Amanda Coffey
Biographic Data
| ID | 113097 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amanda Coffey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amanda |
| FAMILY NAME | Coffey |
| SIGNATURE | COFFEY A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cardiff University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8930-0461 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 54 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 658 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 54 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Renaming in Adoption: Exploring Name Ambivalence in Adoptive Parents' Name Stories
Names are central to identity, yet their role in adoption, where identity and family dynamics are complex, remains under‐researched. This article draws on findings from a qualitative study of names and adoption in England and Wales to examine adoptive parents' decisions about the first names of their children. Despite policy, which advocates the retention of a child's birth name, we found that half of the adopter participants' children had had th…
I was once another person with a different name: Adult adoptees’ experiences of first name changes
This article draws on findings from a study of names and adoption to discuss first name changes from the perspective of adult adoptees. We discuss how birth first names can be seen as a lost identity or ‘a life not lived’ by adoptees and how the separation between ‘birth’ and ‘adoptive’ first names can lead to confusion, with some adoptees asking, ‘Who actually am I?’ We outline how adoptees attempt to bring into their lives their birth and adopt…
The research politics of (re)naming participants: A sociology of names perspective
In this article we argue that theoretical and empirical insights from the sociology of people's names can enrich qualitative researchers' decision-making about, and descriptions of, their practices of (re)naming participants as well as inform methodological debates about these practices. We review the research politics of participants' names and outline how issues of anonymisation and pseudonymisation can be thought through using sociological the…
Surnames in Adoption: (Re)creating Identities of Belonging
Names are increasingly recognised in sociology as important routes for understanding family relationships, as well as familial and individual identities. In this article, we use qualitative ‘name story’ data to examine the meanings of surnames for adults who were adopted as a child and for adults who have adopted a child. Our findings suggest that adult adoptees and adopters can feel differently about surnames and how these connect them—or otherw…
The motivations and decision-making processes of parents who adopt older children
This article explores the motivations and decision-making processes of parents who adopt older children from the UK care system. It draws on interview data from parents from 14 adoptive families to consider what influenced their decision to adopt an older child. Data were analysed thematically, and the analysis was theoretically informed by the concept of adoption as a ‘marketplace’. The study shows how prospective adoptive parents can be influen…
Names in adoption law and policy: Representations of Family, Rights and Identities
Names have heightened importance in adoption, affecting the identities of individuals who are adopted and adoptive family making. In this article, we use critical discourse analysis to gauge how names, and especially children’s forenames, are addressed in the specificities of legal and policy texts governing and guiding the milieu of people affected by adoption in England. We argue that the inclusions, omissions and opacity of content on names we…
Names and naming in adoption: Birth heritage and family‐making
In this article, we consider the significance and practices of names and naming in adoption to develop understanding of the issue amongst scholars, policymakers, adoption practitioners, and adoption communities. Research on the topic of names and adoption is scarce and focused mostly on international and domestic adoptions in the United States. We draw on the research literature to critically explore names and naming in adoption through two recur…
Introduction: The foundations of ethnography
Sex in the field: Intimacy and intimidation
This chapter focuses on aspects of sexual activity, experiences and desires in ethnographic fieldwork. It explores how ‘sex in the field’ can aid the quest for a better understanding of the emotional and personal dimensions of fieldwork. Sex(ual) settings have been reanalysed in terms of their interactional process and personal-structural contexts shifting the focus away from the sexual and the erotic. The actual or perceived sexual status of the…
Gender and Qualitative Research (1996)
Masculinity in prison, Keith Carter coping with pit closure in the 1990s - women's perspectives, Bella Dicks from honorary chap to mother - combining work in the professions with motherhood, Janet Stephens childish things - men, ageing and violence, Julie Owen chance to choice - two generations of reproductive decision making, Evelyn P. Parsons in the company of other women - a case study of menopause support groups, Trish Harding focus groups, y…
