Search

Engaging in 'reflexive practice' throughout the research process (Benson and O'Reilly, 2022) and a 'reflexivity of discomfort' (Hamdan, 2009) through an intersectional lens, this article presents a reflective account of accessing and conducting observations and interviews at a South Asian women's organisation, in North England, to explore Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim (PBM) lone motherhood. It critically explores how researchers' own subjectivities and intersecting identities – in this case, my intersecting identities and positionalities as a young British Pakistani Muslim women, researcher and volunteer – impact interactions in different circumstances with different groups of participants and the importance of having continuous critical self-awareness. Moving beyond simplistic insider–outsider debates, the paper contributes towards further developing reflexivity debates taking an 'intersectional reflexivity' approach. It argues for thinking about the research process and engagements in the field as socially constructed, changing, adapting and negotiated overtime and to utilise intersectionality to unpick broader categories. Finally, it encourages researchers to adopt reflexivity in their research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to interrogate and develop the conceptualisation of discriminatory abuse in safeguarding adults policy and practice beyond the current interpersonal definition. The paper draws on Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs) that refer to discriminatory abuse or safeguarding practice with adults who have care and support needs and protected characteristics. Design/methodology/approach: A search of the national network repository of SARs identified 27 published reviews for inclusion. The contents were thematically analysed to understand how discrimination was experienced in these cases. Fricker's "Epistemic Injustice" theory was adopted as a conceptual framework, informing the analysis of findings. Findings: Evidence from SARs provides a challenge to the interpersonal emphasis on language and behaviour in national policy. Although the reviews acknowledge that interpersonal abuse occurs, a close reading spotlights practitioner and institutional bias, and inattention to social, structural and contextual factors. The silence on these matters in policy provides a narrow frame for interpreting such abuse. This suggests significant potential for epistemic injustice and signals a need to acknowledge these social, structural and contextual factors in safeguarding practice. Originality/value: Discriminatory abuse is an under-researched and under-utilised category of abuse in safeguarding adults practice. The paper adopts Fricker's theory of "Epistemic Injustice" to highlight the silencing potential of current policy approaches to discriminatory abuse to suggest a more inclusive and structural framing for safeguarding practice with those targeted due to their protected characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fieldwork encounters are not only contingent to biographical subjectivities, but are mediated by a confluence of identity, place and embodiment. This paper offers reflexive accounts of researchers with various socio-cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, who collaborated as a team to examine the varied funerary experiences and needs of established minorities and recent migrants in England and Wales. Focusing on the researchers' varied personal experiences with death and bereavement and on their performances of minority and majority ethnic and migrant identities, the paper highlights the mediated and embodied nature of fieldwork. It argues that reflection on the various aspects of intersectional researcher identity is necessary for a rigorous fieldwork practice that takes transparency and politics into account. This facilitates a deeper understanding of the positionality of both researchers and interlocutors, and the situated co-production of knowledge. In doing so, the paper illustrates that conducting research with a diverse team of researchers contributes to better understanding the complexity and multifacetedness of social phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing interdisciplinary literature examines the role of hair textures and styles in Black and mixed‐race women's identity performances. Through an analysis of travel narratives, this paper extends and complements research on the context‐dependency of racialized identity performances. This paper presents an analysis of 24 qualitative interviews with Black and mixed‐race women in England and Germany. The question it seeks to answer is: 'How do changes in context alter Black and mixed‐race women's hairstyling practices as a performance of identity?' Navigating a novel context could lead the women to (1) conform to local standards of beauty and femininity, (2) resist external expectations, (3) try out novel performances and (4) negotiate the complex performance of belonging. All in all, this paper shows that Black and mixed‐race women dialogically re/negotiated and performatively re/created how they identify and how they are identified by others as they moved from one context to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heritage sites and places are often mobilized to represent a group's identity and sense of place and belonging. This paper will illustrate how heritage and museum visiting, as a leisure activity, facilitates or impedes recognition and redistribution in direct and indirect ways. Drawing on extensive qualitative interviews with visitors to 45 heritage sites and museums in the USA, Australia, and England, the paper demonstrates the importance of emotions in mundane struggles over recognition and misrecognition. How emotions uphold or challenge investments in heritage narratives are examined. The paper argues that heritage and heritage‐making is a valuable focus of analysis that reveals the nuances of how people sustain or impede claims for recognition and redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper explores psychological processes that underpin the success of community change in the context of urban regeneration schemes. We adopt a social identity approach to develop an understanding of the ways in which social identity dynamics may impact upon peoples' experiences of regeneration, and what influence these identity processes have on the creation of new communities. Qualitative interviews, using thematic analysis as an analytic technique, were conducted with community members (n = 14) in a recently (2001–2011) regenerated area in the South‐West of England. Three overarching themes were identified: Patterns of identification, willingness to engage, and the notion of regeneration as an event. The research overall highlights the central role of group‐based identity in understanding the processes of regeneration and how this is experienced by different community members. Findings are discussed in relation to the impact regeneration schemes have on community members' sense of collective self, unity, and engagement. The research highlights the pivotal role of social identity processes in delivering successful and sustainable strategies of urban regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having a good understanding of one's origins and history is known to be significant in identity development. Drawing on a large‐scale online survey of looked after children's subjective well‐being, this paper demonstrates that a significant number of children and young people (age 4–18 years) did not fully understand the reasons for their entry to care. The paper explores the effect of this lack of