Learning to Labour: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs

Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies Author Ray Pawson presents a devastating critique of the dominant approach to systematic review namely the 'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms 'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic review is better to understand program theory, so that policies can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and worked examples from across the policy waterfront.

Evidence-based Policy: A Realist Perspective

The Spirit Level. Why Equality is Better for Everyone

THE chorus of approval with which Mr. Mundella's report on the progress of elementary education was received on Monday cannot but be gratifying to all who have at heart the highest welfare of the country. With one or two unimportant exceptions—members whose vision is so bizarre as to discern communism in the education of the children of the working classes, and who connect the increase of weeds with the spread of education'what criticism there was referred to details of method. All the members whose opinions are of any weight agreed that vast good had resulted to the country by the working of the Code. As to the special subjects, among which science is included, the weight of opinion was decidedly in favour of their retention. The greatest friends of the Fourth Schedule will admit that there is still much room for improvement in the teaching of these subjects; it cannot be expected that so great a novelty in the system of elementary education in the country can all at once be taught to perfection. About the success of the compulsory system of education it may be said that the House was all but unanimous. The analogy between the treatment of paupers and the free education of the children of the working classes will not hold water. In the one case we are simply keeping from starvation people whose improvidence or misfortune have made them a dead burden on their fellows; in the other case we are feeding the minds of those who one day will have to bear the brunt of the work of the nation; The better these future workers are educated, the more intelligently and the more effectively are they likely to do their work, and the less likely are they to become inmates of our workhouses and prisons. As Serjeant Simon testified, even already is there a marked decrease of embryo criminals in our streets. The conclusion come to by Mr. Mimdella and those who,like him, have the interests of education at heart, is not that we have gone too far, but that we have not gone far enough; not that we have reached finality, but that we have only made a good beginning. The figures he adduced to prove the success of the existing Education Act were practically admitted to be irrefutable; and we only trust the progress in the next ten years will be at an equal ratio to that achieved during the past decade. “Many of us,” he truly said, “would pass away without seeing the full effect of the work we are doing.” As to the propriety of encouraging the retention of exceptionally clever boys in elementary schools beyond the regulation age, the figures showed that it would be cruel and unjust to forbid this. Until we have a State system of secondary education in England similar to that about to be sanctioned in Scotland, until air equally decisive step is taken with regard to educational endowments in the one country as in the other, the nation would be doing a gross injustice to force exceptionally clever boys to leave school just when their intellects were beginning to shoot into full vigour. Mr. Mundella showed by his figures that Scotland is still ahead of England in the matter of education; that extra or special subjects are more widely sought after and with greater success, and that a larger percentage of children in elementary schools proceed to secondary education. But it should be remembered that this is the result of many generations of universal education, and that in Scotland it has long been considered as great a disgrace to be uneducated as in England it is considered to be immoral. There among the great majority of the working classes compulsory education was scarcely needed, and this will no doubt be the case in England in the course of a century or so, when education will have become as great a necessity as decent clothing. Again during the debate was it shown by those who have the best means of knowing that where science is properly taught there the children are as a rule more intelligent and bright, and better up in the ordinary subjects than in schools where science is neglected. Sir John Lubbock gave a remarkable instance of the favour with which properly conducted science-teaching is received by the children themselves:—

The Education Debate

The civilizing process

Why do many athletes risk their careers by taking performance enhancing drugs? Do the highly competitive pressures elite sports teach athletes to win at any cost?

In order to understand the complex relationships between sport and other aspects of society, it is necessary to strip away our preconceptions of what sport is, and to examine, in as detached a manner as possible, the way in which the world of sport actually functions. This fully updated edition of Ivan Waddington’s classic introduction to drugs in sport examines the key terms and key issues in sport, drugs and performance and is designed to help new students explore these controversial subjects, now so central to the study of modern sport. The book addresses topics such as:

- the emergence of drugs in sport and changing patterns of use
- the development of an objective, sociological understanding
- sports law, policy and administration
- WADA, NGB’s and the sporting federations
- case studies of football and cycling
- the case of sports medicine.

