Researching Families and Relationships: Reflections on Process

In this volume, now in paperback, over 40 researchers across the social sciences offer a series of engaging accounts reflecting on dilemmas and issues that they experienced while conducting 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 reflects on ethical considerations in research engagements; Angus Bancroft and Stuart Aitken each comment on researchers’ accounts from ’in the field’; Lynn Jamieson discusses dilemmas in interpreting and representing families and relationships and Sarah Morton and Sandra Nutley reflect on getting research into policy and practice.

STUART C. AITKEN Professor and Chair of Geography at San Diego State University, and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Young People and Space (ISYS), USA DAN ALLMAN Senior Scientist at the HIV Social, Behavioural and Epidemiological Studies Unit, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto KATHRYN BACKETT-MILBURN Professor of the Sociology of Families and Health at the Centre for Population Health Sciences and Associate Director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR), University of Edinburgh, UK ANGUS BANCROFT Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK ANDREW BELL Ph.D. Student at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, UK SARAH BERNAYS Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, UK EMMA DAVIDSON Doctoral Student at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, UK KATHERINE DAVIES Research Associate in Realities (part of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods), based in the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life at the University of Manchester, UK SUSAN ELSLEY Part-time Senior Research Fellow at CRFR at the University of Edinburgh, UK JENNIFER FLUECKIGER Communications and Knowledge Exchange Coordinator at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK GILL HIGHET Research Fellow at the NCRI Lung Cancer Supportive & Palliative Care Research, UK LOUISE HILL Research Fellow at the Centre for Learning in Child Protection, University of Edinburgh and NSPCC, UK KATHRIN HOUMØLLER Ph.D. Fellow at the Section for Anthropology and Ethnography at Aarhus University, Denmark SHARON JACKSON Lecturer and Principal Researcher in Childhood within the School of Education, Community Education and Social Work at the University of Dundee, UK ALLISON JAMES Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Professor at the Norwegian Centre for Childhood Research, Norway LESLEY KELLY Dissemination Officer for the Growing Up in Scotland Study (GUS), based within the Knowledge Exchange team at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh, UK ALICE MACLEAN Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK VANESSA MAY Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester and a member of the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life, UK LINDA MCKIE Professor of Sociology at the Glasgow Caledonian University and Associate Director at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK SUE MILNE Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK DAVID MORGAN Formerly taught Sociology at Manchester University, UK, for over35 years and has also been a Visiting Professor at the Norwegian Technological University, Trondheim, Norway, and Keele University, UK SARAH MORTON Co-Director (Communication and Knowledge Exchange) of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK INGELA K. NAUMANN Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh, UK ELINOR NEWALL Former Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh, UK SARAH NELSON Research Associate at CRFR, University of Edinburgh, UK GINA NOWAK Works for YouthLink Scotland, UK, as the National Coordinator for 'No Knives, Better Lives' (NKBL) SANDRA NUTLEY Professor of Public Management at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK KATE PHILIP Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen, UK DAVID F. PORTEOUS Social and Market Researcher has been commissioning and managing research projects for the City of Edinburgh Council, UK, for the last six years JULIE SEYMOUR Senior Lecturer in Social Research in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Hull, UK ANDREW SMITH Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Employment Relations at Bradford University School of Management and an Associate Researcher at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, UK VALERIA SKAFIDA Researcher at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK. JENNIFERM. SPEIRS ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships based at the University of Edinburgh, UK JENNIFER SPRATT Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen, and an associate researcher at Edinburgh University's Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, UK KAY TISDALL Professor of Childhood Policy at the University of Edinburgh, UK SARAH WILSON Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Stirling, UK FRAN WASOFF Emeritus Professor and Visiting Professorial Fellow, School of Social and Political Science, and Associate Director, CRFR, Edinburgh University, UK HEATHER WILKINSON Based at the University of Edinburgh where she is Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange for the School of Health in Social Science and Co-director of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, UK