Robbie Gilligan
Biographic Data
| ID | 83548 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robbie Gilligan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robbie |
| FAMILY NAME | Gilligan |
| SIGNATURE | GILLIGAN R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Trinity College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4150-3523 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 49 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 221 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Foster Placement Breakdown: A Scoping Review of Care‐Experienced Narratives
While there is an extensive body of international literature on foster care placement breakdown, little attention has been given to children's lived experience of this common phenomenon. Using a scoping review method, the study collates and synthesizes what is known about care‐experienced people's lived realities of breakdown. The study followed Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) five‐stage approach to conducting scoping reviews and adopted a child‐cen…
Rethinking Return Migration in the Context of Rural–Urban Migration: A Study of Young Migrant Mothers in Beijing
This study examines return migration within the broader context of rural–urban migration in China, focusing on young migrant mothers in Beijing. While return migration in China is often attributed to structural barriers, this research highlights the agency of migrant women in actively shaping their migration trajectories. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory methods, the study draws on in‐depth interviews with twelve young migrant mothers (seven …
Barriers to the educational progress of care leavers: The neglected role of stigma
Life beyond the care center: The lived experience of care leavers in Vietnam
Young people’s lived experience of relational practices in therapeutic residential care in Australia
The educational and work progress of care experienced adults: The potential contribution of birth family adults over time
Being a rural mother in the urban space: Understanding young rural migrant mothers' agency in cultivating an urban child in Beijing
Early work experiences, social inclusion and transition to adulthood: The voice of care-experienced young adults
It is widely recognised that young people in out-of-home care are often involved in a complex process of culminating disadvantage and exclusion. Investing in the core ingredients of social inclusion (participation and interpersonal relationships) while still in care can counterbalance ongoing exclusion processes. In this article, we explore how early work experiences (before the age of 18) can play a role in this. Findings A thematic analysis was…
Children’s experiences of Signs of Safety: A scoping review
How is therapeutic residential care constructed within key policy documents
Therapeutic residential care (TRC) is a mode of delivering out‐of‐home care (OOHC) that can help meet the needs of some of Australia's most vulnerable young people and their families. TRC programmes aim to support young people to develop positive relationship experiences in a safe and stable environment. Given that TRC is a relatively new model of intervention, to date, the alignment between its aspirational aims and the existing and evolving pol…
Exploring care leavers' agency in achieving entry into the world of work: A cross‐national study in six countries
This article draws attention to the relevance of young care leavers' exercise of agency as one possible key ingredient in overcoming barriers to engagement in work. Several previous studies show difficulties in entering adult life, both in relation to higher and further education as well as entrance into work life. The article analyses interviews with young adults from six countries, who have spent at least part of their childhood and youth in ou…
Moving towards empowerment? Rural female migrants negotiating domestic work and secondary education in urban Ethiopia
Increasing numbers of rural girls and young women in Ethiopia are migrating to urban towns and cities and taking up employment as domestic workers, some of whom continue their education by attending evening classes. For urban households, rural migrants help to fill the domestic work gaps created by the entry of urban women into employment. For rural young women, migrating as a domestic worker is an important strategy for achieving social mobility…
What helps adult care leavers return to education? exploring the relevance of learner identity and the life course perspective
Adult care leavers who have spent time in ‘out-of-home care’ during childhood face many educational challenges. While some care leavers may manage to adhere to ‘normal’ timelines within their educational progression, others may experience delays in their educational journey or a longer-term ‘resignation’ from education during their care/post-care journey. In this paper, we offer a fuller understanding of what drives underachievement in this popul…
Exploring the dynamics of female rural-urban migration for secondary education in Ethiopia
Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the rural-urban migration of 27 girls and young women who leave their rural communities and move to the city to pursue their secondary education, in the ethnically diverse Southern Region of Ethiopia. We consider the nature and extent of the inequalities that they face in rural areas which limit their education opportunities and outcomes and underpin their expected entry into marriage. We compare their …
Children at transition from primary school reflecting on what schools are for - narratives of connectedness, (mis)recognition and becoming
This article draws on a school-based case study carried out in Scotland with 11-12-year-olds reflecting on their views and experiences of school before transitioning from primary to secondary school. Drawing on Honneth's recognition theory, and the dimensions of love, rights and solidarity, the findings show that school was seen by children as a place of dialogue, reciprocity and recognition; the learning and knowledge activities cannot be separa…
