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.

Authored book

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

Chapter in book

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

Journal Article

• McGrath, J., Lhussier, M., Crossley, S., & Forster, N. (2023). “They Tarred Me with the Same Brush”: Navigating Stigma in the Context of Child Removal. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(12), Article 6162. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20126162
• Disney, T., Crossley, S., King, H., Phillips, J., Robson, I., & Smith, R. (2023). Family Hubs and the vulnerable care ecologies of child and family welfare in austerity. The Geographical Journal, https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12505
• McGrath, J., Crossley, S., Lhussier, M., & Forster, N. (2023). Social capital and women’s narratives of homelessness and multiple exclusion in northern England. International Journal for Equity in Health, 22, Article 41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01846-1
• Crossley, S., Curry, F., & Billingham, L. (2023). ‘You either go on the gang life, or you go on that football life’: class, race, and place in imaginaries of South London’s sports cages. Journal of Youth Studies, https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2023.2226597
• King, H., Crossley, S., & Smith, R. (2021). Responsibility, resilience and symbolic power. Sociological Review, 69(5), 920-936. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120986108
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018319892443
• Crossley, S. (2018). The uk government's troubled families programme: Delivering social justice?. Social Inclusion, 6(3), 301-309. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v6i3.1514
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1332/175982717x14842282011532
• Lambert, M., & Crossley, S. (2017). 'Getting with the (troubled families) programme': A review. Social Policy and Society, 16(1), 87-97. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474746416000385
• Crossley, S. (2017). Guest editorial: Professionalism, de-professionalisation and austerity
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1474746416000476
• Visram, S., Cheetham, M., Riby, D., Crossley, S., & Lake, 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), Article e010380. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010380
• Crossley, S. (2016). The ‘troubled families’ numbers game. Environment and Planning A, 48(1), 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x15614709
• Crossley, S. (2015). ‘Realising the (troubled) family’, ‘crafting the neoliberal state’. Families, Relationships and Societies, 5(2), 263-279. https://doi.org/10.1332/204674315x14326465757666