Kathryn Backett-Milburn
Biographic Data
| ID | 3674797 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kathryn Backett-Milburn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kathryn |
| FAMILY NAME | Backett-Milburn |
| SIGNATURE | BACKETT-MILBURN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 600 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
Home and away: Constructing family and childhood in the context of working parenthood
Little is known about children's views and experiences of their parents’ work−life reconciliation and how these are negotiated in everyday family practices. This article examines families' experiences of work−life reconciliation from both children's and parents' perspectives, drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study with 14 families in Scotland. Such experiences have implications for the spatial and temporal construction of family and childhoo…
Researching Distressing Topics: Emotional Reflexivity and Emotional Labor in the Secondary Analysis of Children and Young People’s Narratives of Abuse
Qualitative researchers who explore sensitive topics may expose themselves to emotional distress. Consequently, researchers are often faced with the challenge of maintaining emotional equilibrium during the research process. However, discussion on the management of difficult emotions has occupied a peripheral place within accounts of research practice. With rare exceptions, the focus of published accounts is concentrated on the analysis of the em…
The Consequences of Love: Young People and Family Practices in Difficult Circumstances
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of sociological work exploring the importance and meaning of kinship. Much of this work has criticized the 'individualization' thesis according to which changes in family structures over time have been interpreted as reflecting a fundamental decline in family values. Highlighting continuities as well as change in family life, this work has also suggested ways to move beyond the individualization debate…
Hopes for the Future: Parents' and Children's Narratives of Children's Future Employment Orientations
What do you want to be when you grow up?' is a question often asked of children yet little is known about how children and their parents think about their future in terms of employment. This paper, based on qualitative longitudinal research with 14 families, explores children's and parents' narratives about children's employment futures, illuminating the values, social relations and structures through which such narratives are formed. The paper r…
The Framing of Social Class Distinctions through Family Food and Eating Practices
Drawing on two qualitative studies which looked at diet, weight and health from a social class perspective, we use Bourdieu's theory of habitus to help explain the different food and eating practices undertaken by families with young teenagers. Whilst the families displayed considerable reflexivity when making decisions about what to eat on a daily basis, the analysis highlighted that everyday behaviours are still bounded by distinctions of taste…
Food and family practices: Teenagers, eating and domestic life in differing socio-economic circumstances
This paper draws on accounts from young teenagers and their parents in two linked qualitative studies of families living in Scotland in differing socio-economic circumstances. We compare and contrast teenager experiences of eating practices and food choice in these families. We show the range of meanings attached to how, where and what these teenagers and their parents described as everyday eating behaviours at home and locate these in the wider …
Practitioner perspectives on tackling health inequalities: Findings from an evaluation of healthy living centres in Scotland
Autonomy, control and job advancement: The Case of Low Paid Women Working in Food Retail
Food retail is a major employer and growth sector. It is one in which gender segregation is evident with many shops reliant on part-time low paid women employees. Most of these employees are trying to combine care responsibilities and paid work. This research note explores findings from 55 interviews with women working in nine food retail businesses in Scotland. Analysis illustrates the ways shop assistants maximize their control over time to ens…
Joined up’ thinking? Unsupported ‘fast-track’ transitions in the context of parental substance use
Recent policy responses to the risks entailed in ‘fast-track’ school–work transitions have targeted careleavers and young people identified as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). However, this approach has been criticised as diverting attention away from the fragile circumstances of others who may receive little parental or service support. We draw on a qualitative study with young people affected by parental substance use to furth…
Family Comes First or Open All Hours: How Low Paid Women Working in Food Retailing Manage Webs of Obligation at Home and Work
This paper draws on qualitative findings from a study exploring work-life balance issues amongst female employees within food retailing. Whilst female employment is fundamental to this sector, there is limited evidence on employees' experiences of reconciling relatively low-paid work and the particular demands of food retailing with domestic and caring responsibilities. Managing competing discourses and demands at home and work is a feature of ma…
Challenging Childhoods: Young people's accounts of `getting by' in families with substance use problems
Concern is increasing about children growing up in families where there are substance use problems but relatively little is known about the perspectives of the children themselves. This article reports on a qualitative study with young people who grew up in such families, exploring their accounts of their daily lives at home, school and leisure. The study focuses on the everyday interactions, practices and processes the young people felt helped t…
If the Food Looks Dodgy I Dinnae Eat It: Teenagers' Accounts of Food and Eating Practices in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Families
