J Brannen
Biographic Data
| ID | 13160 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Brannen |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Brannen |
| SIGNATURE | BRANNEN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8188-1038 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 804 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
A Woman’s Experience of a Physical Education College 1929–1932: Personal Diaries in Biographical Context
Making sense of what families leave behind: A middle-class schoolgirl’s diaries in 1920s London
The article is based on original, contemporaneous data in the form of personal diaries from the perspective of a middle-class secondary schoolgirl living in North London in the 1920s. It first considers the use of personal diaries in social science. The article’s particular contribution is to demonstrate the value of diaries to understanding everyday social practices in relation to family life, school and friends and to make sense of them through…
Growing up in place: Two middle-class London girlhoods in the 1920s and late 1940s/1950s
Experiences of food poverty among undocumented parents with children in three European countries: A multi-level research strategy
A growing literature addresses undocumented migrants in different countries, with governmental exclusion from welfare and health services a common theme. However, little is known comparatively about the difference social context makes to the resources available to these migrants in different circumstances or how they manage and experience material deprivation and social exclusion. Adopting a realist approach, this paper draws on a comparative stu…
Thinking about the Future: Young People in Low-Income Families
This paper examines the orientations to the future of young people living in low-income families in the U.K. and Portugal following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the contexts in which they are socially reproduced. It is based on data from comparative research on families and food poverty, funded by the European Research Council. The study focused on parents and young people aged 11–16 living in low-income families in three European countri…
School meals as a resource for low-income families in three European countries: A comparative case approach
In the context of successive global crises and rising household food insecurity in wealthy European countries there is renewed attention to the role of school meals as a welfare intervention. However, little is known about the extent to which school meals are a resource for low-income families living in different contexts. Drawing on a mixed methods study of food in low-income families in three European countries, this paper adopts a realist onto…
Transitions to Adulthood of ‘At Risk’ Young Men: New Analysis from Two Norwegian Qualitative Longitudinal Studies
This paper focuses on two cohorts of Norwegian young men whose behaviour in childhood and adolescence caused serious concern to their parents, teachers, social workers and, in some cases, the police, Despite having been identified as ‘at risk’, they made transitions to positive adult masculine identities in two different historical contexts; the 1980s and 2000s. The paper analyses the difference that historical context makes to these young men’s …
Social Research Matters: A Life in Family Sociology
Family change, intergenerational relations and policy implications
Since the 1990s, international social science research has made a major contribution to the evidence base on changing family forms and household structures by collecting and processing data about family composition, dissolution and reconstitution, as well as household living, working and caring arrangements. Social scientists have exploited the available data to analyse the social, economic and financial impacts of family change on relations betw…
The study of childhood: Thoughts from a family life researcher
These reflections are based on my role as a family sociologist for over 40 years whose work has consistently included children in its gaze and has embraced families as wider social networks and intergenerational relations. It discusses the rise of childhood studies as a distinctive field and how it engages, and needs to engage, with other social domains and fields of research
Eating with Friends, Family or Not at All: Young People's Experiences of Food Poverty in the UK
The paper draws on findings from a study called ‘Families and Food in Hard Times’, which is examining food poverty among children and families in three European countries. In the UK , qualitative interviews were carried out with 45 11–15 year olds and their parents or carers. Young people's narratives reveal food poverty as a multi‐dimensional experience, including hunger, poor quality food and social exclusion. Analysis suggests a limited degree…
How do children and their families experience food poverty according to UK newspaper media 2006–15
This paper contributes to scholarship concerned with media representations of poverty by exploring newspaper coverage of food poverty as experienced by UK children and families. Our content analysis of six contrasting print newspapers from 2006–15 finds that reporting of children's and families’ food poverty begins in 2011, peaks in 2014 and is dominated by articles about foodbanks. Narrative analysis identifies differences as well as similaritie…
In Memoriam: Alan Bryman
Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach
Not enough is known in the UK about how economic phenomena and policy changes have impacted families’ ability to feed themselves. This article employs a novel way of identifying the types of UK families at risk of food poverty over time. Applying a relative deprivation approach, it asks what counts in the UK as a socially acceptable diet that meets needs for health and social participation and how much this costs. Comparing this to actual food ex…
Narratives of fathering young children in Britain: Linking Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses
This is the final version of the article. Available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record
A collaborator par excellence: Reflections upon Sue Lewis’ contribution to cross-national research in the work-family field
