Gareth M Thomas
Biographic Data
| ID | 3693934 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gareth M Thomas |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gareth M |
| FAMILY NAME | Thomas |
| SIGNATURE | THOMAS G M |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3183-8431 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Re(dis)covering Goffman: Disability, ‘deference’ and ‘demeanour’ in a community café
Erving Goffman’s scholarship has been subject to intense critique in disability studies. Goffman’s account of ‘stigma’, in particular, is viewed as being antithetical to its driving principles, namely: to depart from deficit configurations of disability; to define disability as embedded in rigid and oppressive social structures; and to recognise more positive accounts of disability. In this article, I discuss the value of Goffman’s work for under…
It’s lovely to have that sense of belonging’: Older men’s involvement in walking football
Men’s participation in group leisure is often promoted as a vehicle for social connection in later-life. However, current research often either assumes this or rarely extends their analysis beyond underbaked statements about its value. Informed by sociological scholarship attending to the intersections of community, belonging, and leisure, I draw on 43 interviews with older men playing walking football to sketch out how men forge bonds and belong…
We Wouldn't Change Him for the World, but We'd Change the World for Him: Parents, Disability, and the Cultivation of a Positive Imaginary
Down's syndrome (DS) occupies a curious position in the public imaginary in the United Kingdom. There is a growing public, and positive, presence of people with DS in cultural outlets and across networks of people with experiences of disability. Simultaneously, there is a troubled history of institutionalization and stigmatization of people with DS, the condition is targeted in prenatal screening programs, and parents of children with DS struggle…
Likelihood-based inference for dynamic panel data models
Testing Times: The Social Life of Non-invasive Prenatal Testing
Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a genomic technology used to predict the chance of a foetus having a genetic condition. Despite the immediacy of this technology’s integration into clinical practice, there is a dearth of evidence outlining how both patients and professionals experience NIPT on the ground. In this article, we draw upon our collective empirical research—specifically on earlier screening technologies (BKR), Down syndrome scre…
Dis-mantling stigma: Parenting disabled children in an age of 'neoliberal-ableism
The concept of 'stigma' is a dominant presence in many disciplines, yet it frequently remains ill-defined, individualist, and dislocated from matters of power, inequality and resistance. Extending a budding literature on rethinking the sociology of stigma, I draw upon interviews with parents of children with Down's syndrome to revisit one of sociology's most enduring concepts. I explore how parents articulate new imaginaries of difference which d…
The appy for a happy pappy: Expectant Fatherhood and Pregnancy Apps
Many mobile software applications (‘apps’) related to pregnancy have been developed for the global market, yet little research has explored how expectant or new fathers are represented in such technologies. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of the descriptions of pregnancy apps available in two major online stores, we identify how these media artefacts represent a problematic version of performing fatherhood. On the one hand, notions of ‘i…
Doing Gender in a Hospital Setting: Reflections of a Male Researcher
Very little attention has been afforded to how male researchers actively position their gender in their studies, particularly in ethnographic research located within settings populated largely by women. In this article, I reflect on my own gender work during an ethnography of prenatal clinics and how this was articulated with other aspects of my researcher self. By reporting on the successes and failures of this performance, I argue that my gende…
An Elephant in the Consultation Room: Configuring Down Syndrome in British Antenatal Care
This article is based on an ethnographic study of prenatal screening for Down syndrome in two British health care institutions. Drawing on observations of everyday hospital life and interviews with health care professionals, I identify how a discussion of Down syndrome is avoided during prenatal screening consultations. This relative silence is created and upheld because of three things: (1) the British public is considered as knowing what Down s…
In/Exclusion in the Clinic: Down's Syndrome, Dysmorphology and the Ethics of Everyday Medical Work
In this article, we draw on two clinical ethnographies to explore how mundane social practices, affective processes and cultural materials (re)produce divisions and forms of in/exclusion. By treating everyday life and routines as serious categories of analysis, we identify how power relations are accomplished and how persons/future persons - namely the 'dysmorphic' child or the foetus who has or may have Down's syndrome - are constituted as un/va…
