Myles Balfe
Biographic Data
| ID | 248079 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Myles Balfe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Myles |
| FAMILY NAME | Balfe |
| SIGNATURE | BALFE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College Cork |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6081-6317 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
All I See Is Darkness
This article explores the factors that undermine the health of touring musicians by focusing on a case study of the rock band Guns N’ Roses between 1991 and 1997. Drawing on the sociological concept of risk environments, this article argues that in this period Guns N’ Roses encountered two key risk environments that undermined their health and promoted risk-taking related to drug use, especially heroin, cocaine, and alcohol. The risk factors that…
Ireland, before the end
This article outlines some of my experiences of growing up in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. It then goes on to discuss what I see are the main changes that Ireland experienced since then. The article argues that by the 2020s Ireland had become a kayfabe state, accepting of biopolitical commodification and indifferent to predation upon segments its population
The Perils of Rock n’ Roll Decadence
Guns N’ Roses were one of the most popular rock bands in the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This article examines why Guns N’ Roses engaged in serious deviance, especially drug use, and especially heroin, between the years 1988–1991, that is between the years that they made their debut album Appetite for Destruction and its follow-ups, Use Your Illusions 1 and 2. This article argues that musicians can engage in deviance when there is a …
The enhanced interrogator
This article examines the historical narratives of one of the key psychologists who helped to develop and carry out the Enhanced Interrogation programme. The Enhanced Interrogation programme ran from the early to the mid-2000s. It used aggression to facilitate the acquisition of information from suspected terrorists. The programme was unique in its use of mental health professionals to design, implement and monitor its activities. The psychologis…
Value Rationality in Collective Edgework Experiences
Guns N′ Roses' Chinese Democracy was one of the most expensive albums ever made and took over a decade to create. The people who completed the Chinese Democracy project were almost entirely different from the people who started it. The album and the people who created it were viewed as strange and unusual by many audiences—as deviant—basically. This article argues that the making of Chinese Democracy can be viewed as a form of collective creative…
The Biological Horror of Capitalism
Karl Marx's masterpiece, Capital Vol . 1 , was published in 1867. In it, he outlines the structure and nature of capitalism, as he saw it in capitalism's early period. This Perspectives article briefly thematically analyses Capital Vol . 1 and argues that in its threat to human health and well‐being, Marx viewed capitalism as a system of horror, and more particularly, of what could be called cosmic biological horror. The article identifies the fo…
Abjection in Nirvana's In Utero
Collective-Level Edgework, Healing, and Destruction
Making it in medical sociology
This article gives an account of some of my experiences of working in the field of Medical Sociology in Ireland. It concentrates in particular on the time period of the Great Recession and Ireland's economic crash and what it was like to be a precarious researcher and lecturer around that time
Accounting for Enhanced Interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalized initiative that used serious violence, at the least approaching torture in its severity, to extract information from detainees during the War on Terror. The programme’s activities are now widely viewed as grave forms of institutionally deviant behavior and have been condemned as such, including by health professional groups. While a considerable amount of research has been conducted into the …
Edgework, institutions and enhanced interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalised interrogation programme that was designed by the United States in the wake of 9/11. It is now widely recognized that the Enhanced Interrogation programme engaged in some activities that were, at the least, tantamount to torture. The programme was designed by Psychologists and overseen by other professionals, including medical professionals. This article argues that the Enhanced Interrogation …
Violence and violations
Horror, Experimentation and Enhanced Interrogation
After 9/11 the United States launched a global War on Terror. As part of this War, U.S. psychologists, supported by doctors, designed an ‘Enhanced Interrogation’, or torture, programme to extract information from detainees in their custody. The Enhanced Interrogation programme caused huge international controversy, including for the various health professional groups who became bound up in it. Little research has been conducted on how nonprofessi…
Survival Strategies while Engaging in Deviant Behaviors
This article explores personal management of health related risk in the context of amateur waterboarding torture-in effect, how people manage to ‘survive’ while trying out militarised psychomedical torture tactics for recreational reasons. In particular it examines why ordinary people torture themselves; their understandings of the seriousness of the risks that they are taking; and the strategies that they used to manage risk and ensure survival.…
Idiots, Ideologues, and Just Plain Interested
This article examines 65 amateur waterboarding videos to investigate why ordinary people become involved in waterboarding. There appears to be several explanations for this involvement: thrill-seeking, ideology, and educational reasons. The article highlights waterboarding’s dangers, and its potentially transformational effects on individuals. Findings are situated in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on torture, and what is known about health p…
Standardizing psycho-medical torture during the War on Terror
Community Reactions to Young People Who Have Sexually Abused and Their Families
Data on 117 young sexual abusers were examined to investigate the nature of community responses to young people's abusive behaviour. A wide range of community responses were found, with stigmatisation, social isolation and collateral damage being common. A contagion effect was noted, with community responses extending over time and across contexts. Some young offenders and their families were attacked and forced out of their homes. In some cases,…
