Methods Fair Lightning talk ABSTRACTS

Stream 2: 11-12.30pm Room 3.014, AMBS

11.00am - 11.30am

Considering Collaboration: Lessons from the Pathways to Work for Muslim Women project

Asma Khan, Cardiff University

In this presentation, I will reflect on my experiences of working collaboratively with a third sector organisation. Our aim was to design a workshop programme to encourage and motivate those Muslim women who want to join, or re-join, the labour market. I will focus on my experiences of collaborative working to share an honest reflection on what worked, what might have gone better, and what I would do differently next time. I hope the presentation will benefit other researchers who are thinking ahead to developing collaborative impact and engagement activities.

‘Which language do you prefer? English or Mandarin Chinese?’ The relationship between interviewees’ language choices and positionings in interviews

Qing Qiu, Manchester Institute of Education

Adopting the lens of insider and outsider status (Merton, 1972), in this talk, I aim to provide some insights into my exploration of the relationship between interviewees’ language choices and positionings of themselves and the interviewer as insiders/outsiders in a narrative interview. In interviews, language used may influence data collected (Cortazzi, et al, 2011), interviewees and interviewer’s positionings in the interview (De Fina & Perrino, 2011; Goebel, 2019) and rapport building between the two parties (Goebel, 2019). Also, language choice may lead to modifications of what and how interviewees narrate (e.g., Cortazzi, et al., 2011; Bamberg, 2006). However, research on language choices in interviews is rare (Goebel, 2019). In narrative research in particular, there is a trend of bypassing the narrative language to narrative meaning analysis (Andrews, Squire, Tamboukou, 2017). Even in language related studies, little is mentioned about the language usage in interviews in the methodology chapters (Cortazzi, et al, 2011). In this talk, initial results of my exploration will be covered, which show through choosing different languages, interviewees strategically position themselves and the interviewer as insiders/outsiders in such boundaries as language, culture, community and epistemology and modify the narrations co-constructed between the two parties. The positioning processes can be dynamic and nuanced. This talk will shed some light on ethical and practical considerations of the language issue in narrative interviews.

Navigating Ubuntu in London: How place, race and political grace affect African Adolescent Refugees Mental Health and Identity Development

Esther Omotola Ayoola, University of Brighton

The UK’s Hostile Environment policy presents a uniquely challenging barrier to adolescent refugees that persists into and beyond the resettlement phase of displacement. To date, adolescent refugee research has focused predominantly on aetiologies of psychiatric disorder, thus reaffirming refugee difficulty as maladaptive internalised response to external trauma. The current research adopted a cultural-developmental approach to examine how subclinical African adolescent refugees’ lifeworld experiences impacted the symbiosis between their integration into British society through their mental health and identity.

Five London-resettled African adolescents with refugee status took part in semi-structured interviews which were complemented by a six-month period of bi-weekly, ethnographic observation and engagement with the researcher. Narrative analysis was utilised to comprehensively investigate the influence of socio-political and intrapersonal factors on adolescents ‘meaning-making’ processes, whilst a broader thematic analysis was applied to examine the reflections of key informants. Emerging Adult refugees (n=3) retrospectively reflecting on their subjective experiences of migration and belonging supported development of key themes. Adolescents and Emerging Adults’ first-person narratives were further contextualised by views of social/community (n=10) and political (n=5) agents active in the adolescent refugee space.

Findings demonstrated phenomenological themes of existential bereavement, context-dependent cultures of empowerment and subconscious compartmentalisation. Further exploration of these overarching themes highlighted four powerful interrelated dyads; suffering/trauma, pressure/stress, exclusion/isolation and deprivation/lack. Each dyad exerted both direct and indirect effects on the adolescent refugees identity development and psychosocial wellbeing.

Implications of the thematic clusters on voluntary and statutory provision targeted at adolescent refugees both in the UK and globally is discussed.

11.30am - 12.00pm

Intersectional participatory research to end weight stigma

John Preston, Leeds Beckett University

I am a PhD student at Leeds Beckett University, and the aim of my research is to end weight stigma. Weight stigma is, broadly, when people are treated badly because of their weight. My PhD project is influenced by feminist participatory action research. This is a critically-informed approach to research which addresses power relationships both in research and in society. Due to the additional 'messiness' that this brings to the research process, it is not as commonly applied in PhD projects as it could be! In this short talk I will talk about the reasons for choosing a feminist participatory action research approach, the challenges we have faced, our progress so far, and what the next steps are for our project.