knowledge on children's well‐being and on their feelings of being settled in their current placement. The study reiterates the need for professionals to be honest and open with children in out‐of‐home care and the need to specifically address, perhaps repeatedly, why a child is not living with their birth family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the importance of material objects for looked after and adopted children integrated as part of life story work practices. Conducting life story work is believed to be good practice within direct work with looked after children in England and there are a range of diverse practices, including life story books, later life letters and memory boxes. Through a creative design project developing a playful memory product for looked after children, we have had the opportunity to capture sector perspectives on life story work approaches and these are interspersed throughout this commentary. Combining multi-disciplinary theoretical perspectives and these sector insights, we explore how special material objects are important for children's identity and continuity of sense of self. The paper highlights the importance of children telling their own stories of these objects, giving them agency and control over their life story narratives. In a context of austerity, life story work may not be prioritised by social workers who have many other competing demands and limited resources. We emphasise the need for professionals to recognise the value children give to objects and to provide them with opportunities to both keep these safe during placement moves and to tell their own story through their objects alongside more traditional, formal life story work. The recommendations have implications for children in out of home care in many country contexts, not just England where the research has been conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the ways in which African Caribbean families communicate with each other and the outside world in the context of post migration. The Big and Small Story in narrative inquiry was used to make sense of the data as it pays attention to the manner and style in which this story is told, and what identities are being claimed post migration. The key findings are set out using three archetypal positions: the trickster, passer/conformer and resister/revolutionary. These were used to capture different ways people responded to power and identities claimed within their daily life. Findings in part of reflect Du Bois' concept of double consciousness to consider the way black people carry out their negotiations with power. These African Caribbean participants were having to think about what is acceptable to the power base and how can this be negotiated. This paper is intended to be helpful to practitioners interested in indigenous knowledge of self and its clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops understandings of how being publicly identified and consequently labelled as 'looked after' can have damaging consequences for young people, particularly in how they are perceived by their peers in the context of schooling. Based on qualitative research in northern England utilising participatory approaches with young people and interviews with support staff, we explore barriers that inhibit young people's sense of belonging. We highlight how the very processes and practices set up to support the young people can often have unintended consequences by routinely positioning them as Other, before considering the implications for education and schooling in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We conduct an experiment on emotional hedging during the 2018 FIFA World Cup. • We find strong evidence of disloyalty aversion in subjects' betting behaviour. • No emotional benefit to betting for the favourite team to win following a win. • A sharp drop in happiness from betting for the favourite team following a loss. • Most people overpredict the expected negative effect from disloyalty aversion. This paper examined whether people gained significant emotional benefits from not engaging in emotional hedging – betting against the occurrence of desired outcomes. Using the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the setting for our exploratory study, we found substantial reluctance among England supporters to bet against the success of the England football team in the tournament. This decision not to offset a potential loss through hedging did not pay off in people's happiness following an England win. However, it was associated with a sharp decrease in people's happiness following an England loss, which was a similar experience among subjects who were randomly assigned to bet for an England win. Post-match happiness was relatively more stable among those who chose to hedge or were randomly allocated to hedge. We conclude that people do not hedge enough partly because they tend to overestimate the expected diagnostic cost of betting against their social identity, while underestimate the negative emotional impact from betting on their favourite to win when they did not win. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New recruits within policing are involved in a process of negotiating and creating meaning within their newly shaped identities. Within this identity formation, members engage in both categorisation and comparison in an attempt to sustain the group and to enhance the self-image of the group member. The benefits of inclusion and enhanced group identity however must be analysed alongside the inevitable exclusion and 'othering' that also occur. Using the framework of social identity theories, this paper seeks to consider new police recruits in England and their perceptions of, and attitudes towards, victims and potential victims of crime. It does this through an analysis of qualitative data obtained through a piece of longitudinal, ethnographic research which focussed upon new police recruits to an English police force. The research followed the police recruits for four years and in doing so, attempted to produce a holistic description of their developing cultures. What emerged from the findings was an enthusiasm for assisting victims of crime but within the context of culturally defined notions of what a 'victim' might constitute. By sharply delineating between 'deserving' and 'undeserving' victims of crime, police officers are contributing to the 'diminishing status' of certain potential victims through privileging certain identities over others. Police officers are one of the key definers of victim status and through this process of 'informed neglect' are contributing to the discrimination and alienation of certain parts of the community. This has the potential to add to the exclusion of those who are already socially, educationally and economically ostracised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on two experiences of undertaking comparative research in England, Sweden and Italy, and offers a discussion of the kinds of dilemmas raised in relation to language and meaning surfaced by these. Its primary focus is to examine the reflexive construction of meaning, both in relation generally to the workings of an international research team and, more specifically, how such construction of meaning impacts on the process of qualitative interviewing across linguistic and cultural boundaries. The article argues that a culture of reflexive research practice is helpful for approaching national differences, to facilitate understanding in internationally mixed research teams and to support and empower participants in research, in second languages and differing cultures. Overall, the paper attempts to advance