Dr Will Mason
Sheffield Methods Institute
Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences
+44 114 222 8368
Full contact details
Sheffield Methods Institute
Interdisciplinary Centre of the Social Sciences (ICOSS)
219 Portobello
Sheffield
S1 4DP
- Profile
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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 Sheffield Methods Institute, University of Sheffield. Will is also programme director of the ESRC accredited MA Social Research.
Will has worked on research projects ranging from national £500,000+ multi‑institution 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
- Understanding out of Home Care Rates in Northern Ireland: A Thematic Analysis of Mixed Methods Case Studies. The British Journal of Social Work. View this article in WRRO
- “No one learned”: interpreting a drugs crackdown operation and its consequences though the ‘lens’ of social harm. British Journal of Criminology, 60(2), 382-402. View this article in WRRO
- Towards full integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in case study research: insights from investigating child welfare inequalities. Journal of Mixed Methods Research. View this article in WRRO
- Poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect: Changing the conversation across the UK in child protection?. Children and Youth Services Review, 97, 127-133. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Swagger’: Urban Youth Culture, Consumption and Social Positioning. Sociology, 52(6), 1117-1133. View this article in WRRO
- Some Useful Sources. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 679-681.
- Walking the Walk: changing familial forms, government policy and social work practice. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 603-618. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction: Families, Social Work and the Welfare State: Where Contemporary ‘Family’ Meets Policy and Practice. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 599-602.
- Social work, poverty, and child welfare interventions. Child and Family Social Work, 23(3), 364-372. View this article in WRRO
- The association between child maltreatment and adult poverty – A systematic review of longitudinal research. Child Abuse & Neglect, 77, 121-133. View this article in WRRO
- Using the Framework Method to Analyze Mixed-Methods Case Studies. SAGE Research Methods Cases, Part 2. View this article in WRRO
- Poverty, child abuse and neglect: patterns of cost and spending. Families, Relationships and Societies, 5(1), 155-161. View this article in WRRO
- Austerity youth policy: exploring the distinctions between youth work in principle and youth work in practice. Youth and Policy: the journal of critical analysis, 114, 55-74. View this article in WRRO
- Safeguarding Children when Fabricated or Induced illness (FII) is suspected or proven: Reviewing the experiences of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB) in England. Child Abuse Review. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- 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 View this article in WRRO
- ‘You Don’t Come to Maple or You Get Bullets in Your Head’: Somali Youth, Risk Talk and the Realities of Risk Avoidance View this article in WRRO
Website content
- Reading Sociological Theory.
- #unitydoc: participatory filmmaking as counter-storytelling. View this article in WRRO
- Police drugs crackdown operations can do more harm than good – I’ve seen it.
- Knife crime: folk devils and moral panics?.
- ‘Reproducing the Stereotypes’: Family Complexity, Resource Scarcity and Social Work Decision-Making..
- “No one walks out their house without a knife”: living with violence as a daily threat. View this article in WRRO
- Reframing child welfare inequalities: making sense with research and changing the conversation. View this article in WRRO
- Why those most needing child protection might be least likely to get it.
- A critical case for participant action research in youth work. View this article in WRRO
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
- Hermeneutics. In SAGE Research Methods Foundations (Vol 1).
- Understanding out of Home Care Rates in Northern Ireland: A Thematic Analysis of Mixed Methods Case Studies. The British Journal of Social Work. View this article in WRRO