Social Work Division - Brunel University

Street Games Project
Dr Simon Bradford, a reader in
the School of Health Sciences
and Social Care, and Dr Laura
Hills, a senior lecturer in the
School of Sport and Education,
have been awarded £50,000 to
lead a project designed to
maximise the benefits of the
2012 Olympiad in terms of
sports participation in deprived
areas. The award, which will
last until the end of the Olympic
year 2012, has been made
by the Coca-Cola Foundation
to support a long-running initiative
known as the
'StreetGames Project'. The
mission of the StreetGames
Project is to research legacy
building strategies that will
drive participation in both sport
and physical activity across
socio-economically disadvantaged
areas after the Olympic
circus has moved on in the
summer of 2012. To achieve
this, four pilot interventions are
being developed to increase
involvement in “doorstep
sport”.
Inside this issue:
Mary Seacole student
prize winner
Youth on religion
project
CYID student reflections
Social Work alumni
association
Divisional PhD successes
Research methods
book launch
Recent publications
and current events
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Volume 1, Issue 2
Brunel University
ARTS IN SOCIAL WORK
Poet and professor speaks to students
Social Work students were
enthusiastic following a presentation
from Brunel‟s new
Professor of Poetry and Creative
Writing, Benjamin
Zephaniah in November.
The talk was part of the new
Arts in Social Work workshop
programme run by lecturer
Allan Rose and which is open
to all BA and MA social work
students.
Speaking to a mixed group of
students, service users and
lecturers Benjamin recounted
his journey, from early school
experience in Birmingham,
involvement in offending as a
young man to success as a
poet in adulthood.
Addressing issues of migra-
tion, racism,
domestic
violence,
youth offending,
child sexual
abuse, resilience
and
masculinity,
his approach
was humorous
and engaging
but
without undermining
the seriousness of
the subject matter and the
need for social change.
Benjamin‟s use of poetry to
question ideologies and assumptions
about the way we
live illustrates how the crea-
Benjamin Zephaniah speaking with
Brunel’s social work students
tive arts can be used as an
instrument for fighting injustice
and oppression and also
how activism remains essential
for social change.
Kids’ Company founder awarded honorary degree
In July, Camila Batmanghelidjh
was awarded the honorary
degree of Doctor of Social
Sciences for her outstanding
services to the national
community.
Camila is Founder and Executive
Director of The Kids‟
Company, a London-based
organisation supporting
14,000 children a year with
severe behavioural, emotional
and social difficulties. The
company, set up in 1996, delivers
psychotherapy, counselling,
education and arts services
to its clients. It runs two
drop-in centres, a therapy
house and a new, post-14 educational
institute in Southwark,
as well as working
therapeutically in 38 schools.
Before The Kids‟ Company,
Camila worked in private
practice as a psychotherapist
and also founded The Place 2
Be, working with trainee
counsellors, therapists and
artists to support primary
school children. This is now a
national programme. Camila
has published widely, is the
author of Shattered Lives:
Children Living with Courage
and Dignity, published in
2006, and can often be heard
Winter 2011/12
Social Work Division
Staff-student newsletter
Social Work Human Geography Youth Work Studies
on radio and television. She is
the recipient of a number of
honorary doctorates and fellowships
from UK institutions.

Page 2
Social Work Division
Catherine Burridge, winner of the
inaugural Mary Seacole prize, 2011.
PhD Success!
Rachana Patni completed her PhD
in Management Studies research,
which she has been pursuing on a
part-time basis alongside her
lecturing and more recently,
Programme Leadership
commitments. She believes it to
be a small miracle that this was
done in a little over 4 years. The
PhD was based in the Centre for
Research on Emotion Work at the
Brunel Business School and was
supervised by Professor Ruth
Simpson.
The title of the PhD is ‘Emotional
Fools and Dangerous Robots:
postcolonial engagements with
emotion management’. It draws
on organizational theory, critical
management studies, human
geography, psychology (including
psychoanalytic theory), sociology,
anthropology, development
studies and social work literature.
It is a qualitative exploration of
emotion management and
contributes to theoretical revisions
and extensions that make the
analysis of resistance to emotion
management a theoretical
possibility. This is done by using
narrative analysis that creatively
identifies resistance to emotion
management as a discursive
practice in organizations.
