Sophie Watson – författare

Engendering Social Policy brings new and fresh perspectives to the question of how social policy constructs gendered social relations. With the restructuring of welfare firmly back on the political agenda, in the context of a reassertion that traditional families are the backbone of society, this book raises important issues for students, academics and practitioners grappling with social policy issues at the end of the millennium.Articles in the collection draw on a diversity of theoretical and methodological perspectives engaging with issues that have vexed feminist analysts and activists over more than two decades. The collection explores how social policy constructs gendered relations, the difference/equality debate, representations and discourses of gender in social policy, the tensions and issues associated with restructuring domestic relations, and feminist alternatives to mainstream social policy solutions. The book adopts a comparative and international perspective taking on board the importance of global changes as well as illustrating its argument with practices and research from a number of countries.This book is essential reading for those interested in seriously addressing questions of gender and social policy in an international framework.

Some cities have grown into mega cities and some into uncontrolled sprawl; others have seen their centres decline with populations moving to the suburbs. In such times, questions of the public realm and public space in cities warrant even greater attention than previously received.Concerned with the borders and boundaries, constraints and limits on accepting, acknowledging and celebrating difference in public, Sophie Watson, through ethnographic studies, interrogates how difference is negotiated and performed. Focusing on spaces where to outside observers tension is relatively absent or invisible, Watson also reveals how the boundaries between the public and private are being negotiated and redrawn, and how public and private spaces are mutually constitutive. Through her investigation of the more ordinary and less dramatic forms of encounter and contestation in the city, Watson is able to conceive an urban public realm and urban public space that is heterogeneous and potentially progressive. With numerous photographs and drawings City Publics not only throws new light on encounters with others in public space, but also destabilizes dominant, sometimes simplistic, universalized accounts and helps us re-imagine urban public space as a site of potentiality, difference, and enchanted encounters.

Some cities have grown into mega cities and some into uncontrolled sprawl; others have seen their centres decline with populations moving to the suburbs. In such times, questions of the public realm and public space in cities warrant even greater attention than previously received.Concerned with the borders and boundaries, constraints and limits on accepting, acknowledging and celebrating difference in public, Sophie Watson, through ethnographic studies, interrogates how difference is negotiated and performed. Focusing on spaces where to outside observers tension is relatively absent or invisible, Watson also reveals how the boundaries between the public and private are being negotiated and redrawn, and how public and private spaces are mutually constitutive. Through her investigation of the more ordinary and less dramatic forms of encounter and contestation in the city, Watson is able to conceive an urban public realm and urban public space that is heterogeneous and potentially progressive. With numerous photographs and drawings City Publics not only throws new light on encounters with others in public space, but also destabilizes dominant, sometimes simplistic, universalized accounts and helps us re-imagine urban public space as a site of potentiality, difference, and enchanted encounters.

A Companion to the City provides the reader with an indispensable and authoritative overview of the key debates, controversies, and questions concerning the city from a variety of theoretical vantage points with an international perspective. Indispensable companion for students of the City.Multidisciplinary approach of interest across several fields.Includes contributions from major scholars in the field.

A Companion to the City provides the reader with an indispensable and authoritative overview of the key debates, controversies, and questions concerning the city from a variety of theoretical vantage points with an international perspective. Indispensable companion for students of the City.Multidisciplinary approach of interest across several fields.Includes contributions from major scholars in the field.

In the context of increasing division and segregation in cities across the world, along with pressing concerns around austerity, environmental degradation, homelessness, violence, and refugees, this book pursues a multidisciplinary approach to spatial justice in the city.Spatial justice has been central to urban theorists in various ways. Intimately connected to social justice, it is a term implicated in relations of power which concern the spatial distribution of resources, rights and materials. Arguably there can be no notion of social justice that is not spatial. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos has argued that spatial justice is the struggle of various bodies – human, natural, non-organic, technological – to occupy a certain space at a certain time. As such, urban planning and policy interventions are always, to some extent at least, about spatial justice. And, as cities become ever more unequal, it is crucial that urbanists address questions of spatial justice in the city. To this end, this book considers these questions from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Crossing law, sociology, history, cultural studies, and geography, the book’s overarching concern with how to think spatial justice in the city brings a fresh perspective to issues that have concerned urbanists for several decades. The inclusion of empirical work in London brings the political, social, and cultural aspects of spatial justice to life.The book will be of interest to academics and students in the field of urban studies, sociology, geography, planning, space law, and cultural studies.

