SPA Conferences

Conferences

Note that, in a fresh approach, postgraduates are encouraged to showcase their research in a dedicated conference stream, symposium or poster event. See http://www.social-policy.com/postgradnetwork.aspx for information about registration, abstract submission and travel expense funds. During this year's conference there will also be postgraduate networking events and teaching & learning workshops.

Call for papers – Social Policy Association Annual Conference – 5-7 July 2010, University of Lincoln

The Social Policy Association’s 2010 annual conference will be held at the University of Lincoln with the overarching theme being ‘Social Policy in Times of Change’.

Proposals are invited for papers on any aspect of social policy. We particularly encourage proposals reflecting high quality research, or which explore questions of social policy in practice or the teaching of social policy. In 2010, in addition to standard papers, we are also calling for proposals for symposia, with three or four abstracts linked to a particular theme. Symposia will potentially allow participants to engage more deeply with their special interests.

For papers, abstracts of up to 400 words indicating the appropriate stream should be submitted as an email attachment to SPA2010@lincoln.ac.uk.

Proposals for symposia should consist of a 200 word outline of the aims of the symposium together with the relevant abstracts. Proposals will be reviewed by a Programme Committee prior to acceptance. The closing date for the submission of abstracts and proposals is Friday 12 February 2010. Full papers must be submitted in pdf form by 18 June 2010.

Streams

Children and families
Work, economy and welfare
Governance and the policy process
Comparative social policy and research into international institutions, policy and practice
Poverty, inequalities and human rights
User perspectives
Teaching and learning
Health and social care
Innovations in social policy research
Crime, policing and criminal justice
Housing and welfare
Ageing and the lifecourse
Demographic and environmental change
Service design, delivery and use
The future of social policy
Open stream

A reduced rate conference fee will apply for postgraduate students and travel bursaries may also be available for this group.

Further information about the conference will be available at: www.lincoln.ac.uk/conferences/spa2010.

Conference: The Social Contract in Hard Times

The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society

University of Oxford, 7-9 October 2009

The twenty-first century presents significant new challenges for the welfare state, most immediately from the current economic crash, but also from longer term problems in the form of international conflict and environmental catastrophes. This conference will assess the effects that various crises may have on political mindset, on institutions, and on attitudes towards the market and towards the state. It will give special attention to the effect that such changes may and should have on minorities and on women.

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5.30 pm, Wednesday 7 October (Lecture Hall, Manor Road Building, Manor Rd, Oxford OX1 3UQ)

Keynote Lecture:
Black Swans and Elephants on the Move: How Emergencies Impact on the Welfare State

Professor Frank Castles, Australian National University and University of Edinburgh

This lecture asks how unexpected emergencies – the ‘Black Swans’ of war, economic depression, terrorist incidents and environmental catastrophes – can help to enact welfare reform. Are welfare institutions so entrenched and resistant to changes in direction as 'elephants on the move', or can we still adapt to the unpredictable major incidents of the 21st Century with significant reforms such as President Obama's healthcare plan?

For further details and to book tickets, please visit www.fljs.org/Events.

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8-9 October

Queen's College, Oxford OX1 4AW

Workshop: The Social Contract in Hard Times

Historical Perspectives
Hard Times and Institutions: Social and Environmental Policy
A New Look at Domestic and International, or More of the Same?
Different Times for Different Groups: Women and Minorities

Participation by invitation. To register your interest, please email phil.dines@fljs.org.

The British Science Association

Science Festival 2009

University of Surrey, 5th -10th September

Sociology & Social Policy Section

Jane Millar is President of the Sociology and Social Policy Section for 2009, and has organised a panel session on poverty, welfare and work:

Wed 9th Sept., 13.30 – 15.30

Work is good for you: poverty, welfare and work

Jane Millar, University of Bath; Tim Strangleman, University of Kent; Tess Ridge, University of Bath; Sue Yeandle, University of Leeds.