Mary Seacole prize winner
From summer 2011, the
division of Social Work
awarded a prize to the student
demonstrating excellence
and outstanding ability
in social care. The prize is
sponsored by the Caribbean
Women Equality and Diversity
Forum and is called the
„Mary Seacole and CWEDF
Prize for Social Care‟. The
inaugural prize was presented
to Catherine Burridge.
Here Catherine reflects
on her experiences of
the MA Social Work programme
at Brunel:
‘YOUTH ON RELIGION’ PROJECT:
Multi-faith event in Hillingdon
In October, eighty secondary
school students and their
teachers from different parts
of the country joined academics,
faith leaders, policy
makers and other community
representatives at a
multi-faith event at Hillingdon
Civic Centre on 6 July.
The event was organised by
the Youth On Religion research
team at Brunel and
provided an opportunity for
teenagers of different faiths
from Newham, Hillingdon
and Bradford to come together
to share their experiences,
discuss religion and
learn from each other. Students
also brought artwork,
photography, sculptures and
DVDs on religion produced
in their multi-faith areas,
and played music and sang
songs at the event. The event
included a global food buffet,
a „big brother‟ style
video diary recording room,
and café conversations.
The Youth On Religion project,
funded by a large grant
of £490,213.25 from the
AHRC/ESRC Religion &
“This year I was the MA recipient
of the inaugural Mary
Seacole Prize for social
work. The course was challenging
to the point where I
sometimes questioned
whether I had done the right
thing in curtailing my fundraising
career to retrain as a
social worker. I was, however,
extremely fortunate to
have two exciting and inspirational
practice placements
which gave me the impetus to
persevere towards my goal of
becoming a social worker.
Society programme, involved
an online survey of more than
10,000 teenagers from the
London Boroughs of Hillingdon
and Newham, and Bradford
in West Yorkshire, as
well as interviews, e-journal
postings and discussion
groups with around 160 of
these young people. The research
sites were chosen to
reflect religious and cultural
diversity.
Professor Nicola Madge, Principal
Investigator for the study
and from the Centre for Child
and Youth Research at Brunel
University, presented a few
early findings from the research
on the importance
of religion in
young people‟s
lives, personal
meanings of religion,
views on religion
in society,
knowledge of different
religions, and
friendships within
and across faith
divides. She suggested
that “while
there are differences between
Within a month of qualifying,
I was offered a twelve
month contract as a locum
social worker in an adult
fieldwork team in Gloucestershire.
It is a demanding
yet rewarding role which
makes the hard work of the
previous two years seem
thoroughly worthwhile. I am
grateful to Brunel for providing
me with a solid and
invaluable knowledge base
which I draw upon on a
daily basis.”
the study areas, the prevailing
discourse everywhere
emphasises respect for different
faith and non-faith
positions. While the reality
may not always be quite so
straightforward, we feel this
is a very positive message
for the future of our communities.
We hope that all those
in contact with young people
will take it to heart and work
with it.”
The half-day event at the
Civic Centre was addressed
by the new Mayor of
Hillingdon, Councillor Mary
O‟Connor MBE.
Professor Nicola Madge and the
Mayor of Hillingdon.

CYID student awarded alumni scholarship:
A journey of self-reflection
By Tuyet Ngo Thuy Anh, MA
CYID student
I was lucky to have been
awarded an Alumni Scholarship
to study the MA course
of Children, Youth and International
Development
(CYID). The opportunity to
meet fellow students from
different countries and backgrounds
both in the scholarship
programme and on my
course is what I have appreciated
the most about coming
to Brunel University.
Understanding differences is
the best way to learn and to
reflect about myself, what I
believe in, where I come
from, and why I have done
things in a certain way.
The CYID course has stimulated
my critical thinking
about international development
in working with children
and young people. My
own perceptions have been
deconstructed and then been
re-constructed in the journey
of self-reflection on my experiences
with the projects I
have been working on both
in Southeast Asia and the
UK. The conversations I
have had with the students
and lecturers on this course
have been the best inspiration
for myself. I am now in
a period of transition to em-
Social Work Alumni Association
On Saturday 9 th July Dr.