In the context of increasing division and segregation in cities across the world, along with pressing concerns around austerity, environmental degradation, homelessness, violence, and refugees, this book pursues a multidisciplinary approach to spatial justice in the city.Spatial justice has been central to urban theorists in various ways. Intimately connected to social justice, it is a term implicated in relations of power which concern the spatial distribution of resources, rights and materials. Arguably there can be no notion of social justice that is not spatial. Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos has argued that spatial justice is the struggle of various bodies – human, natural, non-organic, technological – to occupy a certain space at a certain time. As such, urban planning and policy interventions are always, to some extent at least, about spatial justice. And, as cities become ever more unequal, it is crucial that urbanists address questions of spatial justice in the city. To this end, this book considers these questions from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Crossing law, sociology, history, cultural studies, and geography, the book’s overarching concern with how to think spatial justice in the city brings a fresh perspective to issues that have concerned urbanists for several decades. The inclusion of empirical work in London brings the political, social, and cultural aspects of spatial justice to life.The book will be of interest to academics and students in the field of urban studies, sociology, geography, planning, space law, and cultural studies.

Originally published in 1988, Accommodating Inequality provides a basis for a radical re-think of housing policy and provision in Australia from a gender perspective. It explores the way that housing in Australia helped to produce patriarchal family structures and simultaneously contributed to the dependence of women on men. At the time the book was originally published housing policy at a theoretical or research level was less explored. Issues such as marginalisation, poverty and low income, domestic responsibility are discussed in relation to housing. The book raised new questions and challenged old debates and provides a clear framework within which feminist housing policy can be situated.

Originally published in 1988, Accommodating Inequality provides a basis for a radical re-think of housing policy and provision in Australia from a gender perspective. It explores the way that housing in Australia helped to produce patriarchal family structures and simultaneously contributed to the dependence of women on men. At the time the book was originally published housing policy at a theoretical or research level was less explored. Issues such as marginalisation, poverty and low income, domestic responsibility are discussed in relation to housing. The book raised new questions and challenged old debates and provides a clear framework within which feminist housing policy can be situated.

‘Houses do not simply represent a form of shelter; in addition they embody the dominant ideology of a society and reflect the way in which that society is organised.’Originally published in 1986 and written by two leading authorities on the subject, this book tackles the problems of housing, homelessness, and women in the family, from a feminist perspective. It explores how housing helps to reproduce women’s role within the family, both today and historically. It looks at the way British society in particular (and western society in general) defines and creates housing ‘needs’. It discusses the way housing is provided and allocated to exclude specific forms of household, and describes the experiences of a particular group – single women – upon whom these processes have profound impact.Making effective use of interview material, the authors analyse the experience and needs of women without secure accommodation. Their study will be a useful text on social policy and welfare courses, and – with its strong political implications – will also be of great interest to community workers and to local authority housing departments.

This book considers the state of the city and contemporary urbanisation from a range of intellectual and international perspectives. The most interdisciplinary collection of its kindProvides a contemporary update on urban thinking that builds on well established debates in the fieldUses the city to explore economic, social, cultural, environmental and political issues more broadlyIncludes contributions from non Western perspectives and cities

This book considers the state of the city and contemporary urbanisation from a range of intellectual and international perspectives. The most interdisciplinary collection of its kindProvides a contemporary update on urban thinking that builds on well established debates in the fieldUses the city to explore economic, social, cultural, environmental and political issues more broadlyIncludes contributions from non Western perspectives and cities

Updated to reflect the most current thinking on urban studies, The Blackwell City Reader, Second Edition features a comprehensive selection of multidisciplinary readings relating to the analysis and experience of global cities. Includes new sections of materialities and mobilities to capture the most recent debatesThe most international reader of its kind, including extensive coverage of urban issues in Asia, China, and IndiaCombines theoretical approaches with a wide range of geographical case studiesOrganized to be used as a stand-alone text or alongside Blackwell's A Companion to the City

Updated to reflect the most current thinking on urban studies, The Blackwell City Reader, Second Edition features a comprehensive selection of multidisciplinary readings relating to the analysis and experience of global cities. Includes new sections of materialities and mobilities to capture the most recent debatesThe most international reader of its kind, including extensive coverage of urban issues in Asia, China, and IndiaCombines theoretical approaches with a wide range of geographical case studiesOrganized to be used as a stand-alone text or alongside Blackwell's A Companion to the City

Open air markets are as old as the market towns they spawned but in the modern world of 24 hour shopping, credit cards, super stores, sprawling multi shop malls and one stop shopping do they still have a place in the contemporary social landscape? Are continental and farmers markets the answer? What do shoppers traders and council have to say about the places they shop in, work in and control? This survey is the first comprehensive account of English markets as a social space. It investigates markets throughout the country and comes to some surprising conclusions about the role they play in the world of modern Britain. It sets out the everyday cultural practices which inform and sustain markets as a crucial part of our social fabric. It offers a series of suggestions for their rejuvenation, a glimpse of their potential in improving everything from community employment to individual health and concludes with a powerful endorsement of their continued relevance to our social life.

Water is one of the most pressing concerns of our time. This book argues for the importance of water as a cultural object, and as a source of complex meanings and practices in everyday life, embedded in the socio-economics of local water provision.