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning is a landmark work in sports studies. Using interview transcripts, case studies and press cuttings to ground theory in reality, students and lecturers alike will find this an immensely readable and enriching resource.

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning?

This study analyzed British newspaper coverage of the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. Sixty-two articles from 4 British newspapers were examined for the terminology used to describe athletes’ disabilities and the language and images used to portray athletes’ performances. The results suggest a tendency to convey the achievements of Paralympic athletes using medicalized descriptions of disability and to compare them to athletes without disabilities. Photographic coverage tended to hide the athletes’ impairments, and female athletes were less likely to be photographed in active poses. Although coverage emphasized the sporting achievement of athletes with disabilities by comparing them to Olympic athletes and by deemphasizing disability, it may have inadvertently reinforced stereotypical perceptions of disability and reaffirmed a preoccupation with able-bodiedness.

Preoccupied With Able-Bodiedness? An Analysis of the British Media Coverage of the 2000 Paralympic Games

This article examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was established following the World Conference on Doping in Sport convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held in Lausanne in 1999. More specifically, the article draws upon Elias's game models to analyse: i) the way in which the IOC sought to manage this process of change in such a way that its longstanding position as the world's leading anti-doping organization would be reinforced; and ii) the IOC's inability to control this process, with the result that the IOC failed to achieve any of its objectives, its position as the world's anti-doping organization was actually undermined, and world leadership passed to a new organization which had a significant measure of independence from the IOC.

The Establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency: A Study of the Management of Organizational Change and Unplanned Outcomes

Notwithstanding the apparent consensus in the UK over the last half a century that the ‘key goal’ of physical education (PE) is to prepare young people for lifelong participation in physical activity (Kirk, 2002), it is evident that the types of PE programmes and activities viewed as most likely to achieve this outcome remain a highly contentious issue. Grounded in sociological work on the ‘new condition’ of youth (Roberts, 1999), alongside data from various participation surveys in England and Wales, this paper responds to what is seen as the alleged failure of multi‐activity, sport‐based PE programmes to facilitate lifelong participation in sport and physical activity. It is argued that when developments in PE curricula in England and Wales are considered alongside trends in participation among young people, it is apparent that participation in sport and physical activity has become part of present‐day youth cultures. This may well be due, at least in part, to the ways in which multi‐activity PE program...

Young people and lifelong participation in sport and physical activity: a sociological perspective on contemporary physical education programmes in England and Wales

Disability sport is a relatively recent phenomenon, yet it is also one that, particularly in the context of social inclusion, is attracting increasing political and academic interest. The purpose of this important new text – the first of its kind – is to introduce the reader to key concepts in disability and disability sport and to examine the complex relationships between modern sport, disability and other aspects of wider society.

Drawing upon original data from interviews, surveys and policy documents, the book examines how disability sport has developed and is currently organised, and explores key themes, issues and concepts including:

- disability theory and policy
- the emergence and development of disability sport
- disability sport development in local authorities
- mainstreaming disability sport
- disability, physical education and school sport
- elite disability sport and the Paralympic Games
- disability sport and the media. 

Including chapter summaries, seminar questions and lists of key websites and further reading throughout, Sport, Disability and Society provides both an easy to follow introduction and a critical exploration of the key issues surrounding disability sport in the twenty-first century. This book is an invaluable resource for all students, researchers and professionals working in sport studies, disability studies, physical education, sociology and social policy.

Andy Smith

Papers

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport: Addicted to Winning?

Preoccupied With Able-Bodiedness? An Analysis of the British Media Coverage of the 2000 Paralympic Games

The Establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency: A Study of the Management of Organizational Change and Unplanned Outcomes

Young people and lifelong participation in sport and physical activity: a sociological perspective on contemporary physical education programmes in England and Wales

Disability, Sport and Society: An Introduction