some tentative ideas that other international researchers may be able to consider and deploy in relation to their own research ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirically informed ‘opinion paper’ reflects upon the use of observant participant as a qualitative research method during an applied, multilocal, ethnographic study of street-based injecting drug use (conducted throughout the south of England during 2006–2011). Throughout these studies, participant observation took place with frontline service personnel and observant participation occurred with people who inject drugs. As participant observation typically involves the acquisition of a new role in an unfamiliar setting for a given person, observant participation prioritises existing roles in order to conduct research within familiar/unfamiliar settings. In this study, the method of observant participation is compared and contrasted with participant observation as both methods were conducted in the aforementioned ethnographic study of street-based injecting drug use. This experience-based comparison is followed by a discussion that offers a theoretically informed explanation for the various success and outcomes attached to the study (and, specifically, to those obtained from the applied use of observant participation with people who inject drugs). The paper concludes that observant participation may be best used as a ‘synergising’ component within a wider qualitative research toolkit especially when dedicated to inquiries of sensitive issues or ‘hard-to-reach’ populations (such as those affected by drug dependence). In addition, the synergistic effect of observant participation may contribute towards a combined understanding of social problems that is perhaps greater than the sum of findings obtained from separate, disconnected methods of social research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In August 2011, over four days, rioting spread across several cities in England. Previous accounts of these riots have indicated the roles of police racism, class disadvantage, and spatial affordance. However, what remains unclear is how these structural factors interacted with crowd processes spatially over time to govern the precise patterns of spread. The present paper provides a micro-historical analysis of the patterns and sequences of collective behaviour as the 2011 riots spread across North London, drawing upon multiple data-sets (archive, interview, video, official report, news coverage). The analysis suggests that initial stages of escalation in the broader proliferation were the result of protagonists deliberately converging from areas of relative deprivation in order to create conflict, but that they did so as a meaningful social identity-based expression of power. We show how over time these motivations and patterns of collective action changed within the riot as a function of intergroup interactions and emergent affordances. On this basis, we provide support for the argument that political, social and economic geography were key determining factors involved in the pattern of spread of the 2011 riots. However, we also suggest that an adequate explanation must correspondingly take into account the interplay between social identity, the dynamics of intergroup interaction, and empowerment process that develop during riots themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper adopts a social identity perspective to examine the relationship between community-based identification and well-being, resilience and willingness to pay back in the context of urban regeneration. A sample of 104 residents across five deprived urban areas in the southwest of England that have recently undergone or are about to undergo regeneration projects completed a survey. The results demonstrate that areas where a more community-centred, bottom-up, approach to regeneration was taken (i.e., 'culture-led') showed higher levels of community cohesion than areas where the community dynamics were ignored (i.e., a 'top-down' approach to regeneration). Increased community identification was linked to greater perceived social support, community-esteem, personal self-esteem and self-efficacy. These psychological processes were, in turn, linked to increased resilience and well-being, as well as a stronger willingness to pay back to the community. The results are consistent with the social identity approach. Implications for urban regeneration strategies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores issues of equity and group identity at ‘Hamilton Court’, a large comprehensive multi-faith and multi-cultural school located in England. The exploration draws on data gathered from a study that examined the conditions, structures and practices associated with productively addressing issues of justice and cultural diversity. The paper focuses, in particular, on the voices of two learning mentors, ‘Rosanna’ and ‘Yasmeen’. With reference to a cultural event at the school based around an Asian-inspired Bollywood Dance Festival, the school's approach to absence requests on the basis of religious observance, and the disadvantage experienced by a particular White British working class boy, the paper highlights tensions and problematics associated with issues of equity, schooling and group identity. The paper makes a theoretical contribution to debates in this area. Further illustrating the limitations of distributive understandings of equity that begin with group identity politics and fail to consider matters of context in struggles against cultural oppressions, it examines the possibilities of an equity approach that instead begins with a focus on overcoming these relations of oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the use of a psychosocial approach to researching drugs, race and ethnicity. It produces an analysis of interviews with Bobby, a mixed-race man in recovery from addiction. Sociological and psychoanalytic perspectives are brought to bear on the data in order to consider the character of Bobby's opportunities, identifications, crises and resolutions. Despite the affective components of the wider discourse on drugs and race, the majority of previous research on the subject has focused on the production of rational explanations produced within objectivist epistemological frames. In contrast, the methods used in this project seek an explicit engagement with the irrational and unconscious aspects of researching these subjects. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of psychosocially oriented narrative methods in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I highlight key differences between a discourse analytic approach to women’s accounts of abortion and that taken by the growing body of research that seeks to explore and measure women’s experiences of abortion stigma. Drawing on critical analyses of the conceptualisation of stigma in other fields of healthcare, I suggest that research on abortion stigma often risks reifying it by failing to consider how identities are continually re-negotiated through language-use. In contrast, by attending to language as a form of social action, discursive psychology makes it possible to emphasise speakers’ capacity to construct “untroubled” (i.e. non-stigmatised) identities, while acknowledging that this process is constrained by the contexts in which talk takes place. My analysis applies these insights to interviews with women concerning their experiences of having an abortion in England. I highlight three forms of discursive work through which women navigate “trouble” in their accounts of abortion, and critically consider the resources available for meaning-making within this