Negotiating identities: the lives of Pakistani and Bangladeshi young disabled people

Research has generally amalgamated minority ethnic (all called 'Asian' or 'black') disabled young people's experiences and failed to acknowledge the multiple aspects of Asian and black disabled identities, for example how the combined attributes of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, culture, class and disability shape their perspectives and experiences. In an attempt to address this issue my doctoral research explored the experiences and perspectives of 13 young Pakistani and Bangladeshi disabled people. By drawing on the substantive and theoretical findings which emerged from my analysis in this paper I shall consider how multiple aspects of identity, such as ethnicity, disability and gender, affect this population's identity and self-image and how this makes their experiences different from white disabled young people and other minority groups' experiences.     

The importance of discourse in homelessness policy for young people: an Australian perspective

Homelessness among young people remains an ongoing critical issue across the globe, despite numerous targeted policies attempting to address the issue. Research demonstrates that the way policies represent social problems influences policy solutions. Drawing on Australian policy, this research investigates how policy discourses construct homeless young people, and how these constructions influence the support services developed. The study involves a critical discourse analysis of Australia’s most recent national inquiry report on homelessness among young people. The analysis suggests that the values and assumptions present throughout this policy largely reflect neoliberal political contexts, emphasising the importance of individual and community responsibility. However, there exists a disconnect between policy expectations of young people’s autonomy and the construction of their capacity for autonomy. This suggests that young people require greater levels of participation in policy development to create an effective balance between their own need for self-determinism and the support they require to transition out of homelessness.     

Pushing back the margins: power,identity and marginalia in survey research with young people

The study of marginalia has not been widely discussed in social sciences research and occupies a marginal space in terms of methodological legitimacy. We highlight the value of paying attention to the ways in which participants speak back to the researcher. This paper draws on marginalia found in surveys written or drawn by young people in classrooms across South Wales, demonstrating how various notes and marks made spontaneously by participants can tell us something important and worthwhile about how young people engage with research. We position marginalia as a manifestation of complex power dynamics in the research process that illuminate participants’ negotiation of complex and multiple subjectivities in the literal margins and between the lines of the survey pages. Whilst the sensitive and rigorous analysis of marginalia is fraught with ethical and methodological challenges, we argue that paying closer attention to marginalia presents an opportunity for deeper engagement with participants when undertaking survey research.     

Children's lives and rights under lockdown: A Northern Irish perspective by autistic young people

By June 2021, children and young people had experienced two periods of lockdown and home learning in Northern Ireland. The detrimental impact of these periods of indefinite confinement is wider reaching than reported educational stagnation, with the fundamental rights of childhood: play; rest; and leisure; all adversely implicated. Autistic children's experiences of Covid-19 have been largely absent from current crisis and recovery discourse. This is the first published study to directly and specifically involve autistic children both as research advisors and as research participants in a rights-based participatory study relating to the pandemic. Drawing on concepts of ableist childism and epistemic injustice, this article presents, through Photovoice, the emotional, social and educational experiences of post- primary aged autistic young people in Northern Ireland during the first 2020 lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project was grounded in a child rights-based approach and was guided by a group of four autistic young advisors aged 11–15. The paper concludes by arguing that government responses to the pandemic, as experienced by autistic young people, act as forms of oppression that prioritises and further embeds normative non-autistic structures and responses under the guise of public health necessity.     

Feeling special: Language in the lives of Polish people

In this article I use findings from an ESRC funded project on language and identity in the narratives of Polish people to challenge a narrow approach to language in debates about integration. I argue that decisions about learning languages are influenced by wider concerns of self and other identification rather then simply being issues of instrumental need. I show how research participants viewed speaking Polish as an important part of being Polish, that is, of their identity. They recognised that changing the language they spoke involved questioning the way they presented themselves and how they related to others. I discuss how language was used to differentiate between ‘us’ and ‘others’, including in terms of values and the ways in which these perceptions of difference influenced social interactions.     

Nothing to be had 'off the peg': consumption, identity and the immobilization of young disabled people

Contemporary sociology makes the case that the concepts of society and social structure are past their sell-by dates. Our world is marked by impermanence and social life is characterised by mobilities. Even self-identity has become liquid. Social actors use consumption artefacts and services to re-design themselves in ways that are commensurate with their deepest desires. However, we argue that disabled people are unlikely to recognise themselves in these debates. Young disabled people, in their quest for identity and consumer citizenship, meet with ubiquitous barriers and closed markets. In their experience choice and mobility are rhetorical. They encounter immobilization and exclusion from the kinds of consumer lifestyles that their non-disabled peers take for granted. Furthermore, we argue, that at the heart of consumer culture is an aesthetic of youthfulness that is profoundly alien to 'the anomaly'. The signifiers of 'youth' and disability are in profound tension. Cultures of consumption are constituted in ways that mark young disabled people off as outsiders who need not apply for entry.     

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 experiences and spare time activities. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sticking with us through it all: The importance of trustworthy relationships for children and young people in residential care

Both historical and contemporary residential care for children have been found to present risks to their safety and security. Views about the characteristics of workers that helped them to feel safe in the placement were obtained from 27 children and young people who were placed in residential care in Australia. Competent and trustworthy staff were considered essential. These workers were characterised as caring, proactive, tenacious in building relationships, and available. Importantly, they listened and ensured young people had a voice. The study affirms the central role of the worker-client alliance in ensuring residential care is a positive and safe experience for children and young people, and identifies structural factors that children and young people believe are barriers to them feeling safe.     

