Ben Kisby
Biographic Data
| ID | 4128651 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ben Kisby |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ben |
| FAMILY NAME | Kisby |
| SIGNATURE | BEN KISBY |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lincoln |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9725-9737 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 137 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The surprising spectacle of splashing soup
Numerous news media outlets across the world have reported on climate protestors splashing food and paint across some of the world’s most recognisable paintings from van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ to the ‘Mona Lisa’. These events are a type of climate protest that has been gaining popularity in recent years – stunts targeting cultural artefacts and famous artwork to garner media attention. These forms of protest warrant closer analysis for several reaso…
Combatting conspiracies in the classroom
This article draws on data from a specially commissioned representative survey, which elicited responses from 7691 teachers in primary and secondary schools in England, to examine how teachers perceive young people's engagement with a variety of different conspiracy theories in school settings and how they respond to them. Approximately 40% of teachers report encountering students who supported conspiracy theories. In response, teachers use a wid…
Citizenship Education and Civil Society
Contemporary societies face a range of important challenges, including: climate change; poverty; wealth, income, and other forms of social inequality; human rights abuses; misinformation and fake news; the growth of populist movements; and citizen disenchantment with democratic politics [...]
Voice, equality and education
Lessons in character education
This article examines a number of teaching resources produced by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, the leading centre for character education in the UK, in the light of the claim advanced by Kristján Kristjánsson, the centre’s deputy director, that various criticisms of character education are best regarded as ‘myths’. The analysis provided in this article highlights significant shortcomings with these teaching resources, suggesting t…
The “Youthquake” in British Politics
This article explores whether the past few years have witnessed what can accurately be described as a “youthquake” in British politics, following the candidature and election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. It argues that the British Election Study team, who argue that we witnessed “tremors but no youthquake”, fail to advance a convincing case that turnout did not significantly increase among the youngest group of voters in the 20…
Assessing policy success and failure
Assessing policy success and failure is a significant challenge. This article seeks to address this by utilizing two case studies of legislation from the United Kingdom Parliament, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Academies Act 2010, so as to develop a nuanced understanding of how and in what ways policies have been successful, or otherwise. Drawing on these two case studies, and the work of a variety of authors, the article illustrates…
Evidence-informed or value-based? exploring the scrutiny of legislation in the UK Parliament
This article argues that three types of factor – process, subject and political circumstance – are likely to affect the extent to which claims of evidence are made during legislative scrutiny. It draws upon case studies of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Academies Act 2010 and the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, utilising interviews with those involved and information from Hansard. The article concludes that these cases highlight that w…
Market Values and Youth Political Engagement in the UK
This article seeks to develop a preliminary analysis of how neo-liberal thought and policies have impacted on youth political engagement in the UK, specifically by attempting to understand how macro-economic and other public policies can influence the individual psychology of citizens and their subsequent behaviour. The article sets out a clear definition and explanation of neo-liberalism and summarises six key neo-liberal impacts particularly pe…
Young People’s Citizen Identities
Since the late 1980s, successive United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship” among young people. But despite the substantial amount of work done by social scientists on the topic of citizenship in recent decades, relatively little research work has been done in social psychology to analyse citizens’ actual understandings of citizenship, viewed in terms of membership of a pol…
Citizenship, Democracy and Education in the UK
Citizenship has become a major topic for debate and the subject of public policy in recent years, as academics and policy-makers across the Western world have tried to understand and respond to what is widely seen as a weakening of democracy. In the UK, the increasing alienation of citizens from electoral politics has \nmanifested itself in a sharp fall in electoral turnout, membership of political parties and levels of public trust in the politi…
Interpreting Facts, Verifying Interpretations
This article reflects on the relationship between evidence and interpretation in policy-making and policy analysis. It proceeds by critically analysing both David Blunkett’s understanding (as articulated when holding office in the UK Labour government) of the concept of ‘evidence-based policy-making’ and three noteworthy, alternative approaches to understanding the links between facts, evidence, values and interpretive framework — Keith Dowding’s…
The Big Society
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently set out his vision of a ‘big society’. Its core themes are empowering communities, redistributing power from the state to citizens and promoting a culture of volunteering. The idea is badly flawed. It overlooks the crucial role that needs to be played by the state in promoting social justice, which is vital to the development of active citizenship and vibrant communities. Moreover, Cameron views the act…
Revitalising Politics
Citizenship education is an appropriate demand-side policy response to declining political participation among young people in the UK. There is evidence that its compulsory introduction in secondary schools in England in 2002 is having some success, but its implementation is not without problems. Citizenship classes can be made more effective if they are underpinned by the core principles of experiential and service learning, whereby knowledge, p…
Analysing Policy Networks
This article argues that an ideational variant of David Marsh and Martin Smith's (2000) ‘dialectical’ model of policy networks adds significant value to their analysis by taking certain kinds of ideas, which Berman (1998) labels ‘programmatic beliefs’, seriously as independent, causal factors. It further contends that Marsh and Smith's approach moves beyond Marsh and Rod Rhodes's (1992) earlier structural model of interest group intermediation by…