particular context of talk. In doing so, I aim to provoke reflection about the discursive frameworks through which women’s accounts of abortion are solicited and explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores why leadership, especially senior leadership in British organizations, is persistently nearly always white. The paper contends that beneath the veneer of our apparent commitment to equal opportunities, primitive often unconscious factors operate to ensure that leadership remains white, thus reproducing a racial hierarchy in the workplace. It argues that the barriers to black and minority ethnic people getting appointed to leadership positions in organizations today are largely invisible and are hidden within the psyches of decision makers, the cultures of white organizations, and their combined impact on the confidence of black and minority ethnic staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses upon the St Anns neighbourhood in Nottingham, a community first studied by Ken Coates and Bill Silburn in the 1960s which noted the great upheavals of the physical and social changes generated by the slum clearance programme of 10,000 back-to-back terraced houses, and the consequent building of the concrete council estate that is now St Anns. This paper draws upon both the physical and the social changes within the neighbourhood, and highlights what has remained constant despite the massive upheavals to working-class life over the last 40 years. This paper looks at the concept of belonging to a neighbourhood which has been stigmatized, finding value and an identity within the estate, and residents describing themselves as simultaneously and interchangeably as being from and simply being St Anns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the major riots within England in August 2011, the efficacy of public order police decision making was brought into a sharp focus. None the less, the reform of this mode of policing within the UK was already underway with a strong emphasis upon policing through consent and the need to facilitate peaceful protest through dialogue and communication. This paper reports upon a critical 'test case' for this 'new approach' by analysing the policing of a series of protests against Government policy across 3 days that surrounded a Government party conference in Sheffield, a large city in the north of England. This paper draws out lessons to be learned from what proved to be a highly successful dialogue-based approach to policing protests. We contend that dialogue and liaison were effective because they allowed for an ongoing dynamic risk assessment that improved command-level decision making and enhanced police proportionality. The subsequent impact upon crowd dynamics allowed for an improved capacity for proactive public order management, encouraged 'self-regulation' in the crowd, and avoided the unnecessary police use of force at moments of tension. The implications of the analysis for theory and practice are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that, in contrast to the great reports such as Crowther, Newsom Robbins and Plowden, recent government papers relating to educational in England pay little attention to values that should shape the standards to be achieved, the knowledge to be transmitted and the virtues to be nourished. Whilst legislation over the past 60 years has promoted a vision of 'education for all', what has predominated has been a concept of learning restricted to that which privileges the small number who can perform well within a narrowly defined understanding of academic studies. It is argued that the need to measure and standardise performance has resulted in a marginalisation of the broader vision of learning, which should be pursued in order to enable us to live fully human lives. Such an approach will require a transformation of educational ideals and refusal to accept the reductionist practices inherent in the language of performance management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory paper examines the role of food tourism in developing and sustaining regional identities within the context of rural regeneration, agricultural diversification and the creation of closer relationships between production and consumption in the countryside. It focuses on Cornwall, South West England, an area with rural development issues, increasing tourism impacts and contested issues of regional identity. A literature and policy analysis, and in-depth interviews with 12 restaurateurs, were undertaken in four popular tourist locations. Correlation was found between increased levels of food tourism interest and the retention and development of regional identity, the enhancement of environmental awareness and sustainability, an increase in social and cultural benefits celebrating the production of local food and the conservation of traditional heritage, skills and ways of life. The paper draws attention to three issues: the role of food tourism in increasing tourist spending, the potential role of food tourism in extending the tourist season, and the re-examination of food tourist typologies within a sustainability framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a 'relational' approach to network analysis to demonstrate the linkages between different types of environmental organizations in London. A 'relational' approach was used to avoid problems associated with 'positional' approaches such as structural determinism, subjectively defined and misleadingly labelled blocks of 'approximately' equivalent actors, and reification of the action/issue basis of networks. The paper also explores definitions of social/environmental movements. Whilst broadly agreeing with Diani's consensual definition of a social movement, it argues that we need to be much more precise about the type and intensity of networking required; it must be more than informal or cursory, and should bind individuals and organizations into collaborative networks. Evidence from a survey of 149 environmental organizations and qualitative interviews with key campaigners suggests that whilst many organizations might share information, it is often stockpiled or ignored, hardly creating the kinds of network links that might lead to shared movement identity. The kinds of links that do bind movements are collaborative. In practice, in the environmental movement in London, conservationists tend neither to share information nor to engage in the collective action events of reformist or radical organizations, suggesting that conservationists should perhaps not be considered part of the movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a well-established interest in the relationship between space and identity, geographers still know little about how communal identities in specific places are built around a sense of religious belonging. This paper explores both the theoretical and practical terrain around which such an investigation can proceed. The paper makes space for the exploration of a specific set of religious groups and practices, which reflected the activities of Methodists in Cornwall during the period 1830–1930. The paper is concerned to move analysis beyond the 'officially sacred' and to explore the everyday, informal, and often banal, practices of Methodists, thereby providing a blueprint for how work in the geography of religion may move forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how participants in a popular dance scene renegotiate the aesthetics used to judge the acceptability of dances performed in those spaces. These issues are explored with reference to Bourdieu’s (1977) concepts of social fields and cultural capital and to ethnographic