Sharon Mallon – författare

The term ‘sensitive research’ is applied to a wide range of issues and settings. It is used to denote projects that may involve risk to people, stigmatising topics, and/or require a degree of sensitivity on behalf of the researcher. Rather than take the notion of ‘sensitive research’ for granted, this collection unpacks and challenges what the term means.

This book is a collective endeavour to reflect on research practices around ‘sensitive research’, providing in-depth explorations about what this label means to different researchers, how it is done – including the need to be sensitive as a researcher – and what impacts this has on methods and knowledge creation. The book includes chapters from researchers who have explored a diverse range of research topics, including sex and sexuality, death, abortion, and learning disabilities, from several disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, health services research and interdisciplinary work. The researchers included here collectively argue that current approaches fail to adequately account for the complex mix of emotions, experiences, and ethical dilemmas at the heart of many ‘sensitive’ research encounters. Overall, this book moves the field of ‘sensitive research’ beyond the genericity of this label, showing ways in which researchers have in practice addressed the methodological threats that are triggered when we uncritically embark on ‘sensitive research''.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology and the journal Mortality.

The term ‘sensitive research’ is applied to a wide range of issues and settings. It is used to denote projects that may involve risk to people, stigmatising topics, and/or require a degree of sensitivity on behalf of the researcher. Rather than take the notion of ‘sensitive research’ for granted, this collection unpacks and challenges what the term means.

This book is a collective endeavour to reflect on research practices around ‘sensitive research’, providing in-depth explorations about what this label means to different researchers, how it is done – including the need to be sensitive as a researcher – and what impacts this has on methods and knowledge creation. The book includes chapters from researchers who have explored a diverse range of research topics, including sex and sexuality, death, abortion, and learning disabilities, from several disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, health services research and interdisciplinary work. The researchers included here collectively argue that current approaches fail to adequately account for the complex mix of emotions, experiences, and ethical dilemmas at the heart of many ‘sensitive’ research encounters. Overall, this book moves the field of ‘sensitive research’ beyond the genericity of this label, showing ways in which researchers have in practice addressed the methodological threats that are triggered when we uncritically embark on ‘sensitive research''.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology and the journal Mortality.

While death, dying and bereavement are universal life events, the social conditions under which death takes place are fundamental in shaping how it is experienced by the individual. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of chapters provides sociological insights into death, dying and bereavement.

Drawing upon a range of sociological theorists, including Émile Durkheim, Zygmunt Bauman and C. Wright Mills, the book reviews the historical contribution of sociology to the field of thanatology. In doing so, the book challenges individualistic psychological approaches to death, dying and bereavement and demonstrates how sociological approaches can shape, constrain and empower experiences by imbuing them with both collective and individual meaning. Chapter-length case studies explore a wide range of issues, from digital aspects of remembrance and memorialisation and continued threats to liberties that permit life and death decisions to discussions of the impact and likely legacy of COVID-19 and climate change.

This collection will be of interest to students and researchers in the social sciences with an interest in societal attitudes towards death and bereavement.

While death, dying and bereavement are universal life events, the social conditions under which death takes place are fundamental in shaping how it is experienced by the individual. Bringing together contributors from around the world, this collection of chapters provides sociological insights into death, dying and bereavement.

Drawing upon a range of sociological theorists, including Émile Durkheim, Zygmunt Bauman and C. Wright Mills, the book reviews the historical contribution of sociology to the field of thanatology. In doing so, the book challenges individualistic psychological approaches to death, dying and bereavement and demonstrates how sociological approaches can shape, constrain and empower experiences by imbuing them with both collective and individual meaning. Chapter-length case studies explore a wide range of issues, from digital aspects of remembrance and memorialisation and continued threats to liberties that permit life and death decisions to discussions of the impact and likely legacy of COVID-19 and climate change.

This collection will be of interest to students and researchers in the social sciences with an interest in societal attitudes towards death and bereavement.

There are currently over 1.3 billion people globally who experience exclusion and inequality rooted in persistent and deep ableism. Quality research with and about disabled people is vital to changing this situation. Such research presents ethical challenges and complexities which have not been given the attention they deserve if we are to advance disability rights as promised by the UNCRPD and other equality and human rights commitments.

Considering important aspects of general ethical principles, including respect, consent, privacy and confidentiality, this volume of Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity fills that gap. It does so while also recognising the broad scope, diversity and significant size of the disabled population.

Experienced researchers from the field examine processes of disablement and the specificities which arise when researching the lives of people with physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments. Authors also incorporate social factors such as gender, ethnicity and age and how they interact with disability. Building from the context set by the UNCRPD and other ethical guidance, chapters explore topics such as ensuring quality in data, the importance of defining terms, ethical inclusion, use and misuse of the term vulnerability, the intersection of race and ethnicity, the role of ethics committees and other approval processes and maximising research impact.

There are currently over 1.3 billion people globally who experience exclusion and inequality rooted in persistent and deep ableism. Quality research with and about disabled people is vital to changing this situation. Such research presents ethical challenges and complexities which have not been given the attention they deserve if we are to advance disability rights as promised by the UNCRPD and other equality and human rights commitments.

Considering important aspects of general ethical principles, including respect, consent, privacy and confidentiality, this volume of Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity fills that gap. It does so while also recognising the broad scope, diversity and significant size of the disabled population.

Experienced researchers from the field examine processes of disablement and the specificities which arise when researching the lives of people with physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments. Authors also incorporate social factors such as gender, ethnicity and age and how they interact with disability. Building from the context set by the UNCRPD and other ethical guidance, chapters explore topics such as ensuring quality in data, the importance of defining terms, ethical inclusion, use and misuse of the term vulnerability, the intersection of race and ethnicity, the role of ethics committees and other approval processes and maximising research impact.