Doing Ethnography
The support needs and experiences of newly formed adoptive families: Findings from the Wales Adoption Study
This article reports on findings from the Wales Adoption Study which used a sequential, mixed-method design to explore the early support needs and experiences of newly formed adoptive families. Ninety-six adoptive parents completed a questionnaire four months post-placement and a sub-sample of 40 parents was interviewed in-depth five months thereafter. The main support needs of the families fell within five key domains: promoting children's healt…
Sara Delamont: A Festschrift Editorial introduction
The Influence of Adoption on Sibling Relationships: Experiences and Support Needs of Newly Formed Adoptive Families
For better or worse, the significance of the sibling relationship throughout the life course is widely acknowledged. This paper explores the ways in which sibling relationships, in their various forms, are affected by adoption. The case-file records of 374 children recently placed for adoption in Wales were reviewed. Questionnaires were completed by ninety-six adoptive parents, with whom a sample of these children were placed, and a sub-sample of…
Working with fathers of at-risk children: Insights from a qualitative process evaluation of an intensive group-based intervention
This article is based on qualitative research with fathers who attended Mellow Dads, an intensive ‘dads only’ group-based intervention underpinned by attachment theory for fathers of at-risk children. Specifically the article draws on data from a process evaluation of the programme in order to explore the challenges of engaging men in effective family work. The methods used to undertake the process evaluation included participant observation of o…
Analysing Documents
Editors' report
Ethical Regulation and Visual Methods: Making Visual Research Impossible or Developing Good Practice
The ethical regulation of social research in the UK has been steadily increasing over the last decade or so and comprises a form of audit to which all researchers in Higher Education are subject. Concerns have been raised by social researchers using visual methods that such ethical scrutiny and regulation will place severe limitations on visual research developments and practice. This paper draws on a qualitative study of social researchers using…
Researching Young People
Anonymisation and visual images: Issues of respect, ‘voice’ and protection
A central ethical issue confronting researchers using visual methods is how to manage the use of identifiable images. Photographic and other visual materials can make the anonymisation of individuals problematic; at the same time many researchers, as well as research participants, view image manipulation as undesirable. Anonymisation is one of a range of ethical concerns that need consideration in relation to the use of identifiable images. Other…
Methodological development and enhancing research capacity
by Keith Punch, London, Sage, 2009, 380 pp., £22.99 (paperback), £65.00 (hardback), ISBN 9‐78‐184787‐018‐6 (paperback), ISBN 9‐78‐184787‐017‐9 (hardback) by David Silverman, London, Sage, 3rd ed
The sociology of disability and education
Steps and stages: Rethinking transitions in youth and place
This article is concerned with the interplay of young people's biographies and transforming landscapes in south-east Wales. In particular the article focuses on a South Wales Valleys town, Ebbw Vale, to explore how changes to a place can be understood in relation to, and alongside youth transitions. The article reports on the ways in which narratives of the transformation, redevelopment and regeneration of place sit alongside the biographical tra…
Sound and the Everyday in Qualitative Research
In this article, a constitutive aspect of the everyday world is attended to, which is too often absent or suppressed in social scientific accounts of social life: noise. A question is raised as to how social science has addressed the question of noise, through a reconsideration of sound and the everyday. Conventional "good practice" for the organization and conduct of research interviews is compared with alternative approaches more open to the sp…
Learning Selves And Citizenship: Gender And Youth Transitions
Discourses of citizenship have increasingly featured in social policies aimed at young people, particularly in relation to the promotion and crafting of 'active citizens'. The inclusion of citizenship education in school curricula, the Learning and Skills development agency post-16 citizenship development programme, and the recent Green Paper Youth Matters, all speak of instilling in young people the rights and responsibilities that come with cit…
Handbook of Ethnography
