Exploring new developments and applications of ‘practice-near’ research in social work

1. Exploring new developments and applications of ‘practice-near’ research in social work Stephen Briggs Helen Hingley-Jones

2. Practice- near research in social work • Key criteria for practice-near research are: • Gathering data that uses or yields ‘thick description’ of the social world to provide understanding of the experiences of service-users, professionals, and their interactions. • Allowing in the data collected and its interpretation, exploration of emotionality and relationships, including reflexive understanding of research participants’ experiences. • Affording opportunities for adequate, transparent theorisation of practice effected through the application of an interdisciplinary approach to making sense of practice-near data • Making links with more ‘practice distant’ methods either within the same project or with knowledge generated by researching subjectivities in broader contexts.

3. the Tavistock model of infant observation • key features of the model • the observer’s use of ‘free floating attention’ and availability for emotional experiences, • recording thick description in detail after rather than during the observation • the role of the seminar group in processing and making sense of the observations • applications to studying: practice (work discussion), organisations (institutional observation), and different groups of people

4. Application 1: study of young people with severe learning disabilities • qualities of emotionality in relationships between the young person, family members and observer are highlighted through the observational processes (Hingley-Jones 2012)

5. Application 1: ‘Trying Transitions’ • Family-based observations of 4 teenagers with severe learning disabilities in their homes • Chose families who were seen to be ‘doing well’ • Observed one hour a week, for 6 months • Considered the young people’s adolescent development from a psychosocial perspective- concept of ‘subjectivation’ or becoming a subject in adolescence

6. Subjectivation • owning the new adult sexual body, thoughts and drives, • separating at these levels from parental figures • and making new 'object' choices- all in the context of the wider social field

7. Findings • Considered the embodied, intrapersonal, interpersonal and social aspects of adolescent experience for the 4 young people • Noticed the transient, shifting sense of subjectivity in relation to the young people • Complexities for caring parents & siblings- no simple way to ‘do’ adolescence • Highlighted the centrality of relationship to adolescent development

8. Billy Tim said quite a tender, private goodbye to Billy. He lent into his face and spoke in his ear, ‘Do you want me to go?’Tim said to him louder and Billy shook his head back from side to side showing ‘no’, with a sad look just discernible on his face. (3:5)

9. Billy ‘He’s got to go to hospital next Monday, for a kidney check up’. She went into detail about how it can be difficult to help him lie still for an hour while the test takes effect. A radioactive chemical is placed in a cannula attached to his hand. Maggie said ‘they offer aesthetic cream, but that takes an hour extra, in which case we’d hit rush hour, so I just make him have it without’. The medics then look to see how the isotope travels through the kidney. ‘It takes two of us to hold him, while they do this, one at the top and one at the bottom, at his feet’. (13:3)

10. Application 2: using observational methods within an evaluative project • studying community engagement in London’s African communities, where there were concerns about child abuse relating to religious beliefs including witchcraft and spirit possession (Briggs et al 2011) • Observations were made of interactions in community projects, including (for example) a youth forum for Congolese young people and a parenting workshop

11. Application to evaluation of faith-based practices • Analysis of the ‘thick’ description of these observations provided access to understanding the contexts for attitudes towards witchcraft and spirit possession practices in these communities • e.g. Observations over time tracked the growing capacity and willingness of parents and young people to discuss hitherto taboo issues of faith practices. • Use of team approach to data analysis: helped to understand emotionality and relational themes (modelled on the observation seminar) • These facilitated theoretical modelling of the relationship between faith practices (witchcraft and spirit possession) and incidents of child abuse

12. Summary and conclusions • Practice-near methods have the capacity to inform evaluative studies where the objects of study are ‘on the margins’ • There is a versatility about the application of observational methods in practice-near research

13. References Briggs, S, 2008, Working with Adolescents & Young Adults, Palgrave, Basingstoke Briggs, S & Hingley-Jones, 2013, ‘Reconsidering adolescent subjectivity: a ‘practice-near’ approach to the study of adolescents, including those with severe learning disabilities’, British Journal of Social Work, 43: 64-80 Hingley-Jones, H, 2012, ‘Emotion and relatedness as aspects of the identities of adolescents with severe learning disabilities: contributions from ‘practice-near’ social work research’, Child and Family Social Work, advanced on-line publication 30th April 2012