Also in the Sociology and Social Policy Section of the Festival:

Monday 7th Sept., 19.30 – 21.00: Three women after the soul of William James: Steve Fuller, University of Warwick

Tuesday 8th Sept., 10.30 – 13.00: Sleep after 60: Changes and Challenges in Later Life: Susan Venn and Sara Arber, University of Surrey

See the Festival Website for more information

http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/web/BritishScienceFestival/index.htm

Whither welfare-to-work

Conference in London on 12 November 2009

This year's Institute for Employment Studies (IES) conference explores the future of welfare-to-work in the UK. The event is being chaired by SPA President, Nick Timmins.

Whither welfare-to-work takes place in London on 12 November. Speakers include David Freud, Nominated Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform; Prof. Dan Finn, University of Portsmouth and Centre for Social Inclusion; Prof. Paul Gregg, University of Bristol; and David Grubb, OECD.

For more details go to:

http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/policy/event.php?id=121109p

The Mother War – current trends and critical discources

Conference at University of Surrey in Edinburgh 26-27 June 2009

Can women have it all? Or, are working mothers responsible for undermining the social fabric? These are some of the contentious issues over which the “Mother War” is currently being fought. Media reporting of Jackie Scott’s work on social attitudes about working mothers is a case in point. This workshop will explore trends in scholarly debates on gender and the social construction of mothering. Fuller details are shown in this PDF file.

Please send proposals to Dr. Roberta Guerrina (r.guerrina@surrey.ac.uk) by
6 April 2009.

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Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice:

Third conference, 13-15 December 2009

“Beyond Teaching and Research: inclusive understandings of Academic Practice”

The third conference organised by the Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice will be held at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, from 13 to 15 December 2009. The event will be focused on the development of holistic depictions of academic careers - ones conceptualized as more than teaching and/or research. We seek a wide range of creative responses to this idea, but initial suggestions include academic practice as career development, mentoring, academic climate, relationships between academic work and wider life, academic writing and discourse, and emotions or affect in academic work.

There will be two strands to which submissions can be directed: a) Research, and b) Evaluation of Practice(s).

In addition to keynotes, there will also be semi-formal discussion sessions, addressing subjects of particular shared interest; a private reception for early career academics (doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, research staff and new lecturers); and hopefully a third strand – narrative histories – in which those imagining or beginning academic careers reflect on their own experiences and offer their distinct perspectives on Academic Practice; this will probably be run on an invitation basis.

Papers for the conference will be invited from 1 December 2008. The deadline for proposal submissions will be June 1 2009 with decisions reported back by August 1 2009.

We are also inviting individual narratives and reflections on Academic Practice, which we hope to build into a less formalised section of the conference.

Numbers will be limited to around 120 as the feedback from the two previous conferences has emphasized how much this intimacy is valued. It is intended that there will be 25-30 presentations over the three day period.

We also intend offering at least one free ‘alternative’ tour of Oxford (City and University), with architectural highlights, insights into student and academic life, sneak peaks, and insider information on hideaway venues etc.

Questions about the event should be addressed in the first instance to Richard Arnold, +44 1865 286828, or Richard.Arnold@learning.ox.ac.uk.

Further details of the conference, including proposal forms, are available at http://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/academicpractice

Policy futures – learning from the past?

Social Policy Association conference in Edinburgh 29 June-1 July 2009

In 2008 the University of Edinburgh in the beautiful capital of Scotland was the perfect setting for the Social Policy Association annual conference which returns there in 2009. Delegates will again be accommodated in the high-grade Chancellor’s Court residences overlooking Holyrood Park, with sessions in the George Square central campus close to city centre attractions. As in 2008, the conference is being organised by the Social Policy subject area of Edinburgh University’s School of Social and Political Science (www.socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk), with Professor Jochen Clasen and Richard Parry as lead organisers and Alison Scott as conference administrator, based at the University’s Centre for Research on Families and Relationships.

The theme of the conference is ‘Policy futures – learning from the past?’ The dramatic world financial developments of late 2008, and the certainty of a UK General Election in the next 18 months, mark out the present times as ones of change and reappraisal for social policy. The marketplace for new ideas, often less anchored to traditional ideological and party divides, is vigorous; and yet there is a sense that older social policy values and priorities that had been suppressed in easy economic times are making a comeback. We hope that papers at the conference will take the opportunity to relate research to the interesting times, both good and bad, through which we are passing and to look both backwards and forwards.