Family Responses to Young People Who have Sexually Abused
Data on 117 British young people who had sexually abused others were examined in order to investigate the nature and impact of family responses on the management of young sexual abusers. Parental responses were varied, ranging from being entirely supportive of the child, through to ambivalence and uncertainty and, at the other end of the continuum, to outright rejection. Parents were more likely to be supportive when their child's victims were ex…
Why do young adults with Type 1 diabetes find it difficult to manage diabetes in the workplace
Looking Back on the Long-Term Fostering and Adoption of Children with Harmful Sexual Behaviours
The experiences of carers of children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours have been the subject of little research to date. Consequently, and as part of a larger follow-up study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine adoptive or foster-carers who had had such children and young people placed with them during the 1990s. The looked after children were white and male and had come from troubled and often abusive backgrounds.…
Lost without a Trace? Social Networking and Social Research with a Hardto-Reach Population
This paper describes the methodological approaches and challenges associated with tracing and contacting former social welfare service users in the course of long-term outcome research. Historical case file data were analysed on 117 ‘hard to reach’ children and young people identified as having behavioural problems, including sexual behavioural problems. Various publicly available internet and social network resources were used to try and trace t…
Developmental markers of risk or vulnerability? Young females who sexually abuse – characteristics, backgrounds, behaviours and outcomes
This paper presents findings from a subsample of 24 young females aged 8–16 years who were referred to specialist services in E ngland during the 1990s because of their abusive sexual behaviours. The characteristics, backgrounds and behaviours of the sample are summarized and compared both with the males in the total population studied and with findings from the limited international literature on young female sexual abusers. Key findings include…
What Concerns do Young Adults in Ireland Have about Attending Health Services for STD Testing
Thirty Irish young adults (between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age) were interviewed about their experiences of accessing and attending healthcare settings for STD (sexually transmitted disease) testing. Four principle themes emerged: the risk of stigma as a result of seeking STD testing; the need to engage in impression management activities while accessing information about STD testing; the importance of using healthcare settings that sup…
Why don't young women go for Chlamydia testing? A qualitative study employing Goffman's stigma framework
Many women who might be at risk of having the sexually transmitted infection (STI) Chlamydia trachomatis either delay going, or do not go, for testing. We aimed to examine the factors that either prevent or discourage Irish young women from going for Chlamydia testing. We conducted in-depth interviews with 35 women in the Republic of Ireland who were between 18 and 29 years of age. Accounts were analysed using Goffman’s stigma framework. Study re…
Young women's decisions to accept chlamydia screening
If an effort is not put into reducing young women's stigma-related concerns the population coverage of Chlamydia screening might be reduced
Diets and discipline
Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions of adolescence and young adulthood. It is characterised by a demanding and complex management regime. Individuals with diabetes must engage in continual self-care actions such as eating healthily and exercising if they are to minimise their risks of developing long-term diabetes' complications. Research has demonstrated, however, that many young adults experience difficulties with exerc…
Incredible geographies? Orientalism and Genre Fantasy
Despite its immense popularity, the Fantasy genre has been largely ignored by academic geography. In this paper I give an overview of the genre, its politics and its geographies. I examine the ways in which several popular Fantasy texts negotiate and draw upon 'Orientalist' tropes. Fantasylands are often described as landscapes enabling characters and readers to flee the drudgery of the 'real' world and escape into inconceivable places populated …
Lost without a Trace? Social Networking and Social Research with a Hardto-Reach Population
This paper describes the methodological approaches and challenges associated with tracing and contacting former social welfare service users in the course of long-term outcome research. Historical case file data were analysed on 117 ‘hard to reach’ children and young people identified as having behavioural problems, including sexual behavioural problems. Various publicly available internet and social network resources were used to try and trace t…
Where do young Irish women want Chlamydia-screening services to be set up? A qualitative study employing Goffman's impression management framework
Technologies, diabetes and the student body
Why do young adults with Type 1 diabetes find it difficult to manage diabetes in the workplace
Survival Strategies while Engaging in Deviant Behaviors
This article explores personal management of health related risk in the context of amateur waterboarding torture-in effect, how people manage to ‘survive’ while trying out militarised psychomedical torture tactics for recreational reasons. In particular it examines why ordinary people torture themselves; their understandings of the seriousness of the risks that they are taking; and the strategies that they used to manage risk and ensure survival.…
Standardizing psycho-medical torture during the War on Terror
Disclosure of STI testing activities by young adults
Thirty young adults (between 18 and 29 years of age) who had sought STI testing were interviewed about their experiences of 'passing' during the STI testing process (keeping their testing practices a secret from other individuals), and also their experiences of disclosing to other individuals the fact that they had sought STI testing. Respondents kept their STI testing practices secret from others in order to preserve their identities as 'normal'…