data collected in London’s Salsa clubs. The main argument is that Salsa dancing can function as a form of cultural capital that has with an ethnic dimension. This paper, based on participant observation in London’s clubs and the accounts of 31 of London’s Salsa club dancers, DJs and dance teachers, suggests that London’s Salsa dancers have competed with each other to establish a local de‐ethnicised interpretation of Salsa which refers to the forms of cultural capital to which they have access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports interviews conducted with twenty children and young people adopted from the care system in England, exploring their experiences and views of their life storybooks and examines the role of life storybooks as a form of narrative that contributes to identity development. Despite being a widely used intervention in direct social work practice in England and enshrined as a requirement in law for all looked after children placed for adoption there is little known about how children experience their life storybooks. The data revealed three core themes related to the child ' s story , identity and communicative openness . These themes provide insights from the children about the levels of honesty in the narrative conveyed, concerns about gaps in their biographies, the importance of treasured material possessions alongside their book, their adoptive identity and the importance of different levels of openness in discussions about their adoptive status. There are a number of important practice implications outlined, as well as an identified need for more research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The label of ‘intellectual disability’ can be a very blurred concept, because for those on the borders their label often arises from the interaction of the individual with their environment, from their socio-economic status, and from the social role which they choose to undertake. This paper explores the contested notion of intellectual disability in the context of people who have been in trouble with the law in England, and contrasts their situation with that of people who have been protected by best interests decisions under the Mental Capacity Act (England and Wales). People who are on the ‘borderline’ of having an intellectual disability, like any citizens, have a range of intersecting identities. Drawing on the notions of ‘interactional’ disability theory, we reflect on the shifting, relative nature of intellectual disability, and the need for the law to focus on support needs, rather than on impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to add to the literature on working with fathers by focusing on early intervention. It draws on research into fathers involved in a home visitation service delivered by the Family Nurse Partnership in England and evaluates the men's experiences of the intervention. The vulnerability of fathers was striking and many were helped to develop their practical skills and confidence in caring for their babies. The intervention was effective because of the quality time that was invested in developing relationships with fathers (as well as mothers), the focus on their strengths as well as areas for improvement and the skilled, therapeutically oriented, holistic approach through which the service was delivered. The 'early' nature of the help was crucial to its success because of how it so effectively tapped into the men's redefinition of themselves as caring fathers during pregnancy and following the birth. We argue that there is important learning here for social care and health services in general about how to engage men and promote fathers' capacities to care for their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is the first empirical investigation that has explored levels of athletic identity in elite-level English professional football. The importance of understanding athletes’ psychological well-being within professional sport has been well documented. This is especially important within the professional football industry, given the high attrition rate (Anderson, G., & Miller, R. M. (2011).The academy system in English professional football: Business value or following the herd?University of Liverpool, Management School Research Paper Series. Retrieved fromhttp://www.liv.ac.uk/managementschool/research/working%20papers/wp201143.pdf) and distinct occupational practices (Roderick, M. (2006).The work of professional football. A labour of love?London: Routledge). A total of 168 elite youth footballers from the English professional football leagues completed the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS). Multilevel modelling was used to examine the effect of playing level, living arrangements and year of apprentice on the total AIMS score and its subscales (i.e., social identity, exclusivity and negative affectivity). Football club explained 30% of the variance in exclusivity among players (P = .022). Mean social identity was significantly higher for those players in the first year of their apprenticeship compared to the second year (P = .025). All other effects were not statistically significant (P > .05). The novel and unique findings have practical implications in the design and implementation of career support strategies with respect to social identity. This may facilitate the maintenance of motivation over a 2-year apprenticeship and positively impact on performance levels within the professional football environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nursing has a gendered and religious history where ideas of duty and servitude are present and shape its professional identity. The profession also promotes idealized notions of relationships with patients and of professional autonomy both of which are, in practice, highly constrained or even impossible. This paper draws on psychoanalytic concepts in order to reconsider nursing's professional identity. It does this by presenting an analysis of data from two focus group studies involving nurses in England and Australia held between 2010 and 2012. The studies gave rise to data where extremely negative talk about nursing work seemed to produce, or to be expressed with, a high degree of energy, and a particular kind of enjoyment. In our analysis, we focus on the nurses' apparent enjoyment derived from their expression of a position of powerlessness in which they describe themselves as 'slaves' or 'martyrs' in the health care system. We interpret this as jouissance and suggest that the positions of slave or martyr provide a possible response to what we argue is the impossibility of the nurse's role. We argue that a remnant of a quasi-religious ethic within the profession makes it acceptable for nurses to talk about self-sacrifice and powerlessness as part of their working subjectivity. We further argue that this analysis offers a new consideration of the issue of power and professional identity in nursing that goes beyond seeing nurses as simply overpowered by, or engaged in, a gendered power struggle with other professional groups. We suggest that powerlessness and victimhood hold particular attractions and advantages for nurses and are positions that are more available to nurses than to other occupational groups. This research shows how psychoanalytic theory can help produce new insights into the problems and complexity of nursing and extend existing study of the professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Popular representations of crowd behaviour in disasters are often characterised by irrationalist discourses, in particular 'mass panic' despite their rejection by current scientific research. This paper reports an analysis of four survivors' accounts of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster to investigate if and how they used the term 'panic'. Reference to 'panic' occurred frequently, but more detailed analysis found that their accounts did not match the classic criteria for 'mass panic' (e.g. uncontrolled emotion and selfish behaviour). Indeed, participants referred to 'orderly' behaviour, and cooperation, even when they said the threat of death was present. 