Researching Families and Relationships Reflections on Process

by Jamieson, Lynn; Simpson, Roona; Lewis, Ruth; King, Caroline; Chen, Zhong Eric

• ISBN13: 9780230252448
• ISBN10: 0230252443
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

In this collection, over 40 researchers across the social sciences offer a series of engaging accounts reflecting on dilemmas and issues that they experienced while researching and communicating research on personal life. Their insights are food for thought for students, researchers, professionals and anyone using, planning or conducting research on families and relationships, encouraging critical reflection on the readers' own processes. Researchers' accounts are organised under and commented on by insightful overviews. David Morgan leads with consideration of framing research. Kay Tisdall prefaces the next set by reflections on ethical considerations in research engagements. Angus Bancroft and Stuart Aitken each comment on researchers' accounts from 'in the field' focusing on the research relationship and the complexities of time and place. The final accounts are prefaced by Lynn Jamieson's discussion of dealing with dilemmas in interpreting and representing families and relationships and by Sarah Morton's and Sandra Nutley's reflections on getting research into policy and practice.

Author Biography

LYNN JAMIESON is Professor of Sociology of Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, UK. Her publications include Intimacy: Personal Relationships in Modern Societies and Families and the State: Changing Relationships (co-edited with Sarah Cunningham-Burley, Palgrave 2003). 
  
ROONA SIMPSON is an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, UK. She is currently working on a qualitative study of young people's sexual practices in the UK, and the qualitative component of Natsal 2011 (National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles).

RUTH LEWIS is a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. She is the author of Contemporary Spinsterhood in Britain: Gender, Partnership Status and Social Change. 

Table of Contents

Foreword
Editors' Biographies
Contributors' Biographies
Introduction
Framing Relationships and Families; D.Morgan
Researching Men's Same-Sex Relationships in a Socially-Excluding Context: The Case of Nigeria; D.Allman
Researching Social Attitudes towards Families and Relationships; F.Wasoff
When a Family is Not a 'Family': The Value of Confusion in Cross-Cultural Research; I.Naumann
Losing (my) Autonomy Under the Ethical Committee's Gaze; S.Wilson
Where is the Care? Conceptualising and Researching Families' Responsibilities and Work in a Survey; L.McKie & A.Smith
Engaging with Families and Relationships; K.Tisdall
Unfamiliar Places and Other People's Spaces: Reflections on the Practical Challenges of Researching Families in their Homes; A.MacLean
Researching Children and Families in Schools; J.Spratt
Hanging About and Hanging in There: Dilemmas in Managing Research Relationships with Young People; K.Philip
Dad Said 'She Won't Talk' … but He Does: Messy Realities of Negotiating Access to Children through Parental Gatekeepers; L.Hill
See No Evil, Hear No Evil: Do Children In Distress Take Second Place?; S.Nelson
In the Field: Research Relationships; A.Bancroft
Only Nodding and Smiling: Reflections on Feelings of Complicity in Interviewing; A.Bell
'I Don't Know Where to Put Myself': The Boundaries of Researcher Roles and Responsibilities; G.Highet
Performing Secrecy: Maintaining the Hidden Identity of Research Informants in Public; J.Speirs
Keeping it in the Family: Conducting Research Interviews with your own Family Members; J.Seymour
Is There a Place for Physical Engagement in the Adult Researcher-Child Participant Research Relationship?; S.Milne
Time and Place: In and Beyond 'the Field' Stuart; C.Aitken
Second best? Raising the Status of Telephone Interviewing in Research; E.Davidson
'I Can't Share That With You Yet': The Line between Protecting Premature Research Findings and being a Cooperative Colleague; G.Nowak
Making it Through the Night: The Experience and Impact of doing Research on Night-Time Care; H.Wilkinson
The Uncomfortable Context: Reflections on Time and Space when Researching Young People's Experiences of Parental Substance Misuse; K.Houmøller & S.Bernays
Feeling at Home: Researching Children's Experiences of Residential Care; S.Elsley
Interpreting and Representing Families and Relationships; L.Jamieson
"The Things Children Say": Understanding Children as Narrators of their Lives; A.James
The Emotional Impacts of Working with Sensitive Secondary Data; S.Jackson, K.Backett-Milburn & E.Newell
Hearing Men Changed my Mind but it is Still a Feminist Issue!; S.Kelly
Using Mixed Methods to Research Families and Relationships; V.May
Making Sense of Family Resemblance: The Politics of Visual Perception; K.Davies
What Happens Next? Getting Research into Policy and Practice; S.Morton & S.Nutley
Sharing Slippery Knowledge: Handling the Unintended Impact of Knowledge Exchange; H.Wilkinson
The Process of Editing from Academic to 'Real World' Language; J.Flueckiger
Dissemination – 'Sounds Painful!': Experiences in a Dedicated Knowledge Exchange Role on a Government Survey; L.Kelly
Construing or Misconstruing Families in Research and Media; V.Skafida
Communicating Edinburgh City Council's Annual Neighbourhood Survey; D.Porteous
Conclusion
Pains and Pleasures
The Future of Families and Relationships Research
References

Unique structure that takes reader through the research process, offering a 'think-piece' by a leading research in the field, coupled with reflections on the research process by those with experience of being a researcher 
Covers issues such as cross-cultural research, researching your own family members, interviewing children, ethical concerns and getting research into policy and practice
Sets out the future for research of families and relationships