New Labour and Citizenship Education 1
This article argues that citizenship lessons were introduced in schools in England in 2002 principally because of concerns amongst a range of key figures in and beyond New Labour about perceived declining levels of social capital in Britain. The article is structured as follows: first, it places citizenship education in its historical context prior to the election of Labour in 1997, also emphasising the historical dimension to debates inside the …
Social Capital and Citizenship Education in Schools
The Big Society
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently set out his vision of a ‘big society’. Its core themes are empowering communities, redistributing power from the state to citizens and promoting a culture of volunteering. The idea is badly flawed. It overlooks the crucial role that needs to be played by the state in promoting social justice, which is vital to the development of active citizenship and vibrant communities. Moreover, Cameron views the act…
Citizenship, Democracy and Education in the UK
Citizenship has become a major topic for debate and the subject of public policy in recent years, as academics and policy-makers across the Western world have tried to understand and respond to what is widely seen as a weakening of democracy. In the UK, the increasing alienation of citizens from electoral politics has \nmanifested itself in a sharp fall in electoral turnout, membership of political parties and levels of public trust in the politi…
New Labour and Citizenship Education 1
This article argues that citizenship lessons were introduced in schools in England in 2002 principally because of concerns amongst a range of key figures in and beyond New Labour about perceived declining levels of social capital in Britain. The article is structured as follows: first, it places citizenship education in its historical context prior to the election of Labour in 1997, also emphasising the historical dimension to debates inside the …
Analysing Policy Networks
This article argues that an ideational variant of David Marsh and Martin Smith's (2000) ‘dialectical’ model of policy networks adds significant value to their analysis by taking certain kinds of ideas, which Berman (1998) labels ‘programmatic beliefs’, seriously as independent, causal factors. It further contends that Marsh and Smith's approach moves beyond Marsh and Rod Rhodes's (1992) earlier structural model of interest group intermediation by…
Voice, equality and education
Revitalising Politics
Citizenship education is an appropriate demand-side policy response to declining political participation among young people in the UK. There is evidence that its compulsory introduction in secondary schools in England in 2002 is having some success, but its implementation is not without problems. Citizenship classes can be made more effective if they are underpinned by the core principles of experiential and service learning, whereby knowledge, p…
Social Capital and Citizenship Education in Schools
Assessing policy success and failure
Assessing policy success and failure is a significant challenge. This article seeks to address this by utilizing two case studies of legislation from the United Kingdom Parliament, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Academies Act 2010, so as to develop a nuanced understanding of how and in what ways policies have been successful, or otherwise. Drawing on these two case studies, and the work of a variety of authors, the article illustrates…
Evidence-informed or value-based? exploring the scrutiny of legislation in the UK Parliament
This article argues that three types of factor – process, subject and political circumstance – are likely to affect the extent to which claims of evidence are made during legislative scrutiny. It draws upon case studies of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Academies Act 2010 and the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, utilising interviews with those involved and information from Hansard. The article concludes that these cases highlight that w…
Market Values and Youth Political Engagement in the UK
This article seeks to develop a preliminary analysis of how neo-liberal thought and policies have impacted on youth political engagement in the UK, specifically by attempting to understand how macro-economic and other public policies can influence the individual psychology of citizens and their subsequent behaviour. The article sets out a clear definition and explanation of neo-liberalism and summarises six key neo-liberal impacts particularly pe…
Young People’s Citizen Identities
Since the late 1980s, successive United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship” among young people. But despite the substantial amount of work done by social scientists on the topic of citizenship in recent decades, relatively little research work has been done in social psychology to analyse citizens’ actual understandings of citizenship, viewed in terms of membership of a pol…
Combatting conspiracies in the classroom
This article draws on data from a specially commissioned representative survey, which elicited responses from 7691 teachers in primary and secondary schools in England, to examine how teachers perceive young people's engagement with a variety of different conspiracy theories in school settings and how they respond to them. Approximately 40% of teachers report encountering students who supported conspiracy theories. In response, teachers use a wid…
Lessons in character education
This article examines a number of teaching resources produced by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, the leading centre for character education in the UK, in the light of the claim advanced by Kristján Kristjánsson, the centre’s deputy director, that various criticisms of character education are best regarded as ‘myths’. The analysis provided in this article highlights significant shortcomings with these teaching resources, suggesting t…
Interpreting Facts, Verifying Interpretations
This article reflects on the relationship between evidence and interpretation in policy-making and policy analysis. It proceeds by critically analysing both David Blunkett’s understanding (as articulated when holding office in the UK Labour government) of the concept of ‘evidence-based policy-making’ and three noteworthy, alternative approaches to understanding the links between facts, evidence, values and interpretive framework — Keith Dowding’s…
Social Capital and Citizenship Education in Schools
Analysing Policy Networks
This article argues that an ideational variant of David Marsh and Martin Smith's (2000) ‘dialectical’ model of policy networks adds significant value to their analysis by taking certain kinds of ideas, which Berman (1998) labels ‘programmatic beliefs’, seriously as independent, causal factors. It further contends that Marsh and Smith's approach moves beyond Marsh and Rod Rhodes's (1992) earlier structural model of interest group intermediation by…