Going back there? Navigating ethical dilemmas in over-researched communities

Anifat Ibrahim, University of Manchester

Social researchers are often faced with the tempting choice of conducting fieldwork in the familiar over-researched communities – these are research environments in which participants are used to a steady influx of researchers. This lightning talk invites researchers to think about how certain sites have become over-researched, with several postgraduate, post-doctoral, and well-known researchers conducting fieldwork in these places and the ethical dilemmas that researchers grapple with when choosing these communities for their fieldwork. Drawing from my fieldwork experience in Makoko – one of Nigeria’s best-known slums, in a study on urban informality, and based on my interactions with fellow researchers, I identify some of the reasons certain locations have become popular sites for fieldwork. Social researchers face dilemmas over some research practices, such as finding a balance between convenience or purposive sampling and deliberately collecting data in an over-researched community, recognising their positionality and objectively justifying their choice of the sample site. Navigating these critical decisions has several far-reaching impacts on the research participants in the over-researched communities and the social researchers’ network. I suggest that ethical considerations, the pressure for time, and researchers’ community entry strategy are some of the key determinants for conducting research in over-researched communities. I recommend that the research community should foster more transparent information sharing and support for researchers conducting fieldwork in over-researched settings.

Navigating fieldwork with organisations in the context of hybrid working practices: reflections on access and recruitment from a doctoral study with children’s safeguarding social workers

Josh Devlin, University of Manchester

The shift towards hybrid models of working has continued to accelerate even after the need for social distancing has reduced. Workers in a range of organisations are now far more likely to undertake their roles from a range of locations. Teams are no longer bounded by the location they work in, instead maintaining connections through digital communications, such as video-conferencing and email. This complicates approaches to participant observation with organisations that involve an initial sustained engagement with a single location, such as a team office.

This talk will draw upon my experiences of navigating this complexity as part of an ethnographically-informed study with children’s safeguarding social workers. I will reflect on how I engaged with teams of social workers who rarely, if ever, worked in the same location at one time, exploring how I adapted my original plans to ultimately develop strong relationships with key participants. I will also discuss how I generated insights into social workers’ digital communicative practices whilst observing organisational and ethical concerns around data protection. The talk will seek to generate discussion around how changes in working practices present new challenges for researchers engaging with organisations, whilst recognising that such challenges echo others’ experiences of adaptation when conducting participant observation.

Manchester Patch Test: An anti-ageing product testing protocol

Bezaleel Mambwe, Lindsay Cotterell, Rachel Watson & Abigail Langton, University of Manchester

Skin photodamage, which is associated with wrinkle formation, is characterised by the loss of structural extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins including fibrillin-rich-microfibrils (FRM). Some topical ‘cosmeceuticals’ - including peptides, may ameliorate the appearance of photodamage, by acting as matrikines; naturally occurring ECM-derived peptides, that can influence skin structure. However, many cosmetic peptides lack proof of activity, especially in vivo.

Developed in the 1990s, the Manchester Patch Test protocol allows the investigation of various anti-ageing cosmeceutical products or concentrations simultaneously in vivo. The protocol consists of using occluded chambers, where the product of interest is dispensed and applied onto forearm skin for 12 days. Each occluded area is anaesthetised, and a biopsy is obtained for immunohistological analysis of fibrillin-rich microfibrils (FRM).

Using the Manchester Patch Test, we assessed the in vivo efficacy of novel anti-ageing peptides-in-blend (10 & 30 ppm) to restore photodamaged dermis, alongside an occluded vehicle and untreated control (12-days). All-trans retinoic acid (ATRA; clinical “gold standard” anti-aging treatment) was occluded separately as a positive control (4-days).

Treatment with both 10 & 30ppm peptide blend significantly increased FRM papillary dermal deposition (untreated, 12.2% coverage; 10 ppm, 18.5%, p<0.01; 30 ppm, 19.9%, p<0.01).

Expectedly, comparable deposition was also observed with ATRA (19.3%, p<0.001), but not with vehicle.

