Biography
Dr Simon Bradford is Reader in Social Science in the School of Sport and Education at Brunel University and is Director of the Centre for Youth Work Studies at the University. He joined Brunel University in 1985 after working for 13 years in residential social work and youth and community work.
His main research interests lie in social policy initiatives that affect young people and communities, youth culture, the history and organisation of professional work in the public services (particularly in education services). Simon Bradford’s current research is in three main areas:
- History of professionalism and professionalisation in informal educational work with young people in the UK; changes in professional identities.
- Contemporary policy-making and practice in services for young people and communities.
- Aspects of youth practices and culture, particularly cool, cyber-culture and gaming.
Simon Bradford’s teaching commitments at Brunel include work at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. He is Course Leader of the MA Youth and Community Work, MA Youth and Community Studies and BA (Hons) Youth and Community Studies.
Simon Bradford has undertaken research and consultancy for local authorities in Dudley, Surrey, Croydon and Redbridge, third-sector organisations like Richmond Parish Lands Charity and Clubs for Young People, and for two local Sure Start programmes.
Publications
Books and Chapters in Books
Bradford, S., and Day, M., (1991), Youth Service Management, Leicester, Youth Work Press.
Bradford, S., (1999,), Youth Work, Young People and Transitions to Adulthood, in Hill, M., (ed), Effective Ways of Working with Children and their Families, Research Highlights in Social Work, 35, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp 179-196.
Bradford, S., (2004), ‘The Management of Growing Up: youth work in community settings’, Roche, J., Tucker, S., Thomson, R., and Flynn, R., (eds), Youth in Society, Sage Publications, pp 245-254.
Bradford., S., (2005), ‘Modernising youth work: from the universal to the particular and back again’, in Harrison, R., and Wise, C., (eds), Working with Young People, London, Sage Publications, 57-69.
Bradford, S., (2006), ‘Practising the Double Doctrine of Freedom: Managing Young People in the Context of War’, Gilchrist, R., Jeffs, T., and Spence, J., (eds), Drawing on the Past, Studies in the history of Community and Youth Work, Leicester, NYA.
Crowe, N., and Bradford, S., (2007), ‘Identity and structure in on-line gaming: Young people’s symbolic and virtual extensions of self’, in Hodkinson, P., and Deicke, W., (eds), Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes, Routledge, 215-228.
Bradford, S. and McNamara, Y. (2007), Young people, modernity and leisure, in De Bell, D. and Jackson, P. (eds), Public Health Practice and the School Age Population, Hodder Arnold, 133-150.
Bradford, S. (2009), ‘From Knowledge of the World to Knowledge of Self: Perspectives on the Professional Training of Youth Leaders, 1942-1948’, in Gilchrist, R, Jeffs, T. Spence, J. and Walker, J, (eds), Essays in the history of youth and community work. Discovering the past, Russell House Publishing, 39-55.
Articles in Refereed Journals
Putman, K., Bradford, S., and Cleminson, A., An Analysis of the Role of the Mentor in Professional Education, Mentoring, Volume 1, Number 1, Summer 1993.
Cleminson, A., Putman, K., and Bradford, S., Distance Learning in Initial Teacher Education: a case study, Istruzione a Distanza 8/9, August-December 1993.
Cleminson, A., and Bradford, S., Professional Education: the relationship between ‘academic’ and experiential learning, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, Vol. 48, No.3, 1996, pp 249-259.
Bradford, S., and Urquhart, C., The Making and Breaking of Young Men: Suicide and the Adolescent Male, Youth and Policy, No.61, Autumn 1998, pp 28-41.
Bradford, S., Disciplining Practices: New Ways of Making Youth Workers Accountable, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2000, Volume 9, 41-59.
Bradford, S., (2002), Manage and Control: the capture of youth work, Images, the YMCA Journal of Reflective Practice, Vol.8, No.2, pp 4-6.
Hey, V., and Bradford, S., (2004), ‘The return of the repressed?: the gender politics of emergent forms of professionalism in education’, Journal of Education Policy, 19, (6), 691-713.
