Social Research for Our Times: Thomas Coram Research Unit Past, Present and Future

A collection of research and findings from the Thomas Coram Research Unit.

For fifty years, researchers at UCL’s Thomas Coram Research Unit have been undertaking ground-breaking policy-relevant social research. Their main focus has been social issues affecting children, young people, and families and the services provided for them. Social Research for our Times brings together different generations of researchers from the Unit to share some of the most important results of their studies.

Two sections focus on the main findings and conclusions from research into children and children services and on family life, minoritized groups, and gender. A third section is devoted to the innovative methods that have been developed and used to undertake research in these complex areas. Running through the book is a key strategic question: what should be the relationship between research and policy? Or put another way, what does “policy-relevant research” mean? This perennial question has gained new importance in the post-COVID, post-Brexit world that we have entered, making this text a timely intervention for sharing decades of experience. Taking a unique opportunity to reflect on the research context as well as research findings, this book will be of interest to researchers, teachers, students, and those involved in policy-making both in and beyond dedicated research units, and it can be read as a whole or sampled for individual standalone chapters.
 

Claire Cameron is professor of social pedagogy in the Thomas Coram Research Unit at University College London, and a leading researcher on children’s services, disadvantaged families, care, and education. She is the coeditor of Social Research for Our Times.

Alison Koslowski is director of the Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL.

Alison Lamont is a lecturer in sociology at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL.

Peter Moss is emeritus professor of early childhood provision at UCL, UK.