In conclusion, the Manchester Patch Test is a valuable protocol to investigate potential anti-ageing products in vivo

12.00pm - 12.30pm

The Walkthrough Method: Encountering Digital Research in the Digital Age

Xinyi (Ernestina) Zhu, University of Manchester

As technology has been rapidly developed, how researchers approach digital applications and how to use digital technologies to understand society has emerged as one of the most essential topics in digital sociology. The Walkthrough method is fulfilling such needs in the digital age and proposing a novel perspective to understand how to collect digital interface data, especially in human-machine interactive experiences.

Similar to observation, the Walkthrough method is essentially observing and documenting digital applications step-by-step, from the users’ perspective. However, what differentiates the Walkthrough method from observation, is the intrinsic focus of the method. For case studies in social media platforms and online dating platforms, the Walkthrough method emphasised the various stages for users, from user profile registration to daily interactions and communication, and the erasing memories and profile stage. Focusing on the architecture of the application, this method is ideal for the new time digital application analysis (Light, Burgess, and Duguay, 2018). However, the weakness of this method is also laying on the observatory nature of the method. It would require further methods to complement the accuracy of the Walkthrough method data.

Using Twitter data to analyse the spatial patterns of online anti-immigration sentiment in the UK

Matt Mason, University of Liverpool

Online spaces are increasingly shaping public discourse and attitudes across much of the world. Social media platforms in particular have been criticised for their role in the spread of misinformation and the proliferation of hate speech. In response, a growing academic literature has emerged examining online content that expresses negative sentiment towards out-groups, with evidence emerging of its impact on rises in “real physical” incidents of hate. Despite this, little is understood about the spatial pattern of the production of online content of this kind and the contextual factors contributing to shaping its spatial configuration. In this study, I will use data collected from Twitter to examine the spatial patterns of online anti-immigration content within the United Kingdom. I will use natural language processing methods to assess the content of collected tweets, which will then be linked to sub-regional areas of the UK using geographic metadata. A comprehensive spatial picture of relative levels of the production of online anti-immigration content for each area of the UK will then be produced. I will then use this to identify the key demographic and contextual factors associated with the production of anti-immigration sentiment on social media platforms.

Utilising digital footprint in mental health research: prevention and surveillance

Lana Bojanic,University of Manchester

In times when “every aspect of human life and death could be found online” (Klein, 2012, p. 530), digital footprint is becoming an increasingly prominent source of information. Digital footprint left by online searching or ‘Googling’ can inform us about various aspects of population health (Asch et al., 2019). In recent years, analysis of Google Search Trends (GST; a website that analyses the popularity of Google searches across regions and languages) is increasingly being used in health research (Arendt, 2018; Jun et al., 2018), as it seems it could be used to monitor and predict a wide range of human behaviours, including suicidal behaviour (Jun et al., 2018; Mavragani et al., 2018). Correlating GST data with observed suicide rates can provide information on the timing of Google searches concerning suicide; namely, do higher rates of such searches precede or follow higher rates of suicide deaths. In my lightning talk, I will briefly present what is currently known about using GST methodology and how I plan to use it in the final study of my PhD. I hope it will generate discussion on potential prevention benefits and also risks associated with this type of surveillance.

Researching wellbeing during COVID-19: Prioritising participant wellbeing through online research methods

Charlotte Hoyland, University of Manchester

My PhD research focuses on young adults’ mental health, wellbeing, and peer-to-peer support networks, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The UK entered the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic during the first year of my PhD while I was defining my research project and methodology.

My Lightening Talk will focus on my use of online methods - netnography and online focus groups - as a way of continuing my research interests during the ongoing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. When designing my research approach, it was important for me to find a way to research mental health and wellbeing without intruding (both physically and psychologically) in my participants’ “safe spaces” and without creating additional pressure to participate in research during an already uncertain time.

Netnography is often credited for its unobtrusive nature, real-time naturalising data collection, and allowing access to hidden participants or sensitive topic research. Adopting a non-participant approach to netnography has enabled me to access rich, insightful data whilst prioritising the potential needs of my participants during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Through my lightning talk, I’d like to share my insights on prioritising my participants during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ethical challenges I’ve faced and the strategies I’ve adopted to address these.