Ray Griffin - Böcker

The sociology of unemployment is an analysis of the experience and governance of unemployment. By considering unemployment as more than just the absence of work; the book explores unemployment as a distinctive experience created by the welfare state.Each chapter explores an aspect of the experience or governance of unemployment; beginning with how people talk about their experience of being unemployed individually and collectively, to the places of unemployment, and on to the processes, policies and forms of the social welfare system. Clear explanations of classic theories are explored and extended, all against the backdrop of new primary research. Chapter by chapter, The sociology of unemployment challenges the 'deprivation theory of unemployment' which dominates sociology, psychology and social policy, by focusing on how governmental power forms the experience of unemployment. As a result, the book is both an introductory text on the sociology of unemployment and a fresh, critical perspective.

Defining the principles and practices of walking as critical pedagogy, this book engages with social questions and challenges related to understandings of the Anthropocene.Through a series of chapters that operationalize walking as a form of participatory pedagogy, it explores issues including migration and borders, sustainability and climate change, gender and feminist thought, the labour market, crime and rehabilitation, and urban life and regeneration. Showing how walking enables us to learn creatively, convivially and critically on the move in city spaces, while thinking relationally, the authors demonstrate the importance of space, time and place: the layers of history embedded in the present, and the importance of active, embodied, participatory, collaborative, creative and place based learning.A pioneering approach to walking as a form of engagement and learning, Walking as Critical Pedagogy will appeal to researchers and students across the social sciences interested in new methods and research methodologies, and creative ways of teaching and learning about – and engaging with – major global issues in society.

Defining the principles and practices of walking as critical pedagogy, this book engages with social questions and challenges related to understandings of the Anthropocene.Through a series of chapters that operationalize walking as a form of participatory pedagogy, it explores issues including migration and borders, sustainability and climate change, gender and feminist thought, the labour market, crime and rehabilitation, and urban life and regeneration. Showing how walking enables us to learn creatively, convivially and critically on the move in city spaces, while thinking relationally, the authors demonstrate the importance of space, time and place: the layers of history embedded in the present, and the importance of active, embodied, participatory, collaborative, creative and place based learning.A pioneering approach to walking as a form of engagement and learning, Walking as Critical Pedagogy will appeal to researchers and students across the social sciences interested in new methods and research methodologies, and creative ways of teaching and learning about – and engaging with – major global issues in society.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the ongoing digital transformation of public employment services (PES) – the most radical remaking of the welfare state in a generation.As PES shift from analogue to fully digitised services, this volume bridges the gap between technology, policy and frontline service provision. It provides a well-rounded analysis of the practical opportunities and challenges posed by digital welfare, reconnecting and reconciling technical possibilities and political ambitions with what is socially necessary as welfare systems undergo radical change.

Western culture has ‘faith’ in the labour market as a test of the worth of each individual. For those who are out of work, welfare is now less of a support than a means of purification and redemption. Continuously reformed by the left and right in politics, the contemporary welfare state attempts to transform the unemployed into active jobseekers, punishing non-compliance.Drawing on ideas from economic theology, this provocative book uncovers deep-rooted religious concepts and shows how they continue to influence contemporary views of work and unemployment: Jobcentres resemble purgatory where the unemployed attempt to redeem themselves, jobseeking is a form of pilgrimage in hope of salvation, and the economy appears as providence, whereby trials and tribulations test each individual. This book will be essential reading for those interested in the sociology and anthropology of modern economic life.Chapters 1 and 3 are available Open Access via OAPEN under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.