This paper examines how young teenagers living in socio-economically disadvantaged families perceive everyday food and eating practices within the home. From in-depth interviews with 36 Scottish teenagers aged 13-14 years, we analysed teenagers' accounts of contemporary 'family meals'. We found that food and eating practices were negotiated amidst complex family arrangements with extended, resident and non-resident kin. Parents were often reporte…
Women's experiences of combining eldercare and paid work in the Scottish food retail sector
This paper draws upon qualitative data from a mixed-methods study to consider women’s everyday experiences of combining paid employment with informal care for older relatives. Women who participate
Young people, biographical narratives and the life grid: Young People's Accounts of Parental Substance Use
Research into potentially sensitive issues with young people presents numerous methodological and ethical challenges. While recent studies have highlighted the advantages of task-based activities in research with young people, the literature on life history research provides few suggestions as to effective and appropriate research tools for encouraging young people to tell their stories. This article explores the contribution that may be made to …
Young teenagers' perceptions of their own and others' bodies: A qualitative study of obese, overweight and 'normal' weight young people in Scotland
Constructing health and sickness in the context of motherhood and paid work
Changes in the labour market, especially the rise in the employment of women (lone or partnered) with children, alongside an increased policy emphasis on work as a component of active citizenship for men and women, have stimulated the development of research examining the balance between work and home. Although sociologists have long been interested in the interface between the spheres of paid work and domestic life, understandings of the subject…
The contextual development of healthy living centres services: An examination of food-related initiatives
How Children and Their Families Construct and Negotiate Risk, Safety and Danger
This article presents an analysis of the family context and everyday negotiations around risk, safety and danger between children and parents in four families drawn from a larger qualitative study. The challenges of analysing accounts from several family members are highlighted. Case study families are described; and fragments of their interwoven individual and shared biographies, on which respondents regularly drew to legitimate risk-related bel…
Exploring the Body
Contrasting lives, contrasting views? understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances
Constructing Gendered Bodies
Exploring the Body
Introduction PART I: THEORIZING EMBODIED PRACTICE: METAPHOR AND METHODS The Storyteller's Paradox: Homeopathy in the Borderlands A.Scott Bodies, Battlefields and Biographies: Scars and the Construction of the Body as Heritage K.A.Burnett & M.Holmes Dissonant Choreographies: Performativity and Method in Social-cultural Research J.van Loon & B.H.Rockwell Refusing to Fight: A Playful Approach to Chronic Disease G.Pillsbury PART II: NEGLECTED BODIES …
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
Can't Talk, Won't Talk: Methodological Issues in Researching Children
In this paper we explore some current issues in, what has come to be called, the new sociology of childhood and how these relate to the process of researching children's lives in general, and to our own research in particular. We discuss the developmental model of childhood, before going on to explore ideas about children as, on the one hand, inhabiting a relatively autonomous realm and, on the other as part of the same social world as adults but…
The Data Are Out There, or Are They? Implications for Archiving and Revisiting Qualitative Data
The usefulness of archived qualitative data has been questioned where contextual information surrounding the conditions of its production is not provided. It has been assumed that, without this background information, the data remain incomplete. By the same token, it has been argued that the provision of such information will repair and complete the dataset for the purpose of generating new findings or theories. We suggest that these arguments st…
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
Swings and Roundabouts: Risk Anxiety and the Everyday Worlds of Children
In this paper we explore some key antionomies which have emerged in relation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between autonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as `at risk' and as potentially threatening. A particular focus here is on the sexualisation of risk, the degree of public concern expressed whenever the sexual `innocence' of children is thought to be endangered. We argue that the concept of risk anx…
The Framing of Social Class Distinctions through Family Food and Eating Practices
Drawing on two qualitative studies which looked at diet, weight and health from a social class perspective, we use Bourdieu's theory of habitus to help explain the different food and eating practices undertaken by families with young teenagers. Whilst the families displayed considerable reflexivity when making decisions about what to eat on a daily basis, the analysis highlighted that everyday behaviours are still bounded by distinctions of taste…
Contrasting lives, contrasting views? understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances
Can't Talk, Won't Talk: Methodological Issues in Researching Children
In this paper we explore some current issues in, what has come to be called, the new sociology of childhood and how these relate to the process of researching children's lives in general, and to our own research in particular. We discuss the developmental model of childhood, before going on to explore ideas about children as, on the one hand, inhabiting a relatively autonomous realm and, on the other as part of the same social world as adults but…
Food and family practices: Teenagers, eating and domestic life in differing socio-economic circumstances
