Search

The understanding of what ethnography looks like, and its purpose, is continuously evolving. COVID-19 posed a significant challenge to ethnographers, particularly those working in health-related research. Researchers have developed alternative forms of ethnography to overcome some of these challenges; we developed the Mobile Instant Messaging Ethnography (MIME) adaptation to ethnography in 2021 to overcome restrictions to our own research with hospital doctors. However, for ethnographic innovations to make a substantial contribution to methodology, they should not simply be borne of necessity, but of a dedicated drive to expand paradigms of research, to empower participant groups and to produce change – in local systems, in participant-collaborators and in researchers and the research process itself. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences using MIME, involving collaborative remote observation and reflection with 28 hospital doctors in Ireland from June to December 2021. After reviewing literature on ethnography in COVID-19 and general epistemological developments in ethnography, we detail the MIME approach and illustrate how MIME presents an evolution of the ethnographic approach, not only practically but in terms of its reflexive shift, its connected and co-creative foundations, and its ability to drive change in research approaches, participant life-worlds and real-world improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent attention focused on child sexual abuse (CSA) disclosure pathways has highlighted complex psychological processes that influence disclosure both for children and adults. Some authors have suggested that such processes may differ between children and adults yet few studies have examined distinct samples within the same study. This paper addresses this gap by exploring adolescent (n = 20) and adult (n = 10) experiences of disclosure of childhood sexual abuse. Interviews were conducted with both samples, using the same interview schedule and a comparative analysis was conducted of the key themes identified from a grounded theory analysis. Those themes that were found to be common to both samples included pressure cooker effect, telling would make it worse, and self-blame. Themes that were found to be more prevalent in the adolescent sample included police/court involvement, concern for other children, being asked, and peer influence. It is suggested that such potential differences reflect the changing social context over the past few decades which is characterised by increased awareness of sexual abuse as a crime and the risks of recidivism of offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on qualitative findings on how young people in long-term foster care in Ireland interpret permanence and stability. We focus principally on subjective and relational permanence, emphasising the significance of these concepts for social work, while extending some conceptual approaches to permanence. Importantly, findings from this study highlight conceptual gaps in how permanence and stability are conceptualised in research and we outline an approach which more fully embraces the multi-dimensionality of young people's life experiences and emotions. Recent studies underline that permanence encompasses several elements (e.g. ecological, legal). However, this paper extends current research in illustrating how Irish young people in foster care experience permanence and stability every day, and how these experiences embrace discursive, emotional and temporal dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although secularisation theory offers grand analytical possibilities for monitoring changing religious tendencies on political, social and cultural levels, it is greatly disadvantageous in accounting for particularities of small-scale variations in specific socio-geographic areas. Therefore, this paper argues that the neo-secularisation concept offers a greater sociological potential in this regard. Through the analysis of the macro, mezzo and micro levels of Irish social landscape, the paper provides an in-depth understanding of a changing religious field. The central arguments of the paper are tested against a variety of data including quantitative and qualitative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]