Transcript Methodological Challenges of Re

Methodological Challenges of
Re-studying Communities
Chris Phillipson
Keele University
Re-studying communities
Key areas covered:
• Background
• Why re-study?
• Findings from re-studies
• Problems of re-studying
• Strategies for re-studying
• Final questions
Re-studying communities
Background
• Everyone is re-studying. Re-visiting (e.g. cities)
is now stock in trade of novelists, biographers
and historians (e.g. Ackroyd, Robb, Sinclair).
• Sociologists less in evidence though studies
starting to accumulate.
• Pressure to ‘return to community studies’ in
context where pressures on communities are
increasing e.g.through impact of economic
recession.
Re-studying communities
Why re-study?
• Community studies were part of the
‘intellectual biography’ or journey for many
sociologists (cf. Morgan, 2008)
• Rectifying omissions (Lassiter et al., 2004)
• To provide an approach to understanding
social change/ highlight new developments
(Charles et al., 2008; Phillipson et al., 2000)
Re-studying communities
Findings from a re-study: The Family and Community Life of
Older People (2000)
• Sheldon (1948) Wolverhampton (Metropolitan)
• Young and Willmott (1957) Bethnal Green (Inner City)
• Willmott (1960) Woodford (Suburb)
Testing the ‘environment of kin’ (Frankenburg, 1960) thesis
to explore changes in lives of older people from late-40s/50s
to 90s.
Re-studying communities
Methodology of study:
Subjective definition of ‘close’ network members.
• Inner circle – very close
• Middle circle – fairly close
• Outer circle – less close
- what kind of support do you provide?
- what kind of support do you give?
• 620 interviews/ c. 5000 relationships
• 130 qualitative interviews; small number with mothers
and their daughters.
• Some observational work.
Re-studying communities
Findings:
• Movement from old age experienced in context
of family groups to one characterised by
‘personal communities’.
• Growth of ‘intimacy’ (the ‘couple’).
• Importance of friends.
• Management of more dispersed network but
more varied forms of communication
• Maintenance of ‘family groups’ (but now
Bangladeshi).
Re-studying communities
Follow-on studies:
• Study of first generation migrant women
from Bangladesh (Tower Hamlets)
• Community-based studies of social
exclusion.
• Community empowerment
Re-studying communities
What are the problems in doing a re-study?
Or (more provocative) is it worth it?
• Do they really add any new knowledge?
e.g. family is still important (Phillipson et al., 2000) but
any national survey will tell you that.
• Can we be confident about interpretations of changes
over time?
How do you know that ‘change’ really is change? e.g. are
friends really more important now or is it just that we
asked questions about them i.e. ‘social change’ v
‘sociological change’ (Bell, 1977).
Re-studying communities
• Can we compare localities over time?
Radical changes in admin boundaries,
globalisation etc, may be subversive of the
re-studying enterprise.
• Are ‘iconic’ studies best left as historical
documents – important material – but
raising questions now for historians as
much as or more than sociologists?
• ‘re-studies’ or ‘new studies’ (Stoke-onTrent versus Bethnal Green)
Re-studying communities
Strategies for re-studying:
• Focus on a group or an issue.
• Go ‘extremely’ local e.g. single street (Atlee,
2007) and ‘network-based’ (Phillipson et al.,
2004)
• Studying local sources of community power
remains important (Newby et al., 1978)
• Link to underlying dynamics of locality change.
• Develop strong ethnographic perspective linked
with quantitative data.
Re-studying communities
Final thoughts:
• Are we trained to do ‘community studies’?
• What/where are the priorities for further study?
• Cross-national studies would be valuable but are
rare – approaches to EU/US/UK funding bodies
to support an initiative may be worthwhile.
• Trans-national communities need to be openedup for study with development of new
methodologies.
Selected references
Atlee, J. Isolarion Chicago University Press 2007
Bell, C. ‘Reflections on the Banbury Study’ in Bell, C and
Newby, H. Doing Sociological Research Allen and
Unwin 1977
Crow, G. and Allan, G. Community Life Allen and Unwin
1994
Edwards, R (ed) Researching Families and Community
Life Routledge 2008
International Journal of Social Research Methodology Vol.
11 No.2 2008 (whole issue)
Phillipson, C. et al. The Family and Community Life of
Older People Routledge, 2000
Phillipson, C. et al.Women in Transition. Policy Press 2002
Phillipson, C. et al. Social Networks and Social Exclusion,
Ashgate 2004