Hey, V., and Bradford, S., (2006), ‘Re-engineering Motherhood? Surestart in the Community’, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7, (1), 53-67.
Bradford, S., and Somers, J., (2006), ‘Discourses of Partnership in Multi-Agency Working in the Community and Voluntary Sectors in Ireland’, Irish Journal of Sociology, 15, (2), 67-85.
Crowe, N., and Bradford, S., (2006), ‘Hanging out in Runescape’: identity, work and play in the virtual playground’, Children’s Geographies, 4, (3), 331-346.
Barron, M. and Bradford, S. (2007), Corporeal controls: violence, bodies and young gay men’s identities, Youth and Society, 39, (2), 232-261.
Bradford, S. (2007), ‘The Good Youth Leader: constructions of professionalism in English youth work, 1939-1945, Ethics and Social Welfare, 1, (3), 293-309.
Bradford, S. and Hey, V. (2007), Successful Subjectivities? The successification of Class, Ethnic and Gender Positions, Journal of Education Policy, 22, (6), 595-614.
Bradford, S. (2007), ‘Practices, policies and professionals: emerging discourses of expertise in English youth work’, 1939-1951, Youth and Policy, 97/98, Autumn/Winter, 13-28.
Bradford, S. and Byrne S. (2010 forthcoming), ‘Beyond the boundaries: resistances to school-based youth work in Northern Ireland’, in Pastoral Care in Education.
Book Reviews
Eurostat, ‘Youth in the European Union’, in Economic Awareness, Volume 10, Number 2, 1998.
Miller, G., (2000), ‘On Fairness and Efficiency: the privatisation of the public income over the past millennium’, Policy Press, in Journal of Social Policy, Volume 30, Part 4, October 2001.
Conference Proceedings etc.
Cleminson, A., Putman, K., and Bradford, S., Experiential Learning Styles and Student Learning, paper given to Improving Student Learning Symposium, University of Warwick, 14th September 1993.
Bradford, S., New Ways of Making Youth Workers Accountable: “… such stuff as dreams are made on…”, paper given to Research and Practice Conference, Department of Education, Brunel University, 14th July, 1999.
Bradford, S., and Hey, V., (2002), ‘Practices of Success: complexes of ethnicity, class and gender’, Department of Education Staff/Student Research Conference, Department of Education, Brunel University, 10th July, 2002.
Bradford, S., and Hey, V., ‘The Psycho-Dynamics of Success’, part of a seminar series ‘Society, Social Policy and the Psyche’, at Kings College, University of London, July 2002.
Bradford, S., ‘Complexes of Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Young People’s Practices of Success’, paper given in the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, University of the West Indies, Cave hill, Barbados, 30th April, 2003.
Bradford, S., 'Trust and Accountability in Democratic Practice', a paper given at a conference 'Youth Work and Citizenship: Inclusion, Exclusion and Transformation', at Manchester Metropolitan University, 4th July 2003.
Crowe, N., and Bradford, S., 'Identity and Gender in On-Line Gaming: young People's Symbolic and Virtual Extensions of Self', paper given to British Sociological Association conference, 'Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes: Youth Cultures in the 21st Century', University College, Northampton, 13th September 2003.
Bradford, S., and Hey, V., 'Practices of Success: complexes of ethnicity, class and gender', paper given at British Educational Research Association conference, University College , Northampton, 4th May 2004.
Crowe, N., and Bradford, S., ‘Identity, space and place in on-line gaming communities: young people’s virtual practices of self’ paper given at conference ‘Emerging issues in the Geographies of Children and Youth’, 23rd June 2005, Brunel University.
Crowe, N., and Bradford, S., ‘Identity, space and place in on-line gaming communities: young people’s practices of the technological self’ paper given at British Sociological Association conference ‘Young People and New Technologies’, 7th September 2005, University College Northampton.
Bradford, S. ‘Policy making in youth leadership training in England, 1939-1945’, a paper given at ‘History of Youth and Community Work’, a conference organised by Durham University and Youth and Policy, Ushaw College, Duham, 3rd March, 2007.