Introduction to Part One The Chicago School of Ethnography - Mary Jo Deegan Symbolic Interactionism and Ethnography - Paul Rock Currents of Cultural Fieldwork - James D Faubion British Social Anthropology - Sharon Macdonald Into the Community - Lodewijk Brunt Mass-Observation's Fieldwork Methods - Liz Stanley Orientalism - Julie Marcus Ethnomethodology and Ethnography - Melvin Pollner and Robert M Emerson Phenomenology and Ethnography - Ilja Maso…
Qualitative Data Analysis: Technologies and Representations
In this paper we address a number of contemporary themes concerning the analysis of qualitative data and the ethnographic representation of social realities. A contrast is drawn. On the one hand, a diversity of representational modes and devices is currently celebrated, in response to various critiques of conventional ethnographic representation. On the other hand, the widespread influence of computer- assisted qualitative data analysis is promot…
Multimodal ethnography
Ethnographers, like other researchers, currently have a broad range of media at their disposal for conducting fieldwork, for aiding analysis and, most challengingly, for representing their completed work. These include digital media such as photographs, video film, audio-recordings, graphics and others besides. Through the computer 'writing space', these media can be integrated together, alongside more conventional written interpretation, into hy…
Sound and the Everyday in Qualitative Research
In this article, a constitutive aspect of the everyday world is attended to, which is too often absent or suppressed in social scientific accounts of social life: noise. A question is raised as to how social science has addressed the question of noise, through a reconsideration of sound and the everyday. Conventional "good practice" for the organization and conduct of research interviews is compared with alternative approaches more open to the sp…
Self, Space and Place: Youth identities and citizenship
This paper is concerned with questions of identity, citizenship and social change as these are experienced by young people in the UK today. In the course of recent changes to the context and content of youth transitions the notion of citizenship has come to the fore as a means of discussing young people's move into independent membership of society. Debates about citizenship in the UK currently encompass a range of complex themes - competency, re…
Anonymisation and visual images: Issues of respect, ‘voice’ and protection
A central ethical issue confronting researchers using visual methods is how to manage the use of identifiable images. Photographic and other visual materials can make the anonymisation of individuals problematic; at the same time many researchers, as well as research participants, view image manipulation as undesirable. Anonymisation is one of a range of ethical concerns that need consideration in relation to the use of identifiable images. Other…
Ethical Regulation and Visual Methods: Making Visual Research Impossible or Developing Good Practice
The ethical regulation of social research in the UK has been steadily increasing over the last decade or so and comprises a form of audit to which all researchers in Higher Education are subject. Concerns have been raised by social researchers using visual methods that such ethical scrutiny and regulation will place severe limitations on visual research developments and practice. This paper draws on a qualitative study of social researchers using…
Timing is Everything'; Graduate Accountants, Time and Organizational Commitment
Studies have revealed that organizational commitment is often managed through symbolism. This paper focuses upon how time is used in an organizational context, symbolically and pragmatically, to demonstrate and demand commitment by new members. The paper draws upon data collected as part of a qualitative project on the occupational and organizational socialization of graduate accountants. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in a regional offic…
Steps and stages: Rethinking transitions in youth and place
This article is concerned with the interplay of young people's biographies and transforming landscapes in south-east Wales. In particular the article focuses on a South Wales Valleys town, Ebbw Vale, to explore how changes to a place can be understood in relation to, and alongside youth transitions. The article reports on the ways in which narratives of the transformation, redevelopment and regeneration of place sit alongside the biographical tra…
The power of accounts: Authority and Authorship in Ethnography
This paper focuses on the production of ethnographic texts. It explores how claims to authority and authenticity are contested within the ethnographic enterprise and help to shape the finished written product. The paper draws upon fieldwork in an elite occupational setting and argues that in such settings the crafting of ethnographic texts may be particularly problematic. The paper explores the parallels between ethnographic writing and fiction a…
Young People, Citizenship and the Third Way: A Role for the Youth Service
