Staff Members

Dr Christopher James Hall, BA (Econ), MPhil, PhD.

(email at c.j.hall@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

Chris is a social care researcher with a particular expertise in child welfare research. He worked as a social worker and team manager in local authorities in London before taking up research posts at the National Foundation for Educational Research, Dartington Social Research Unit and the Centre for Applied Childhood Studies at Huddersfield University. He has carried out research on child welfare policy and practice, most notably a recent project on information and communication technologies and new public management as part of the ESRC e-Society programme. His doctoral thesis at Brunel University was in narrative approaches to social work, and he has continued to engage in ethnographic, discourse and narrative research. He is a founder member of the international research group, DANASWAC (Discourse and Narrative Approaches to Social Work and Counselling).

He is a passionate jazz fan, attending festivals and clubs across Europe.

Selected Publications

Books: sections

• Hall, C., Peckover, S. & White, S. (2012). e-Solutions to Information Sharing and Assessment. In Globalization in Practice. Thrift, N., Tickell, A. & Woolgar, S. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hall, C., Makitalo, A., Slembrouck, S. & Doherty, P. (2012). Pursing Trust in Child Protection Meetings: Familiarization and Informality. In Discourses of Trust. Candlin, C. & Crichton, J. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Slembrouck, S. & Hall, C. (2011). Family support and home visiting: understanding communication, 'good practice' and interactional skills. In Handbook of Communication in Organisations and Professions. Candlin, C. & Sarangi, S. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 481-498.
• Peckover, S., Wastell, D., White, S., Broadhurst, K., Hall, C. & Pithouse, A. (2011). The Fallacy of Formalisation: Practice Makes Process in the Assessment of Risks to Children. In Good Practice in Assessing Risk: Current Knowledge, Issues and Approaches. Kemshall, H. & Wilkinson, B. Jessica Kingsley. 84-101.
• Hall, C. & Slembrouck, S. (2010). Categorizations of child “in need” and child “in need of protection” and its implications for the formulation of “deficit” parenting. In Discourses of Deficit. Candlin, C. & Crichton, J. Basingstoke, Hants: Palgrave. 63-80.

Journal papers: academic

• Saario, S., Hall, C. & Peckover, S. (2012). Inter-professional electronic documents and child health: A study of persisting non-electronic communication in the use of electronic documents. Social Science and Medicine 75(12): 2207-2214.
• Pithouse, A., Broadhurst, K., Hall, C., Peckover, S., Wastell, D. & White, S. (2012). Trust, risk and the (mis)management of contingency and discretion through new information technologies in children’s services. Journal of Social Work 12(2): 158-178.
• Hall, C. & Slembrouck, S. (2011). Interviewing parents of children in care: perspectives, discourse and accountability. Children and Youth Services Review 33(3): 457-465.
• Wastell, D., Peckover, S., White, S., Broadhurst, K., Hall, C. & Pithouse, A (2011). Social work in the laboratory: using microworlds for practice research. British Journal of Social Work 41(4): 744-760.
• Juhila, K., Hall, C. & Raitakari, S. (2010). Accounting for the Clients’ Troublesome Behaviour in a Supported Housing Unit: Blames, Excuses and Responsibility in Professionals’ Talk. Journal of Social Work 10(1): 59-79.
• Hall, C., Parton. N., Peckover, S. & White, S. (2010). Child-centric Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the fragmentation of child welfare practice in England. Journal of Social Policy 39(3): 393-413.
• Broadhurst, K., Wastell, D., White, S., Hall, C., Peckover, S., Thompson, K., Pithouse, A. & Davey., D. (2010). Performing ‘initial assessment’ identifying the latent conditions for error at the front-door of local authority children’s services. British Journal of Social Work 40(2): 352-370.
• Broadhurst, K., Hall, C., Wastell, D., White, S. & Pithouse, A. (2010). Risk, Instrumentalism and the Humane Project in Social Work: Identifying the Informal Logics of Risk Management in Children's Statutory Services. British Journal of Social Work 40(4): 1046-1064.
• Hall, C., Slembrouck, S., Haig, E. & Lee, A. (2010). The management of professional roles during boundary work in child welfare. International Journal of Social Welfare 19(3): 348-357.
• White, S., Wastell, D., Broadhurst, K. & Hall, C. (2010). When policy o’erleaps itself: The ‘tragic tale’ of the Integrated Children’s System. Critical Social Policy 30(3): 405-429.
• Pithouse, A., Hall, C., Peckover, S. & White S. (2009). A tale of Two CAFs: the Impact of the Electronic Common Assessment Framework. British Journal of Social Work Special Issue ‘Social work in the Digital Age 39(4): 599-612.
• Hall, C. & Slembrouck, S. (2009). Communication with parents in child welfare: skills, language and interaction. Child & Family Social Work 14(4): 461-470.
• Peckover, S., Hall, C. & White, S. (2009). From policy to practice: the implementation and negotiation of technologies in everyday child welfare. Children & Society 23(2): 136-148.
• White, S., Hall, C. & Peckover, S (2009). The Descriptive Tyranny of the Common Assessment Form: Technologies of Categorization and Professional Practice in Child Welfare. British Journal of Social Work 39(7): 1197-1217.
• White, S., Broadhurst, K., Wastell, D., Peckover, S., Hall, C. & Pithouse, A. (2009). Whither Practice-Near Research in the Modernization Programme? Policy Blunders in Children's Services. Journal of Social Work Practice 23(4): 401-411.
• Peckover, S., White, S. & Hall, C. (2008). Making and Managing Electronic Children: E-Assessment in Child Welfare. Information, Communication & Society 11(3): 375-394.
• Hall, C., Gibbs, G., Balen, R., Masson, H. & Rodriquez, A. (2008). The usefulness of coding in the Victoria Climbié Data Corpus: A Reply to Taylor. Qualitative Research 8(5): 635-640.

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Research Groups

School of Applied Social Sciences

• Policy, Professions and Communities

Research Interests

• Child Welfare
• Discourse Analysis
• Institutional interaction
• Narrative Analysis
• Social Work