1. Exploring the Life-courses of ‘Thatcher’s Children’
Stephen Farrall (CCR, Sheffield Univ).
April 2017

2. Outline New ESRC grant Aims and objectives Datasets to be analysed
Combining ideas from historical institutionalism and the life-course perspective
Assessing the contemporary relevance of ‘Thatcherism’ today

3. Objectives
What was the impact of the social/economic policies of the s on 'Thatcher’s children with regards to …
a) schooling (especially truancy and exclusion)
b) home-leaving and homelessness
c) engagement in the labour market, and
d) family-formation?
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© The University of Sheffield

4. Objectives
These will be explored with a view to understanding how changes in impacted upon the following:
e) punitive sentiments towards offenders
f) attitudes towards law-breaking, and,
h) experiences of victimisation, offending and desistance from crime.
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© The University of Sheffield

5. How will this be done? Via the re-analysis of birth cohort studies:
The National Child Development Study
The Birth Cohort Study
Next Steps
Main focus likely to be on NCDS/BCS70.
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© The University of Sheffield

6. Outline of NCDS (1958) National sample. N = 17,733
Every child born in one week in March 1958.
Interviews with parents, teachers, cohort members themselves, their spouses/children
Test and medical data too.
Interviews in 58; 65; 69; 74; 81; 91; 99; 04; 08; 12.

7. Outline of BCS70 (1970) National sample. N = 16,135
Every child born in one week in April 1970.
Interviews with parents, teachers, cohort members themselves and their children.
Test and medical data too.
Interviews in 70; 75; 80; 86; 92; 96; 99; 04; 08; 12.

8. Key Research Questions/Foci
Impact on housing careers
Employment
Social security changes
Schooling policies
How these influenced offending, victimisation and punitive sentiments

9. Do the sorts of policies which governments pursue …
create issues which need to be attended to later (‘policies create politics’)?
alter the sorts of opportunities open to individual members of society, and in so doing can alter the life courses of individual citizens?
An idea drawn from historical institutionalism
An idea drawn from the Life-course Perspective
12/11/2018
© The University of Sheffield

10. Do the sorts of policies which governments pursue …
affect the timings of key transition points and staging/stages of individual lives (e.g. commencement of family formation), and in so doing does this encourage some into offending or leave them at risk of victimization?
An idea drawn from the Life-course Perspective
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© The University of Sheffield

11. Do the sorts of policies which governments pursue …
establish individual- AND national-level path dependencies which may become harder to ‘shrug-off’ as time persists?
An idea drawn from historical institutionalism
An idea drawn from the Life-course Perspective
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© The University of Sheffield

12. Assessing the Contemporary Relevance of ‘Thatcherism’ today
Finally, we will commission, design and field a nationally- representative survey to assess the contemporary relevance of ‘Thatcherite’ attitudes and beliefs in the present.
The survey will run in early 2019, so that results are available for the 40th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s election as Prime Minister in May 2019.
Survey will run in England & Wales and Scotland.
12/11/2018
© The University of Sheffield