Jean Clarke hosted the first
meeting of former graduates
of social work who attended
a planning meeting with the
expressed purpose of forming
a Social Work Alumni
Association. Professor
Susan Buckingham joined
Jean in welcoming the participants,
Karen Budd ,
Placement Coordinator,
spoke about placement issues,
Bertie Ross
(Mentoring Coordinator)
from Brunel‟s Widening
Participation Programme
provided information about
Brunel‟s student mentoring
programme and Hilary
Fuller, Placement Administrator,
made an invaluable
contribution both to the
planning and the hosting of
the event. The meeting generated
a rich mix of ideas as
graduates shared their vision
of the role and function of
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Volume 1, Issue 2
the alumni association.
To take these ideas forward,
a management committee
was formed on the same
day. The committee has
since met and have already
begun to implement some of
the ideas discussed at the
first meeting. To date
alumni members have been
involved in teaching and
placement preparation workshops,
others have registered
to become mentors for our
students, as well as being
actively involved in providing
opportunities to enable
first year students to fulfil
their course requirement of
shadowing qualified social
workers before embarking
on their first 30 day placement.
Through liaison and
consultation with Brunel‟s
Widening Participation mentoring
scheme, some alumni
members have also applied
to become involved in the
ployment and aiming to become
a more considerate
practitioner working for real
and meaningful benefits for
children and young people.
mentoring programme for
our students. The next meeting
of the association took
place in early December
where members finalised
plans for hosting an employment
preparation workshop
for students who are expected
to qualify at the end
of this academic year.
Dr Jean Clarke and social
work alumni
PhD success!
In July, Barbara Van Wijnendaele,
from the Centre for Human
Geography, successfully defended
her PhD ‘Power, Emotions and
Embodied Knowledges: doing
PAR with poor young people in El
Salvador’. Barbara was supervised
by Dr Nicola Ansell and Dr Fiona
Smith. Here she talks about her
research:
‘From March 2006-2008 I worked
and did research with young people
in El Salvador. I coordinated a local
youth participation project in the
capital, where, at the same time, I
conducted fieldwork for my PhD
research. The project aimed at
empowering young people through
participatory action research and,
together with the young participants,
I critically reflected on the
empowering impact of this process.
This research focused on the politics
of emotions; their role in confirming
exclusion and oppression and in
facilitating empowerment and
resistance. I conclude that
participatory researchers still focus
too much on critical reflection,
discourse and conscious/linguistic
representation as key to personal and
social change. This focus has
distracted their attention from the
way power works through emotions
and embodied knowledges. I believe
that participatory researchers should
become more sensitive still to the
subtleties of power by paying more
explicit attention to how emotions
and embodied knowledges function
within power relations to reproduce
or challenge the existing status quo.
Such a focus also opens new doors
to new ways of empowerment (and
politics).‟

Brunel University
Book Launch: Research and Research Methods for Youth Practitioners
„Research and Research Methods for Youth
Practitioners‟ is a new edited book by Dr
Simon Bradford and Dr Fin Cullen and published
by Routledge.
Rigorous research is crucial to effective work
with young people and increasingly youth
practitioners need to be able to develop, review
and evidence their work using a variety
of research and assessment tools. This text
equips students and practitioners with a thorough
understanding of research design, practice
and dissemination, as well as approaches
Recent divisional publications
Ansell, N., van Blerk, L., Hajdu, F. and Robson, E. (2011) , Spaces, times, and critical
moments: A relational time - space analysis of the impacts of AIDS on rural youth in Malawi
and Lesotho, Environment and Planning A 43 (3): 525- 544
Barker, J. and Alldred, P. (2011), Documentary research and secondary data. In: Bradford, S.
and Cullen, F. eds. Research and Research Methods for Youth Practitioners. London:
Routledge
Christie, D., Romano, G., Barnes, J. and Madge, N. (2011), Exploring views on satisfaction in
life in young children with chronic illness: An innovative approach to the collection of selfreport
data from children under 11, Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Hajdu, F., Ansell, N., Robson, E., Van Blerk, L. and Chipeta, L. (2011) , Income-generating
activities for young people in southern Africa: Exploring AIDS and other constraints,
Geographical Journal 177 (3): 251- 263
Hanna, S. (2011) „Covering the Country‟: After Hour‟s Emergency Child Protection Services,
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 5, 3: 103-112.