Bradford, S., ‘Discourses of Professionalism in Late Modern Societies’ invited lecture given in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Guyana, 17th October, 2007.
Bradford, S., ‘Changing professionalism(s): youth work in contemporary worlds’, Public Lecture given in the Department of Youth and Community Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Malta, 15th May, 2008.
Bradford, S., ‘ Aspects of Youth Policy Development in Mid-Twentieth Century England’, a paper given at the History of Youth Community Work conference, University of Minnesota, 27th June, 2008.
Bradford, S., ‘Forming the ‘good’ youth leader: university contributions to the professionalisation of English youth work, 1939-1945’, a paper given at ‘Beyond the Lecture Hall: Universities and Community Engagement from the middle ages to the present day’, History of Education Society conference in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, 5th September, 2008.
Media
Guest on BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Thinking allowed’, 7th March 2007, studio discussion with Laurie Taylor on aspects of young people and cyber-culture:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/thinkingallowed_20070307.shtml
Research Reports
Bradford, S., (1993), Encounters With Young People, a report of research completed in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, Brunel University.
Bradford, S., (1994), Working With Young People, a report of research undertaken in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley.
Bradford, S., Day, M., and Gough, S., (1995), Surrey Youth Matters, Surrey Care Trust and Brunel University.
Bradford, S., and Martin, W., (1996), Shaping the Future: A Review of the Youth and Community Service in the London Borough of Redbridge, a report of research commissioned by the London Borough of Redbridge, Brunel University.
Bradford, S., and Carr, C., (2000), Making Connections, an interim report of research commissioned by Surrey County Council, Community Services.
Bradford, S., (2002), Making Connections for Young People in Staines, a report of research commissioned by Surrey County Council, Community Services.
Bradford, S., Kindness, L., Hey, V., and Cullen, F., (2003), You’re either in or you’re out or you’re a saddo…’ The final Report of the Young Agenda Survey in the London borough of Richmond, Richmond Parish Lands Charity.
Bradford, S., Hey, V., and Cullen, F., (2004), What Works? An Exploration of the Value of Informal Education Work with Young People, a report of research completed for the National Association of Clubs for Young People, NACYP, http://www.clubsforyoungpeople.org.uk/downloads/cyp_research.pdf
Bradford, S., contributor to CYP., (2009), Somewhere to Belong… A blueprint for 21st Century youth clubs, Clubs for Young People. 12 reports on research and evaluation programme with Surestart Whitley, 2002-2006.
Bradford S. and Green L. (2009), Making a difference where it matters: and interim review of the impact of sport in young people’s lives, an interim report to The Lord’s Taverners, Brunel University.
Bradford S. and Green L. (2009), Making a difference where it matters. A Report to The Lord’s Taverners on the impact of sport in young people’s lives, Brunel University.
Bradford S. and Green L. (2009), Supporting Families, changing Communities, an evaluation of Sure Start Whitley, Brunel University.
Current PhD students (first supervisor)
Jo Griffiths: The professional formation of youth workers
Ebony Reid: Young people and street violence in North London
Sean Gibbons: Work with at risk young people
Tracey Herald: Contemporary discourses of parenting
Jenny Bourne: Policy and professional interventions with young men who self-harm
Tatjana Chircop: Music cultures among young people in Malta
Craig Johnston: Social capital and disabled young people in FE
Roy Masini: The Leysdown tragedy; Edwardian representations of children and child death
Tracie Trimmer-Platman: Youth work, young people and violence
Laura Green: Sport as a vehicle for informal education with young women
Completed PhD/MPhil/EdD students
Claudette Carr: Discourses of Black history
Barry Twigg: Aspects of drug education
Yvonne McNamara: Citizenship and youth work
Tim Malcomson: Partnership and policy-making in work with street children in Uganda
Robert Owen: Participation in personal development groups
Hassan Ahmed: Teacher education policy in Somaliland
Nic Crowe: Young people, cyber culture and identity
