aim to prevent social exclusion focus on children and young people. This book seeks to consider new approaches to understanding the complexities of prevention, and how these new understandings can inform policy and practice. The authors use evidence from the National Evaluation of the Children''s Fund to illustrate and explore the experiences of children and families who are most marginalised. They consider the historical context of approaches to child welfare, and present a new framework for understanding and developing preventative polices and practice within the context of social exclusion.

Preventative initiatives such as the Children''s Fund have supported large-scale complex evaluations that have generated rich and important data about strategies for addressing social exclusion and what they can achieve. The findings of this book have direct relevance for all those engaged in developing preventative policy and practice and will therefore be of interest to policy makers, practitioners and students of child welfare and social policy more broadly, in providing a timely discussion of key debates in designing, delivering and commissioning preventative services.

Many of the recent reforms in public services in the UK have been driven by the image of the ''responsible citizen'' - the service user who does not only have rights to receive services but also has responsibilities for the delivery of policy outcomes. In this way, citizens'' everyday conduct is shaped by governmental action, yet there is much evidence that both front-line staff in public services and the people who use them can sometimes act in ways that modify, disrupt or negate intended policy outcomes.

"Subversive citizens" presents a highly original examination of how official policy objectives can be ''subverted'' through the actions of staff and users. It discusses the role of public policy in the creation of ''good citizenship'', such as making appropriate choices about what to eat and how much to save, to being an active participant in the local community. It also examines how the roles of service delivery staff have changed substantially, and how theories of ''power'' and ''agency'' are useful in analysing the engagement between public policies (and those employed to deliver them) and the citizens at whom they are targeted.

The idea of subversive citizenship is explored through theoretical and empirical analyses by a range of prominent social researchers and will be of interest to students of social policy, sociology, criminology, politics and related disciplines, as well as policy makers involved in public services.

Many policy and practice initiatives that aim to prevent social exclusion focus on children and young people. This book seeks to consider new approaches to understanding the complexities of prevention, and how these new understandings can inform policy and practice. The authors use evidence from the National Evaluation of the Children''s Fund to illustrate and explore the experiences of children and families who are most marginalised. They consider the historical context of approaches to child welfare, and present a new framework for understanding and developing preventative polices and practice within the context of social exclusion.

Preventative initiatives such as the Children''s Fund have supported large-scale complex evaluations that have generated rich and important data about strategies for addressing social exclusion and what they can achieve. The findings of this book have direct relevance for all those engaged in developing preventative policy and practice and will therefore be of interest to policy makers, practitioners and students of child welfare and social policy more broadly, in providing a timely discussion of key debates in designing, delivering and commissioning preventative services.