Abjection in Nirvana's In Utero
Collective-Level Edgework, Healing, and Destruction
Accounting for Enhanced Interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalized initiative that used serious violence, at the least approaching torture in its severity, to extract information from detainees during the War on Terror. The programme’s activities are now widely viewed as grave forms of institutionally deviant behavior and have been condemned as such, including by health professional groups. While a considerable amount of research has been conducted into the …
Edgework, institutions and enhanced interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalised interrogation programme that was designed by the United States in the wake of 9/11. It is now widely recognized that the Enhanced Interrogation programme engaged in some activities that were, at the least, tantamount to torture. The programme was designed by Psychologists and overseen by other professionals, including medical professionals. This article argues that the Enhanced Interrogation …
Idiots, Ideologues, and Just Plain Interested
This article examines 65 amateur waterboarding videos to investigate why ordinary people become involved in waterboarding. There appears to be several explanations for this involvement: thrill-seeking, ideology, and educational reasons. The article highlights waterboarding’s dangers, and its potentially transformational effects on individuals. Findings are situated in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on torture, and what is known about health p…
Looking Back on the Long-Term Fostering and Adoption of Children with Harmful Sexual Behaviours
The experiences of carers of children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours have been the subject of little research to date. Consequently, and as part of a larger follow-up study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine adoptive or foster-carers who had had such children and young people placed with them during the 1990s. The looked after children were white and male and had come from troubled and often abusive backgrounds.…
What Concerns do Young Adults in Ireland Have about Attending Health Services for STD Testing
Thirty Irish young adults (between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age) were interviewed about their experiences of accessing and attending healthcare settings for STD (sexually transmitted disease) testing. Four principle themes emerged: the risk of stigma as a result of seeking STD testing; the need to engage in impression management activities while accessing information about STD testing; the importance of using healthcare settings that sup…
Incredible geographies? Orientalism and Genre Fantasy
Despite its immense popularity, the Fantasy genre has been largely ignored by academic geography. In this paper I give an overview of the genre, its politics and its geographies. I examine the ways in which several popular Fantasy texts negotiate and draw upon 'Orientalist' tropes. Fantasylands are often described as landscapes enabling characters and readers to flee the drudgery of the 'real' world and escape into inconceivable places populated …
Alcohol, diabetes and the student body
Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions of adolescence and young adulthood. It is characterized by a demanding and complex management regime. Individuals with diabetes must engage in continual self-care actions if they are to minimize their risks of developing long-term diabetes' complications. Research has demonstrated, however, that many young adults experience difficulties engaging in these types of practice, and indeed of…
Technologies, diabetes and the student body
Diets and discipline
Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic conditions of adolescence and young adulthood. It is characterised by a demanding and complex management regime. Individuals with diabetes must engage in continual self-care actions such as eating healthily and exercising if they are to minimise their risks of developing long-term diabetes' complications. Research has demonstrated, however, that many young adults experience difficulties with exerc…
What prompts young adults in Ireland to attend health services for STI testing
Sexual health promotion campaigns for young people should address the reasons why they delay testing, specifically through measures to avoid stigma (supply-side) and reassure young adults (demand-side). Strategies to increase testing-uptake should focus on these four key opportunities - young adults leaving relationships, those entering relationships where condoms will not be used, those who have had unprotected sex and those with STI-related sym…
The Body Projects of University Students with Type 1 Diabetes
Young adults with type 1 diabetes are a “forgotten group.” Their perspectives are rarely addressed by research studies, meaning that we know little about the reasons why they engage (or not) in diabetes self-care practices. The limited work that has investigated these young people's perspectives suggests that they experience a tension between being healthy and being normal. In this article, I examine this tension from the viewpoints of a particul…
Where do young Irish women want Chlamydia-screening services to be set up? A qualitative study employing Goffman's impression management framework
Why don't young women go for Chlamydia testing? A qualitative study employing Goffman's stigma framework
Many women who might be at risk of having the sexually transmitted infection (STI) Chlamydia trachomatis either delay going, or do not go, for testing. We aimed to examine the factors that either prevent or discourage Irish young women from going for Chlamydia testing. We conducted in-depth interviews with 35 women in the Republic of Ireland who were between 18 and 29 years of age. Accounts were analysed using Goffman’s stigma framework. Study re…
Young women's decisions to accept chlamydia screening
If an effort is not put into reducing young women's stigma-related concerns the population coverage of Chlamydia screening might be reduced
Disclosure of STI testing activities by young adults
Thirty young adults (between 18 and 29 years of age) who had sought STI testing were interviewed about their experiences of 'passing' during the STI testing process (keeping their testing practices a secret from other individuals), and also their experiences of disclosing to other individuals the fact that they had sought STI testing. Respondents kept their STI testing practices secret from others in order to preserve their identities as 'normal'…