This paper will discuss the development of work-family research in the UK and cross-nationally, and the critical contribution of Suzan Lewis to this field. The first part of the paper focusses on the ways in which, in the context of the growth of dual earner lifestyles in Britain, Suzan's work made a key contribution. A central part of this story is also the collaborative role that Sue played both through initiating projects across universities i…
Narratives of success among Irish and African Caribbean migrants
This paper compares the narratives of two men in midlife who migrated to the UK from Ireland and from the Caribbean as children, in the middle of the last century. We examine how success is narrated over the life course to show how migrants' positioning of themselves differs from the ways in which they are positioned by outsiders, including in policy and public discourse. We conclude that while outsider narratives often polarise success and failu…
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 narrati…
Exploration of masculinities in academic organisations: A tentative typology using career and relationship commitment
In the Irish context and internationally a good deal of attention has been paid to the performance of masculinity among school students. However with a small number of notable exceptions, relatively little attention has been paid to masculinities in academic organisations. Drawing on a qualitative study in one university, this article proposes a tentative typology of masculinities in such an organisation. This typology involves two axes: career c…
From the concept of generation to an intergenerational lens on family lives
This piece discusses the concept of ‘generation’ and its several meanings. While it argues that generation is an important concept for putting lives in historical context, it needs to take account of social differences within and between generations. Looking at family generations, such differences become evident together with the processes through which they come about, especially when understood in their historical context. Some of the methodolo…
Children's food, power and control: Negotiations in families with younger children in England
This article focuses on children's food in families and the power relations in which it is embedded. Drawing on paired interviews with parents and younger children in a qualitative sample ( N = 47), and taking a case approach, the article analyses ways in which power and control are negotiated in parent-child relationships in relation to food. Types and extent of control over children's eating are described, and the importance of resources and pa…
An Intergenerational Approach to Transitions to Adulthood: The Importance of History and Biography
In this paper we discuss the importance of taking an historical, intergenerational approach in sociological research. Lives need to be understood in the contexts of particular times and places. The backcloth to our discussion is the contemporary disruption of many young people's life course transitions from education to work in Europe, particularly in the Mediterranean countries but also among some young people in the UK, the main focus of the pa…
The temporality of food practices: Intergenerational relations, childhood memories and mothers’ food practices in working families with young children
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study of 48 families with young children (aged 1.5–10 years), which investigated the influence of employment on children’s diets, this article focuses on the place of childhood memories and intergenerational relations in the transmission of family food practices. The article highlights the temporal nature of family food practices. First, it examines the intergenerational transmission of food practices in r…
Researching family practices in everyday life: Methodological reflections from two studies
The study of the everyday is recognised as central to the understanding of identities, agency and social life. Yet, attempts to research everyday life often fail to capture the complexity of the mundane. This paper draws on findings from two studies: fatherhood across three generations and adult narratives of childhood language brokering to illuminate that complexity. The purpose of bringing these studies together is methodological; in particular…
Fatherhood and Transmission in the Context of Migration: An Irish and a Polish Case
The article compares men's biographies and fatherhood across two generations among the Irish and the Polish, who represent different waves of migration to Britain, focusing on two chains of fathers and sons. It examines different aspects of transmission between fathers and sons and, in the context of migration, the part that generational experience played in how men identify (or not) with their own fathers and repeated or changed their fatherhood…
Individualisation, Choice and Structure: A Discussion of Current Trends in Sociological Analysis
In this paper we seek to explore a tendency in current sociological thought to highlight notions of choice and autonomy in writings about contemporary Western societies. We wish to draw attention to some of the consequences of leaving out discussions of the structural aspects of societies and people's lives, for individuals as well as for the development and application of sociological theory and its ability to understand the connection between h…
Young People's Time Perspectives: From Youth to Adulthood
The article examines three bodies of theory: individualization, the lifecourse, and concepts of time. It interrogates these theories with respect to the following questions: how young people speak about the future; and the bearing of young people's situations and time perspectives upon the way they envisage the transition to adulthood. It draws upon empirical research from a five-country European study, in particular material from focus group dis…
Time and the Negotiation of Work-Family Boundaries: Autonomy or illusion
The article reproblematizes time in relation to the concept of the 'extended present' by drawing upon empirical material from a methodological study of work-family boundaries, the article examines the effects of workplace change in a call centre on employees' negotiation of these boundaries. Through detailed analysis of one of the cases discussed it shows how a female employee and her partner blur the boundaries between work and family life and h…
Mixing Methods: The Entry of Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches into the Research Process