Citizenship is best understood as signifying a field of struggle: an arena in which relations linking individuals to their wider community, social and political contexts are continually discussed, reworked and contested. This paper explores the current preoccupation with citizenship in Britain, and relates this specifically to the challenges this presents for the youth service. The idea of active citizenship, first promulgated by the Conservative…
The twilight years? Educational ethnography and the five moments model
The growth and variety of qualitative research in education is used as a test case to challenge the narrative of ethnography proposed by Denzin and Lincoln. Their characterization of qualitative methods in terms of five (subsequently six) ''moments'' is not reflected in research on education. Ironically, their model is shown to be a modernist narrative that does not do justice do the diversity of qualitative research in the past. It is suggested …
Conceptualizing citizenship: Young people and the transition to adulthood
This paper examines the relationship between citizenship and young peoples’ social identities. The concept of social citizenship is explored in the context of contemporary debates about the transition to adult status. In the light of recent calls for an education for citizenship, at both compulsory and post‐compulsory levels, the paper makes a timely contribution to the ongoing discussion of what constitutes social citizenship, by whom and to wha…
Girlies on the Warpath’: Addressing gender in initial teacher education
Gender issues in education are not simply a woman's problem. They constitute a more general problem of theorising about the nature and processes of education. Where studies advocate the eradication of inequality via education it is most often teachers who are seen as the crucial agents of change. Despite this recognition, surprisingly little attention has been paid to preparing teachers for taking on such a task. This paper considers, firstly, ho…
Hypermedia ethnography in educational settings: Possibilities and challenges
This paper considers some of the methodological implications of undertaking and representing multimedia and digital, ethnographic work. It explores some of the challenges and opportunities of working with and across a range of media, and explores some of the consequences of bringing hypermedia applications to ethnographic work. The paper draws on a project that sought to explore the learning opportunities and experiences of an interactive science…
Names and naming in adoption: Birth heritage and family‐making
In this article, we consider the significance and practices of names and naming in adoption to develop understanding of the issue amongst scholars, policymakers, adoption practitioners, and adoption communities. Research on the topic of names and adoption is scarce and focused mostly on international and domestic adoptions in the United States. We draw on the research literature to critically explore names and naming in adoption through two recur…
Ethnography: Post, Past, and Present
A debate about our canon
Daps, Dykes and Five Mile Hikes: Physical Education in Pupils' Folklore
This paper explores the relationship between the school and the body. It does so by considering the transfer from primary to secondary school. Analysing children's and young adult's stories about transfer reveals that physical education (PE), and more generally the body, are central to pupils’ anticipations and anxieties about the move to secondary school. The paper argues that the fears pupils express about the dangers associated with secondary …
The support needs and experiences of newly formed adoptive families: Findings from the Wales Adoption Study
This article reports on findings from the Wales Adoption Study which used a sequential, mixed-method design to explore the early support needs and experiences of newly formed adoptive families. Ninety-six adoptive parents completed a questionnaire four months post-placement and a sub-sample of 40 parents was interviewed in-depth five months thereafter. The main support needs of the families fell within five key domains: promoting children's healt…
The Influence of Adoption on Sibling Relationships: Experiences and Support Needs of Newly Formed Adoptive Families
For better or worse, the significance of the sibling relationship throughout the life course is widely acknowledged. This paper explores the ways in which sibling relationships, in their various forms, are affected by adoption. The case-file records of 374 children recently placed for adoption in Wales were reviewed. Questionnaires were completed by ninety-six adoptive parents, with whom a sample of these children were placed, and a sub-sample of…
Learning Selves And Citizenship: Gender And Youth Transitions
Discourses of citizenship have increasingly featured in social policies aimed at young people, particularly in relation to the promotion and crafting of 'active citizens'. The inclusion of citizenship education in school curricula, the Learning and Skills development agency post-16 citizenship development programme, and the recent Green Paper Youth Matters, all speak of instilling in young people the rights and responsibilities that come with cit…
The Handbook of Ethnography
Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland (eds.), The Handbook of Ethnography, London: Sage, 2002, xviii + 507 pages.Rather surprisingly The Handbook of Ethnography, edited by three British and two American sociologists, arrives hot on heels of another sociological Handbook devoted to ethnography. This earlier one edited by Norman and Yvonna Lincoln is in its second edition (1994, 2000) and in preparation stages fo…
Access, Ethics and the (Re)construction of Gender: The Case of Researcher as Suspected ‘Paedophile’
This paper presents an account of an access encounter, and uses this case to reinforce the potential for access meetings to provide a rich source of ethnographic data. The paper originates from one of the authors' experience of negotiating research access in a UK local authority social services department. In response to a summary research proposal sent in advance that expressed interest in social work with men, a gatekeeper expressed his concern…
Names in adoption law and policy: Representations of Family, Rights and Identities
Names have heightened importance in adoption, affecting the identities of individuals who are adopted and adoptive family making. In this article, we use critical discourse analysis to gauge how names, and especially children’s forenames, are addressed in the specificities of legal and policy texts governing and guiding the milieu of people affected by adoption in England. We argue that the inclusions, omissions and opacity of content on names we…
Girlies on the Warpath’: Addressing gender in initial teacher education
Gender issues in education are not simply a woman's problem. They constitute a more general problem of theorising about the nature and processes of education. Where studies advocate the eradication of inequality via education it is most often teachers who are seen as the crucial agents of change. Despite this recognition, surprisingly little attention has been paid to preparing teachers for taking on such a task. This paper considers, firstly, ho…
Initial teacher education: The rhetoric of equal opportunities
The Equal Opportunities Commission report on initial teacher training in England and Wales (EOC 1989) illustrated that equal opportunities, and specifically gender, occupy only a marginal place on initial teacher education courses. This raises the question of what part recent educational policy plays, or fails to play, in the promotion of equal opportunities and antisexism in the teacher training arena. This paper documents some of the recent pol…
Timing is Everything'; Graduate Accountants, Time and Organizational Commitment
Studies have revealed that organizational commitment is often managed through symbolism. This paper focuses upon how time is used in an organizational context, symbolically and pragmatically, to demonstrate and demand commitment by new members. The paper draws upon data collected as part of a qualitative project on the occupational and organizational socialization of graduate accountants. Ethnographic fieldwork was carried out in a regional offic…
Making sense of qualitative data: Complementary Research Strategies
Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1997, Vol 42(7), 650-650. In Making Sense of Qualitative Data: Complementary Research Strategies (see record 1996-98161-000), Coffey and Atkinson present general strategies and philosophies for collecting and utilizing qualitative
Daps, Dykes and Five Mile Hikes: Physical Education in Pupils' Folklore
This paper explores the relationship between the school and the body. It does so by considering the transfer from primary to secondary school. Analysing children's and young adult's stories about transfer reveals that physical education (PE), and more generally the body, are central to pupils’ anticipations and anxieties about the move to secondary school. The paper argues that the fears pupils express about the dangers associated with secondary …
The power of accounts: Authority and Authorship in Ethnography
This paper focuses on the production of ethnographic texts. It explores how claims to authority and authenticity are contested within the ethnographic enterprise and help to shape the finished written product. The paper draws upon fieldwork in an elite occupational setting and argues that in such settings the crafting of ethnographic texts may be particularly problematic. The paper explores the parallels between ethnographic writing and fiction a…
Qualitative Data Analysis: Technologies and Representations
In this paper we address a number of contemporary themes concerning the analysis of qualitative data and the ethnographic representation of social realities. A contrast is drawn. On the one hand, a diversity of representational modes and devices is currently celebrated, in response to various critiques of conventional ethnographic representation. On the other hand, the widespread influence of computer- assisted qualitative data analysis is promot…
Conceptualizing citizenship: Young people and the transition to adulthood