'Panic' was therefore being used as a description of events that was not consistent. A discourse analysis of usage suggests that participants used 'panic' not only to convey feelings of fear and distress but also to apportion culpability towards the actions of the police who they considered responsible for the tragedy (as indeed recent independent research has confirmed). It is concluded that the term 'panic' is so deeply embedded in popular discourse that people may use it even when they have reason to reject its irrationalist implications. Alternative discourses that emphasise collective resilience in disasters are suggested. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the influence of English Catholic group, The Union of Catholic Mothers (UCM), in moulding Irish women's consciousness in post-World War II Birmingham. Taking as its starting point the theory that a hyphenated 'Irish-British' identity was discouraged by the mid-twentieth century Anglo and Irish Catholic Church, the paper engages with the UCM and post-World War II attitudes to feminine movements in Britain to establish the specific norms and values to which Irish women were exposed after migrating to Britain, and to, thereafter, identify the ways in which these influences reconditioned their sense of self, gender, Catholicism, ethnicity, and class. Informed by recorded oral narrative, the article illuminates, in human detail, the process of acquiring a gendered migrant identity in mid-twentieth century Birmingham, via the microcosm of the local Catholic parish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine the views and experiences of Black youths living in socially deprived areas of London in order to examine the way in which they recognise the term ‘Black neighbourhood’ as a resource for ethnic identity formation and collective mobilisation. Despite the apparent problems that are typically associated with ‘Black neighbourhoods’ for many Black youths, these neighbourhoods also represent urban spaces through which a range of bonding social capital resources are generated including ties of reciprocal trust, solidarity and civic participation. These spaces hold intrinsic value for these young people providing them with a sense of wellbeing and belonging. However, the analysis will also show that the young people’s experiences of the neighbourhood are not always positive ones, and such spaces create negative outcomes for Black youths residing there. In particular, the data will highlight the restrictive capacity of ‘Black neighbourhoods’ and the various ways in which they limit Black youths’ opportunities to ‘get on’ in terms of social mobility and their ability to move beyond neighbourhood boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emergence of community cohesion as a British policy priority has represented a discursive shift in approaches to race relations, the emphasis on ethnic diversity downplayed in favour of commonality, shared values and the promotion of national identity. Central to community cohesion has been a focus on ‘contact’ as a way of overcoming ‘parallel lives’, and the need for communities to take responsibility within processes of contact and dialogue. The political focus, echoing past assimilationist discourses, has been on an alleged lack of integration on the part of Muslims; by contrast little attention is paid to how white working class young people view the contact central to cohesion strategies. This paper draws on case study evidence from Oldham and Rochdale, Greater Manchester to interpret the limited support the young white respondents have for cross-ethnic contact, and the relevance of class experience to these views. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the literature on work-family balance, role and boundary issues are commonly discussed in relation to parents who work outside of the home. Work and family are considered as two different spheres of activity, with different role identities and cultural meanings. For foster carers, however, in very significant ways, their family is their work and their work is their family - so roles are not so clearly separated and boundaries are not so clearly defined. This paper reviews theoretical approaches to the work-family interface and draws on qualitative data from 40 interviews with long-term foster carers. It provides an analysis of their accounts of their roles as professional carers and/or committed parents to explore how they manage different and potentially contradictory role identities. The study found that foster carers primarily identified as carers or as parents, but that some foster carers could move flexibly between these roles while others could not. For foster carers who could be flexible, the two roles enriched each other rather than causing stress and role conflict. Implications for supporting professional foster carers who can also meet the parenting needs of long-term foster children are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The speech and language therapy/pathology (SLT/SLP) profession is characterized by extreme 'occupational sex segregation', a term used to refer to persistently male- or female-dominated professions. Men make up only 2.5% of all SLTs in the UK, and a similar imbalance is found in other countries. Despite calls to increase diversity in the allied health professions more generally, research into the reasons for occupational sex segregation and gender as a potential key factor remains scarce. Aims This study aims to explore the potential role of gender/gendered discourses in people's decision to pursue a career in SLT/SLP. It seeks to illustrate how gendered assumptions/expectations/discourses continue to construct SLT as a 'gendered' profession, and to make some recommendations in this area for SLT recruitment and practice. Methods & Procedures The study adopted a qualitative design which elicited research participants' views, knowledge and experiences (in their own words) in relation to the research questions. Data collection involved two iterative phases: a preliminary data phase-which involved semi-structured interviews with newly qualified SLT graduates and practising SLTs, and the completion of questionnaires by undergraduate SLTs-and a main/focus group phase. In the focus group phase reported in this paper, six focus groups in total were held with SLTs, teachers of SLT, and careers advisors in London, UK. The data were analysed qualitatively using grounded theory principles, thematic analysis and discourse analysis. Outcomes & Results The findings extend our knowledge and understanding of gender as a parameter of people's motivations and perceptions, which can influence their choice of career (e.g. as regards pay and flexibility). The findings also show that discourses around women as carers, nurturers and communicators constitute key ways through which the SLT profession continues to be constructed as 'women's work'. The topic of structural gender inequalities in the profession was also discussed in the data. Some recommendations for change, with implications for SLT recruitment and practice, were made by the participants themselves. Conclusions & Implications Gender imbalance in SLT needs to be researched further in order to help address