blog
Researching poverty during COVID-19
Discussing ‘Tricky Topics’ with Young People at a Distance: the Challenges of Exploring Sensitive Subjects in Virtual Focus Groups
Mar 24, 2021
Nicholas Woodrow
Research Associate at the University of Sheffield in the School of Health and Related Research
Mary Crowder
Research Associate at the University of Sheffield in the School of Health and Related Research
Hannah Fairbrother
Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Sheffield in the Health Sciences School
Naomi Griffin
Fuse SPHR Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Durham University in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science
Eleanor Holding
Research Associate at the University of Sheffield in the School of Health and Related Research
Helen Quirk
NIHR SPHR Launching Fellow at the University of Sheffield in the School of Health and Related Research
Research with young people raises many ethical and methodological challenges (as highlighted by Garthwaite et al. in this blog series), particularly when exploring sensitive topics. Conducting research with young people online brings further and compounding challenges, as we discovered through our experiences of adapting and undertaking a project which was devised long before the covid-19 pandemic.
What does COVID-19 tell us about people with disabilities in Palestine? Taking a participatory, rights-based approach to tackling the pandemic
Feb 3, 2021
Iyad Hamdan
MA Social Policy, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham
Photograph taken by David Salti, Public Relations Officer, at Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation
Growing up Under COVID-19
Jan 13, 2021
Sara Rizzo
Research Manager at Ecorys
Growing up Under COVID-19 is a project funded by the Nuffield Foundation and conducted by researchers from Ecorys UK and the University of Huddersfield, in partnership with 70 young people aged between 14 and 18 from Italy, Lebanon, Singapore and the four UK home nations. It aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of a diverse group of young people, as well as their opinions on how the crisis has been experienced by the society and dealt with by politicians, and how it could be better managed to safeguard young people’s rights and needs.
The practical, methodological and ethical dimensions of interviewing at a distance: responding to questions raised at the Covid Realities Webinar
Nov 25, 2020
Anna Tarrant
Laura Way
Linzi Ladlow
On Tuesday 3rd November 2020, the Following Young Fathers Further (FYFF) team gave an invited keynote presentation for the Covid Realities research study webinar called ‘Interviewing at a distance: reflections on navigating practical, emotional, and methodological challenges’. The webinar was chaired by Prof. Jane Millar and included talks by Dr. David Robertshaw of the Welfare at a (Social) Distance project and Aimi King who is conducting a PhD about parent and toddler groups hosted by churches.
Are we all on the same page? Making sense of terms that fall under community inclusive approaches
Nov 20, 2020
Shahid Islam
Senior Research Fellow at Bradford Institute for Health Research and Honorary Research Fellow at the Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford
The Covid 19 pandemic has provided some vivid examples of what can go wrong when communication and language are given only scant regard. Uncertainty, confusing messages and even dangerous ideas can creep into the void left by any gap.
Single parents’ journeys through the first lockdown: insufficient consideration, inconsistency and uncertainty
Nov 18, 2020
Laura Dewar
Policy and Research Lead. Gingerbread
Elizabeth Clery
Freelance Social Researcher
There has been little consideration of the impact of the Covid-19 Crisis on single parents specifically. Last week, Gingerbread and the Institute for Employment Studies have published a report seeking to fill this gap. The report is primarily based on the interviews we undertook with 40 single parents in July and August, to explore their experiences of working and caring during the early stages of the Crisis and their hopes and fears for the future. We focused on those single parents who were in work but were not defined as “critical workers” by the government, as we anticipated this group would face the most challenges fulfilling their working and caring roles.
If nothing changes, nothing changes: Reflections on carrying out research with people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic
Nov 11, 2020
Stephan Morrison
Project officer, Groundswell
Jo Brown
Research manager, Groundswell
As winter looms and the UK enters its eighth month of lockdown with varying degrees of restrictions still in place, Groundswell continues to adapt the way in which it delivers research in order to provide workable and lasting solutions for the organisation whilst maintaining its core values of participation and involvement. Our vision of an equal and inclusive society means we aim to ensure that people experiencing homelessness are central to decision making processes, their voices are at the heart of every action undertaken and therefore the solutions to homelessness come directly from the people who have experienced homelessness themselves.