What Concerns do Young Adults in Ireland Have about Attending Health Services for STD Testing
Thirty Irish young adults (between eighteen and twenty-nine years of age) were interviewed about their experiences of accessing and attending healthcare settings for STD (sexually transmitted disease) testing. Four principle themes emerged: the risk of stigma as a result of seeking STD testing; the need to engage in impression management activities while accessing information about STD testing; the importance of using healthcare settings that sup…
Developmental markers of risk or vulnerability? Young females who sexually abuse – characteristics, backgrounds, behaviours and outcomes
This paper presents findings from a subsample of 24 young females aged 8–16 years who were referred to specialist services in E ngland during the 1990s because of their abusive sexual behaviours. The characteristics, backgrounds and behaviours of the sample are summarized and compared both with the males in the total population studied and with findings from the limited international literature on young female sexual abusers. Key findings include…
Lost without a Trace? Social Networking and Social Research with a Hardto-Reach Population
This paper describes the methodological approaches and challenges associated with tracing and contacting former social welfare service users in the course of long-term outcome research. Historical case file data were analysed on 117 ‘hard to reach’ children and young people identified as having behavioural problems, including sexual behavioural problems. Various publicly available internet and social network resources were used to try and trace t…
Family Responses to Young People Who have Sexually Abused
Data on 117 British young people who had sexually abused others were examined in order to investigate the nature and impact of family responses on the management of young sexual abusers. Parental responses were varied, ranging from being entirely supportive of the child, through to ambivalence and uncertainty and, at the other end of the continuum, to outright rejection. Parents were more likely to be supportive when their child's victims were ex…
Why do young adults with Type 1 diabetes find it difficult to manage diabetes in the workplace
Looking Back on the Long-Term Fostering and Adoption of Children with Harmful Sexual Behaviours
The experiences of carers of children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours have been the subject of little research to date. Consequently, and as part of a larger follow-up study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine adoptive or foster-carers who had had such children and young people placed with them during the 1990s. The looked after children were white and male and had come from troubled and often abusive backgrounds.…
Community Reactions to Young People Who Have Sexually Abused and Their Families
Data on 117 young sexual abusers were examined to investigate the nature of community responses to young people's abusive behaviour. A wide range of community responses were found, with stigmatisation, social isolation and collateral damage being common. A contagion effect was noted, with community responses extending over time and across contexts. Some young offenders and their families were attacked and forced out of their homes. In some cases,…
Standardizing psycho-medical torture during the War on Terror
Idiots, Ideologues, and Just Plain Interested
This article examines 65 amateur waterboarding videos to investigate why ordinary people become involved in waterboarding. There appears to be several explanations for this involvement: thrill-seeking, ideology, and educational reasons. The article highlights waterboarding’s dangers, and its potentially transformational effects on individuals. Findings are situated in relation to Michel Foucault’s work on torture, and what is known about health p…
Survival Strategies while Engaging in Deviant Behaviors
This article explores personal management of health related risk in the context of amateur waterboarding torture-in effect, how people manage to ‘survive’ while trying out militarised psychomedical torture tactics for recreational reasons. In particular it examines why ordinary people torture themselves; their understandings of the seriousness of the risks that they are taking; and the strategies that they used to manage risk and ensure survival.…
Violence and violations
Horror, Experimentation and Enhanced Interrogation
After 9/11 the United States launched a global War on Terror. As part of this War, U.S. psychologists, supported by doctors, designed an ‘Enhanced Interrogation’, or torture, programme to extract information from detainees in their custody. The Enhanced Interrogation programme caused huge international controversy, including for the various health professional groups who became bound up in it. Little research has been conducted on how nonprofessi…
Edgework, institutions and enhanced interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalised interrogation programme that was designed by the United States in the wake of 9/11. It is now widely recognized that the Enhanced Interrogation programme engaged in some activities that were, at the least, tantamount to torture. The programme was designed by Psychologists and overseen by other professionals, including medical professionals. This article argues that the Enhanced Interrogation …
Accounting for Enhanced Interrogation
The Enhanced Interrogation programme was a medicalized initiative that used serious violence, at the least approaching torture in its severity, to extract information from detainees during the War on Terror. The programme’s activities are now widely viewed as grave forms of institutionally deviant behavior and have been condemned as such, including by health professional groups. While a considerable amount of research has been conducted into the …
Making it in medical sociology
This article gives an account of some of my experiences of working in the field of Medical Sociology in Ireland. It concentrates in particular on the time period of the Great Recession and Ireland's economic crash and what it was like to be a precarious researcher and lecturer around that time
Psychology (22 works) · Medicine (18 works) · Political science (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Gerontology (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Population (7 works)