Michelle Brady
University of Queensland
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Featured researches published by Michelle Brady.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology | 2015
Cosmo Howard; Michelle Brady
An increasing challenge for teaching methods courses in the social sciences is the ‘critical turn’, which has encouraged some students to adopt an anti-empirical orientation. We present a case study of a compulsory undergraduate methods course in a political science department strongly influenced by post-structuralist philosophies. The first author redesigned the course to implement four constructivist pedagogical principles: (1) develop a full understanding of students’ pre-existing perceptions of political science research methods; (2) encourage students to see methodology as an inevitably contested field; (3) provide space for students to choose a methodological approach that best aligns with their personal stance on knowledge; and (4) encourage students to view research as an ongoing ‘conversation’. We critically reflect on the implementation of these constructivist pedagogical strategies and argue they improve students’ critical engagement with course material, increase linkages between methods teaching and other disciplinary subject matter, and accommodate diverse student perspectives and needs.
Journal of Family Issues | 2016
Michelle Brady; Francisco Perales
Research has established that families in developed countries commonly combine multiple sources of child care. Yet, families’ packages of child care and their effect on maternal labor force participation are underresearched, and the few existing empirical studies are primarily descriptive or use cross-sectional data. We add to the existing literature by theorizing and testing the relationships between family type, child care arrangements, and mothers’ work hours using Australian panel data and panel regression models. We find that employed mothers of young children who use a mixed child care package complete more hours of paid work than do employed mothers of young children who use other child care packages, but the reasons for this association are different among single and partnered mothers. For single mothers the most important characteristic of mixed child care packages appears to be their flexibility, whereas for partnered mothers mixed child care increases employment hours by maximizing the hours of child care available to them.
Studies in Political Economy | 2008
Michelle Brady
Michelle Brady’s “Absences and Silences in the Production of Work-Life Balance Policies in Canada” focuses on developments in Work-Life Balance policy in Canada since the 1990s by engaging with the discursive shift in federal documents away from concerns about work-family conflict. The author argues that this shift further obfuscates the legacy of patriarchy in the division of paid and unpaid work, and the corresponding organization of industrial relations. Brady contends that Work-Life policy in Canada ascribes responsibility for overcoming imbalance to individuals, especially women, at the cost of reinforcing systemic factors that underpin persistent gender inequalities. The system presumes that individuals can and should achieve balance on their own, but without any public effort to remedy systemic barriers that constrain diverse groups of women more than men.
Work, Employment & Society | 2016
Michelle Brady
Research on single mothers’ employment overwhelmingly focuses on the importance of access to formal childcare at a single point in time. However, to understand the relationship between childcare and single mothers’ employment we must consider their access to and use of multiple forms of childcare – their childcare packages – and how these change over time. Drawing on a longitudinal qualitative study and employing the concepts of ‘caringscapes’ and ‘work-time/childcare-time’, this article highlights how childcare packages shape single mothers’ employment trajectories. Informal carers play a crucial role within mixed (formal and informal) childcare packages in helping mothers bring children’s needs, work-time and childcare-time into alignment, thus strengthening their employment trajectories. Informal carers achieve this effect by: (1) increasing the total hours of non-parental care; (2) ‘gluing’ together complex jigsaws of care; (3) offering a ‘safety net’ in times of crisis; and (4) playing a ‘connector’ role during employment transitions.
