Nicola Burns
Biographic Data
| ID | 3797306 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicola Burns |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicola |
| FAMILY NAME | Burns |
| SIGNATURE | BURNS N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Glasgow |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4764-9731 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 250 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Disability and Migration: Trends, Issues and Responses
Healthcare (im)mobilities and the Covid-19 pandemic: Notes on returning to the field
This article proposes a mobilities-informed approach to social science research on healthcare and migration. It engages with evidence gathered during the Covid-19 pandemic that suggests that when confronted with a public health emergency, health systems can be responsive to the needs of mobile populations. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, health resources shifted routine services online, spurring an acceleration of telemedicine. The roll-out of the…
Refugees, political bounding and the pandemic: Material effects and experiences of categorisations amongst refugees in Scotland
Scholars are increasingly interested in and concerned with both the way various migrant populations are categorised, and the lived impacts of that categorisation. In this article, we examine how categorisation was experienced by people at various stages of the refugee journey during the biggest public health crisis for generations. We argue, using original interview data, that the way refugees are categorised, or politically bound, has material i…
I don’t think there’s anything I can do which can keep me healthy’: How the UK immigration and asylum system shapes the health & wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland
Many migrant groups, particularly those that are politically and economically marginalised, such as asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs), face inequities in access to health care as well as poorer physical and mental health outcomes. The role of post-arrival experiences in contributing to these inequities is increasingly being explored, and it is suggested that being a migrant is itself a determinant of health outcomes. Drawing on the theoretical c…
Material practices for meaningful engagement: An analysis of participatory learning and action research techniques for data generation and analysis in a health research partnership
BACKGROUND: The material practices which researchers use in research partnerships may enable or constrain the nature of engagement with stakeholder groups. Participatory learning and action (PLA) research approaches show promise, but there has been no detailed analysis of stakeholders' and researchers' experiences of PLA techniques for data generation and co-analysis. OBJECTIVES: To explore stakeholders' and researchers' experiences of PLA techni…
Implementing guidelines and training initiatives to improve cross-cultural communication in primary care consultations: A qualitative participatory European study
Migrants, primary care providers and other key stakeholders can work effectively together to adapt and implement G/TIs to improve communication in cross-cultural consultations, and enhance understanding and trust between GPs and migrant patients
The human right to health: Exploring disability, migration and health
Across the globe, an estimated one billion people are on the move today, of whom 244 million are international migrants. Not only have global horizons expanded in the realm of work and study; global conflict and exploitation have resulted in forced migration. Migration is a political issue, which raises questions of identity, citizenship, diversity and integration and is utilised to play upon the fear of the stranger, the ‘Other’ and difference i…
The rural panopticon
As a contribution to both rural theory and a geography of rural disability, this paper tackles the idea of the ‘rural panopticon’. Inspired by empirical research on mental ill-health in the Scottish Highlands, the authors specify certain workings of the rural panopticon, stressing interconnections between visibility, observation, surveillance, chatter and interiorised senses of self-disciplining (particularly for those with fragile mental health)…
Revolting subjects: Social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain
Risky bodies in risky spaces: Disabled people’s pursuit of outdoor leisure
Risk is used to deny disabled people access to many parts of mainstream life. Using qualitative data we explore disabled people’s views and experiences of outdoor recreation, bringing together ideas from two areas of sociology – disability studies and risk using the concepts of edgework and psycho-emotional disablism. Many people felt that the outdoors represented a risky environment. For some, risk was one of the main drivers for going out into …
Risk, responsibility and reconfiguration: Penal adaptation and misadaptation
This article draws on the findings of an ethnographic study of social enquiry and sentencing in the Scottish courts. It explores the nature of the practice of social enquiry (that is, of social workers preparing reports to assist sentencers) and explores the extent to which this practice is being reconfigured in line with the recent accounts of penal transformation. In so doing, we problematize and explore what we term the ‘governmentality gap’; …
An inclusive outdoors? Disabled people’s experiences of countryside leisure services
In recent years, disabled people’s access to the outdoors has been the subject of renewed interest. This has in part been driven by legislative developments coupled with an increasing recognition that disabled people are under‐represented as users of the countryside. However, very little is actually known about disabled people’s views and experiences of the outdoors. Drawing on the concept of affordances and combining this with a social barrier’s…
Street‐Level Bureaucracy, Interprofessional Relations, and Coping Mechanisms: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Workers in the Sentencing Process