Qualitative and quantitative research are often presented as two fundamentally different paradigms through which we study the social world. These paradigms act as lightning conductors to which sets of epistemological assumptions, theoretical approaches and methods are attracted. Each is seen to be incompatible with the other. These paradigmatic claims have a tendency to resurface from time to time, manifesting themselves in the effects of differe…
Feminist Fallacies: A Reply to Hakim on Women's Employment
Les AA. s'efforcent de repondre aux affirmations de C. Hakim selon lesquelles la sociologie feministe en repliquant aux analyses patriarcales a cree de nouveaux mythes concernant l'emploi des femmes et s'est ecartee de l'evidence. Ils estiment que ces theses sont provocantes. Ils presentent une refutation de chacune d'entre elles. Ils affirment que Hakim a mesinterprete les donnees concernant les attitudes des femmes envers le travail et montrent…
From Fatherhood to Fathering: Transmission and Change among British Fathers in Four-generation Families
Drawing upon biographical-narrative research involving case studies of British families in which four generations were alive at the same time, the article examines change and continuity among fathers and sons, focusing in detail upon one family.The article examines the scheduling of fatherhood in the life course of three generations; the ways in which they talked about 'fathering' and fatherhood when their children were young; and the transmissio…
Families, meals and synchronicity: Eating together in British dual earner families
Based on a sample of British dual earner families with young children drawn from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the paper examines their food practices, in particular the conditions under which families are able to eat together or not during the working week. The concept of synchronicity is drawn upon to shed light on whether meals and meal times are coordinated in family life and the facilitators and constraints upon coordination. The p…
The Study of Sensitive Subjects
This note examines some research issues raised by studies of sensitive topics and the disclosure of highly personal and confidential information. The first part focuses on the research method of in-depth interviewing and covers some theoretical and methodological problems associated with the method, together with a discussion of some strategies adopted by researchers and respondents in the interview setting. The second part discusses some of the …
Life Story Talk: Some Reflections on Narrative in Qualitative Interviews
The paper draws on the author's interview experiences and interrogates the conditions in which research interviews generate narratives and storytelling; interviews that do not invite storytelling and interviews where people were asked to give a life story. First, the paper considers the question as to what provokes storytelling. It suggests that people engage with the narrative mode to some extent under the conditions of their own choosing. Secon…
The polarisation and intensification of parental employment in britain: Consequences for children, families and the community
On the basis of an analysis of UK parental employment between 1984 and 1994, using data from the Labour Force Survey, the authors identify three important trends: increasing integration of women with children, particularly with young children, into the labour market; increasing differentiation in mothers' employment opportunities and growing polarisation in household employment patterns; and an intensification of paid work amongst employed parent…
Researching family practices in everyday life: Methodological reflections from two studies
The study of the everyday is recognised as central to the understanding of identities, agency and social life. Yet, attempts to research everyday life often fail to capture the complexity of the mundane. This paper draws on findings from two studies: fatherhood across three generations and adult narratives of childhood language brokering to illuminate that complexity. The purpose of bringing these studies together is methodological; in particular…
Comparative Biographies in Case-based Cross-national Research: Methodological Considerations
This article examines some methodological issues relating to an embedded case study design adopted in a comparative cross-national study of working parents covering three levels of social context: the macro level; the workplace level; and the individual level. It addresses issues of generalizability, in particular the importance of criteria for the selection of cases in the research design and analysis phases. To illustrate the benefits of the de…
Childhood and the Sociological Gaze: Paradigms and Paradoxes
Cultures of Intergenerational Transmission in Four-Generation Families
Intergenerational transfers in families are increasingly a topic of interest in the context of reductions in the welfare state and increased longevity. This paper draws upon data from a study of four-generation families which afforded an opportunity to examine the transfer of material and care resources across family generations. It explores ways in which family members from different generations talked about family obligations and the relevance …
Young Europeans' Orientations to Families and Work
This article explores the orientations of young people (aged 18-30) to family and employment. We draw on data collected as part of a qualitative transnational study conducted in five European countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden. The young people who participated in this study were either employed, in education or training programs, or unemployed. Some of the salient social and economic trends across Europe and som…
Young People,Time Horizons and Planning: A Response to Anderson et al
In a recent article in Sociology, Anderson et al. (2005) explore the plans Scottish young adults formulated for their future lives, drawing largely on survey evidence. They do so in the context of taking issue with qualitative research conducted by Brannen and Nilsen (2002) concerning how British young people and young Norwegians think about the future.This article compares the respective studies in greater depth. First, it examines the different…
Which Types of Family are at Risk of Food Poverty in the UK? A Relative Deprivation Approach