The Role of Agency in Shaping the Educational Journeys of Care‐experienced Adults: Insights from a Life Course Study of Education and Care
Research examining the low educational attainment of children in care and care leavers tends to underuse social theory (Berridge, 2007). To contribute to addressing this gap, we use life course theory to explore the role of agency in shaping the educational pathways of 18 Irish adults (aged 24–36 years) with care experience. Findings suggest that agency is a valuable conceptual tool for examining the nuance and complexity of how individual action…
How Disability and Other Socio-Economic Factors Matter to Children’s Socio-Emotional Outcomes: Results from a Longitudinal Study Conducted in Ireland
In your own head everyone is staring’: The disability related identity experiences of young people with hemiplegic cerebral palsy
This article explores the disability related identity experiences of young people with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Using a narrative inquiry methodology, 25 young people between 18 and 29 years participated in in-depth interviews. Their narratives highlighted growing perceptions of difference and how the negative actions and attitudes of a few people in their past continued to shadow their current lives. Influenced by perceived negative attitudes …
Youth agency in everyday precarity: The experiences of young migrants and refugees growing up on the Thailand-Myanmar border
Using the lenses of agency and precarity, this article examines how young migrants and refugees negotiate legal and social marginalisation growing up along the Thailand-Myanmar border. It explores the pervasive insecurity, vulnerability and uncertainty characterising the young people’s worlds, and the ways they strive to manage their circumstances and protect themselves from despair. The study on which the article is based involved 44 semi-struct…
Extended care: Global dialogue on policy, practice and research
Responding to misrecognition – A study with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors
Support in the workplace: How relationships with bosses and co-workers may benefit care leavers and young people in care
How did kinship care emerge as a significant form of placement for children in care? A comparative study of the experience in Ireland and Scotland
Supporting care‐experienced adults' educational journeys: “Linked lives” over the life course
Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over time and how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of “linked lives” is central to the life course perspective referring to the in…
Exploring diversity in the educational pathways of care-experienced adults: Findings from a life course study of education and care
Active survival in the lives of unaccompanied minors: Coping strategies, resilience, and the relevance of religion
Asylum‐seeking unaccompanied minors contend with numerous challenges as they adjust to living in a new country. Although increasing attention has been paid to their capacity for resilience, little research has been done on the exact manner in which they cope. This paper describes some of the insights gleaned from a qualitative study undertaken with unaccompanied minors living in Ireland. Six different coping strategies are identified, namely: (1)…
Beyond Permanence? The Importance of Resilience in Child Placement Practice and Planning
Permanence has long been regarded as a key element in child placement planning and practice. While upholding its benefits, Robbie Gilligan argues that reliance on permanence as a guiding framework has gone too far. Instead he advocates a shift towards a resilience-based perspective which embraces the positive aspects of the permanence framework but more accurately reflects the complexity of child care problems and needs
Extended care: Global dialogue on policy, practice and research
What helps young care leavers to enter the world of work? Possible lessons learned from an exploratory study in Ireland and Catalonia
The role of carers in supporting the progress of care leavers in the world of work
The aim of this component of a preliminary cross‐national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world. A total of 22 care leavers, aged 23–33 years, were recruited on the basis of their having substantial employment experience since leaving care…
Men as Foster Carers: A Neglected Resource
In this paper, Robbie Gilligan sets out to highlight questions about the role and experiences of men as foster carers in fostering couples. 1 The sparse literature relevant to the topic is reviewed; some of the therapeutic and practical reasons for the significance of the man's role in foster care are considered; findings from a small exploratory study of male foster carers and their role are presented; and certain policy implications arising are…
The importance of schools and teachers in child welfare
The article begins by challenging what is considered to be the relative neglect by child and family social work of the importance for children of school and teachers. Key roles of school in children's lives are conceptualized. School is argued to have potential as an ally for children, a guarantor of basic protection, a capacity builder, a secure base from which to explore the self and the world, an integrator into community and culture, a gatewa…
Spare time Activities for Young People in Care: What Can They Contribute to Educational Progress
Earlier articles by Robbie Gilligan have argued the case for the value of participation in spare time activities for young people in care, in terms of its potential to enhance their resilience (Gilligan, 1999, 2000). Here he focuses specifically on how such participation in spare time activities may contribute to positive educational progress for the young person in care. First, evidence is examined as to what, if any, impact such participation m…
