Constructing Risky Identities in Policy and Practice PDF
Preview Constructing Risky Identities in Policy and Practice
Constructing Risky Identities in Policy and Practice Constructing Risky Identities in Policy and Practice Edited by Jeremy Kearney and Catherine Donovan University of Sunderland, UK Selection, introduction, conclusion and editorial matter © Jeremy Kearney and Catherine Donovan 2013 Individual chapters © Respective authors 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-27607-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44651-3 ISBN 978-1-137-27608-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137276087 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents Acknowledgements vii Notes on Contributors viii 1 Introduction: Identities, Individuals and Theories of Risk 1 Jeremy Kearney and Catherine Donovan Part I Constructing Risky Identities 2 Risk, Identities and Recognition: A History of Dangerous Categories and Categories of Danger 21 Peter Rushton 3 Risky Populations and Risky Identities: The Regulation of Trust and Relationships between Adults and Children 38 Jeremy Kearney 4 The Right to be Labelled: From Risk to Rights for Pupils with Dyslexia in ‘Special Needs’ Education 55 Stephen J. Macdonald 5 Lesbian Mothering and Risky Choices: ‘Dangerous’ New Forms of Love and Kinship 73 Sheila Quaid 6 Troubled Youth: Risk, Individualisation and Social Structure 91 Jacqueline Merchant Part II Constructing Risky and ‘At Risk’ Individuals 7 Redefining Domestic Violence and Abuse: Unintended Consequences of Risk Assessment 109 Catherine Donovan 8 Technologies of Power? Constructing Digital Exclusion, Risk and Responsibility 127 John Clayton 9 The Risky Business of Challenging Risk: Youth Work and Young People through the Lens of ‘Race’ 146 Rick Bowler v vi Contents 10 Probation and Risk: The Paradox of ‘Rehabilitating’ Intimately Violent Men 163 Nicola Ballantyne 11 Conclusion: Reflections on Risk, Identity and the State 181 Catherine Donovan and Jeremy Kearney Index 187 Acknowledgements This book developed from a series of seminars run by the Equalities and Social Justice research group within the Centre for Children, Young People and Families at the University of Sunderland. The editors would like to acknowledge those who attended and participated in the seminar series; the authors, our colleagues, for their commitment to this project, particularly Peter Rushton for his continual good advice and practical support; and Paula Willerton for her invaluable editorial assistance with the typescripts. With special thanks to Jackie and Melissa. vii Notes on Contributors Nicola Ballantyne is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Sunderland. Her key areas of expertise are gendered interpersonal vio- lence and criminal justice with a specific focus on the probation service. She has conducted research on perpetrator programmes for convicted offenders of domestic violence and abuse. She has a number of years experience in the field as a probation practitioner. Rick Bowler is Senior Lecturer in Community and Youth Work at the University of Sunderland. He is past chair of Young Asian Voices youth project and a current member of the Board of Directors of the regional refugee service. His research interests are ‘race’ and youth-work practice and education. He is currently researching issues of critical anti-racist youth-work practice in the North East of England. John Clayton is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Sunderland. He is interested in and has published on social and cultural geography, socio- logy and social policy, particularly around the themes of identity, and socio-spatial and educational exclusion. Catherine Donovan is Professor of Social Relations in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Sunderland. She has published extensively in the areas of same-sex intimacy, parenting and families. She is co-author of Same Sex Intimacies: Families of Choice and Other Life Experiments (2001) with Jeffrey Weeks and Brian Heaphy. More recently she has developed an interest and expertise in domestic violence and abuse within same-sex and/or transgender communities. Jeremy Kearney is Principal Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Sunderland. His research interests are in the theory/practice relationship in social work, childcare and child protection, and mental health, and he has published widely in these areas. He has also carried out major comparative research with the University of Gothenburg on ideas and practices of fatherhood in England and Sweden. His current research is on risk and surveillance in social work. Stephen J. Macdonald is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Sunderland. He has published widely in the area of learning difficulties viii Notes on Contributors ix and his research interests are in the areas of learning difficulties, social exclusion, criminalisation and victimisation. His theoretical interests are in disability studies, criminology and medical sociology. Jacqueline Merchant is Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Sunderland. She has published previously in the area of substance use and young people, edited a book on the role of health promotion for sport and physical activity and more recently been involved in research in the North East of England on the impact of the government auster- ity cuts. Sheila Quaid is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sunderland. Her research and teaching is mainly in the areas of gender, sexuality and family studies. She has edited and contributed to Home Truths about Domestic Violence (2000) with Jalna Hanmer, Catherine Itzin and Debra Wigglesworth. She is currently developing research on civil partnerships, same-sex marriages and their impact on perceptions of kinship. Peter Rushton is Professor of Historical Sociology at the University of Sunderland. His research is in the history of English law and society, focussing on witchcraft, marriage, the poor law, and the treatment of the mentally ill and disabled. With Gwenda Morgan he has published stud- ies of 18th-century crime in NE England; the transportation of criminals to the American colonies; and the banishment of rebels, slaves and dis- sidents in the early Atlantic world. 1 Introduction: Identities, Individuals and Theories of Risk Jeremy Kearney and Catherine Donovan Risk is now a well-established and critical area of debate in modern society and one that impinges on people both at the political and cul- tural level, and also at the level of how they live their own day-to-day lives (Lupton, 1999; Mythen and Walklate, 2006; Zinn, 2008). Whether it is, on the one hand, hearing experts debate the dangers posed by environmental disasters, violent conflicts between nations or economic meltdown, or on the other, making decisions about managing their own lifestyle, health and personal relationships, individuals are faced with multiple anxieties and uncertainties about how they should and could live their lives in safety, health and economic independence. In fact Denney argues that ‘risk has come to dominate individual and col- lective consciousness in the 21st century’ (2005, p. 1). Allied to the centrality of risk as a way of making sense of our lives is the belief that individuals now need to be responsible for how they man- age risk for themselves. Indeed it could be argued that the ‘good citizen’ is now not only expected to act in ways that demonstrate an awareness of the need for a ‘culture of safety’, as Furedi (1997) has described it, but also of individual autonomy. In the context of the current neoliberal political and ideological framework in the UK which seeks to reduce the role of the state and increase the privatisation of social welfare delivery, the rhetoric of risk has been very useful in promoting the primacy of the individual, both in making choices about their own lives, and in taking responsibility for themselves. This book seeks to explore the relationship between such a use of risk discourse, with its emphasis on individual and professional responsibil- ity, and the impact this has on people’s social and occupational identities and practices across a range of social policy areas, including family rela- tionships, domestic violence, health and young people, social e xclusion, 1
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