This article builds on the work of Michael Lipsky and develops an argument about the significance of interprofessional working for street‐level bureaucracy. It presents an ethnographic analysis of criminal justice social workers writing presentence reports for the Scottish courts. Social workers' report writing for judges brought into relief issues of relative professional status. Social workers were uncertain of their place within the legal doma…
Shadow Writing and Participant Observation: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Work Around Sentencing
The study of decision‐making by public officials in administrative settings has been a mainstay of law and society scholarship for decades. The methodological challenges posed by this research agenda are well understood: how can socio‐legal researchers get inside the heads of legal decision‐makers in order to understand the uses of official discretion? This article describes an ethnographic technique the authors developed to help them penetrate t…
Assisting and Advising The Sentencing Decision Process: The Pursuit of 'Quality' in Pre-Sentence Reports
Pre-sentence reports are an increasingly prevalent feature of the sentencing process. Yet, although judges have been surveyed about their general views, we know relatively little about how such reports are read and interpreted by judges considering sentence in specific cases, and, in particular, how these judicial interpretations compare with the intentions of the writers of those same reports. This article summarizes some of the main findings of…
An oasis for us”: ‘In-between’ spaces of training for people with mental health problems in the Scottish Highlands
Negotiating difference: Disabled people's experiences of housebuilders
Recent changes in the building regulations have arguably signalled a growing awareness and recognition of the needs of different 'bodies' in the housing system. However, little is known of the ways in which housebuilders conceptualise the needs of those who do not conform to 'able-bodied' norms and how this impacts on their dealing with such groups. Drawing on the experiences of disabled people accessing the private housing market, this paper exp…
Social geographies of rural mental health: Experiencing inclusions and exclusions
A dominant urban focus in previous research on the social geographies of mental health has obscured the experiences of people with mental health problems living in rural localities. Critiquing this urban focus, we report on research conducted in the rural and remote Scottish Highlands. Evidence derived from in‐depth interviews with over 100 users of psychiatric services in the Highlands is deployed to investigate the complex socio‐spatial dynamic…
Rural madness: A geographical reading and critique of the rural mental health literature
The Limits of Housing Reform: British Social Rented Housing in a European Context
The British social rented sector has been characterised as operating like a socialist `command' system. It places a much greater emphasis on housing very poor households than its counterparts in other European countries, most of it is still owned and managed by the (local) state and pricing policies are not sensitive to demand. Consequently, allocation decisions rely on bureaucratic processes. Some other European countries have more socially dive…
Social geographies of rural mental health: Experiencing inclusions and exclusions
A dominant urban focus in previous research on the social geographies of mental health has obscured the experiences of people with mental health problems living in rural localities. Critiquing this urban focus, we report on research conducted in the rural and remote Scottish Highlands. Evidence derived from in‐depth interviews with over 100 users of psychiatric services in the Highlands is deployed to investigate the complex socio‐spatial dynamic…
Risk, responsibility and reconfiguration: Penal adaptation and misadaptation
This article draws on the findings of an ethnographic study of social enquiry and sentencing in the Scottish courts. It explores the nature of the practice of social enquiry (that is, of social workers preparing reports to assist sentencers) and explores the extent to which this practice is being reconfigured in line with the recent accounts of penal transformation. In so doing, we problematize and explore what we term the ‘governmentality gap’; …
Street‐Level Bureaucracy, Interprofessional Relations, and Coping Mechanisms: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Workers in the Sentencing Process
This article builds on the work of Michael Lipsky and develops an argument about the significance of interprofessional working for street‐level bureaucracy. It presents an ethnographic analysis of criminal justice social workers writing presentence reports for the Scottish courts. Social workers' report writing for judges brought into relief issues of relative professional status. Social workers were uncertain of their place within the legal doma…
Rural madness: A geographical reading and critique of the rural mental health literature
An inclusive outdoors? Disabled people’s experiences of countryside leisure services
In recent years, disabled people’s access to the outdoors has been the subject of renewed interest. This has in part been driven by legislative developments coupled with an increasing recognition that disabled people are under‐represented as users of the countryside. However, very little is actually known about disabled people’s views and experiences of the outdoors. Drawing on the concept of affordances and combining this with a social barrier’s…
The human right to health: Exploring disability, migration and health
Across the globe, an estimated one billion people are on the move today, of whom 244 million are international migrants. Not only have global horizons expanded in the realm of work and study; global conflict and exploitation have resulted in forced migration. Migration is a political issue, which raises questions of identity, citizenship, diversity and integration and is utilised to play upon the fear of the stranger, the ‘Other’ and difference i…
Risky bodies in risky spaces: Disabled people’s pursuit of outdoor leisure
Risk is used to deny disabled people access to many parts of mainstream life. Using qualitative data we explore disabled people’s views and experiences of outdoor recreation, bringing together ideas from two areas of sociology – disability studies and risk using the concepts of edgework and psycho-emotional disablism. Many people felt that the outdoors represented a risky environment. For some, risk was one of the main drivers for going out into …
