Judith Sixsmith

Accessing the Community: Gaining Insider Perspectives From the Outside

Accessing participants for research projects is often treated as unproblematic. However the experience outlined here of negotiating access to participants within a community setting illustrates the inherent difficulties of recruitment. The authors describe the techniques used and practical challenges faced when accessing participants within a socially deprived community for a qualitative research project on social capital. They used a number of different strategies to generate a diverse sample including advertising, snowballing, accessing gatekeepers, and street surveys. The value of a stakeholder analysis is described alongside issues surrounding the use of gatekeepers. Rather than acting as outsiders seeking participants at every available opportunity, a more fortuitous strategy involved the ethnographic approach of “being there” as active contributors to community life. Here, the cornerstones of credibility and trust were addressed in a process of continually negotiating access from a semi-insider position.

Ethical Issues in the Documentary Data Analysis of Internet Posts and Archives

The documentary analysis of email posts and archives for qualitative research has been outlined elsewhere. Although there is an increase in the number of studies being conducted on listserv and newsgroup material in health research, this has not always been accompanied by a careful, in-depth consideration of the concomitant ethical issues. Therefore, this article outlines the ethical considerations surrounding this form of research, including issues of accessing voices, consent, privacy, anonymity, interpretation, and ownership and authorship of research material.

E-mail: a qualitative research medium for interviewing?

This paper explores the opportunities that developments in computer-mediated Communication (CMC) are making available for social science research. In particular, the use of electronic mail (e-mail) is proposed as a viable and valuable research medium for conducting qualitative interviews, alongside the traditional face-to-face interview. The practical, methodological and conceptual implications of e-mail interviewing are explored. In addition, important ethical dilemmas concerning informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, protection from harm, interpretation and ownership of material are discussed.

Home as the locus and origin for participation: Experiences among very old Swedish people

Using a grounded theory perspective, this article focuses on experiences of participation in relation to home among very old people who are living alone. Eight people selected from the larger ENABLE-AGE Project were interviewed. Data analysis identified the core category as “home as the locus and origin for participation” with two main categories (“performance-oriented participation” and “togetherness-oriented participation”). The findings indicate that the home is the origin for participation both out of the home and within the home. However, as older peoples health declines, the home becomes the explicit locus for participation. Participation successively changes from taking part in more physically demanding activities out of the home to participation by means of watching others from within the home (i.e., by being a spectator). In appreciating self-defined goals for a meaningful life, thus enabling the experience of participation in very old age (age 80 to 89 years), this study contributes to the knowledge about relationships between participation and home in very old age.

Healthy ageing and home: The perspectives of very old people in five European countries.

This paper reports on in-depth research, using a grounded theory approach, to examine the ways in which very old people perceive healthy ageing in the context of living alone at home within urban settings in five European countries. This qualitative study was part of a cross-national project entitled ENABLE-AGE which examined the relationship between home and healthy ageing. Interviews explored the notion of healthy ageing, the meaning and importance of home, conceptualisations of independence and autonomy and links between healthy ageing and home. Data analysis identified five ways in which older people constructed healthy ageing: home and keeping active; managing lifestyles, health and illness; balancing social life; and balancing material and financial circumstances. Older people reflected on their everyday lives at home in terms of being engaged in purposeful, meaningful action and evaluated healthy ageing in relation to the symbolic and practical affordances of the home, contextualised within constructions of their national context. The research suggests that older people perceive healthy ageing as an active achievement, created through individual, personal effort and supported through social ties despite the health, financial and social decline associated with growing older. The physicality and spatiality of home provided the context for establishing and evaluating the notion of healthy ageing, whilst the experienced relationship between home, life history and identity created a meaningful space within which healthy ageing was negotiated.

Smart care technologies: meeting whose needs?

Recent funding programmes supporting research and development in telecare have argued for a shift in perspective from a technology-driven approach to one that is needs-led. While this is in the interests of both users and technologists, achieving this goal is not straightforward. This paper outlines some of the conceptual, methodological and practical problems that potentially constrain a needs-led approach and illustrates the emergent issues with a case study of the development of an intelligent home monitoring system to support the independent living of older people. The research indicates clear differences between users and technologists in the way problems, needs and requirements are understood and defined. This in turn has consequences for the way assistive technologies are developed and implemented.Recent funding programmes supporting research and development in telecare have argued for a shift in perspective from a technology-driven approach to one that is needs-led. While this is in the interests of both users and technologists, achieving this goal is not straightforward. This paper outlines some of the conceptual, methodological and practical problems that potentially constrain a needs-led approach and illustrates the emergent issues with a case study of the development of an intelligent home monitoring system to support the independent living of older people. The research indicates clear differences between users and technologists in the way problems, needs and requirements are understood and defined. This in turn has consequences for the way assistive technologies are developed and implemented.

Impacts of Home Modifications on Aging-in-Place

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between home modifications and aging-in-place. Using the ENABLE-AGE United Kingdom sample (N = 376), the authors hypothesize that seniors who have modified their housing are likely to have stayed longer in their current housing. There is a positive relationship between home modifications and aging-in-place. The results underscore the importance of supportive environment to prolong living in housing settings.

Qualitative health research via the Internet: practical and methodological issues

Electronic mail (email) has become a ubiquitous form of global communication. Much of this discourse concerns the experience of health and illness. As it is stored and accessible via the Internet, it is then available for qualitative analysis by health researchers. In particular, researchers can employ document analysis methods using Internet communication such as email posts and archives. This paper outlines ways in which such research could proceed, including locating potential research sites and collecting and analysing data. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of using documentary analysis of Internet communication in qualitative health research are explored.

From Theory to Policy: Reducing Harms Associated with the Weight-Centered Health Paradigm

This article provides an overview of harms associated with public policy promotion of the weight-centered health paradigm and suggests that a shift away from weight-centered health policies is required. Given the evidence about the negative health implications of weight-centric health policies, the objectives are to explore why public policy officials uncritically rely on and promote the weight-centered health paradigm and to propose policy alternatives. Based on findings from discourse analysis of “obesity”-related 1 policy documents, public health policy solutions to the weight-centered health paradigm are proposed and analyzed, drawing from ten key informant interviews with stakeholders working within the policy, academic, and medical contexts.

Consultation and Participation with Children in Healthy Schools: Choice, Conflict and Context

In this paper we report on our use of a participatory research methodology to consult with children in the UK on how to improve pupil well-being in secondary schools, framed within the wider social policy context of healthy schools. We worked with children on the selection of our research methods and sought to voice the views of children to a local education authority to improve the design of school environments. The consultation process ultimately failed not because the children were unforthcoming with their views on either methods or on well-being in schools, but because of difficulties in how their views were received by adults. We show how the socio-economic, cultural and political context in which those difficulties were set might have led to the eventual break down of the consultation process, and we draw out a number of possible implications for consultative and participatory work with children in school settings.