Cooling the Mother Out: Revisiting and Revising Goffman's Account
This article revisits Erving Goffman's important yet neglected metaphor of 'cooling the mark out.' Drawing on a study of mothers whose child has Down's syndrome, I explore the value of Goffman's work for capturing how mothers interpret their child's diagnosis as a loss and rectify this breach by constructing an acceptance of their new situation. The mothers' accounts highlight how Goffman's contentions can be enriched by acknowledging the gendere…
Dis-mantling stigma: Parenting disabled children in an age of 'neoliberal-ableism
The concept of 'stigma' is a dominant presence in many disciplines, yet it frequently remains ill-defined, individualist, and dislocated from matters of power, inequality and resistance. Extending a budding literature on rethinking the sociology of stigma, I draw upon interviews with parents of children with Down's syndrome to revisit one of sociology's most enduring concepts. I explore how parents articulate new imaginaries of difference which d…
It’s lovely to have that sense of belonging’: Older men’s involvement in walking football
Men’s participation in group leisure is often promoted as a vehicle for social connection in later-life. However, current research often either assumes this or rarely extends their analysis beyond underbaked statements about its value. Informed by sociological scholarship attending to the intersections of community, belonging, and leisure, I draw on 43 interviews with older men playing walking football to sketch out how men forge bonds and belong…
Doing Gender in a Hospital Setting: Reflections of a Male Researcher
Very little attention has been afforded to how male researchers actively position their gender in their studies, particularly in ethnographic research located within settings populated largely by women. In this article, I reflect on my own gender work during an ethnography of prenatal clinics and how this was articulated with other aspects of my researcher self. By reporting on the successes and failures of this performance, I argue that my gende…
In/Exclusion in the Clinic: Down's Syndrome, Dysmorphology and the Ethics of Everyday Medical Work
In this article, we draw on two clinical ethnographies to explore how mundane social practices, affective processes and cultural materials (re)produce divisions and forms of in/exclusion. By treating everyday life and routines as serious categories of analysis, we identify how power relations are accomplished and how persons/future persons - namely the 'dysmorphic' child or the foetus who has or may have Down's syndrome - are constituted as un/va…
Cooling the Mother Out: Revisiting and Revising Goffman's Account
This article revisits Erving Goffman's important yet neglected metaphor of 'cooling the mark out.' Drawing on a study of mothers whose child has Down's syndrome, I explore the value of Goffman's work for capturing how mothers interpret their child's diagnosis as a loss and rectify this breach by constructing an acceptance of their new situation. The mothers' accounts highlight how Goffman's contentions can be enriched by acknowledging the gendere…
We Wouldn't Change Him for the World, but We'd Change the World for Him: Parents, Disability, and the Cultivation of a Positive Imaginary
Down's syndrome (DS) occupies a curious position in the public imaginary in the United Kingdom. There is a growing public, and positive, presence of people with DS in cultural outlets and across networks of people with experiences of disability. Simultaneously, there is a troubled history of institutionalization and stigmatization of people with DS, the condition is targeted in prenatal screening programs, and parents of children with DS struggle…
The appy for a happy pappy: Expectant Fatherhood and Pregnancy Apps
Many mobile software applications (‘apps’) related to pregnancy have been developed for the global market, yet little research has explored how expectant or new fathers are represented in such technologies. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of the descriptions of pregnancy apps available in two major online stores, we identify how these media artefacts represent a problematic version of performing fatherhood. On the one hand, notions of ‘i…
An Elephant in the Consultation Room: Configuring Down Syndrome in British Antenatal Care
This article is based on an ethnographic study of prenatal screening for Down syndrome in two British health care institutions. Drawing on observations of everyday hospital life and interviews with health care professionals, I identify how a discussion of Down syndrome is avoided during prenatal screening consultations. This relative silence is created and upheld because of three things: (1) the British public is considered as knowing what Down s…
Cooling the Mother Out: Revisiting and Revising Goffman's Account
This article revisits Erving Goffman's important yet neglected metaphor of 'cooling the mark out.' Drawing on a study of mothers whose child has Down's syndrome, I explore the value of Goffman's work for capturing how mothers interpret their child's diagnosis as a loss and rectify this breach by constructing an acceptance of their new situation. The mothers' accounts highlight how Goffman's contentions can be enriched by acknowledging the gendere…
