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The authors define 'place basing' as the study of work and employment in a particular place. They are interested in understanding the limitations of work opportunities therein and so focus on workers and jobs that are not subject to the threat of off-shoring or relocation elsewhere but which are low paid and insecure. The authors theorize three contributions to new knowledge that flow from a place-based study of work and employment by demonstrating how precarious flexible often zero hour work eschews reciprocity between employer and employees and workers. They focus their research on ordinary working families and the 'permissive visibility' of bad work. The research points to an idealized model of individual and family economic functioning that is able to cope with physical and mental challenges individually without burdening the state. As the findings on workers and households demonstrate, this ideal is far from the reality they experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years British welfare policy and immigration policy have intertwined in new ways, with widespread cuts alongside increasing conditionality, rationing, and differentiation of rights. This article explores perspectives among activists attempting to resist these developments, with a focus on those that go beyond narrow reactions and engage in systemic critiques. It draws on in-depth qualitative interviews with activists from a variety of campaigns in England. The article presents a conceptual framework, synthesising these activists' ideas and comprising three elements: racialised profit-seeking as a driver of policy; 'situated universalism' as a counter-hegemonic basis for unity; and a theory of change through grassroots campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of a qualitative investigation of the way people find meaning through caregiving. It draws on the results of in-depth interviews with 37 informal carers and 11 stakeholders in Nottinghamshire, the United Kingdom. For most respondents caregiving involved looking after family members—for example, husband or wife, father or mother, young or adult children and mother-in-law. The meaning that respondents found through caregiving motivated them to cope with the difficulties associated with looking after a person in need. This research found that most informal carers operate with long-standing, gender-based understandings of their role, creating a potential risk that using gender-neutral terminology when referring to family members may obscure the subjective values that carers attach to informal caregiving and lead to role confusion. Moreover, although informal carers typically feel obliged to take care of family members in need and may value this role, they often require additional support from the state to reduce the pressures associated with caregiving and to enable them to continue to lead a meaningful life both within and beyond their caring role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the role of temporality in the differential inclusion of migrants. In order to do this we draw on research which examined the working lives of a diverse group of new migrants in North East England: Eastern European migrants arriving from 2004 and asylum seekers and refugees arriving from 1999. In so doing we emphasize both distinct and shared experiences, related to immigration status but also a range of other dimensions of identity. We specifically consider how dominant temporalities regulate the lives of new migrants through degrees, periods and moments of acceleration/deceleration. The paper illustrates the ways in which dominant temporalities control access and non-access to particular, often precarious forms of work – but also how migrants attempt to navigate such restrictions through their own use and constructions of time. We explore this in relation to three 'phases' of time. Firstly, through experiences of the UK asylum system and work prohibition. Secondly, for a broader group of participants we explore the speeding up and slowing down of transitions to and progression within work. Lastly, we consider how participants experience everyday temporal tensions between paid employment and unpaid care. Across these phases, we suggest that dominant orderings of time and the narratives which make sense of these represent non-simultaneous temporalities that do not neatly map onto each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents methodological reflections from a programme of empirical research across two distinct but related projects, which culminated in an examination of the employment experiences of new migrants in the North East of England. This mixed‐methods research focused on the position and experiences of migrants from Eastern European countries joining the EU in 2004 and 2007, and refugees and asylum seekers from a broad range of countries. Co‐produced by an interdisciplinary academic team, migrants living and working in the region and voluntary sector organisations involving and supporting migrants, the research looked to address gaps in evidence to support education, advocacy and service provision. The paper argues that while co‐production has tremendous potential to traverse the borders of theory and action in pursuit of positive change in people's lives, careful consideration needs to be given to distinct incarnations and the manner in which co‐production emerges through specific conditions and relationships. We identify the principles underpinning this research, but also illustrate how our approach developed over time into a form of distributed‐resource, which was able to connect organisations, people and resources from varied sources around shared values and an interest in outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses discourses about migration within three documentaries that were broadcast on terrestrial British television in January 2014: The Truth about Immigration in the UK and The Hidden World of Britain’s Immigrants, both broadcast on BBC Two, and Episode 2 of Benefits Street, broadcast on Channel 4. The methodology involved a detailed analysis of the documentaries, situated within a Marxist analysis of British capitalism, the capitalist crisis, and the economic and political position of migrants. Amidst the contradictions and complexities that were identified within these documentaries, representations of ‘migrants’ can be grouped into three categories: disposable labour, passive victim, and active threat. We argue these discursive roles reflect and reinforce capitalist exploitation, by constructing ‘migrants’ as a mutable ‘other’ to divide the working class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article asks whether volunteering by refugees and asylum seekers holds potential to foster collective resistance to the British state’s increasingly punitive asylum policies. It draws on research that included four organizational case studies and in-depth qualitative interviews with refugees and asylum seekers volunteering in a city in Northern England, and analyses this data using inter-related concepts of contradiction, hegemony and social capital. This research found that volunteering by refugees and asylum seekers had potential to contribute to cohesive social blocs that might form a basis for resistance, yet also exhibited tendencies to divide refugees and encourage individualized forms of action, which reinforced a subordinate position for the majority. The article concludes that realizing the potential of voluntary activity as a basis for collective resistance to the state’s asylum policies may require it to be combined with political education and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]