Children’s participation in research on sensitive topics: addressing concerns of decision-makers

ABSTRACT

Although there is general agreement about children’s engagement in social research, some researchers continue to experience challenges when seeking approval and support for children’s participation from a range of adult stakeholders, particularly when the research involves a sensitive topic. These challenges may reflect different perspectives, conflicting interests, needs or expectations. This paper explores factors that influence the decision-making of key stakeholder groups, including Human Research Ethics Committees, parents and organisational representatives. Building on the kind of objective, rational reasoning that underpins much ethical decision-making, the findings, from interviews with 42 participants across stakeholder groups, draw attention to influential issues grounded in perceptions of: the institution and researcher undertaking the research; the project itself; children’s characteristics and contexts. Collectively, such issues point to the critically important role of mutually respectful relationships between researchers and stakeholders as the basis for designing and implementing ethical research that gives close attention to stakeholder concerns.     

Regular field and tenurial arrangements in Holderness,Yorkshire

In this paper I shall argue that in a small district of Yorkshire, details of field form and holding layout in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century townships suggest that these came into being as a result of a phase of reorganization and planning. I shall also consider the possible period of this reorganization, and discuss the circumstances that may have been involved.An approach of this kind inevitably raises the problem of the extent to which landscape forms can be used as evidence of their modes of origin. It is fashionable to argue that an emphasis on morphological aspects overlooks functional and change-producing mechanisms in field systems, that such an approach tends to assume stability of form where positive evidence for change is lacking, and that identical forms can originate in different ways and at different times. On the other hand, landscape forms are often the only clues to phases of development that occurred before documentary evidence was of sufficient quantity and quality to reveal them. The value of the methodology has been particularly well demonstrated in Sweden, where more recent landscapes have been used as the basis for the identification of earlier generations of field patterns and settlements. ^[1] In England, the approach has been most successfully applied to the analysis of settlement forms. Both Roberts and Sheppard have convincingly demonstrated that an examination of regular village plans in northern England can reveal evidence of their early development. ^[2] This paper is an attempt to use a similar technique in the study of field morphology and tenurial patterns.     

The production of penicillin in wartime China and Sino-American definitions of “normal” microbiology

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the history of domestic penicillin production in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, focusing on the work of the National Epidemic Prevention Bureau (NEPB) to identify, isolate, cultivate, and extract the drug. This work took place just as the American Bureau for Medical Aid to China discussed plans to establish an American pilot plant for Chinese penicillin manufacture, which would directly transfer technologies and personnel from the US to China. While American advisers saw the basic conditions of wartime China as actively obstructing the highly technical project of penicillin production, researchers at the NEPB relied crucially upon that same local environment to identify useful molds and find substitutions for key materials in successfully manufacturing penicillin in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China.     

Feminist and gender geographies in Ireland

Abstract

This report discusses feminist and gender geographies in Ireland. We first focus on the ways in which gender constructs Irish geographies, updating numbers of women in academic positions across Ireland. This shows that women are increasingly in secure positions, but remain under-represented in more senior positions. We then turn to research. We discuss how femininities and women, and masculinities and men, have been addressed in Irish geographies. The focus on femininities and women is crucial given recent strides towards gender and reproductive justice. We then briefly summarise sexualities work. The report concludes by arguing that Ireland not only has vibrant gender/feminist geographical scholarship, it also has significant potential for emerging research and developing new theorisations and research agendas.