Deborah Warr

“It was fun... but we don’t usually talk about these things”: Analyzing Sociable Interaction in Focus Groups

Focus groups are a useful method for sociological research because the sociable interaction that is generated can yield rich insight into people’s life worlds. This is because the nature of the talk that is generated in focus groups is a mixture of personal beliefs and available collective narratives that are further flavored by the local circumstances of participants’ lives. The interactions between participantsin focus group discussions characteristically comprise layers of talk and present researchers with complex analytical tasks. In addition to what participants say about themselves, analysis and interpretation of focus group data must pay attention to the content and form of interaction between participants. This article discusses and illustrates how sociable interactions from focus groups were analyzed for insights into classed contexts for romantic relationships.

Social networks in a 'discredited' neighbourhood

Neighbourhoods are vulnerable to being stigmatized with implications for residents’ social networks, experiences of social connectedness, and opportunities for developing or accessing social capital. Goffman defined stigma as a discrediting attribute that impairs social acceptability. Poverty can be considered a discrediting attribute and stigma is experienced through negative labelling and stereotyping of the poor. Using qualitative data collected through interviews and participant observation in two impoverished suburbs in Victoria, Australia, this article explores experiences of neighbourhood, social networks and stigma as they are perceived by residents and people working in the neighbourhood. There was evidence of people being involved in supportive local bonding networks but few people were linked in bridging networks that extended outside the neighbourhood. Bridging networks are considered to be most effective for accessing valuable forms of social capital. The article considers social contexts for residents’ networks for their potential to generate social capital. Contemporary contexts for the stigmatization of poverty and possibilities for ‘destigmatizing’ social groups and neighbourhoods are discussed.

Stories in the Flesh and Voices in the Head: Reflections on the Context and Impact of Research With Disadvantaged Populations

In this article, the author reflects on her involvement in qualitative health among disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups whose life experiences are, for the most part, very different from her own. Despite the differences, she is persuaded that it is possible to have an empathetic understanding of other people’s experiences through research. Recalling experiences from her own research encounters, she shows the ways in which these encounters as embodied and situated interactions generate a powerful methodological potential for gaining insight into other people’s lives. She suggests strategies for preserving the layers of context and meaning that can otherwise be lost when research encounters are transformed into research data. Furthermore, the methodological power of qualitative research can mean that research encounters are intense and emotional experiences for researchers. Therefore, she offers some strategies for managing the emotional potency of some of the more distressing life stories that social researchers might come to know.

Difficult Relations: Sex Work, Love and Intimacy

Female sex workers in Western societies report high rates of condom use with clients. However, their continuing low rates of condom use with private partners place some sex workers at increased risk of STDs and HIV. While researchers have focused on the health risks for female sex workers in their private relationships, from the point of view of the women involved, these relationships are a site of more complex struggles. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of female sex workers and examines the difficulties associated with sustaining a private relationship while engaging in sex work. Sex work practices, in so far as they parody the features of love-making, can profoundly disrupt the special characteristics of intimate sexual relationships. Any intervention designed to promote condom use in the private relationships of female sex workers must engage with the complexity of meanings that are attached to sex work, love and intimacy by these women.

Women at risk in sex work : strategies for survival

This paper reports findings from a qualitative study of female sex workers who were identified as particularly vulnerable to risks to their sexual health and physical safety. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 women to explore issues of safe sex and risk management in relation to their work, health and private lives. The main risks identified were client violence and client resistance to condom use. Non-use of condoms with private partners also placed many of these women at risk of STDs and HIV. Various approaches to avoidance or management of risk are described. The degree of control individual women were able to exert during sexual encounters with clients was affected not only by the legal context of sex work but also by the age, experience, self-esteem and self-confidence of the women and by their drug use at the time of the encounter. For some of these women, problems associated with homelessness, drug use and extreme social isolation far outweighed the risks associated with sex work.

Gender, class, and the art and craft of social capital

Social capital is generally recognized as the positive outcome of sociability and social connection and, more specifically, as the capacity to realize economic benefits through social connections. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the potential of social capital at the intersection of socioeconomic disadvantage. The first part of the article examines assumptions of class and gender in the theoretical literature on social capital. The second part explores the influence of class and gender contexts on social networks among women living in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Victoria, Australia. The analysis reveals the ways in which social network assets are conditional on socioeconomic and gender circumstances.

The importance of love and understanding - Speculation on romance in safe sex health promotion

Abstract The expectations associated with romantic love ill-prepare many young women for negotiating safety in sexual relationships. Romantic love tends to emphasise an intensity of emotional engagement, stressing reciprocity, and certainty. This conflicts with sexual health promotion efforts among young people, in a context where serial monogamy is common practice, that seek to promote the perception that all unprotected sex is risky. However, romance contributes a highly enjoyable aspect of many young womens experiences of sex, and offers a compelling a socially approved narrative of desire and pleasure. The issue of pleasure, more than the issue of risk, should be the key to making safe sex a personally meaningful and acceptable aspect of sexual practice. This article considers the problems and pleasures of romance, and argues that safe sex health promotion must acknowledge that the romance remains a potent site for a cultural elaboration of womens sexual desire and pleasure. I draw on a range of work, including feminist analysis, social theory, textural readings, and my own efforts in researching sexual health issues for young women to argue that the meanings of romance are not fixed and immutable, and should be utilized and reworked in safe sex promotion efforts that will be both appealing and relevant to young women.

Sources of stress in impoverished neighbourhoods: insights into links between neighbourhood environments and health

Objective :This paper explores associations between residents’ perceptions of social incivilities and physical disorders in local environments and self‐reported health status.

People, places and policies - trying to account for health inequalities in impoverished neighbourhoods.

Objective : We consider associations between individual, household and area‐level characteristics and self‐reported health.

‘Everybody's Different’: Struggles to Find Community on the Suburban Frontier

The pace of suburban development on the growth frontiers of Australian cities raises urgent urban planning and resourcing issues regarding the physical and social infrastructure that are required to support this growth. These pressures are contributing to the popularity of capital-led master-planning approaches among governments and homebuyers because of its potential to deliver urban planning and infrastructure resources to new suburbs. Master-planning approaches have largely been used to create prestige estates attracting upper-middle-class residents; however, they are increasingly being adapted for wider markets. This paper explores how these contexts are important for understanding ongoing and emerging tensions among residents living in two socio-economically and culturally diverse suburbs on the peri-urban fringe of Melbourne, Australia. The findings question the potential of capital-led master-planning approaches to deliver sound urban and social planning outcomes for socially complex suburban settings.