The Limits of Housing Reform: British Social Rented Housing in a European Context
The British social rented sector has been characterised as operating like a socialist `command' system. It places a much greater emphasis on housing very poor households than its counterparts in other European countries, most of it is still owned and managed by the (local) state and pricing policies are not sensitive to demand. Consequently, allocation decisions rely on bureaucratic processes. Some other European countries have more socially dive…
An oasis for us”: ‘In-between’ spaces of training for people with mental health problems in the Scottish Highlands
The rural panopticon
As a contribution to both rural theory and a geography of rural disability, this paper tackles the idea of the ‘rural panopticon’. Inspired by empirical research on mental ill-health in the Scottish Highlands, the authors specify certain workings of the rural panopticon, stressing interconnections between visibility, observation, surveillance, chatter and interiorised senses of self-disciplining (particularly for those with fragile mental health)…
Refugees, political bounding and the pandemic: Material effects and experiences of categorisations amongst refugees in Scotland
Scholars are increasingly interested in and concerned with both the way various migrant populations are categorised, and the lived impacts of that categorisation. In this article, we examine how categorisation was experienced by people at various stages of the refugee journey during the biggest public health crisis for generations. We argue, using original interview data, that the way refugees are categorised, or politically bound, has material i…
Shadow Writing and Participant Observation: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Work Around Sentencing
The study of decision‐making by public officials in administrative settings has been a mainstay of law and society scholarship for decades. The methodological challenges posed by this research agenda are well understood: how can socio‐legal researchers get inside the heads of legal decision‐makers in order to understand the uses of official discretion? This article describes an ethnographic technique the authors developed to help them penetrate t…
Negotiating difference: Disabled people's experiences of housebuilders
Recent changes in the building regulations have arguably signalled a growing awareness and recognition of the needs of different 'bodies' in the housing system. However, little is known of the ways in which housebuilders conceptualise the needs of those who do not conform to 'able-bodied' norms and how this impacts on their dealing with such groups. Drawing on the experiences of disabled people accessing the private housing market, this paper exp…
Assisting and Advising The Sentencing Decision Process: The Pursuit of 'Quality' in Pre-Sentence Reports
Pre-sentence reports are an increasingly prevalent feature of the sentencing process. Yet, although judges have been surveyed about their general views, we know relatively little about how such reports are read and interpreted by judges considering sentence in specific cases, and, in particular, how these judicial interpretations compare with the intentions of the writers of those same reports. This article summarizes some of the main findings of…
Revolting subjects: Social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain
Rural madness: A geographical reading and critique of the rural mental health literature
The Limits of Housing Reform: British Social Rented Housing in a European Context
The British social rented sector has been characterised as operating like a socialist `command' system. It places a much greater emphasis on housing very poor households than its counterparts in other European countries, most of it is still owned and managed by the (local) state and pricing policies are not sensitive to demand. Consequently, allocation decisions rely on bureaucratic processes. Some other European countries have more socially dive…
Negotiating difference: Disabled people's experiences of housebuilders
Recent changes in the building regulations have arguably signalled a growing awareness and recognition of the needs of different 'bodies' in the housing system. However, little is known of the ways in which housebuilders conceptualise the needs of those who do not conform to 'able-bodied' norms and how this impacts on their dealing with such groups. Drawing on the experiences of disabled people accessing the private housing market, this paper exp…
Social geographies of rural mental health: Experiencing inclusions and exclusions
A dominant urban focus in previous research on the social geographies of mental health has obscured the experiences of people with mental health problems living in rural localities. Critiquing this urban focus, we report on research conducted in the rural and remote Scottish Highlands. Evidence derived from in‐depth interviews with over 100 users of psychiatric services in the Highlands is deployed to investigate the complex socio‐spatial dynamic…
An oasis for us”: ‘In-between’ spaces of training for people with mental health problems in the Scottish Highlands
Shadow Writing and Participant Observation: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Work Around Sentencing
The study of decision‐making by public officials in administrative settings has been a mainstay of law and society scholarship for decades. The methodological challenges posed by this research agenda are well understood: how can socio‐legal researchers get inside the heads of legal decision‐makers in order to understand the uses of official discretion? This article describes an ethnographic technique the authors developed to help them penetrate t…
Assisting and Advising The Sentencing Decision Process: The Pursuit of 'Quality' in Pre-Sentence Reports
Pre-sentence reports are an increasingly prevalent feature of the sentencing process. Yet, although judges have been surveyed about their general views, we know relatively little about how such reports are read and interpreted by judges considering sentence in specific cases, and, in particular, how these judicial interpretations compare with the intentions of the writers of those same reports. This article summarizes some of the main findings of…