Plenary speakers will be Peter Taylor-Gooby of the University of Kent, Bruno Palier of Sciences-Po Paris, and Marion Barnes of the University of Brighton who will lead a session on service user perspectives.

Call for abstracts

Papers will be organised within the broad theme of the conference in the following streams (which will form some or all of the six parallel paper sessions)

Welfare reform
Children and families
Work, economy and welfare
Governance and territorial social policy
Comparative analyses
International/global
Social policy in developing countries
Theoretical and methodological innovation
Health
Social work and social care
Crime and criminal justice
EU social policy
Migration, refugees, asylum-seekers
Welfare markets
User perspectives
Disability and care
Teaching and learning
Open stream

Paper proposals, indicating the most appropriate stream, should be in the form of an e-mail attachment of 300-400 words e-mailed to spa09@ed.ac.uk by the extended closing date of Friday 13 February 2009. (Proposed groups of three linked contributions that could form a 90-minute symposium are also welcome). Decisions on acceptances will be made by 6 March 2009. Papers that cannot be fitted in may be given the status of ‘contributed papers’ and placed on the conference website. To allow preparation of the final programme, and uploading on to the conference web-site to be accessible to delegates, the deadline for papers will be Friday 5 June 2009. Beyond that date, any papers not received are liable to be replaced on the programme by contributed papers.

Registration

For information see the conference website at

http://www.crfr.ac.uk/spa2009/spa_index.html

A booking form is available on the website for printing out and posting. It will also be in the issue of POLICY WORLD to be sent to SPA members in the week of 19 January 2009. Electronic booking will be available via the website from mid-January. Early booking at a discount has to be made by Friday 24 April 2009 and the final deadline will be Friday 29 May 2009 (beyond that date only day delegate rates will be available, space permitting).

UPDATE: Challenging Boundaries: Social Policy Association conference Edinburgh 23-25 June 2008

** Note - new website with conference details **

The beautiful capital of Scotland is hosting the 2008 and 2009 Social Policy Association annual conferences. They will be organized by the Social Policy subject area of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Social and Political Studies. Delegates will be accommodated in the high-grade Chancellor’s Court residences overlooking Holyrood Park, with sessions in the George Square central campus close to city centre attractions.

The conference in June 2008 will start with lunch on Monday 23 June and end with lunch on Wednesday 25 June. The conference dinner will be on Monday evening in the University’s renowned nineteenth-century Playfair Library Hall in Old College.

The theme of the conference is ‘Challenging Boundaries’. Throughout the world, traditional boundaries between territories, services and professions are being questioned. Nationalist ministers form the devolved government in Scotland and hold some offices in Wales and Northern Ireland, challenging UK policy norms. Policy learning is stronger than ever at the European and global level. Joined-up and citizen-centred government challenge organisational and professional structures

There will be 4 plenary sessions. The speakers are: Ann S Orloff from Northwestern University in Canada; Wim van Oorschot from Tilberg University in the Netherlands; Walden Bello from the University of the Philippines and Michael Keating from the European University Institute in Italy.

150 papers will be presented across 5 paper sessions

All the papers being presented will be placed on the conference website. To allow preparation of the final programme, and uploading on to the conference web-site to be accessible to delegates, the deadline for papers will be 6 June 2008. Beyond that date, any papers not received are liable to be replaced on the programme by contributed papers which will also be on the conference website.

Registration

Early booking at a discount has to be made by 23 April 2008. The final deadline will be 23 May 2008, after which only day delegate rates will be available, space permitting).

BOOK NOW on http://www.crfr.ac.uk/spa/booking.html

Further information, including more details of associated events and plenary speakers, will be given on social-policy.com and socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk as it becomes available. If you have any special requests – eg to extend your stay – please e-mail spa08@ed.ac.uk.

Website of the UK Social Policy Association