Precarious work, precarious research?
Nov 4, 2020
Hayley Bennett
Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Edinburgh
In this blog, Hayley Bennett, University of Edinburgh, reflects on the collaborative turn in academic research and the tensions with precarious employment practices.
Negotiating engagement in participatory research during the pandemic: new ethical questions
Oct 20, 2020
Jo Biglin
PhD Research, University of Manchester
People seeking asylum have been amongst some of the hardest hit by the pandemic lockdown; as people living in an already hostile and precarious situation faced an array of new challenges on top of their existing exposure to suffering and destitution. In this blog piece I reflect on some of the questions and challenges of carrying out participatory research with people seeking asylum and with refugee status during this extremely challenging time.
Poverty and the pandemic: planning for safe and inclusive consultation methods
Oct 13, 2020
Luke Bramhall
School Research and Delivery Service Manager, Children North East
Georgina Burt
Children North East
Lydia Wysocki
Research Associate, Newcastle University
Lizz Todd
Professor of Educational Inclusion, Newcastle University
We wanted to understand the changing realities in Covid19 of children and families in the North East in order to inform schools and children’s services by listening to children. But could we find a safe and inclusive research method? We are the charity Children North East and researchers from Newcastle University and we have been working together for a number of years. At a time when many researchers are understandably turning to digital approaches, in this blog post we discuss the advantages of paper-based methods.
Participatory research in the ‘new normal’
Oct 6, 2020
Mika
Young Researcher on the Children Caring on the Move (CCoM) research project
Mimi
Young Researcher on the Children Caring on the Move (CCoM) research project
Rachel Rosen
Associate Professor in Sociology of Childhood in the Social Research Institute, UCL Institute of Education (IOE).
Stress. Anxiety. Concern. Looking back to mid-March 2020, these three words sum up how we felt. What would life be like in a pandemic? When would the lock down end? What would happen to our participatory research on the Children Caring on the Move (CCoM) project?
Living in your research: Researching parent and toddler groups in my local community in the pandemic
Sep 29, 2020
Aimi King
PhD researcher, University of Huddersfield
Before the pandemic, I had a plan for my research, it involved focus groups, with individuals coming together to share their experiences and create visual research pieces, whilst sharing food, drinks and conversation. On the 23rd March 2020, I saw that plan go sailing royally out of the window. Never fear, I thought to myself, Boris Johnson has a plan and we will be out of all this in twelve weeks’ time and everything can go back to how it was before. I joked at the start of the pandemic about how frustrating it would be if we were still in restrictions for my birthday, my birthday was a few weeks ago and the restrictions continue. Restrictions which are harsher than most, due to living an area where there are greater lockdowns due to high numbers of cases.
Conducting research on sensitive and traumatic topics during a pandemic
Sep 15, 2020
Alison Gregory
Research Fellow at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol
Emma Williamson
Reader in Gender Based Violence and Head of the Centre for Gender and Violence Research at the University of Bristol
Maria Barnes
Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol.
_This blog was originally posted on Transforming Society_*
What does participatory research mean to our community, whether in a pandemic or not?
Sep 8, 2020
Tracey Herrington
Manager, Thrive Teesside
Thrive Teesside works tirelessly to ensure the voice, skills, knowledge and expertise of low income communities is respected, listened to and afforded the opportunity to work alongside others to affect positive change. The current pandemic has highlighted some specific barriers to meaningful participation, but I hasten to say, that none of these issues are new but are merely amplified.