Not enough is known in the UK about how economic phenomena and policy changes have impacted families’ ability to feed themselves. This article employs a novel way of identifying the types of UK families at risk of food poverty over time. Applying a relative deprivation approach, it asks what counts in the UK as a socially acceptable diet that meets needs for health and social participation and how much this costs. Comparing this to actual food ex…
Childbirth and Occupational Mobility: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study
In Britain most women's employment careers are interrupted by childbirth; only a tiny proportion return to their pre-birth jobs and a considerable proportion experience downward mobility when they do return to work. Evidence is presented from a longitudinal study of two groups of women in the first three years of motherhood: those who resumed their former jobs after maternity leave and those who resigned from the labour force. The paper traces th…
Adjusting to a Foster Family: Children's Perspectives
Looked after children's adjustment to negative experiences of family life and the move to a foster family have traditionally been approached in terms of resilience in response to adversity and adaptive strategies related to insecure attachment. In the context of a general study about children's experiences of family life, Ellen Heptinstall, Kalwant Bhopal and Julia Brannen add to this psychological approach to children's adaptation by introducing…
Children's food, power and control: Negotiations in families with younger children in England
This article focuses on children's food in families and the power relations in which it is embedded. Drawing on paired interviews with parents and younger children in a qualitative sample ( N = 47), and taking a case approach, the article analyses ways in which power and control are negotiated in parent-child relationships in relation to food. Types and extent of control over children's eating are described, and the importance of resources and pa…
Research Notes: The Effects of Research on Participants: Findings from a Study of Mothers and Employment
The article explores a neglected topic - the effects of research on participants. At the end of a three year longitudinal research project concerning mothers return to the labour market after maternity leave, participants (mothers) were asked to assess their experiences of taking part in the research process. The paper examines three particular aspects of the research process which have important consequences for participants: the theoretical fra…
Family change, intergenerational relations and policy implications
Since the 1990s, international social science research has made a major contribution to the evidence base on changing family forms and household structures by collecting and processing data about family composition, dissolution and reconstitution, as well as household living, working and caring arrangements. Social scientists have exploited the available data to analyse the social, economic and financial impacts of family change on relations betw…
Fatherhood and Transmission in the Context of Migration: An Irish and a Polish Case
The article compares men's biographies and fatherhood across two generations among the Irish and the Polish, who represent different waves of migration to Britain, focusing on two chains of fathers and sons. It examines different aspects of transmission between fathers and sons and, in the context of migration, the part that generational experience played in how men identify (or not) with their own fathers and repeated or changed their fatherhood…
Young People and their Contribution to Household Work
This article considers the theoretical and empirical neglect of children's contribution to household work. It draws upon a two-stage study of the transfer of responsibility from parents to their sixteen year-olds: a questionnaire survey of 843 young people and an interview study of parents and young people in 64 households. It considers the frequency and nature of young people's contribution to housework and changes taking place between the quest…
The temporality of food practices: Intergenerational relations, childhood memories and mothers’ food practices in working families with young children
Drawing on the findings of a qualitative study of 48 families with young children (aged 1.5–10 years), which investigated the influence of employment on children’s diets, this article focuses on the place of childhood memories and intergenerational relations in the transmission of family food practices. The article highlights the temporal nature of family food practices. First, it examines the intergenerational transmission of food practices in r…
Marriages in Trouble: The Process of Seeking Help
Dual earner households in Britain after the birth of the first child: Some findings from a major research study
The Study of Sensitive Subjects
This note examines some research issues raised by studies of sensitive topics and the disclosure of highly personal and confidential information. The first part focuses on the research method of in-depth interviewing and covers some theoretical and methodological problems associated with the method, together with a discussion of some strategies adopted by researchers and respondents in the interview setting. The second part discusses some of the …
Childbirth and Occupational Mobility: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study
In Britain most women's employment careers are interrupted by childbirth; only a tiny proportion return to their pre-birth jobs and a considerable proportion experience downward mobility when they do return to work. Evidence is presented from a longitudinal study of two groups of women in the first three years of motherhood: those who resumed their former jobs after maternity leave and those who resigned from the labour force. The paper traces th…
Back Pain (Book)
Money, Marriage and Motherhood: Dual Earner Households after Maternity Leave
This chapter considers a lifestyle which, with the demographic changes expected in the 1990s, promises to become increasingly significant. There will be a rising number of households in which the arrival of children signals, not the mothers’ withdrawal from the labour market, the typical practice in Britain in the post-war years, but a continuing full-time commitment by both parents to full-time employment. Women who work full time when they have…
Young people, gender and smoking in the United Kingdom