Mapping the role of ‘transnational family habitus’ in the lives of young people and children

In this article, we develop the concept of ‘transnational family habitus’ as a theoretical tool for making sense of the ways in which children and young people from a migrant background are ‘doing families’ transnationally. Drawing on over a decade of cumulative research on Caribbean and Italian families in the UK, as well as on a new joint research project, we first investigate the opportunities and consequences of a transnational family habitus on family arrangements, kinship relationships and identity within a transnational context. Second, we analyse the role of these young people's structural location in Britain in shaping the boundaries of their transnational family habitus. We argue that one should see a transnational family habitus as an asset that can potentially disrupt conventional understandings of belonging and processes of inclusion and exclusion. However, we also detail how social divisions of class, race, and increasingly migration status, shape such a habitus.     

Personal resilience and identity capital among young people leaving care: enhancing identity formation and life chances through involvement in volunteering and social action

This study explored identity capital and personal resilience among care leavers and young people in care engaging in social activities through volunteering. Care leavers and young people in care are disadvantaged developmentally by lack of identity resources and an accelerated transition to independence. This study analysed material from semi-structured interviews to explore the Identity Capital Model and theories of individualisation, agentic identity development and resilience in explaining the identity resources of young people transitioning out of care. The analysis identified links between the exploration opportunities of volunteering with the development of agentic individualisation and enhanced identity capital. The findings indicate that developmental processes may be enhanced through supported and personalised volunteering opportunities to aid vulnerable young people transitioning out of care. Young people leaving care can make substantial gains particularly in social capital, personal resilience and identity capital. This study indicates that volunteering opportunities for this group of vulnerable young people may assist in compensating for the lack of resources often experienced by care leavers when transitioning to adulthood.     

Issues of collaboration,representation, meaning and emotions: utilising participant-led visual diaries to capture the everyday lives of people in mid to later life

In recent years there has been an increasing use of visual methods in ageing research. There are, however, limited reflections and critical explorations of the implications of using visual methods in research with people in mid to later life. This paper examines key methodological complexities when researching the daily lives of people as they grow older and the possibilities and limitations of using participant-generated visual diaries. The paper will draw on our experiences of an empirical study, which included a sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over with different daily routines. Participant-led photography was drawn upon as a means to create visual diaries, followed by in-depth, photo-elicitation interviews. The paper will critically reflect on the use of visual methods for researching the daily lives of people in mid to later life, as well as suggesting some wider tensions within visual methods that warrant attention. First, we explore the extent to which photography facilitates a ‘collaborative’ research process; second, complexities around capturing the ‘everydayness’ of daily routines are explored; third, the representation and presentation of ‘self’ by participants within their images and interview narratives is examined; and, finally, we highlight particular emotional considerations in visualising daily life.     

Negotiating the boundaries of intimacy: the personal lives of asexual people

This paper uses findings from research diaries to explore the use of practices of intimacy among asexual people. While much of the literature to date has focused on the supposedly transformative and political nature of uniquely asexual practices of intimacy, our findings suggest something different. Rather than seeking to transform the nature of intimate relationships, asexual people make pragmatic adjustments and engage in negotiations to achieve the forms of physical and emotional intimacy they seek. We discuss this in relation to three areas: friendships, sex as a practice of intimacy, and exclusion from intimacy. Our findings suggest the importance of not only considering the social context in which asexual people practise intimacy, but also how the practices in which they engage may be shared with non‐asexual people.     

Varieties of narcissistically vulnerable couples: Dynamics and practice implications

This article discusses two types of narcissistically vulnerable couples not yet clearly delineated in the clinical literature. These are the narcissistic-overgiving couple and the borderline-codependent pair. While partners in each of these relationships share vulnerability to low self-esteem and abandonment fears, their defensive stategies are different and synergistic over time. Treatment approaches must respond to the partners' differences as well as to their mutual underlying concerns.     

Strengthening youth citizenship and social inclusion practice — The Australian case: Towards rights based and inclusive practice in services for marginalized young people

This article provides a framework for understanding disadvantaged young people from a youth citizenship perspective that includes social inclusion principles and a rights based approach to service delivery. This paper will argue that a rights based and inclusive practice approach can help to enable the self-confidence, resilience and capacities of marginal youth in efforts to counter social exclusion. A social inclusion strategy that is derived from the European Union helps frame inclusive practice and is explicitly linked to an emerging national human rights and inclusive agenda for marginalized youth in Australia. Elements of inclusive service practice include youth participation in services, issues of access and equity, service responsiveness, joined-up services and user-led accountability. These elements provide a basis for bringing a citizenship framework into services, and for professional learning and education in work with marginal youth. A framework is suggested that seeks to recognise and respond to highly disadvantaged youth that includes the marginalizing ‘intersections’ of gender, racial and disability identities. Brief excerpts of secondary qualitative data on two highly vulnerable youth populations-homeless youth and Aboriginal youth-are used to highlight the need for a citizenship approach that listens and responds to these vulnerable young people in both research and practice.