Supporting care‐experienced adults' educational journeys: “Linked lives” over the life course
Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over time and how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of “linked lives” is central to the life course perspective referring to the in…
The life course perspective: An integrative research paradigm for examining the educational experiences of adult care leavers
Youth agency in everyday precarity: The experiences of young migrants and refugees growing up on the Thailand-Myanmar border
Using the lenses of agency and precarity, this article examines how young migrants and refugees negotiate legal and social marginalisation growing up along the Thailand-Myanmar border. It explores the pervasive insecurity, vulnerability and uncertainty characterising the young people’s worlds, and the ways they strive to manage their circumstances and protect themselves from despair. The study on which the article is based involved 44 semi-struct…
Responding to misrecognition – A study with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors
Exploring diversity in the educational pathways of care-experienced adults: Findings from a life course study of education and care
In your own head everyone is staring’: The disability related identity experiences of young people with hemiplegic cerebral palsy
This article explores the disability related identity experiences of young people with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Using a narrative inquiry methodology, 25 young people between 18 and 29 years participated in in-depth interviews. Their narratives highlighted growing perceptions of difference and how the negative actions and attitudes of a few people in their past continued to shadow their current lives. Influenced by perceived negative attitudes …
Encountering difference: Young girls' perspectives on separateness and friendship in culturally diverse schools in Dublin
Research on children's friendship in culturally diverse contexts has shown that children are more likely to choose friends from their own ethnic or racial group than others. This article examines this tendency from the perspective of 10- to 12-year-old girls attending ethnically mixed primary schools in Dublin, Ireland. It argues that both the emotional challenges involved in encounters across divides and the dynamics of all children's friendship…
It's Just Common Sense isn't it?’: Exploring Ways of Putting the Theory of Resilience into Action
Planning for accommodated children may often be built around ensuring a secure home. However, it is also important to attend to other domains in children's lives. The promotion of the long-term emotional well-being of children has to be based on information about the factors associated with better outcomes. The findings from research into factors related to resilience in children provide many useful pointers for such practice. Brigid Daniel, Sall…
What helps adult care leavers return to education? exploring the relevance of learner identity and the life course perspective
Adult care leavers who have spent time in ‘out-of-home care’ during childhood face many educational challenges. While some care leavers may manage to adhere to ‘normal’ timelines within their educational progression, others may experience delays in their educational journey or a longer-term ‘resignation’ from education during their care/post-care journey. In this paper, we offer a fuller understanding of what drives underachievement in this popul…
Exploring the dynamics of female rural-urban migration for secondary education in Ethiopia
Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the rural-urban migration of 27 girls and young women who leave their rural communities and move to the city to pursue their secondary education, in the ethnically diverse Southern Region of Ethiopia. We consider the nature and extent of the inequalities that they face in rural areas which limit their education opportunities and outcomes and underpin their expected entry into marriage. We compare their …
The family foster care system in Ireland – Advances and challenges
Family contact in foster care in Portugal. The views of children in foster care and other key actors
This is a pilot study on the sensitive issue of how children and young people experience family contact in foster care, and the views of key adults in their lives on the same issue. There is a special focus on the children's experiences, opinions, and feelings. The study is a response to the relative scarcity of literature on family contact based on the experiences of children and adults in caring roles. This is a qualitative and exploratory stud…
Life beyond the care center: The lived experience of care leavers in Vietnam
Young people’s lived experience of relational practices in therapeutic residential care in Australia
How is therapeutic residential care constructed within key policy documents
Therapeutic residential care (TRC) is a mode of delivering out‐of‐home care (OOHC) that can help meet the needs of some of Australia's most vulnerable young people and their families. TRC programmes aim to support young people to develop positive relationship experiences in a safe and stable environment. Given that TRC is a relatively new model of intervention, to date, the alignment between its aspirational aims and the existing and evolving pol…
Exploring care leavers' agency in achieving entry into the world of work: A cross‐national study in six countries
This article draws attention to the relevance of young care leavers' exercise of agency as one possible key ingredient in overcoming barriers to engagement in work. Several previous studies show difficulties in entering adult life, both in relation to higher and further education as well as entrance into work life. The article analyses interviews with young adults from six countries, who have spent at least part of their childhood and youth in ou…
