Known as College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences until 2024/25 http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/32831 2026-07-03T22:24:46Z 2026-07-03T22:24:46Z Ward, J Phillips, J Duke, K Albertson, K Cracknell, M Fowler, A Riley, L http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33554 2026-07-03T02:00:30Z 2026-06-24T00:00:00Z

Title: Young adults’ experiences of a specialist probation Hub: Procedural justice, trust and hope Authors: Ward, J; Phillips, J; Duke, K; Albertson, K; Cracknell, M; Fowler, A; Riley, L Abstract: There are growing calls for young adults (18- to 25-year-olds) in the criminal justice system to be treated as a distinct group and for service responses more attuned to this developmental life-course phase. This article draws on an evaluation of a specialist young adult probation ‘Hub’ analyzing results within a linked conceptual framework of procedural justice, building trust and instilling hope. A dominant finding was how the bespoke Hub and the probation practice that flowed from it led young adults to experience it as a service they wanted to engage with, that had tangible benefits and which led to a more substantive form of compliance. The article contributes valuable insights and knowledge on procedural justice in young adult probation. Description: Rights Retention Statement RRS: “For the purpose of open access, the author(s) has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.”

2026-06-24T00:00:00Z Havsteen-Franklin, D Krogh, M http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33540 2026-07-01T02:00:28Z 2026-05-28T00:00:00Z

Title: Safe spaces as assemblages: Affect, sonic territorialisation, and digital everyday health musicking for young people’s wellbeing Authors: Havsteen-Franklin, D; Krogh, M Abstract: Introduction: Young people across Europe face unprecedented mental health challenges amidst social inequalities, environmental crisis, and technological disruption. With formal services difficult to access, everyday digital music engagement may offer therapeutic value, yet these practices remain undertheorised. This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding how young people construct “safe spaces” through digital everyday health musicking (DEHM), examining the intersection of assemblage theory, affect studies, and sonic territorialisation. Method: We provide theoretical analysis to underpin clinical and research investigations examining how musical engagement operates within complex socio-technical assemblages through spatial and affective frameworks. Results: Safety in DEHM emerges as fragile and contextually negotiated rather than fixed. Through sonic territorialisation, young people construct provisional territories by modulating affective flows through musical engagement. These processes operate through structured (algorithmic, playlist-based) and experimental (exploratory, creative) digital practices, whilst also bearing risks of affective enclosure and algorithmic constraint. Discussion: DEHM represents a legitimate complement to formal music therapy, offering distinct therapeutic affordances through autonomous engagement with digital technologies. Rather than replacing professional intervention, DEHM provides frameworks for understanding how sonic practices generate therapeutic possibilities outside clinical settings, positioning young people as active agents whilst maintaining critical awareness of platform constraints. Music therapists and mental health practitioners should recognise DEHM as a valuable therapeutic resource whilst supporting critical digital literacy. Recommendations address ethics of institutional appropriation emphasising how practitioners can enable exploratory practices that enhance rather than constrain young people’s existing musical agency.

2026-05-28T00:00:00Z Dale-Emberton, Ann http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33510 2026-06-29T06:30:29Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Continuing professional development for social workers: Social worker or organisation LED? Whose choice? Authors: Dale-Emberton, Ann Abstract: The thesis investigates social workers’ perspectives on Continuing Professional Development (CPD), focusing on how decisions about CPD are made, who makes them and the facilitators and constraints that govern these choices. The study acknowledges the regulatory requirement since 2021 for social workers in England to document and record two CPD activities annually to maintain their registration to practice. The study conducted primary qualitative research with twenty-one social work practitioners in England at various stages in their careers. The research data were collected in 2021/22 during COVID 19 Pandemic, with the shift to a virtual “socially distanced” approach displacing face-to-face interaction in fieldwork for the study as well as for practitioners to access CPD opportunities. Fieldwork was carried out using semi-structured narrative interviews that captured the voices and lived experiences of participants. Reflexive thematic analysis of data (Braun and Clarke, 2020) highlights an array of opportunities, challenges, and realities social workers’ encounter in their practice with service users, alongside juggling work/life balance to meet their CPD requirements. The study is underpinned by a theoretical framework that interrogates contemporary social work practice from a range of critical perspectives drawing on the sociological imagination (Mills, 1959), emancipatory pedagogies (Freire,1970), having and being as modes of existence (Fromm, 1976) and technologies of power including surveillance, bureaucracy, governmentality, and the production of docile bodies (Foucault, 1977). The voices of the participants and findings make a unique contribution to the debate on social work practice, a profession in perma-crisis, whose role, value, and survival is being brought into question (Maylea, 2021). The study illustrates that although social workers were keen to take advantage of CPD opportunities, especially in therapeutic and specialist interventionist roles, organisations lacked structure, focus and finance to facilitate career development. In this context personal initiative and motivation were key factors in making the most of CPD. The study identifies organisational problems such as lack of dedicated study time, heavy caseloads for social workers to manage, organisational and political pressures that restrict access to CPD. Social workers’ sense a lack of control and choice over CPD reflects top-down organisationally led approaches. The study calls for more effective responses to make a reality of the aspirations of social work practitioners, many of whom are highly motivated to do better in meeting the needs of service users and more effectively building trust and confidence in the profession, thus working towards fulfilling the commitment to social justice. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

2026-01-01T00:00:00Z Bell, Daniel Allan http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/33505 2026-06-25T10:01:30Z 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Post-war trauma and doubling in 1940-50s British cinema Authors: Bell, Daniel Allan Abstract: This thesis explores doubling motifs in British films in the 1940s/1950s, focusing on case studies that conform to realist traditions. British realist films are often analysed on a purely literal level whereas this study is aimed at exploring ways to re-examine these texts using different approaches. The study covers example films from 1943-1955 and situates the examples in various historical contexts to examine wider themes such as class, gender, propaganda and tensions in Europe. The thesis makes a connection between the manifestation of a subtle doubling motif in British films and links to real-world societal events in post-war Britain. Description: This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London

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