Dr Will Mason
School of Education
Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences
+44 114 222 8368
Full contact details
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91探花
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Understanding social inequalities - Meet Dr Will Mason Dr Will Mason is a sociologist with expertise in youth and community work, child welfare inequalities, critical methodologies and community-based participatory approaches. He is currently a Lecturer in Applied Social Science at the 91探花 Methods Institute, University of 91探花. Will is also programme director of the ESRC accredited MA Social Research.
Will has worked on research projects ranging from national 拢500,000+ multi鈥慽nstitution studies, to small community-based projects that deliver bespoke and localised initiatives. His research topics include child welfare inequalities, youth services, poverty, criminalisation and social harm.
Will specialises in engaged scholarship and community-led university partnerships. He plays an active role in a number of local and regional community initiatives. Will has been a volunteer youth worker for over 10 years. In this role he has supported the coordination and delivery of five open access youth services, including homework clubs, youth clubs and community gyms.
- Research interests
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Will's research interests include:
- Youth work
- Social work
- Consumption
- Families
- Identities
- Inequalities
- Qualitative research methods
- Qualitative research ethics
- University-community partnership
- Publications
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Journal articles
- . Sociological Research Online.
- . Higher Education.
- . Methodological Innovations.
- . Qualitative Research, 146879412210822-146879412210822.
- . Qualitative Research.
- . The British Journal of Social Work, 51(7), 2645-2664.
- . Child Abuse Review, 29(6), 559-573.
- . Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 14(2), 164-183.
- . British Journal of Criminology, 60(2), 382-402.
- . Children and Youth Services Review, 97, 127-133.
- . Sociology, 52(6), 1117-1133.
- . Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 603-618.
- . Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 679-681.
- . Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 599-602.
- . Child and Family Social Work, 23(3), 364-372.
- . Child Abuse & Neglect, 77, 121-133.
- . SAGE Research Methods Cases, Part 2.
- . Families, Relationships and Societies, 5(1), 155-161.
- Austerity youth policy: exploring the distinctions between youth work in principle and youth work in practice. Youth and Policy, 114, 55-74.
Chapters
- , Child Maltreatment (pp. 81-99). Springer International Publishing
- Radically slow? Reflections on time, temporality and pace in engaged scholarship In Clift B, Gore J, Gustafsson S, Bekker S, Costas Batlle I & Hatchard J (Ed.), Temporality in Qualitative Inquiry: Theories, Methods and Practices (pp. 142-157). Routledge
Reports
- Youth violence, masculinity and mental health: learning from the communities most affected
- The relationship between poverty, child abuse and neglect: a rapid evidence review
- 鈥榊ou Don鈥檛 Come to Maple or You Get Bullets in Your Head鈥: Somali Youth, Risk Talk and the Realities of Risk Avoidance
Website content
- #unitydoc : participatory filmmaking as counter-storytelling. Retrieved from
- Police drugs crackdown operations can do more harm than good 鈥 I鈥檝e seen it. Retrieved from
- Knife crime : folk devils and moral panics?. Retrieved from
- Reframing child welfare inequalities: making sense with research and changing the conversation. Retrieved from
- If you want students to read more, consider asking them to read less.
- . Retrieved from
- 鈥楻eproducing the Stereotypes鈥: Family Complexity, Resource Scarcity and Social Work Decision-Making..
- 鈥淣o one walks out their house without a knife鈥: living with violence as a daily threat. Retrieved from
- Why those most needing child protection might be least likely to get it.
- A critical case for participant action research in youth work. Retrieved from
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
- . In SAGE Research Methods Foundations (Vol 1).
- . Sociological Research Online.
- Teaching interests
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Will is the Director of the MA Social Research at the 91探花 Methods Institute. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2021, he was awarded Masters Teacher of the Year in the national FindAMasters.com and FindAPhD.com Postgraduate Awards.
Will has experience of teaching across a wide range of substantive and research methods courses. He currently convenes modules on the principles of research design, advanced qualitative methods and interdisciplinarity.
Will鈥檚 teaching philosophy is closely informed by both critical pedagogy and an ethic of care. This emphasises (i) the value of extending and enriching knowledge in dialogue and (ii) doing so in ways that promote mutual understanding and growth. Will is committed to the enhancement of enjoyment in and through his teaching. His educational practice seeks to maximise enjoyment by (i) creating inclusive learning environments (ii) actively seeking and responding to student feedback and (iii) creating opportunities for students to practice their craft, in experiential learning encounters.
- PhD Supervision
Kaltum Osman Rivers