Moving towards empowerment? Rural female migrants negotiating domestic work and secondary education in urban Ethiopia
Increasing numbers of rural girls and young women in Ethiopia are migrating to urban towns and cities and taking up employment as domestic workers, some of whom continue their education by attending evening classes. For urban households, rural migrants help to fill the domestic work gaps created by the entry of urban women into employment. For rural young women, migrating as a domestic worker is an important strategy for achieving social mobility…
Critical understandings of child development: The development of a module for a post‐qualifying certificate course in child protection studies
This paper explores the dilemmas involved in selecting appropriate theoretical and research material to help social workers in practice. Concentrating on the needs of those working in child care and protection, the paper uses the example of the area of child development knowledge to illustrate a process of presenting theory for practice. Specifically, the focus is on the redevelopment of a child development module for a post‐qualifying certificat…
Beyond Permanence? The Importance of Resilience in Child Placement Practice and Planning
Permanence has long been regarded as a key element in child placement planning and practice. While upholding its benefits, Robbie Gilligan argues that reliance on permanence as a guiding framework has gone too far. Instead he advocates a shift towards a resilience-based perspective which embraces the positive aspects of the permanence framework but more accurately reflects the complexity of child care problems and needs
The importance of schools and teachers in child welfare
The article begins by challenging what is considered to be the relative neglect by child and family social work of the importance for children of school and teachers. Key roles of school in children's lives are conceptualized. School is argued to have potential as an ally for children, a guarantor of basic protection, a capacity builder, a secure base from which to explore the self and the world, an integrator into community and culture, a gatewa…
It's Just Common Sense isn't it?’: Exploring Ways of Putting the Theory of Resilience into Action
Planning for accommodated children may often be built around ensuring a secure home. However, it is also important to attend to other domains in children's lives. The promotion of the long-term emotional well-being of children has to be based on information about the factors associated with better outcomes. The findings from research into factors related to resilience in children provide many useful pointers for such practice. Brigid Daniel, Sall…
The key role of social workers in promoting the well‐being of children in state care — a neglected dimension in reforming policies
Increasingly, policy measures are emerging at national or agency level in different countries to improve the lot of children in state care. Most of these rely heavily on social workers for their implementation. Yet the capacity of social workers to carry out such an ever increasing range of complex tasks seems never to be properly recognised as an issue. This paper argues, from an international perspective, that the continuing central role of soc…
Adversity, resilience and young people: The protective value of positive school and spare time experiences
This paper argues for the value of resilience as a key concept in work with young people in need and considers some of the implications of a resilience led approach for policy and practice. Resilience refers to a capacity to do well despite adverse experience. Social and developmental factors influencing a child or young person's degree of resilience are discussed, with particular reference to the resilience enhancing potential of school experien…
The key role of social workers in promoting the well‐being of children in state care — a neglected dimension in reforming policies
Adversity, resilience and young people: The protective value of positive school and spare time experiences
This paper argues for the value of resilience as a key concept in work with young people in need and considers some of the implications of a resilience led approach for policy and practice. Resilience refers to a capacity to do well despite adverse experience. Social and developmental factors influencing a child or young person's degree of resilience are discussed, with particular reference to the resilience enhancing potential of school experien…
Adversity, resilience and young people: The protective value of positive school and spare time experiences
The key role of social workers in promoting the well-being of children in state care ? a neglected dimension in reforming policies
Men as Foster Carers: A Neglected Resource
In this paper, Robbie Gilligan sets out to highlight questions about the role and experiences of men as foster carers in fostering couples. 1 The sparse literature relevant to the topic is reviewed; some of the therapeutic and practical reasons for the significance of the man's role in foster care are considered; findings from a small exploratory study of male foster carers and their role are presented; and certain policy implications arising are…
Educational Issues for Children and Young People in Families Living in Emergency Accommodation—An Irish Perspective
The article explores how homelessness may impact on the educational participation of children and young people in families living in emergency accommodation in Dublin. Many difficulties arise in terms of maintaining consistent schooling for children when they are part of a homeless family, including problems getting to and from school if living at a distance from their original schools, frequent changes in school and inadequate facilities and ove…