New Labour and Citizenship Education 1
This article argues that citizenship lessons were introduced in schools in England in 2002 principally because of concerns amongst a range of key figures in and beyond New Labour about perceived declining levels of social capital in Britain. The article is structured as follows: first, it places citizenship education in its historical context prior to the election of Labour in 1997, also emphasising the historical dimension to debates inside the …
Revitalising Politics
Citizenship education is an appropriate demand-side policy response to declining political participation among young people in the UK. There is evidence that its compulsory introduction in secondary schools in England in 2002 is having some success, but its implementation is not without problems. Citizenship classes can be made more effective if they are underpinned by the core principles of experiential and service learning, whereby knowledge, p…
The Big Society
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently set out his vision of a ‘big society’. Its core themes are empowering communities, redistributing power from the state to citizens and promoting a culture of volunteering. The idea is badly flawed. It overlooks the crucial role that needs to be played by the state in promoting social justice, which is vital to the development of active citizenship and vibrant communities. Moreover, Cameron views the act…
Interpreting Facts, Verifying Interpretations
This article reflects on the relationship between evidence and interpretation in policy-making and policy analysis. It proceeds by critically analysing both David Blunkett’s understanding (as articulated when holding office in the UK Labour government) of the concept of ‘evidence-based policy-making’ and three noteworthy, alternative approaches to understanding the links between facts, evidence, values and interpretive framework — Keith Dowding’s…
Citizenship, Democracy and Education in the UK
Citizenship has become a major topic for debate and the subject of public policy in recent years, as academics and policy-makers across the Western world have tried to understand and respond to what is widely seen as a weakening of democracy. In the UK, the increasing alienation of citizens from electoral politics has \nmanifested itself in a sharp fall in electoral turnout, membership of political parties and levels of public trust in the politi…
Market Values and Youth Political Engagement in the UK
This article seeks to develop a preliminary analysis of how neo-liberal thought and policies have impacted on youth political engagement in the UK, specifically by attempting to understand how macro-economic and other public policies can influence the individual psychology of citizens and their subsequent behaviour. The article sets out a clear definition and explanation of neo-liberalism and summarises six key neo-liberal impacts particularly pe…
Young People’s Citizen Identities
Since the late 1980s, successive United Kingdom (UK) governments have sought to develop initiatives designed to promote forms of “active citizenship” among young people. But despite the substantial amount of work done by social scientists on the topic of citizenship in recent decades, relatively little research work has been done in social psychology to analyse citizens’ actual understandings of citizenship, viewed in terms of membership of a pol…
The “Youthquake” in British Politics
This article explores whether the past few years have witnessed what can accurately be described as a “youthquake” in British politics, following the candidature and election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. It argues that the British Election Study team, who argue that we witnessed “tremors but no youthquake”, fail to advance a convincing case that turnout did not significantly increase among the youngest group of voters in the 20…
Assessing policy success and failure
Assessing policy success and failure is a significant challenge. This article seeks to address this by utilizing two case studies of legislation from the United Kingdom Parliament, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Academies Act 2010, so as to develop a nuanced understanding of how and in what ways policies have been successful, or otherwise. Drawing on these two case studies, and the work of a variety of authors, the article illustrates…
Evidence-informed or value-based? exploring the scrutiny of legislation in the UK Parliament
This article argues that three types of factor – process, subject and political circumstance – are likely to affect the extent to which claims of evidence are made during legislative scrutiny. It draws upon case studies of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, the Academies Act 2010 and the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, utilising interviews with those involved and information from Hansard. The article concludes that these cases highlight that w…
Lessons in character education
This article examines a number of teaching resources produced by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, the leading centre for character education in the UK, in the light of the claim advanced by Kristján Kristjánsson, the centre’s deputy director, that various criticisms of character education are best regarded as ‘myths’. The analysis provided in this article highlights significant shortcomings with these teaching resources, suggesting t…
Citizenship Education and Civil Society
Contemporary societies face a range of important challenges, including: climate change; poverty; wealth, income, and other forms of social inequality; human rights abuses; misinformation and fake news; the growth of populist movements; and citizen disenchantment with democratic politics [...]
Voice, equality and education
Combatting conspiracies in the classroom
This article draws on data from a specially commissioned representative survey, which elicited responses from 7691 teachers in primary and secondary schools in England, to examine how teachers perceive young people's engagement with a variety of different conspiracy theories in school settings and how they respond to them. Approximately 40% of teachers report encountering students who supported conspiracy theories. In response, teachers use a wid…
The surprising spectacle of splashing soup
Numerous news media outlets across the world have reported on climate protestors splashing food and paint across some of the world’s most recognisable paintings from van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ to the ‘Mona Lisa’. These events are a type of climate protest that has been gaining popularity in recent years – stunts targeting cultural artefacts and famous artwork to garner media attention. These forms of protest warrant closer analysis for several reaso…
Law (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Citizenship (7 works) · Political economy (7 works) · Democracy (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy (5 works)