inequalities, re-evaluate professional practices and develop service delivery in the profession. This area also needs to be researched via analysis that goes beyond gender distribution in numerical terms to consider the complex perceptions or discourses around gender and work. Cross-disciplinary and comparative perspectives in future research would also be fruitful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific-bureaucratic medicine (SBM) has been the dominant discourse on evidence-based medicine in the English National Health System (NHS). It has being claimed that SBM has led to new forms of medical professionalism with an emphasis on organisational values and the control of autonomy. This paper explores the medical professions' response to SBM, where SBM is manifested in the form of National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines. Seventy-four face-to-face informal interviews were carried out with clinicians and managers between 2007 and 2009. Three major themes emerged from the analysis each of which was linked to doctors' receptiveness to NICE guidelines implementation. The first emphasised organisational values, which accounted for conditional acceptance of NICE guidelines. The second was proactive professionalism or entrepreneurial professionalism, which was linked to the rejection of NICE guidelines and the emergence of alternative forms of introducing new ideas for the expansion of their clinical practice. The third was related to the prominence of clinical autonomy linked with doctors' resistance to the use of NICE guidelines. It is argued that this evidence does not reflect a significant emergence of new forms of professionalism but the development of multiple occupational identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An association with mothering is viewed as the greatest stumbling block in the path to raising the quality and status of childminding. As a broadly conceived rite de passage, this article suggests, professionalisation offers childminders a symbolic route out. It is a ritual process which demands the production of 'fabrications'; particular artefacts, special words and appropriate modes of behaviour which are produced specifically to meet the regulatory gaze. When childminders engage in performative professionalism, it is proposed, they gain recognition as bona fide members of the children's workforce, but their work is changed in ways which make it less meaningful for them. Presenting a phenomenology of their encounter with a widely diffused 'technology of quality', the paper reveals how childminders' collective identity is both endangered and engendered in struggles over particular cultural forms. Interpreting data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork with childminders in inner London, the article draws on and extends work focused on audit culture and performativity in secondary schools by synthesising it with feminist work on women's knowledge and the ethics of care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue for a social psychological approach to citizenship which focuses on how social actors define competent and legitimate polity membership, together with the associated rights and responsibilities that this entails. A perspective based on the principles of rhetorical psychology is adopted in order to explore these issues in an analysis of a sample of young people's talk about issues of immigration to the UK. Analysis considers how matters of 'race', national identity and culture were oriented to and constructed during the interviews. We then explore how rights and responsibilities concerning cultural expression, interpersonal civility/courtesy and (implicitly acultural) legal frameworks were articulated as practical criteria for judgements about competent and legitimate polity membership. These findings are discussed in relation to existing social psychological work on issues such as racism and national identity, with a view to situating these matters within an overarching concern for the construction of polity membership. We conclude by briefly considering the implications of these findings for contemporary debates concerning citizenship education in the UK. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: As a form of ‘active transport’, cycling has been encouraged as a route to improving population health. However, in many high-income countries, despite being widely seen as a ‘healthy’ choice, few people do cycle for transport. Further, where cycling is rare, it is not a choice made equally across the population. In London, for instance, cycling is disproportionately an activity of affluent, White, men. This paper takes London as a case study to explore why the meanings of cycling might resonate differently across urban, gendered, ethnic and class identities. Drawing on qualitative interview data with 78 individuals, we suggest first that the relative visibility of cycling when few do it means that it is publicly gendered in a way that more normalised modes of transport are not; conversely, the very invisibility of Black and Asian cyclists reduces their opportunities to see cycling as a candidate mode of transport. Second, following Bourdieu, we argue that the affinities different population groups have for cycling may reflect the locally constituted ‘accomplishments’ contained in cycling. In London, cycling represents the archetypal efficient mode for autonomous individuals to travel in ways that maximise their future-health gain, and minimise wasted time and dependence on others. However, it relies on the cultivation of a particular ‘assertive’ style to defend against the risks of road danger and aggression. While the identities of some professional (largely White) men and women could be bolstered by cycling, the aesthetic and symbolic goals of cycling were less appealing to those with other class, gendered and ethnic identities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Research into young people and healthy eating has focused on identifying the ‘barriers’ to healthy eating and on developing interventions to address them. However, it has tended to neglect the emotional, social and symbolic aspects of food for young people, and the roles food might play in adolescence. This paper explores these issues, reporting findings from a qualitative study which explored the meanings and values young people attached to food choices, particularly in school and peer contexts. As part of a larger study into young people’s relationships with food brands, 12 focus groups were conducted with young people aged 13–15 in the North East of England. The focus groups found that young people used food choices to help construct a desired image, as a means of judging others, and to signal their conformity with acceptable friendship and peer norms. Importantly, the findings suggested that the social and symbolic meanings associated with healthy eating conflicted with processes and values which are of crucial importance in adolescence, such as self-image and fitting in with the peer group. In other words, it was emotionally and socially risky to be seen to be interested in healthy eating. Interventions need not only to make healthy eating easier and more available, but also to address young people’s emotional needs for identity and belonging. