Below are listed some of the key research projects which I have carried out and been involved in during my working life. Most have involved collaborations and partnerships; my work has particularly developed in partnership with Suzy Croft. These research projects have both informed and shaped the arguments and views I have offered in this book. Most are specific research projects, although some represent more general focuses in research work that I have carried out. I have also provided key references linked with these studies. Looking back on the projects I have undertaken what strikes me is how many of them have been empirical projects, developing new findings about their subject area, rather than relying on existing information, ideas and assumptions.

Vagrancy and single homelessness

An action research study of the perpetuation of a social problem through its categorisation and treatment

Beresford, P, 1975, Problems of homelessness, Social Services Quarterly, Winter 1974–75, 263–4

Beresford, P, 1975, Reception centres: An index of social service inadequacy, British Journal of Social Work 5, 2, 175–92

Beresford, P, 1979, The public presentation of vagrancy, in T Cook (ed) Vagrancy: Some new perspectives, pp 141–65, London: Academic Press

Public participation in land-use planning

Community-based study, surveying local people’s views of public participation in planning and their community: a community-based empirical study

Beresford, P, Croft, S, 1982, A say in the future: Planning, participation and meeting social need, Second edition with a new introduction, London: Battersea Community Action

Beresford, P, Croft, S, 1980, Public participation and local politics, Town And Country Planning 49, 11 (December), 412–14

Children in care in North Battersea

Exploring the experience of families and children in care in North Battersea: an empirical community-based study

Beresford, P, Kemmis, J, Tunstill, J, 1987, In care in North Battersea, Guildford: University of Surrey

Patch-based social services

Exploring local people’s views of a new initiative in social services and its broader political and social relations: a community-based empirical study

Beresford, P, Croft, S, 1984, Patch and participation: The case for citizen research, research monograph, Social Work Today, 17 September, 18–24

Beresford, P, Croft, S, 1984, Patch in perspective: Decentralising and democratising social services, London: Battersea Community Action

Beresford, P, Croft, S, 1986, Whose welfare: Private care or public services?, Brighton: Lewis Cohen Urban Studies Centre at University of Brighton