This paper draws on accounts from young teenagers and their parents in two linked qualitative studies of families living in Scotland in differing socio-economic circumstances. We compare and contrast teenager experiences of eating practices and food choice in these families. We show the range of meanings attached to how, where and what these teenagers and their parents described as everyday eating behaviours at home and locate these in the wider …
Young teenagers' perceptions of their own and others' bodies: A qualitative study of obese, overweight and 'normal' weight young people in Scotland
Family Comes First or Open All Hours: How Low Paid Women Working in Food Retailing Manage Webs of Obligation at Home and Work
This paper draws on qualitative findings from a study exploring work-life balance issues amongst female employees within food retailing. Whilst female employment is fundamental to this sector, there is limited evidence on employees' experiences of reconciling relatively low-paid work and the particular demands of food retailing with domestic and caring responsibilities. Managing competing discourses and demands at home and work is a feature of ma…
Young people, biographical narratives and the life grid: Young People's Accounts of Parental Substance Use
Research into potentially sensitive issues with young people presents numerous methodological and ethical challenges. While recent studies have highlighted the advantages of task-based activities in research with young people, the literature on life history research provides few suggestions as to effective and appropriate research tools for encouraging young people to tell their stories. This article explores the contribution that may be made to …
How Children and Their Families Construct and Negotiate Risk, Safety and Danger
This article presents an analysis of the family context and everyday negotiations around risk, safety and danger between children and parents in four families drawn from a larger qualitative study. The challenges of analysing accounts from several family members are highlighted. Case study families are described; and fragments of their interwoven individual and shared biographies, on which respondents regularly drew to legitimate risk-related bel…
Constructing health and sickness in the context of motherhood and paid work
Changes in the labour market, especially the rise in the employment of women (lone or partnered) with children, alongside an increased policy emphasis on work as a component of active citizenship for men and women, have stimulated the development of research examining the balance between work and home. Although sociologists have long been interested in the interface between the spheres of paid work and domestic life, understandings of the subject…
If the Food Looks Dodgy I Dinnae Eat It: Teenagers' Accounts of Food and Eating Practices in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Families
This paper examines how young teenagers living in socio-economically disadvantaged families perceive everyday food and eating practices within the home. From in-depth interviews with 36 Scottish teenagers aged 13-14 years, we analysed teenagers' accounts of contemporary 'family meals'. We found that food and eating practices were negotiated amidst complex family arrangements with extended, resident and non-resident kin. Parents were often reporte…
Home and away: Constructing family and childhood in the context of working parenthood
Little is known about children's views and experiences of their parents’ work−life reconciliation and how these are negotiated in everyday family practices. This article examines families' experiences of work−life reconciliation from both children's and parents' perspectives, drawing on a qualitative longitudinal study with 14 families in Scotland. Such experiences have implications for the spatial and temporal construction of family and childhoo…
Researching Distressing Topics: Emotional Reflexivity and Emotional Labor in the Secondary Analysis of Children and Young People’s Narratives of Abuse
Qualitative researchers who explore sensitive topics may expose themselves to emotional distress. Consequently, researchers are often faced with the challenge of maintaining emotional equilibrium during the research process. However, discussion on the management of difficult emotions has occupied a peripheral place within accounts of research practice. With rare exceptions, the focus of published accounts is concentrated on the analysis of the em…
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
The Consequences of Love: Young People and Family Practices in Difficult Circumstances
In recent years, there has been a resurgence of sociological work exploring the importance and meaning of kinship. Much of this work has criticized the 'individualization' thesis according to which changes in family structures over time have been interpreted as reflecting a fundamental decline in family values. Highlighting continuities as well as change in family life, this work has also suggested ways to move beyond the individualization debate…
Autonomy, control and job advancement: The Case of Low Paid Women Working in Food Retail
Food retail is a major employer and growth sector. It is one in which gender segregation is evident with many shops reliant on part-time low paid women employees. Most of these employees are trying to combine care responsibilities and paid work. This research note explores findings from 55 interviews with women working in nine food retail businesses in Scotland. Analysis illustrates the ways shop assistants maximize their control over time to ens…
Practitioner perspectives on tackling health inequalities: Findings from an evaluation of healthy living centres in Scotland
Challenging Childhoods: Young people's accounts of `getting by' in families with substance use problems
Concern is increasing about children growing up in families where there are substance use problems but relatively little is known about the perspectives of the children themselves. This article reports on a qualitative study with young people who grew up in such families, exploring their accounts of their daily lives at home, school and leisure. The study focuses on the everyday interactions, practices and processes the young people felt helped t…