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Three studies consider the implicit bystander effect in the light of recent advances in social identity approaches to helping. Drawing on the social identity model of deindividuation effects we argue that the implicit bystander effect is shaped not by the number of others imagined, but by who those others are imagined to be. Studies I and 2 demonstrate that, when group membership is primed, increasing group size can facilitate helping in line with the norms and values of the group. Study 3 explores mediation processes in group level helping. As group size increases, female participants react faster to words associated with communalism when others are imagined as women rather than strangers. The paper demonstrates that group size and helping behaviour is qualified by an implicit identity effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benevolent, long-term care can threaten older adults' sense of autonomy in a residential home environment. Increasing reliance on a hotel style of living has been seen to erode social identity, life satisfaction and even survival or lifespan. Drawing on evidence from both gerontological and social psychological literature, this paper examines the links between the empowerment of residents and their subsequent quality of life in the context of a move into a new care facility in a medium-sized town in South-West England. A longitudinal experiment was conducted during which 27 residents on one floor of a new facility were involved in decisions surrounding its décor, while those on another floor were not. The residents' attitudes and behaviour were monitored at three points over five months (four weeks pre-move, four weeks post-move, and four months post-move). Consistent with the social identity literature, members of the empowered group reported increased identification with staff and fellow residents in the new home, displayed enhanced citizenship, reported improved wellbeing, and made more use of the communal space. Moreover the staff found the empowered residents to be more engaged with their environment and the people around them, to be generally happier and to have better health. These patterns were observed one month after the move and remained four months later. Some implications for theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factors that contribute to sexual decision-making among young people are varied, and several determinants have been identified as contributing to the process. However, the influential role of music preference has been sidelined both in the literature and by sex and relationships educators. The research outlined in this paper explores the normative impact of music preference, and highlights the importance of influences drawn from teen culture. A preliminary study had indicated that representations of sex and relationships within lyrics were found to be genre specific. The main study comprised six single-sex focus group discussions on music and sex with young people aged between 14 and 19 years. Thematic analysis revealed that preferred genre and artists were found to be associated with all aspects of participants' lives and culture generally, with music functioning specifically as an educational tool for adult relationships. The findings from these studies indicate that the norms portrayed by young people's preferred genres reinforce (oftentimes inappropriate) beliefs about sex and adult relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the stratification of the curriculum according to parents' education, gender, ethnicity and school sector in England, focusing on year 10 subject choices. Using the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, we analyse both year 10 subject choices and the factors that may motivate these choices, such as liked and disliked subjects, attitudes to subject choice and the extent to which choices were shaped by parents, teachers or the young people themselves. The social structure of curriculum choice is mapped using Multiple Correspondence Analysis, which reveals the hierarchy of subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User perceptions and experiences of complementary education are neglected in the research literature, yet they are important in providing understanding concerning complementary schools and their impact on educational and social identities. This paper explores the constructions of parents of pupils attending these schools, and of teachers at these schools, regarding the purposes and benefits of Chinese complementary schools. Data is drawn from an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study of six Chinese schools in England, including interviews with 24 parents and 21 teachers. Findings demonstrate that in contrast to complementary school pupils, Chinese adult participants see a diverse range of purposes of these schools besides perpetuating heritage language. Many of these purposes related to 'identity' and 'culture', were often produced in reified terms. In interrogating these themes we focus particularly on the productions of 'culture' generated and the implication of both Chinese and Western bodies in these constructions in relations of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theory and research deriving from social identity or self-categorization perspectives often starts out with the presumption that social actors necessarily view societal objects such as nations or states as human categories. However, recent work suggests that this may be only one of a number of forms that societal representation may take. For example, nations may be understood variously as peoples, places, or institutions. This paper presents findings from a qualitative interview study conducted in England, in which soldiers and civilians talked about nationhood in relation to military service. Analysis indicated that, in this context, speakers were often inclined to use the terms `Britain', `nation', and `country' as references to a political institution as opposed to a category of people. In addition, there were systematic differences between the ways in which the two samples construed their nation in institutional terms. The civilians were inclined to treat military service as a matter of obedience to the dictates of the Government of the day. In contrast, the soldiers were more inclined to frame military service as a matter of loyalty to state as symbolically instantiated in the body of the sovereign. Implications for work adopting a social identity perspective are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on interviews with young urban dalits in the Indian Punjab and Wolverhampton, UK, and aims to chart their experience of caste border crossings in personal relationships. It links their narratives to the larger political economic context of their respective locations. It suggests that, perhaps due to their preoccupation with economic independence, dalit youth in Punjab are less concerned about maintaining caste borders in marriage than their counterparts in Wolverhampton. Dalit youth in Wolverhampton have experienced caste-related bullying during their schooling that is inexplicable to them given their location in a supposedly casteless society in the United Kingdom, and as a result they seem to be pessimistic about the erosion of caste through crossing caste borders in marriage. Whilst showing reluctance in risking further insult by crossing caste borders in marriage, in their friendships, including sexual relationships, they are willing and able to cross these borders. The paper concludes with a comparison of different explanations and remedies for dealing with caste prejudice in personal relations. It offers the suggestion that the negotiations of dalit identity are best understood by locating them in larger religious, immigrant, national contexts on the one hand and within the intra-personal on the other: radical positioning in the overt political domain may go hand in hand with the embracing of fluidity in the personal domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]