Janet Newman is Emeritus Professor Social Policy and Criminology at The Open University. Her recent research has traced what happens at the interface between activist movements and changing governance regimes.
People at once both despise and desire the state, and unpicking the paradoxes within attitudes to the state is essential to understanding how to move the state forward.
Any research that seeks to make positive interventions as well as produce ‘objective’ data, must foster new kinds of dialogue that support and engage those directly involved.