Hopes for the Future: Parents' and Children's Narratives of Children's Future Employment Orientations
What do you want to be when you grow up?' is a question often asked of children yet little is known about how children and their parents think about their future in terms of employment. This paper, based on qualitative longitudinal research with 14 families, explores children's and parents' narratives about children's employment futures, illuminating the values, social relations and structures through which such narratives are formed. The paper r…
Joined up’ thinking? Unsupported ‘fast-track’ transitions in the context of parental substance use
Recent policy responses to the risks entailed in ‘fast-track’ school–work transitions have targeted careleavers and young people identified as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). However, this approach has been criticised as diverting attention away from the fragile circumstances of others who may receive little parental or service support. We draw on a qualitative study with young people affected by parental substance use to furth…
Women's experiences of combining eldercare and paid work in the Scottish food retail sector
This paper draws upon qualitative data from a mixed-methods study to consider women’s everyday experiences of combining paid employment with informal care for older relatives. Women who participate
The contextual development of healthy living centres services: An examination of food-related initiatives
The importance of the conditions and relations of project design for the construction of qualitative data: Some experiences from collaborative team working
The pressures of funding and publishing requirements often make it difficult for researchers to pay close, detailed and reflexive attention to methods as an integral part of their research work. This paper reports on a project about women's perceptions of health, health risks and osteoporosis which was designed explicitly to explore methodological and epistemological issues as they arose and were renegotiated during the research. Three experience…
The Data Are Out There, or Are They? Implications for Archiving and Revisiting Qualitative Data
The usefulness of archived qualitative data has been questioned where contextual information surrounding the conditions of its production is not provided. It has been assumed that, without this background information, the data remain incomplete. By the same token, it has been argued that the provision of such information will repair and complete the dataset for the purpose of generating new findings or theories. We suggest that these arguments st…
Swings and Roundabouts: Risk Anxiety and the Everyday Worlds of Children
In this paper we explore some key antionomies which have emerged in relation to children and childhood in late modernity: tensions between autonomy and protection and between perceptions of children as `at risk' and as potentially threatening. A particular focus here is on the sexualisation of risk, the degree of public concern expressed whenever the sexual `innocence' of children is thought to be endangered. We argue that the concept of risk anx…
The importance of the conditions and relations of project design for the construction of qualitative data: Some experiences from collaborative team working
The pressures of funding and publishing requirements often make it difficult for researchers to pay close, detailed and reflexive attention to methods as an integral part of their research work. This paper reports on a project about women's perceptions of health, health risks and osteoporosis which was designed explicitly to explore methodological and epistemological issues as they arose and were renegotiated during the research. Three experience…
Plus ca change? Reflections on a career as a qualitative researcher
In this invited paper I reflect back on thirty years of working as a qualitative researcher. My work has been principally in the areas of family and medical sociology and sexual health. I argue that this account of my career and associated career decisions must be situated in terms of changes and continuities, particularly in the labour market, gendered relationships and the interweaving of private and professional lives. Through an account of my…
Can't Talk, Won't Talk: Methodological Issues in Researching Children
In this paper we explore some current issues in, what has come to be called, the new sociology of childhood and how these relate to the process of researching children's lives in general, and to our own research in particular. We discuss the developmental model of childhood, before going on to explore ideas about children as, on the one hand, inhabiting a relatively autonomous realm and, on the other as part of the same social world as adults but…
Exploring the Body
Introduction PART I: THEORIZING EMBODIED PRACTICE: METAPHOR AND METHODS The Storyteller's Paradox: Homeopathy in the Borderlands A.Scott Bodies, Battlefields and Biographies: Scars and the Construction of the Body as Heritage K.A.Burnett & M.Holmes Dissonant Choreographies: Performativity and Method in Social-cultural Research J.van Loon & B.H.Rockwell Refusing to Fight: A Playful Approach to Chronic Disease G.Pillsbury PART II: NEGLECTED BODIES …
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork
This paper addresses the role of emotion in the qualitative research process and in particular, the effects of emotional experiences on the researcher. Drawing briefly on the literature, we show the importance of emotion for understanding the research process. Whilst this literature acknowledges the emotional risk for research respondents, there is little evidence providing in-depth understanding of the emotions of the researcher. We consider the…
Constructing Gendered Bodies
Exploring the Body
Contrasting lives, contrasting views? understandings of health inequalities from children in differing social circumstances
How Children and Their Families Construct and Negotiate Risk, Safety and Danger
