Staff profile

Stephen joined the department as Assistant Professor in June 2020, having previously worked at Northumbria University. He completed an ESRC funded PhD at Durham in 2017, examining the UK Government’s Troubled Families Programme. Prior to entering academia, he worked in a number of public sector and voluntary sector roles in the North East of England, working on issues such as community cohesion, tenant participation, health inequalities and child poverty.

He has published extensively on issues relating to ‘troubled families’, child poverty and social justice and his research interests revolve around policy responses to social disadvantage and inequality and the symbolic power of social policies.

• Communities and Social Justice

Authored book

• Crossley, S. (2018). Troublemakers: The construction of 'troubled families' as a social problem. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Crossley, Stephen (2017). In Their Place: The Imagined Geographies of Poverty. London: Pluto Press.

Chapter in book

• Crossley, S. (2021). Misrecognising ‘complex’ families: a social harm perspective. In Negotiating Families and Personal Lives in the 21st Century: Exploring Diversity, Social Change and Inequalities. Quaid, S., Hugman, C. & Wilcock, A. Routledge.

Journal Article

• McGrath, Joanne, Crossley, Stephen, Lhussier, Monique & Forster, Natalie (2023). Social capital and women’s narratives of homelessness and multiple exclusion in northern England. International Journal for Equity in Health 22: 41.
• King, H., Crossley, S. & Smith, R. (2021). Responsibility, resilience and symbolic power. Sociological Review 69(5): 920-936.
• Silver, D. & Crossley, S. (2020). ‘We know it works.’ The Troubled Families Programme and the pre-determined boundary judgements of decontextualised policy evaluation. Critical Social Policy 40(4): 566-585.
• Crossley, S. (2018). The uk government's troubled families programme: Delivering social justice? Social Inclusion 6(3): 301-309.
• Crossley, S. (2017). Guest editorial: Professionalism, de-professionalisation and austerity. Social Work and Social Sciences Review 19(1): 3-6.
• Crossley, S. (2017). The 'official' social justice: An examination of the Coalition government's concept of social justice. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice 25(1): 21-33.
• Lambert, M. & Crossley, S. (2017). 'Getting with the (troubled families) programme': A review. Social Policy and Society 16(1): 87-97.
• Crossley, S. & Lambert, M. (2017). Introduction: 'Looking for Trouble?' Critically Examining the UK Government's Troubled Families Programme. Social Policy and Society 16(1): 81-85.
• Visram, S., Cheetham, M., Riby, D.M., Crossley, S.J. & Lake, A.A. (2016). Consumption of energy drinks by children and young people: a rapid review examining evidence of physical effects and consumer attitudes. BMJ Open 6(10): e010380.
• Crossley, S. (2016). ‘Realising the (troubled) family’, ‘crafting the neoliberal state’. Families, Relationships and Societies 5(2): 263-279.
• Crossley, S. (2016). The ‘troubled families’ numbers game. Environment and Planning A 48(1): 4-6.