This paper examines the relationship between citizenship and young peoples’ social identities. The concept of social citizenship is explored in the context of contemporary debates about the transition to adult status. In the light of recent calls for an education for citizenship, at both compulsory and post‐compulsory levels, the paper makes a timely contribution to the ongoing discussion of what constitutes social citizenship, by whom and to wha…
The Ethnographic Self
Self, Space and Place: Youth identities and citizenship
This paper is concerned with questions of identity, citizenship and social change as these are experienced by young people in the UK today. In the course of recent changes to the context and content of youth transitions the notion of citizenship has come to the fore as a means of discussing young people's move into independent membership of society. Debates about citizenship in the UK currently encompass a range of complex themes - competency, re…
Ethnography: Post, Past, and Present
Young People, Citizenship and the Third Way: A Role for the Youth Service
Citizenship is best understood as signifying a field of struggle: an arena in which relations linking individuals to their wider community, social and political contexts are continually discussed, reworked and contested. This paper explores the current preoccupation with citizenship in Britain, and relates this specifically to the challenges this presents for the youth service. The idea of active citizenship, first promulgated by the Conservative…
The twilight years? Educational ethnography and the five moments model
The growth and variety of qualitative research in education is used as a test case to challenge the narrative of ethnography proposed by Denzin and Lincoln. Their characterization of qualitative methods in terms of five (subsequently six) ''moments'' is not reflected in research on education. Ironically, their model is shown to be a modernist narrative that does not do justice do the diversity of qualitative research in the past. It is suggested …
Revisiting the Relationship Between Participant Observation and Interviewing
Handbook of Ethnography
Introduction to Part One The Chicago School of Ethnography - Mary Jo Deegan Symbolic Interactionism and Ethnography - Paul Rock Currents of Cultural Fieldwork - James D Faubion British Social Anthropology - Sharon Macdonald Into the Community - Lodewijk Brunt Mass-Observation's Fieldwork Methods - Liz Stanley Orientalism - Julie Marcus Ethnomethodology and Ethnography - Melvin Pollner and Robert M Emerson Phenomenology and Ethnography - Ilja Maso…
A debate about our canon
The Self We Live by: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World
INTRODUCTION 1. Restorying the Self PART I: ENVISIONING A SOCIAL SELF 2. Formulating a Social Self 3. The Dark Side 4. Two Options for the Postmodern Self 5. Ending the Story in Interpretive Practice PART II: THE EVERYDAY TECHNOLOGY OF SELF CONSTRUCTION 6. Narrating the Self 7. Producing Self in Talk and Interaction 8. Conditions of Self Construction 9. Material Mediations CONCLUSION 10. The Moral Climate of the Self We Live By
Revisiting the Relationship Between Participant Observation and Interviewing
Revisiting the Relationship Between Participant Observation and Interviewing
Queering the Interview
Key Themes in Qualitative Research: Continuities and Changes
Key Themes in Qualitative Researchis an attempt by three well-respected ethnographic researchers to present a balanced view of qualitative methodology and research. The book is structured around classic texts, written by methodological pioneers, which comprise the basic foundation of modern qualitative research. The authors examine key premises in these texts, such as intimacy, advocacy, and validity, and how they may be supported, redesigned, or…
The Handbook of Ethnography
Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland (eds.), The Handbook of Ethnography, London: Sage, 2002, xviii + 507 pages.Rather surprisingly The Handbook of Ethnography, edited by three British and two American sociologists, arrives hot on heels of another sociological Handbook devoted to ethnography. This earlier one edited by Norman and Yvonna Lincoln is in its second edition (1994, 2000) and in preparation stages fo…
Sociological Perspectives on Social Policy
Qualitative Research and Hypermedia: Ethnography for the Digital Age
Digital culture and digital technologies have rapidly become unavoidable and essential forms of social experience and communication in our emerging globalised society. If we want to attempt to analyse and understand our technology-saturated society, and all its new media, then we must also develop research methods and forms of analysis that can accommodate and exploit digital culture and digital technologies. This important new methods text sets …
Troubling identities: Reflections on Judith Butler’s philosophy for the sociology of education
Sociology (41 works) · Psychology (21 works) · Political science (19 works) · Social science (17 works) · Anthropology (16 works) · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Ethnography (12 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Gender Studies (10 works)