In/Exclusion in the Clinic: Down's Syndrome, Dysmorphology and the Ethics of Everyday Medical Work
In this article, we draw on two clinical ethnographies to explore how mundane social practices, affective processes and cultural materials (re)produce divisions and forms of in/exclusion. By treating everyday life and routines as serious categories of analysis, we identify how power relations are accomplished and how persons/future persons - namely the 'dysmorphic' child or the foetus who has or may have Down's syndrome - are constituted as un/va…
An Elephant in the Consultation Room: Configuring Down Syndrome in British Antenatal Care
This article is based on an ethnographic study of prenatal screening for Down syndrome in two British health care institutions. Drawing on observations of everyday hospital life and interviews with health care professionals, I identify how a discussion of Down syndrome is avoided during prenatal screening consultations. This relative silence is created and upheld because of three things: (1) the British public is considered as knowing what Down s…
Doing Gender in a Hospital Setting: Reflections of a Male Researcher
Very little attention has been afforded to how male researchers actively position their gender in their studies, particularly in ethnographic research located within settings populated largely by women. In this article, I reflect on my own gender work during an ethnography of prenatal clinics and how this was articulated with other aspects of my researcher self. By reporting on the successes and failures of this performance, I argue that my gende…
The appy for a happy pappy: Expectant Fatherhood and Pregnancy Apps
Many mobile software applications (‘apps’) related to pregnancy have been developed for the global market, yet little research has explored how expectant or new fathers are represented in such technologies. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of the descriptions of pregnancy apps available in two major online stores, we identify how these media artefacts represent a problematic version of performing fatherhood. On the one hand, notions of ‘i…
Testing Times: The Social Life of Non-invasive Prenatal Testing
Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a genomic technology used to predict the chance of a foetus having a genetic condition. Despite the immediacy of this technology’s integration into clinical practice, there is a dearth of evidence outlining how both patients and professionals experience NIPT on the ground. In this article, we draw upon our collective empirical research—specifically on earlier screening technologies (BKR), Down syndrome scre…
Dis-mantling stigma: Parenting disabled children in an age of 'neoliberal-ableism
The concept of 'stigma' is a dominant presence in many disciplines, yet it frequently remains ill-defined, individualist, and dislocated from matters of power, inequality and resistance. Extending a budding literature on rethinking the sociology of stigma, I draw upon interviews with parents of children with Down's syndrome to revisit one of sociology's most enduring concepts. I explore how parents articulate new imaginaries of difference which d…
Likelihood-based inference for dynamic panel data models
We Wouldn't Change Him for the World, but We'd Change the World for Him: Parents, Disability, and the Cultivation of a Positive Imaginary
Down's syndrome (DS) occupies a curious position in the public imaginary in the United Kingdom. There is a growing public, and positive, presence of people with DS in cultural outlets and across networks of people with experiences of disability. Simultaneously, there is a troubled history of institutionalization and stigmatization of people with DS, the condition is targeted in prenatal screening programs, and parents of children with DS struggle…
It’s lovely to have that sense of belonging’: Older men’s involvement in walking football
Men’s participation in group leisure is often promoted as a vehicle for social connection in later-life. However, current research often either assumes this or rarely extends their analysis beyond underbaked statements about its value. Informed by sociological scholarship attending to the intersections of community, belonging, and leisure, I draw on 43 interviews with older men playing walking football to sketch out how men forge bonds and belong…
Re(dis)covering Goffman: Disability, ‘deference’ and ‘demeanour’ in a community café
Erving Goffman’s scholarship has been subject to intense critique in disability studies. Goffman’s account of ‘stigma’, in particular, is viewed as being antithetical to its driving principles, namely: to depart from deficit configurations of disability; to define disability as embedded in rigid and oppressive social structures; and to recognise more positive accounts of disability. In this article, I discuss the value of Goffman’s work for under…
Psychology (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Disability Rights and Representation (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Medicine (3 works) · Political science (3 works)