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The purpose of this paper is to provide an honest and critical reflection with regard to the damage neoliberalised education systems have had on the “crime science” of criminology in Spain.

This paper is a viewpoint based on our experience of teaching criminology and researching crime problems in Spain.

We argue that the neoliberalisation of education systems results in a “crime of science” in the sense that this produces rampant competition between university institutions which is amplified by the emergence of internal and external corporate enterprises who compete against each other in commodifying knowledge around crime which is largely focussed on a combination of statistical measurements and zonal mapping. This results in the reproduction of misleading conceptions about how crime occurs because the research is not grounded in offenders’ experiences and pays no attention to the political economy, power and corruption and the oscillating relationship between agent and social structure. This has negative implications for the development of critical knowledge which should equip we to reconceptualise how and why social problems occur.

These infractions have major implications on how we are able to report on crime problems.

As researchers/students, the authors are only able “diagnose problems” and answer questions and lose the capacity to question the answers as well as question the way the authors question.

We do not think that many criminologists would be prepared to write these words (unless it was being published in a high-impact factor journal).

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of both the Covid-19 pandemic and UK lockdown for the social, political and economic future of the UK. Drawing on primary data obtained during the lockdown and the theoretical concepts of transcendental materialism and the “event”, the paper discusses the strength of participants' attachment to the “old normal” and their dreams of a “new normal”.

This paper utilises a semi-structured online survey (n = 305) with UK residents and Facebook forum debates collected during the lockdown period in the UK.

The findings in this paper suggest that while the lockdown suspended daily routines and provoked participants to reflect upon their consumption habits and the possibility of an alternative future, many of our respondents remained strongly attached to elements of pre-lockdown normality. Furthermore, the individual impetus for change was not matched by the structures and mechanisms holding up neoliberalism, as governments and commercial enterprises merely encouraged people to get back to the shops to spend.

The original contribution of this paper is the strength and depth of empirical data into the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the lockdown. Additionally, the synthesis of empirical data with the novel theoretical framework of transcendental materialism presents an original and unique perspective on Covid-19.

This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.

Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.

Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.

Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.

This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.

Over the course of the early part of August 2011, we saw revolving images of social disorder in London yet very thin explanations for the events. Yet the disorder continued and each time it evolved in different areas. Then the politicians came back from holiday and all the usual suspects were thrown in the mix: “gangs” “problem youth” “dysfunctional families” “single parents” “the underclass”; the familiar list went on. The debates which followed revolved around the violence, victims, effective policing, and sentencing but rarely went into depth about the causes or how the disorder evolved so quickly and why. This paper tries to place the events in London in context by using the testimonies of those involved to show: why the social disorder developed when it did; and how it evolved so quickly.

In his spare time since the events, the author has undertaken short interviews with as many people as possible who were involved in some capacity (instigators, fringe participants, spectators, local residents, professionals) because collectively, they hold the clues with regard to how and why this occurred. Ethical approval was granted by the University of East London Ethics Committee.

This paper shows how relations between the authorities and the public in certain urban communities are extremely fragile and that it doesn't take much to stimulate public action on perceived injustices. Importantly, however, it demonstrates how exactly social networking played a significant role in the way the social disorder started and evolved, concluding that the reasons for involvement were collective as well as subjective. Lastly, it highlights the one‐sided nature of the media depictions and how the knee‐jerk government response was hard‐line and blatantly disregarded established criminal justice processes.

To date, discussions have only taken place with 30 participants and what is offered here is a “work in progress”.

This is likely one of the first attempts based on empirical data to conceptualise the motivations for involvement in the social disorder in London.

The behavior of British youth abroad has caused considerable concern over recent years. This is because many British youth engage in binge drinking, drug use, sex behavior and other risk behaviors – especially in the Balearics, Spain. While research has documented levels of alcohol use, drug use, risk and sex behaviors on these islands, it tends to rely on survey data. This article aims to offer some contextualization to the British youth holiday experience and to examine why such behaviors might take place.

The study uses ethnographic methods (observation, open‐ended focus groups) with British youth in San Antonio, Ibiza. Over the course of one week in July 2010, 17 focus groups were undertaken (n=97 aged between 17 and 31). Observations were conducted in bars, clubs, beaches, and general tourist areas.

The data suggest that young people engage in these behaviors not only to escape the constraints of work and family but also because they are exciting. The data also indicate that these behaviors appeared to help British youth construct life biographies which were integral to their identity construction. The findings are also considered within the social context of Ibiza which also played a role in promoting these behaviors.

No ethnographic research exists on the topic of British youth and their behaviors abroad. Previous research is mostly epidemiological survey research which does not adequately consider the social meaning and context for the behavior of British youth abroad.

Increasingly, punitive policies on ‘poblematic’ pupils are implemented in poor‐performing UK urban state schools. While some are permanently excluded and referred to local authority educational alternatives, others are unofficially ‘excluded’ and referred to other forms of off‐site educational centres, where pupils receive a significantly reduced timetable, undertake unchallenging courses and are unlikely to return to school. Based on an ethnographic research project with 20 excluded young people in one south London borough, this paper will discuss what happens to these young people after their ‘exclusion’ from school. I will suggest that this form of unofficial ‘exclusion’ has significant life implications for these young people, contributing not only to their social exclusion, but also to their increased exposure to crime and victimisation. Moreover, their life options are truncated despite the efforts that they may make otherwise.

Ethnography has been an important research method that has given insight into ‘dangerous’ and ‘problematic’ populations. Yet, ethnographic methods with such populations are increasingly rare as the governance of social science research takes on an ever more intensified ‘risk assessment’ approach. Based on projects that made use of ethnographic methods undertaken from 2004 to 2008, this paper will try to offer some methodological reflections on working with ‘dangerous’ and ‘problematic’ populations such as mentally ill adults, those with antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs), crack cocaine users and gangs. It will call for greater consideration to be given to the use of ethnographic methods with such populations to inform policy and practice.

Purpose – UK urban state schools have recently experienced increased pressure to improve pupil performance levels and punitive policies appear to be one way of dealing with “problematic” young people. While some are permanently excluded for serious acts, others, who are by comparison less problematic, are unofficially “excluded” and referred to off-site educational provision (OSEP) where they receive reduced timetables and unchallenging courses. This research study set out to examine why 20 young people were “unofficially” excluded from school and their progress in OSEP.

Methodology – The study made use of ethnographic methods with 20 excluded young people in one south London borough in the UK. The research was undertaken from March 2009 to August 2009.

Findings – This chapter shows how “unofficial” exclusionary processes, to which these urban young people are exposed, have implications for their identity, self-worth and lifestyles, and makes them increasingly vulnerable to crime and victimization. The chapter makes use of labeling perspectives to understand the significance of the social reaction to deviant labels young people receive in school (Becker, 1953) and how they respond as a consequence (Lemert, 1972).

This article aims to offer an ethnographic account of substances and sex and how they are interrelated in the context of one holiday destination popular among British youth. Current research on British youth abroad and their use of substances is based almost exclusively on survey methods. Similarly, the same research works do not explore, in sufficient detail, sexual relations outside of those purely between British tourists.

The article is based on 38 focus groups, observations, and informal conversations undertaken in San Antonio, Ibiza during the summers of 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The paper complements current knowledge on sex and substances abroad by discussing the role of promotion representatives, strippers and prostitutes, and the use of drugs and alcohol, emphasising how substances feature in the promotion of sex. Bakhtin's concept of the “carnivalesque” is adopted to understand these behaviours.

Current research is almost exclusively based on sex between tourists; therefore, sexual encounters with other social players in holiday resorts have been largely neglected.