Henrietta O’Connor

Exploring Complex Transitions: Looking Back at the 'Golden Age' of From School to Work

Using data from a little known project, ‘Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles’, carried out in Leicester between 1962 and 1964, this article aims to re-examine the extent to which transitions during this time were complex, lengthy, non-linear and single-step and explores the assumed linearity and uncomplicated nature of school to work transitions in the 1960s. It is argued that earlier research on youth transitions has tended to understate the level of complexity that characterized youth transitions in the early 1960s and 1970s. Instead, authors exploring transition during this period concentrated on ‘macro’ or more structural issues such as class and gender. It is suggested that transitions in the 1960s were characterized by individual level complexity that has largely been ignored by others exploring school to work transitions.

“Focus groups in cyberspace”: using the Internet for qualitative research

The potential of the Internet as a valuable methodological research tool is increasingly being recognised by both market researchers and academics. This paper contributes to the debate surrounding virtual synchronous group interviews and the value of online research. Specifically it introduces the use of a software conferencing technique – Hotline Connect – and discusses the implications of using the technique for Internet‐based research. In particular, issues of interview design, developing rapport and the virtual venue are considered. The paper draws on the experience of a recent research project entitled “cyberparents” and concludes that the use of conferencing software holds great potential for synchronous online interviewing. However, this must be combined with sensitive, ethical handling of both the research process and the data to overcome problems inherent in any interviewing situation.

Researching 40 years of learning for work: the experiences of one cohort of workers

Using previously unanalysed data from a lost study—the Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles (1962–1964)—and data from a subsequent restudy, this paper contributes to debates on vocational education by examining three themes. First, the methodological issues raised by undertaking a restudy are discussed. Second, the young workers’ initial workplace learning experiences in the 1960s are examined with an emphasis on commitment to learning and training. Third, links between initial training experiences and the subsequent learning experiences in later careers are explored. We conclude that high levels of commitment to workplace learning were evident throughout the life‐course of this group. However, significantly, this commitment existed only when the training available was on‐the‐job and the links between learning and working practice were clear. Formal learning opportunities were deemed unimportant and seen as existing for the benefit of the employer, not the employee.

Entering work in the 1960s: reflections and expectations

The transition from school to work is a crucial component in a young person’s transition to adulthood. Recently data have emerged from one of the very first projects on school to work transitions. This research was undertaken in the early 1960s by researchers at the University of Leicester, and led by Norbert Elias. Nearly 900 interview schedules from the project “Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles” have been discovered, which provide a significant insight into the school to work transitions of the 1960s. This paper aims to present some of this data for the first time. In particular the discussion will focus on the respondents’ reflections on education, their expectations of paid employment and their perceptions of a “good job”. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of using such historical data and considers its implications for current debates on transitions and the expectations of school leavers.

Exploitation or opportunity? Student perceptions of internships in enhancing employability skills

Abstract Internships are now widely promoted as a valuable means of enhancing graduate employability. However, little is known about student perceptions of internships. Drawing on data from a pre-1992 university, two types of graduate are identified: engagers and disengagers. The engagers valued internship opportunities while the disengagers perceived these roles as exploitative and worthless. Few were able to distinguish paid, structured internship opportunities from unpaid, exploitative roles. We conclude that higher education institutes need to be more proactive in extolling the value of paid internships to all students and not just those most likely to engage with their services.

Girls’ Transitions to Work and Adulthood in the 1960s

It is unusual for researchers in the social sciences to have access to data that has remained largely unanalysed for nearly forty years, yet around two years ago data from a little-known project was ‘rediscovered’ from where it had been archived. Stored in an attic office, it transpired that the data was from the project ‘Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles’ led by Norbert Elias and carried out by researchers at the University of Leicester between 1962 and 1964. However, with the exception of Ashton and Field (1976) who used a sample of the cases from this project, the bulk of the data has never been analysed or published (for a full discussion of the background to this project see Goodwin and O’Connor, 2002). The archived data comprised 854 original interview schedules that fully documented the early work experiences of Leicester’s youth in the early 1960s, and a series of background documents written by the original research team. The uniqueness and value of such data for re-analysis is suggested by Corti et al. (1995) who argue that ‘… although huge resources have been devoted to qualitative interview, ethnographic, case and anthropological studies, the data are often inaccessible, untraceable or have been destroyed’ (1995, p. 1).