Journal of Family Studies | 2015
Michelle Brady
Introduction Qualitative researchers interested in social policies around work and family face a puzzle. Key welfare to work, childcare and child support initiatives have in recent decades been based as much on persuasive narratives as any hard data or evidence. At the same time, in the context of a heightened concern with ‘evidence-based policy’ (Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, 2012) qualitative researchers often face disinterest and resistance from policymakers in these fields, many of whom dismiss qualitative and narrative research as ‘anecdotal’ and ‘subjective’. Rist’s (1994) influential framework provides a useful starting point as it highlights the kinds of contributions that qualitative research can make to the policy process. He suggests that qualitative research can make specific contributions at each stage of the policy cycle (policy formulation, policy implementation and policy accountability), and that it can also help policy makers to choose the most appropriate policy tool (e.g. tax credits versus fortnightly payments). However, much has changed in the 20 years since Rist’s framework was published. Qualitative research has begun to gain a much more central place in large scale pilots and ‘demonstration projects’ in the United States (Gardenhire & Nelson, 2003; Weisner, 2008), and also in evaluations of new work and family measures in the United Kingdom (Lewis, 2007; Ritchie & Spencer, 2002; Spencer, Ritchie, Lewis, & Dillon, 2003). A rich body of ethnographic work has also developed around documenting the experiences of poor families as they seek to combine work and care, and as they interact with various policies and supports (Weisner, 2008). Finally, qualitative researchers have developed new methodologies and theoretical frameworks for understanding social life and social policy. The aim of this special issue is to provide an opportunity to think again about the kinds of contributions that contemporary qualitative research can make to social policy. A number of these articles were first presented at a workshop entitled ‘Qualitative Research on Work, Family & Policy: Current Issues & Future Directions’ held at the School of Social Science, University of Queensland in November 2013. That workshop sought to foster debate and dialogue about the kinds of contributions qualitative scholars should be seeking to make to work and family policy, and the kinds of methods that we should use in a context where qualitative research seems to be viewed as less persuasive
Archive | 2007
Michelle Brady
In the last two decades, the Australian income support (Social Security) system has shifted from an emphasis on providing a financial safety net to a focus on building the capacities of individuals to plan for their futures and move into employment. In this respect, Australia shares a broadly similar trajectory to welfare reforms in other industrialized countries, where the priority in recent years has been on reducing “welfare dependency” and “activating” recipients though individualized interventions. In Australia, as in other jurisdictions, this policy direction has attracted considerable criticism from welfare advocates and academic observers. New “active” income support arrangements have been critiqued for penalizing the vulnerable, ignoring the special challenges faced by groups such as single parents, and lacking necessary material supports, such as transport or childcare subsidies (Goodin 2001; Howard 2006).
Evidence Base | 2015
Michelle Brady; Kay Cook
When Welfare to Work activities for single parents were first introduced in the 2005 Commonwealth Budget, the primary claim was...
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae | 1958
Michelle Brady; Emily Stevens; Laetitia Coles; Maria Zadoroznyj; Bill Martin
Governments are increasingly implementing policies that encourage early father-infant bonding. However, to date, research has not systematically examined fathers’ perspectives and experiences of early bonding. Using a social constructionist embodiment perspective we argue that paternal bonding is best conceived as a process of repeated, embodied performances that are shaped by gendered parenting discourses. Drawing on 100 semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of Australian fathers of young infants, we argue that most men believe they are capable of developing early strong bonds. They assume that bonding is a product of spending sufficient time with a child, irrespective of the parents gender. In contrast, a sizable minority of fathers assert that physiology means fathers are ‘largely useless’ to very young infants, and tend to remain distant in the early months. We conclude that social policies promoting early paternal bonding must engage with and challenge gendered/physiological discourses.
Archive | 2018
Michelle Brady
Drawing on interview data collected as part of a qualitative longitudinal (QL) study with single mothers in receipt of income support, this chapter focuses on these mothers’ experiences of entering employment or study, and balancing these new commitments with their existing caring commitments. In the context of an international trend towards increasingly stringent activation requirements targeted at single parents (Haux, Soc Policy Soc 11(01):1–14, 2012; Haux, J Int Comp Soc Policy 29(2):122–133, 2013; Knijn et al., Soc Policy Adm 41(6):638–652, 2007) it is crucial to understand what helps single mothers gain and maintain employment. This chapter argues that informal carers, in the context of a mixed childcare package (concurrent use of formal and informal childcare), play an important role in facilitating single mothers’ entry into employment and employment sustainability over time. By using a lifecourse perspective, and drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study, this chapter reveals the degree to which the childcare needs of single mothers and their children are dynamic, something that has been largely overlooked in the existing literature. Furthermore, this chapter underscores how the inflexibility of formal childcare makes it hard for single mothers to enter employment/study and sustain it over time.
Foucault Studies | 2014
Michelle Brady