Risk, responsibility and reconfiguration: Penal adaptation and misadaptation
This article draws on the findings of an ethnographic study of social enquiry and sentencing in the Scottish courts. It explores the nature of the practice of social enquiry (that is, of social workers preparing reports to assist sentencers) and explores the extent to which this practice is being reconfigured in line with the recent accounts of penal transformation. In so doing, we problematize and explore what we term the ‘governmentality gap’; …
An inclusive outdoors? Disabled people’s experiences of countryside leisure services
In recent years, disabled people’s access to the outdoors has been the subject of renewed interest. This has in part been driven by legislative developments coupled with an increasing recognition that disabled people are under‐represented as users of the countryside. However, very little is actually known about disabled people’s views and experiences of the outdoors. Drawing on the concept of affordances and combining this with a social barrier’s…
Street‐Level Bureaucracy, Interprofessional Relations, and Coping Mechanisms: A Study of Criminal Justice Social Workers in the Sentencing Process
This article builds on the work of Michael Lipsky and develops an argument about the significance of interprofessional working for street‐level bureaucracy. It presents an ethnographic analysis of criminal justice social workers writing presentence reports for the Scottish courts. Social workers' report writing for judges brought into relief issues of relative professional status. Social workers were uncertain of their place within the legal doma…
Risky bodies in risky spaces: Disabled people’s pursuit of outdoor leisure
Risk is used to deny disabled people access to many parts of mainstream life. Using qualitative data we explore disabled people’s views and experiences of outdoor recreation, bringing together ideas from two areas of sociology – disability studies and risk using the concepts of edgework and psycho-emotional disablism. Many people felt that the outdoors represented a risky environment. For some, risk was one of the main drivers for going out into …
Revolting subjects: Social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain
The rural panopticon
As a contribution to both rural theory and a geography of rural disability, this paper tackles the idea of the ‘rural panopticon’. Inspired by empirical research on mental ill-health in the Scottish Highlands, the authors specify certain workings of the rural panopticon, stressing interconnections between visibility, observation, surveillance, chatter and interiorised senses of self-disciplining (particularly for those with fragile mental health)…
Implementing guidelines and training initiatives to improve cross-cultural communication in primary care consultations: A qualitative participatory European study
Migrants, primary care providers and other key stakeholders can work effectively together to adapt and implement G/TIs to improve communication in cross-cultural consultations, and enhance understanding and trust between GPs and migrant patients
The human right to health: Exploring disability, migration and health
Across the globe, an estimated one billion people are on the move today, of whom 244 million are international migrants. Not only have global horizons expanded in the realm of work and study; global conflict and exploitation have resulted in forced migration. Migration is a political issue, which raises questions of identity, citizenship, diversity and integration and is utilised to play upon the fear of the stranger, the ‘Other’ and difference i…
Material practices for meaningful engagement: An analysis of participatory learning and action research techniques for data generation and analysis in a health research partnership
BACKGROUND: The material practices which researchers use in research partnerships may enable or constrain the nature of engagement with stakeholder groups. Participatory learning and action (PLA) research approaches show promise, but there has been no detailed analysis of stakeholders' and researchers' experiences of PLA techniques for data generation and co-analysis. OBJECTIVES: To explore stakeholders' and researchers' experiences of PLA techni…
I don’t think there’s anything I can do which can keep me healthy’: How the UK immigration and asylum system shapes the health & wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland
Many migrant groups, particularly those that are politically and economically marginalised, such as asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs), face inequities in access to health care as well as poorer physical and mental health outcomes. The role of post-arrival experiences in contributing to these inequities is increasingly being explored, and it is suggested that being a migrant is itself a determinant of health outcomes. Drawing on the theoretical c…
Refugees, political bounding and the pandemic: Material effects and experiences of categorisations amongst refugees in Scotland
Scholars are increasingly interested in and concerned with both the way various migrant populations are categorised, and the lived impacts of that categorisation. In this article, we examine how categorisation was experienced by people at various stages of the refugee journey during the biggest public health crisis for generations. We argue, using original interview data, that the way refugees are categorised, or politically bound, has material i…
Healthcare (im)mobilities and the Covid-19 pandemic: Notes on returning to the field
This article proposes a mobilities-informed approach to social science research on healthcare and migration. It engages with evidence gathered during the Covid-19 pandemic that suggests that when confronted with a public health emergency, health systems can be responsive to the needs of mobile populations. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, health resources shifted routine services online, spurring an acceleration of telemedicine. The roll-out of the…
Disability and Migration: Trends, Issues and Responses
Political science (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Law (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Politics (6 works)