Pearl Jephcott: The Legacy of a Forgotten Sociological Research Pioneer

While the lives and works of many sociologists have now been well documented, numerous sociologists at the ‘coal face’ of social research remain ignored. Consequently, beyond the contributions of those more ‘well-known’ scholars, considerably more needs to be done to examine the history of our discipline and reassess the significant contributions made by ‘other’ researchers so that we may reappraise what can be learnt from these ‘pioneer scholars’. In this article we focus on Pearl Jephcott (1900–1980), who in a research career spanning 40 years, but now largely forgotten, was at the forefront of methodological innovation in the 1960s. We offer an introduction to her work, focusing on questions such as why were her methods innovative and why is she now ignored within sociology?

The Ethical Dilemmas of Restudies in Researching Youth

Since 2000, we have been undertaking a restudy of Elias’s ‘Adjustment of Young Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles’ project (1962–64). We experienced a number of ethical dilemmas/questions in undertaking the restudy and in this article, we outline these and discuss how we resolved them as the project developed. In doing so, we focus our discussion around three central questions: (i) how did we reuse this data and balance the conflict between having access to personal biographical information with the wish to trace and reinterview the original respondents?; (ii) how do we responsibly analyze data that was collected but never used whilst providing an authentic voice for these ‘past’ young workers?; and (iii) how do we accurately represent the demise of the research project and the contribution of the researchers originally involved? We conclude by considering the ethical imperative of the greater reuse of existing data on young people.

A systematic analysis of UK cancer research funding by gender of primary investigator

Objectives To categorically describe cancer research funding in the UK by gender of primary investigator (PIs). Design Systematic analysis of all open-access data. Methods Data about public and philanthropic cancer research funding awarded to UK institutions between 2000 and 2013 were obtained from several sources. Fold differences were used to compare total investment, award number, mean and median award value between male and female PIs. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to determine statistically significant associations between PI gender and median grant value. Results Of the studies included in our analysis, 2890 (69%) grants with a total value of £1.82 billion (78%) were awarded to male PIs compared with 1296 (31%) grants with a total value of £512 million (22%) awarded to female PIs. Male PIs received 1.3 times the median award value of their female counterparts (P<0.001). These apparent absolute and relative differences largely persisted regardless of subanalyses. Conclusions We demonstrate substantial differences in cancer research investment awarded by gender. Female PIs clearly and consistently receive less funding than their male counterparts in terms of total investment, the number of funded awards, mean funding awarded and median funding awarded.

Norbert Elias and social theory

Norbert Elias has recently been described as ‘the most important thinker you’ve never heard of’ (Pinker 2011, 59). Such a description will come as no surprise to Eliasians who have long known that Elias’s work has been slow to enter the mainstream of sociological theory in the United Kingdom. Elsewhere, particularly in the Netherlands, France and Germany, Elias has, for a long time, had a similar status to the renowned classical sociological thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber. In the United Kingdom it remains relatively rare to find Elias widely used by sociologists or for his work to be included as part of undergraduate syllabuses alongside the other sociological greats. For this reason alone, Norbert Elias & Social Theory is a very welcome addition to the Elias collection, not least because the main aim of this volume is to demystify the work of Elias and to enable readers to better understand and assess his contribution to the discipline. As such, this book looks set to make a positive contribution to Elias’s legacy and to make his work more accessible to a broader range of researchers and academics. The volume is timely as its publication has coincided with something of a resurgence of interest in the work of Elias culminating in the publication, in English, of 18 volumes that make up the definitive Collected Works of Norbert Elias. Without doubt the status of Elias, in the United Kingdom in particular, has been somewhat marginal. The reason that his work has not been better received is, in part, due to the timing of his first major volume. The Civilising Process, Elias’s seminal study of civilisation in western societies, was published in 1939, an inauspicious year for a Jewish scholar to publish such a study (Mennell 1998). It was not for some three decades that the book was republished in English and began to reach a wider audience. In more recent decades his influence has become more pervasive, and Landini and Dépelteau explain in their introduction that sociologists working in diverse areas have begun to turn to Elias. For example, his work has been used increasingly by those with an interest in the sociology of the body and emotions, sport and leisure, violence, religion, alcohol and tobacco use. The work of Elias has much to offer sociologists of education, and in recent