Hanna, S. and Lyons, K. (2011), European social workers in England: exploring international
labour mobility, Social Work Review (Revista de Asistenta Sociala) X (3/2011) : 185- 196
Hanna, S. and Nash, M. (2011) , 'You Don't Have to Shout'- Vocal Behaviour in Social Work
Communication, Social Work Education iFirst Article 1- 13
Hemming, PJ. and Madge, N. (2011), Researching Children, Youth and Religion: Identity,
Complexity and Agency, Childhood
Lewis, S., & Rajan-Rankin, S. (2012). 'Deconstructing family-supportive organizational
cultures: A vision for the future'. In. J.Greenhaus, S.A.Y. Poelmans & M. de la Heras (Eds).
New Frontiers in Work-Life Research: Visions for the Future in a Global World. Basingtoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Leung, D.S.Y. & Liu, B.C.P. (2011) Lifelong education, quality of life and self-efficacy of
Chinese older adults. Educational Gerontology, 37 (11), 967-981.
Liu, B.C.P., Leung, D.S.Y and Chi, I. (2011) Social functioning, polypharmacy and
depression in older Chinese primary care patients, Aging & Mental Health, 15:6, 732-741
Madge, N., Hawton, K., McMahon, EM., Corcoran, P., De Leo, D., de Wilde, EJ., Fekete, S.,
van Heeringen, K., Ystgaard, M. and Arensman, E. (2011), Psychological characteristics,
stressful life events and deliberate self-harm: findings from the Child & Adolescent Self-harm
in Europe (CASE) Study., Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 20 (10): 499- 508
Madge, N., Hemming, PJ., Goodman, A., Goodman, S., Kingston, S., Stenson, K. and
Webster, C. (2011) , Conducting Large-Scale Surveys in Secondary Schools: The Case of the
Youth On Religion (YOR) Project, Children & Society
Smith, F., Wainwright, E., Buckingham, S. and Marandet, E. (2011) Women, work-life
balance and quality of life: case studies from the UK and Ireland, Gender, Place and Culture,
18: 603-610
Wainwright, E. and Marandet, E. (2011) Geographies of family learning and aspirations of
belonging, Children’s Geographies, 9: 95-110
Wainwright, E., Marandet, E., Buckingham, S. and Smith, F. (2011) The training-to-work
trajectory: pressures for and subversions to participation in the neoliberal learning market,
Gender, Place and Culture, 18: 635-654
If you have any comments or feedback on this
newsletter, or would like to contribute to the next
issue, please email:
Emma.Wainwright@brunel.ac.uk
to evidence-based practice.
A clear practice framework informs the book,
outlining the significance of research to youth
work, especially in relation to designing and
developing services for young people. The
book effectively: analyses the research/
practitioner role; explores the ethical context
of research in youth work; offers a thorough
analysis of key methodological questions in
research in practice; provides a guide to data
collection and analysis; presents and, discusses
the implications of research for work with
young people as well as its dissemination.
The textbook is invaluable
for student and
practising youth workers.
It is also a useful
reference for other practitioners
working with
young people.
Science of Aging research
Dr Mary Pat O‟Sullivan, BIAS Director
of the Gerontological Social Work
Research Programme at Brunel, together
with Professors Mary Gilhooly
and Christina Victor, have been invited
to a workshop and meeting on the Science
of Aging hosted by the Botucatu
Medical School, Universidade Estadual
Paulista, Sao Paulo. They will delivering
presentations on psychogerontology
and the neuroscience of ageing,
and meeting with colleagues to discuss
research collaboration with the Institute
of Studies Brazil-Europe.
Forthcoming events:
Centre for Human Geography (CHG)
Seminar Series (Thurs 1-2pm)
Theme: Geographies of Care and Caring
16th February: Dr Ed Hall, University of
Dundee, 'New localism in care and caring:
stalled personalisation, local area coordination
and people with learning
disabilities in Scotland'
1st March: Dr Emma Wainwright, Brunel
University, „The state, the family and the
social geographies of family learning‟.
Joint CHG seminars with Social Work :
15th March: Dr Sue Hanna, Brunel University,
'London Calling'
26th April: Dr Victoria Jupp-Kina, Brunel
University, 'Well being, participation and
community development in Brazil'
For me information, email:
Fiona.Smith@brunel.ac.uk or
Sweta.Rajan-Rankin@brunel.ac.uk
Division of Social Work
School of Health Sciences and Social Care
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/
health/healthsub/socialwork