Zoom: from pub quizzes to social research? Reflections on internet-mediated video interviewing during the coronavirus pandemic
Aug 31, 2020
Lilly Monk
Social Research (Social Policy) MA student at the University of Birmingham
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the use of online video conferencing software has been revered for its capability of bringing people together. The widespread organising of pub quizzes, family catch-ups and work meetings has led video-conferencing host Zoom to become a household name. But can Zoom be used for social research? As an MA student researching the undergraduate student experience of food insecurity, the current context of pandemic caused me to refocus my data collection from face-to-face interviewing to online methods. Reflecting on my experiences of using Zoom, I highlight the pros, cons and necessary adjustments I’ve made to maintain data quality and ensure ethical standards.
Researching remotely: using mapping and photography to think about space and place remotely
Aug 22, 2020
Charlotte Gallagher Squires
Research Assistant at the Centre for Food Policy
Anna Isaacs
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy
When the aim of your research is to engage with lived experiences, what happens when a global pandemic means you can no longer share the same physical space as your research participants?
Could a radical Ethics of Reciprocity help make research more relevant to action to reduce poverty and inequality?
Aug 15, 2020
Jennie Popay
Professor of Sociology and Public Health, Lancaster University
The repeated claims that COVID19 has revealed social inequities in the UK is irritating. Like the ‘left behind_’ narrative it gives people permission to think (if not say), “whoops we didn’t see that before”. This is clearly not true! The pandemic and responses to it are exacerbating inequalities, speeding up the passage from poor lives to poor health and, for some, premature mortality. But social inequalities and their impacts – with their intersecting dimensions of class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, age, etc - have always been on public display: in the dramatically contrasting neighbourhoods in cities; the makeshift “beds” for homeless people lining our streets; the Windrush scandal and the Grenfell Tower fire, the burgeoning food banks and now ubiquitous food collection boxes at supermarkets. They are present in schools, the NHS, housing agencies, job centres and other public services. They have never been _invisible just deliberately unseen.
“Hang on Stephen”: Including migrant voices in anti-poverty research
Aug 4, 2020
Andy Jolly
Research Associate at the Institute for Community Research and Development (ICRD) at the University of Wolverhampton
“Hang on Stephen. Why aren’t they eligible for Universal Credit or Employment Support?”
Monitoring and tackling poverty during Covid-19
Jul 28, 2020
Iain Porter
Policy and Partnerships Manager (social security)
The coronavirus storm and its economic slipstream has caused unprecedented damage at lightning speed to people’s livelihoods, pulling many families under. The social security system has a vital role as an anchor in stormy times and the Government swiftly strengthened it with a £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit’s standard allowance.
Disconnected sharing and emotional labour: Early impressions of researching Welfare from a (Social) Distance
Jul 21, 2020
David Robertshaw
Welfare at a (Social) Distance
- “Sorry, I forgot about that bit so hang on, let me start again…”
‘We’re not working from home, we’re at home during a pandemic trying to work’: moving participatory research online during the coronavirus crisis
Jul 16, 2020
Kate Summers
LSE Fellow in Qualitative Methodology, London School of Economics
I’ve seen this sentiment across social media: we’re not working from home right now, instead we’re at home during a pandemic trying to work. The saying articulates the position people find themselves in, as personal and professional life ebbs into one another. In many ways this mingling of the ‘personal’ and the ‘professional’ is not a new conundrum for qualitative researchers, and in particular for participatory research. Research of this nature is already highly personal for those involved in it. Nevertheless, a global pandemic throws up an entirely new context to navigate these blurred boundaries. I want to use this blog to reflect on The Commission on Social Security, led by Experts by Experience, a participatory research project that has pivoted to working totally remotely.
Rapid response social research in a pandemic – opportunism or activism?
Jul 13, 2020
Dr Annie Irvine
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York
Very soon after the reality of the pandemic hit home, research councils and other social science funders began to issue rapid response calls for research on the social and economic impacts of Covid-19. My first response to this was mixture of defensiveness and frustration: “The impact? It’s going to be shit! We know it’s going to be shit! Why do we need more research telling us how shit it’s going to be?!”
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