Cardiff School of Education & Social Policy>Staff>Edith England

Edith England

Edith England

Job Title: Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Practice | Programme Director Health and Social Care | Programme Director Housing

​School: Cardiff School of Education and Social Polic​y

Room No:​ D304B

Email: EAAEngland@CardiffMet.ac.uk​​





I am a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Practice. My areas of interest are:

  • Homelessness and ‘precarious’ housing (e.g. squatting, property guardianship)
  • The private rented sector
  • Home and place-making
  • Frontline interactions, especially within the welfare state/third sector.
  • Experiences of a) women and minoritized genders and sexualities b) neurodiverse people.

I take a critical social policy approach, with a focus on discourse and meaning-making and with attention to the impact of uneven power. I am especially interested in using a) critical theory (e.g. Queer and Crip theory) and care ethics to understand and address issues in social policy.

I chair the CSESP Gender and Sexualities Research Group and the weekly CSESP Research Seminar Series and am involved in running the Queer Populations and Policies Network (https://sites.google.com/view/qpapnetwork/about-qpap).

Supervision

Experience of supervising doctoral/ MPhil students.

Areas of expertise: Social policy, including homelessness and precarious housing (e.g. the private rented sector), domestic abuse/ VAGWG, gendered/ sexuality-based inequalities, neurodiversity.

Methodological expertise: qualitative (interviews – discourse, narrative and thematic approaches, ethnographic, creative methods), quantitative, mixed methods.

Teaching

I have taught across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sociology, geography, health and social care and housing. My topics include:

  • Housing and homelessness
  • Policy (development and analysis)
  • Welfare rights
  • Gender and sexualities
  • Neurodiversity
  • Frontline interactions (e.g. street level bureaucracy, emotional labour, burnout)
  • Care ethics

Qualifications and Awards

Qualifications

PhD School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff Univerity (2017-2020)

Abandonment, abjectification, activation and responsibilisation: experiences of the shift towards universal conditionality within the Welsh homelessness system following the Housing (Wales) Act 2014

Supervisors: Professor Peter Mackie and Professor Scott Orford

Examiners: Dr Kim McKee and Dr Kate Boyer

MSc Social Research Methods (Swansea University) 2016-2017 – Distinction

MA Ancient Near Eastern Languages (Edinburgh University) 1998-2001 – First Class Honours


Awards

2022 Wales Online Diversity and Inclusion Award (for research with Dr Neil Turnbull, Cardiff School of Architecture and Tai Pawb)

2021 Audrey Jones/ Women in Wales Award (for doctoral research)

2021 Valerie Karn/ Housing Studies Association Early Career Researcher Award

2001 Royal Society of Edinburgh Victoria-Gunning Award (for outstanding performance in final examinations)


2023 Welsh Crucible attendee

External Links

Research Interests and Publications

Peer reviewed articles (selected)

2024 - England, E. and Henley, J (2024) ‘‘It Matters How They See You.’ ‘Maternal activation’ As a Strategy to Navigate Contradictory Discourses of Motherhood and Neoliberal Activism in the Welsh Homelessness System.’ Social Policy and Society: accepted, forthcoming.

2024 - England, E. (2024) ‘You mean my theoretical rights?’ Exploring service shortfalls and administrative (in)justice faced by homeless trans people. In 21st Century Diversity and Welfare, ed Gregory, L & Iantaffi, S. Routledge.

2023 - England, E. (2023) ‘Show me you're trying, that's all…’: Exploring the discursive impact of punishments and incentives in Welsh homelessness system as ‘controlled conditionalities’. Social Policy and Administration. Published early access August 2023, awaiting volume/issue details.

2023 - England, E. (2023). Compassionate responsibilisation in a neoliberal paternalistic homelessness system: ‘They’re not just numbers to me, I do actually care’. The Sociological Review, 71(1), 148-164.

2022 - England, E., Thomas, I., Mackie, P., & Browne-Gott, H. (2022). A typology of multiple exclusion homelessness. Housing Studies, 1-25.

2022 - England, E. (2022). ‘You’re having us on… that’s what it felt like.’: Frontline Workers Navigating the Introduction of Moral Commitments to Domestic Abuse Support within a Statutory Homelessness System. Social Policy and Society, 1-15.

2022 - England, E. (2022). ‘Homelessness is a queer experience.’: utopianism and mutual aid as survival strategies for homeless trans people. Housing Studies, 1-18.

2022 - Carr, H., Cooper, A., England, E., Matthews, P., Taylor, G., & Tunåker, C. (2022). Queer utopias of housing and homelessness. Housing Studies, 1-18.

2022 - England, E. (2022) ‘It’s not just about a rainbow lanyard’: How equalities discourse masks service avoidance among trans people in the Welsh homelessness system’ Journal of Social Policy 1-20

2021 - England, E. ‘This is how it works here’ the spatial deprioritisation of trans people within homelessness services.’ Gender, Place and Culture, 1-38

2021 - Browne Gott, H., Mackie, P. K., & England, E. ‘Housing rights, homelessness prevention and a paradox of bureaucracy?’ Housing Studies, 1-19.

2021 - England E. & Taylor, H. ‘Housing as a Social Issue in Wales’ in Social Policy for Welfare Practice in Wales. Gwilym, H. & Williams, C. (eds.) Venture Press


Other outputs

2023 - Blog posts for UK Centre for Collaborative Housing Research
https://housingevidence.ac.uk/what-dont-we-know-about-lgbtq-homelessness-and-how-you-can-help-us-address-that/
https://housingevidence.ac.uk/is-queer-theory-relevant-to-lgbtq-homelessness/

2023 - Presentation to the Queer Populations and Policies Seminar Series (University of Nottingham/ Vanderbilt University), with Dr Neil Turnbull, (Lecturer in Urban Design, School of Architecture, Cardiff University), and Oliver Townsend, (Head of Partnerships and Practice, Platfform): Can We Queer Social Policy (and should we?)

2022 - England, E. Still out: Beyond Youth homelessness Switchboard Annual Conference, Brighton (Plenary speaker)

2023 - University of East London Institute of Policy and Practice (plenary): Is homelessness support discriminatory?

2022 - NHS Scotland (plenary): Trans people and homelessness

2021 - Shelter Cymru Annual Conference (plenary): Emotional wellbeing at the frontlines of homelessness provision.

2020 - Shelter Scotland/ NHS Hidden Homelessness conference, Glasgow (plenary): Trans people and homelessness: learning from the evidence.

2019 - Out on the Streets – LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness in Wales (with Llamau/ End Youth Homelessness Wales/ Shelter Cymru https://www.llamau.org.uk/out-on-the-streets

2019 - Homelessness among trans people in Wales (with Shelter Cymru) https://sheltercymru.org.uk/policy_and_research/homelessness-among-trans-people-in-wales-report/

2019 - Shelter Cymru annual conference – Trans people and homelessness under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014

2019 - Cymorth Cymru conference: Trans people and homelessness – how can we make services inclusive?

2018 - Shelter Cymru annual conference – Trans people and homelessness – interim report