Spare time Activities for Young People in Care: What Can They Contribute to Educational Progress
Earlier articles by Robbie Gilligan have argued the case for the value of participation in spare time activities for young people in care, in terms of its potential to enhance their resilience (Gilligan, 1999, 2000). Here he focuses specifically on how such participation in spare time activities may contribute to positive educational progress for the young person in care. First, evidence is examined as to what, if any, impact such participation m…
Active survival in the lives of unaccompanied minors: Coping strategies, resilience, and the relevance of religion
Asylum‐seeking unaccompanied minors contend with numerous challenges as they adjust to living in a new country. Although increasing attention has been paid to their capacity for resilience, little research has been done on the exact manner in which they cope. This paper describes some of the insights gleaned from a qualitative study undertaken with unaccompanied minors living in Ireland. Six different coping strategies are identified, namely: (1)…
The ‘dance’ of kinship care in England and Ireland: Navigating a course between regulation and relationships
There has been a significant growth in the use of formal kinship care in the UK and Ireland in the last 20 years. The paper charts some of the reasons for the 'organic growth' of kinship care and the multiple dynamics that have shaped this. It shows that kinship care has grown relatively slowly in the more regulated care system of England, compared to the less regulated system in Ireland. Examination of these different trajectories suggests that:…
Multiprofessional Views on Older Patients’ Participation in Care Planning Meetings in a Hospital Context
Care planning meetings (CPMs; sometimes referred to as family meetings) for older patients involve group decision-making between the multidisciplinary team, the older person and their family. However, service user participation is challenged by the inequity of knowledge and power between participants, together with organisational and resource pressures for timely discharge. The effective use and perhaps, potential misuse of communication strategi…
Disability and Human Rights: Global Perspectives
Experienced by more than one billion people worldwide, disability is increasingly recognised as a human rights issue internationally. Completely up to date, Disability and Human Rights draws on cutting edge international research and real life examples to explore the global dimension of disability and to critically review progress on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This book provides…
What helps young care leavers to enter the world of work? Possible lessons learned from an exploratory study in Ireland and Catalonia
Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Youth: A Consensus Statement of the International Work Group on Therapeutic Residential Care
The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on ‘Pathways to Evidence-Based Practice’ at Loughborough University (GBR), Centre for Child and Fami...
The role of carers in supporting the progress of care leavers in the world of work
The aim of this component of a preliminary cross‐national study (Ireland and Catalonia) of care leavers' experience in the world of work is to explore how carers may influence the entry of young people in care into the world of work and how they may also influence the young people's progress in that world. A total of 22 care leavers, aged 23–33 years, were recruited on the basis of their having substantial employment experience since leaving care…
Encountering difference: Young girls' perspectives on separateness and friendship in culturally diverse schools in Dublin
Research on children's friendship in culturally diverse contexts has shown that children are more likely to choose friends from their own ethnic or racial group than others. This article examines this tendency from the perspective of 10- to 12-year-old girls attending ethnically mixed primary schools in Dublin, Ireland. It argues that both the emotional challenges involved in encounters across divides and the dynamics of all children's friendship…
Family contact in foster care in Portugal. The views of children in foster care and other key actors
This is a pilot study on the sensitive issue of how children and young people experience family contact in foster care, and the views of key adults in their lives on the same issue. There is a special focus on the children's experiences, opinions, and feelings. The study is a response to the relative scarcity of literature on family contact based on the experiences of children and adults in caring roles. This is a qualitative and exploratory stud…
The life course perspective: An integrative research paradigm for examining the educational experiences of adult care leavers
Supporting care‐experienced adults' educational journeys: “Linked lives” over the life course
Research highlights the role of key actors and relationships in supporting the educational attainment and progress of children in care and care leavers. We know less about how relationships influence the educational journeys of people with care experience over time and how to support the educational progress and engagement of adults with care experience. The principle of “linked lives” is central to the life course perspective referring to the in…
Exploring diversity in the educational pathways of care-experienced adults: Findings from a life course study of education and care
Psychology (38 works) · Sociology (34 works) · Political science (29 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (27 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (18 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Developmental psychology (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Social science (12 works)