Over the last decade, gender has emerged as a significant differentiator of smoking prevalence among young people in developed countries. Some attention has also been given to gender difference.s in motives for taking up smoking. Compared to recent work on adult smoking, the literature on smoking among young people has failed to take up the challenge of the analysis of gender differences to highlight an interpretation of young people's smoking as…
Research Notes: The Effects of Research on Participants: Findings from a Study of Mothers and Employment
The article explores a neglected topic - the effects of research on participants. At the end of a three year longitudinal research project concerning mothers return to the labour market after maternity leave, participants (mothers) were asked to assess their experiences of taking part in the research process. The paper examines three particular aspects of the research process which have important consequences for participants: the theoretical fra…
Mature women students: Separating or connecting family and education
Childhood and the Sociological Gaze: Paradigms and Paradoxes
Young People and their Contribution to Household Work
This article considers the theoretical and empirical neglect of children's contribution to household work. It draws upon a two-stage study of the transfer of responsibility from parents to their sixteen year-olds: a questionnaire survey of 843 young people and an interview study of parents and young people in 64 households. It considers the frequency and nature of young people's contribution to housework and changes taking place between the quest…
Feminist Fallacies: A Reply to Hakim on Women's Employment
Les AA. s'efforcent de repondre aux affirmations de C. Hakim selon lesquelles la sociologie feministe en repliquant aux analyses patriarcales a cree de nouveaux mythes concernant l'emploi des femmes et s'est ecartee de l'evidence. Ils estiment que ces theses sont provocantes. Ils presentent une refutation de chacune d'entre elles. Ils affirment que Hakim a mesinterprete les donnees concernant les attitudes des femmes envers le travail et montrent…
The polarisation and intensification of parental employment in britain: Consequences for children, families and the community
On the basis of an analysis of UK parental employment between 1984 and 1994, using data from the Labour Force Survey, the authors identify three important trends: increasing integration of women with children, particularly with young children, into the labour market; increasing differentiation in mothers' employment opportunities and growing polarisation in household employment patterns; and an intensification of paid work amongst employed parent…
Young Europeans' Orientations to Families and Work
This article explores the orientations of young people (aged 18-30) to family and employment. We draw on data collected as part of a qualitative transnational study conducted in five European countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Norway, and Sweden. The young people who participated in this study were either employed, in education or training programs, or unemployed. Some of the salient social and economic trends across Europe and som…
Basil Bernstein 1924-2000
Basil Bernstein 1924-2000
Adjusting to a Foster Family: Children's Perspectives
Looked after children's adjustment to negative experiences of family life and the move to a foster family have traditionally been approached in terms of resilience in response to adversity and adaptive strategies related to insecure attachment. In the context of a general study about children's experiences of family life, Ellen Heptinstall, Kalwant Bhopal and Julia Brannen add to this psychological approach to children's adaptation by introducing…
Children In Families: Research and Policy
The use of video in research dissemination: Children as experts on their own family lives
The paper considers the use of video as a medium for the dissemination of research findings in the context of a study of children's concepts of care and their experience and contribution to family life. While the video medium was chosen to give a direct voice to children, it served other purposes. It served as an opportunity to feed back research results to children and to reflect on the ways researchers had interpreted data concerning their own …
Young People's Time Perspectives: From Youth to Adulthood
The article examines three bodies of theory: individualization, the lifecourse, and concepts of time. It interrogates these theories with respect to the following questions: how young people speak about the future; and the bearing of young people's situations and time perspectives upon the way they envisage the transition to adulthood. It draws upon empirical research from a five-country European study, in particular material from focus group dis…
Towards a Typology of Intergenerational Relations: Continuities and Change in Families
This paper focuses on 'beanpole' families, that is those with several living generations; it analyses patterns of care and paid work across the generations and the resource transfers which take place between generations. Drawing on a small-scale study of four generation families, it provides a typology of intergenerational relations with respect to the transmission of material assets, childcare and elder care, sociability, emotional support, and …
Working and Caring over the Twentieth Century
Increased longevity and better health are changing the nature of family life. In the context of changes in the world of work, increased divorce and a declining welfare state, multi-generation or 'bean
Working and Caring over the Twentieth Century: Change and Continuity in Four-Generation Families
Childhoods Across the Generations: Stories from women in four-generation English families
This article draws upon new analysis from a qualitative study of four-generation English families. It takes a historical generational perspective and explores perspectives on the childhoods of three generations of women. The article also offers a number of theoretical and methodological reflections upon the interpretation of life stories: the need to make sense of accounts in relation to life course phase; the need to examine the nature of the ac…
Anthropological and Sociological Perspectives on the Study of Children
Sociology (61 works) · Psychology (44 works) · Social science (34 works) · Political science (33 works) · Gender Studies (27 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (26 works) · Social Psychology (21 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Economics (15 works)