Suchergebnisse

This article examines some of the opportunities and challenges associated with using archived qualitative data to explain macro-social change through a biographical lens. Using examples from a recent research project on family change in Ireland, I show how working across qualitative datasets provided opportunities for generating new explanations of social change by 'reading against the grain' of established social science narratives and tracing innovation in social practices. I also discuss some of the methodological challenges associated with working across datasets and how we addressed them in the study.

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses the interactions amongst family, household and extended kin through an examination of two 'circulations' of children within rural Irish communities during the first half of the twentieth century: (1) the daily journey from home to school; (2) going to live with relatives other than parents. Drawing on life-history narratives, the article develops a new perspective on the stem-family system in Ireland by showing how 'incomplete' family households formed integral parts of local kinship circles and were deeply engaged in the everyday lives of 'complete' family households, including the promotion of extended family survival and social mobility.

Abstract
This paper explores changing patterns of collective identity amongst rural industrial producers in the North of Ireland through an extended analysis of a single poem, The Penitent', written by the weaver poet James Orr in 1800. Working‐class identities were founded as much on the experience and creation of difference as on the perception of sameness. Rural industrial producers responded to the social and economic upheavals of the time by emphasizing the cultural values of sobriety, respectability and dignity. In doing so they sought to establish a social space which would differentiate them from those whose independence and well‐being was eroding.

This paper explores changing patterns of collective identity amongst rural industrial producers in the North of Ireland through an extended analysis of a single poem, 'The Penitent,' (see Appendix) written by the weaver-poet James Orr in 1800. The poem was written at the culmination of a time of great social and political upheaval in Ireland, particularly in the north-east. The growth of rural domestic linen production in the eighteenth century had been accompanied by rapid population growth, land subdivision and (by the end of the century) the emergence in some districts of petty entrepreneurs who employed poorer weaving households to manufacture cloth by the piece.

This article contributes to new scholarship on family change as bricolage and institutional layering. Focusing on the classic topic of parental values and aspirations for their children, we used a retrospective qualitative longitudinal analysis to trace the evolution of four overlapping cultural configurations across the 20th century: (1) standing back and not interfering, (2) cultivating achievement, (3) encouraging positive relationships, and (4) promoting happiness and self-fulfilment. We show that there was a directional change in the emphases and inflections placed on these configurations, and in the moral ambivalence that parents displayed as they reconciled them in their narratives. Meanings centred on autonomy and cultivation were layered onto relatedness across changing social contexts. Engaging with recent debates on the value of qualitative interviews, our analysis demonstrates how qualitative longitudinal research can provide rigorous analysis of long-term cultural change.

Internationally, in-work benefits (IWBs) are widely adopted as a measure to assist parents transitioning to work and to 'make work pay' for low-income families. The family income supplement (FIS) is an Irish IWB, introduced at a time of rapid societal change. This article shows how changing family dynamics, and a shift in policy focus towards a 'work-first' approach, challenged the original values underlying FIS. We discuss FIS in the context of changes to family life and social policy. We then outline the results of ten interviews with experts using three themes: work-first approach, child poverty and encouraging care. Our analysis shows that policymakers faced new challenges to provide an income support for children while also promoting full-time labour participation. FIS continues to support working families, but in a manner that creates contradictions for the contemporary 'work-first' approach. It is necessary to re-examine FIS in relation to its wider policy context and to address requirements for caring.

The article presents a retrospective qualitative longitudinal analysis of experiences of education and class amongst three cohorts of Irish people who started out in difficult financial circumstances. It shows how the intersection of education and class-formation in modern Ireland was 'realized' in different historical periods during the 20th century. Some groups accumulated economic and cultural resources allowing them to convert education to upward social mobility during key periods, whereas others were 'shut out' from the project of the state. We argue that the concept of 'experience', understood as the realization of historically situated macro-sociological processes, provides a useful way of linking agency to structural change, bringing the strengths of macro-sociological quantitative analysis together with those of micro-sociological qualitative analysis within a longer temporal frame.

Qualitative Research In Ireland: Archiving Strategies and Development