This article presents an analysis of the family context and everyday negotiations around risk, safety and danger between children and parents in four families drawn from a larger qualitative study. The challenges of analysing accounts from several family members are highlighted. Case study families are described; and fragments of their interwoven individual and shared biographies, on which respondents regularly drew to legitimate risk-related bel…
The contextual development of healthy living centres services: An examination of food-related initiatives
Young teenagers' perceptions of their own and others' bodies: A qualitative study of obese, overweight and 'normal' weight young people in Scotland
Constructing health and sickness in the context of motherhood and paid work
Changes in the labour market, especially the rise in the employment of women (lone or partnered) with children, alongside an increased policy emphasis on work as a component of active citizenship for men and women, have stimulated the development of research examining the balance between work and home. Although sociologists have long been interested in the interface between the spheres of paid work and domestic life, understandings of the subject…
Women's experiences of combining eldercare and paid work in the Scottish food retail sector
This paper draws upon qualitative data from a mixed-methods study to consider women’s everyday experiences of combining paid employment with informal care for older relatives. Women who participate
Young people, biographical narratives and the life grid: Young People's Accounts of Parental Substance Use
Research into potentially sensitive issues with young people presents numerous methodological and ethical challenges. While recent studies have highlighted the advantages of task-based activities in research with young people, the literature on life history research provides few suggestions as to effective and appropriate research tools for encouraging young people to tell their stories. This article explores the contribution that may be made to …
Joined up’ thinking? Unsupported ‘fast-track’ transitions in the context of parental substance use
Recent policy responses to the risks entailed in ‘fast-track’ school–work transitions have targeted careleavers and young people identified as ‘not in education, employment or training’ (NEET). However, this approach has been criticised as diverting attention away from the fragile circumstances of others who may receive little parental or service support. We draw on a qualitative study with young people affected by parental substance use to furth…
Family Comes First or Open All Hours: How Low Paid Women Working in Food Retailing Manage Webs of Obligation at Home and Work
This paper draws on qualitative findings from a study exploring work-life balance issues amongst female employees within food retailing. Whilst female employment is fundamental to this sector, there is limited evidence on employees' experiences of reconciling relatively low-paid work and the particular demands of food retailing with domestic and caring responsibilities. Managing competing discourses and demands at home and work is a feature of ma…
Challenging Childhoods: Young people's accounts of `getting by' in families with substance use problems
Concern is increasing about children growing up in families where there are substance use problems but relatively little is known about the perspectives of the children themselves. This article reports on a qualitative study with young people who grew up in such families, exploring their accounts of their daily lives at home, school and leisure. The study focuses on the everyday interactions, practices and processes the young people felt helped t…
If the Food Looks Dodgy I Dinnae Eat It: Teenagers' Accounts of Food and Eating Practices in Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Families
This paper examines how young teenagers living in socio-economically disadvantaged families perceive everyday food and eating practices within the home. From in-depth interviews with 36 Scottish teenagers aged 13-14 years, we analysed teenagers' accounts of contemporary 'family meals'. We found that food and eating practices were negotiated amidst complex family arrangements with extended, resident and non-resident kin. Parents were often reporte…
Practitioner perspectives on tackling health inequalities: Findings from an evaluation of healthy living centres in Scotland
Autonomy, control and job advancement: The Case of Low Paid Women Working in Food Retail
Food retail is a major employer and growth sector. It is one in which gender segregation is evident with many shops reliant on part-time low paid women employees. Most of these employees are trying to combine care responsibilities and paid work. This research note explores findings from 55 interviews with women working in nine food retail businesses in Scotland. Analysis illustrates the ways shop assistants maximize their control over time to ens…
Food and family practices: Teenagers, eating and domestic life in differing socio-economic circumstances
This paper draws on accounts from young teenagers and their parents in two linked qualitative studies of families living in Scotland in differing socio-economic circumstances. We compare and contrast teenager experiences of eating practices and food choice in these families. We show the range of meanings attached to how, where and what these teenagers and their parents described as everyday eating behaviours at home and locate these in the wider …
The Framing of Social Class Distinctions through Family Food and Eating Practices
Drawing on two qualitative studies which looked at diet, weight and health from a social class perspective, we use Bourdieu's theory of habitus to help explain the different food and eating practices undertaken by families with young teenagers. Whilst the families displayed considerable reflexivity when making decisions about what to eat on a daily basis, the analysis highlighted that everyday behaviours are still bounded by distinctions of taste…
Sociology (26 works) · Psychology (20 works) · Social science (18 works) · Qualitative research (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Social Psychology (15 works) · Developmental psychology (10 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (9 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (8 works)