Rebecca O'Connell

The use of visual methods with children in a mixed methods study of family food practices

In their capacity to evoke the sensory, non-rational and material aspects of life, visual research methods offer potential for the study of food and eating. The flexible and interactive nature of some visual approaches also means that such methods may be particularly appropriate for research with children. Drawing on an ongoing study of food and eating in employed families, this paper explores the usefulness of using visual methods, including drawing and photoelicitation, to study children’s food practices. It examines what these methods ‘add’ in this mixed methods study and how they work in combination with other methods and reflects upon some of the challenges faced by researchers adopting such approaches.

Using Narrative Sources from the Mass Observation Archive to Study Everyday Food and Families in Hard Times: Food Practices in England During 1950

By using examples from food and domestic life in England during 1950, this paper examines the use of narrative archival sources as a methodological alternative to researching everyday food practices by traditional research methods, such as interviewing. Through the analysis of three diaries written for the Mass Observation Archive, and the everyday food practices expressed in these diaries, we consider the benefits and challenges of using narrative archival diary data to gain insights into food and eating during times of austerity. Before presenting and discussing the cases, we outline some of the challenges of researching food practices as a result of the muted, moral and mundane aspects of such practices. We then describe the study on which this paper is based, including a discussion of our methods and the reasons for using diaries and selecting our cases. Following this, we set the scene for understanding food and eating in 1950s Britain, such as contextual background about rationing during the Second World War, government policy and propaganda of the time. In our analysis of the three diaries, we discuss some of the ways in which the data have enabled us to ‘get at’ and provide insights into habitual food practices.

Care, gender and employment: changing times, changing methods

Over the last 30 years, the authors have collaborated with Julia Brannen on five major research studies: the Day Care Project in the 1980s; the study of Four Generation Families at the turn of the millennium; the Care Careers Project in the mid 2000s; and, most recently, Fathers across Three Generations and the Food Practices and Employed Families with Younger Children studies. This article offers an overview of the studies, situating them in their particular historical contexts and the important economic and social changes that have taken place in these contexts. It shows how the theme of the relationship between care, gender and employment has run through all five studies, and also how two complementary themes – intergenerational relationships and the role of fathers – have gained increased prominence, as has the concept of time particularly across the life course. It examines how Julia’s approach to researching the relationship between care and employment has changed over the course of the studies, including evolving conceptualisations and time frames and the introduction and use of new methods.