What Does it Mean to Adopt a Trauma-Informed Approach to Research?: Reflections on a Participatory Project With Young People Seeking Asylum in the UK

Trauma-informed (T-I) approaches to working with vulnerable people have gained popularity in practice but are rarely used in academic research and little is known about the challenges of conducting a T-I approach to participatory research. This paper reflects on our experiences of a participatory peer research project involving unaccompanied young people seeking asylum (16–25 years) during the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst the project adhered to a robust ethical framework, it became apparent at an early stage in the empirical phase that our methods needed to acknowledge and accommodate the trauma of those involved in the project much more thoughtfully and effectively than our ethical framework suggested. With this in mind, we set about identifying the key elements of a T-I approach to research and how these might add value to research with vulnerable and marginalised populations. Our model of a T-I approach to peer research is framed around five core principles: working reflectively with those with lived experience; contextualising trauma; nurturing trust; showing care; and empowering those involved in and affected by the research

The EU and international adoption from Romania

The European Union (EU) has applied an anti-inter-country adoption (ICA) policy in Romania as part of EU accession conditionality, while after 2007 the EU promoted a pro-ICA approach. Romania had to overhaul its child protection system and ban ICA before it could become an EU member, while its current legislation maintains the ban on ICA. However, since 2007 the EU has been demanding that Romanian authorities resume ICA from Romania. This article examines the factors and processes which shaped the EU’s ‘chameleonic’ policy on ICA in relation to Romania. The child protection system in Romania still faces significant shortcomings. However, it is shown that the EU’s embrace of a pro-ICA policy after 2007 does not constitute a response to the problems faced by child protection in Romania. On the contrary, the EU’s plea for the liberalization of ICA from Romania is the outcome of a combination of endogenous factors, such as the EU’s own embrace of a children’s rights policy and its biased interpretation of key international instruments on ICA and child rights, and exogenous factors, such as adoption lobbies, which succeeded in getting their grievances onto the agenda of EU institutions

Revisiting the role of domestic politics: politicisation and European Cohesion Policy performance in Central and Eastern Europe

This article evaluates the influence of domestic political factors on the performance of Cohesion Policy (CP) in new member states. It argues that domestic levels of politicisation, within Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) can mediate the outcome-driven performance of the policy. Empirically this is probed against original empirical evidence from two cases studies: Bulgaria and Romania. Evidence was found to suggest that politicisation can affect the management and implementation of EU funds delivery. More specifically, political patronage damaged managerial continuity and the development of expertise in the specialised institutions managing CP. In addition, political clientelism was associated with some of the problems found in the selection of EU funded projects and, more pre-eminently, with regard to the allocation of public procurement contracts. The article discusses the wider theoretical implications of its findings and the impact of politicisation on the implementation of EU policies in CEECs