(Telling) tales of the unexpected : A sociological analysis of accounts of paranormal experiences

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Size Acceptance: A Discursive Analysis of Online Blogs

This document is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Fat Studies on 25 May 2018, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2018.1473704. Under embargo until 25 May 2019.Dominant discourses of “fatness” and “fat people” have implications for physical and mental health. Although alternative discourses such as “size acceptance” exist, there has been little consideration of the ways in which these alternative arguments (and speakers) may be positioned to be heard. Using a discursive thematic analysis, the authors demonstrate that size acceptance online bloggers have created a community online that enables them to persuasively provide alternative claims to “expertise,” which positions their views as credible and legitimate alternatives to those of more established authority figures—such as health professionals. This has implications not only for the lived experience of fat people, but also for researchers by emphasizing the importance of exploring not just what is said, but how, if we are to understand how different articulated positions are to be persuasive.Peer reviewe

Women training to coach a male sport : managing gendered identities and masculinist discourses

Despite increasing female participation in English football (aka soccer), the sport remains rooted in the values and discursive practices of orthodox masculinity. This is exemplified by the English Football Association (FA), which has been criticized for its ineffective responses to addressing the inclusion and progression of women as players and workers within the organization. Female membership in male-dominated organizations is not readily achieved, given the dominance of masculinist discourses and the risks of overtly challenging these. In this study, we explored the discursive management of gendered and/or footballing identities from interviews with participants in an English regional FA’s women-only football coach education program. All of the participants described the peripheral positioning of women in English football. Analysis identified evidence of both collaboration with and resistance to the dominant masculinist discourses in the accounts of their experiences in football, while also reproducing the most valued footballing identities and knowledge as male. We connect this to the complexities of negotiating and managing gendered identities for women in male-dominated organizations. All of the participants described the value and benefits of women-only coach education and the majority noted they would prefer women-only coach education in future

‘You can’t stand on a corner and talk about it …’: Medicinal cannabis use, impression management and the analytical status of interviews

In this article, I examine how four medicinal cannabis users used impression management during in-depth, qualitative interviews to attend to self-presentational concerns. I examine the rhetorical strategies and narratives articulated by the participants while also attending to the role that I played in co-construction as the interviewer. Later I discuss how, although the participants’ accounts are occasioned by the interviews, they can still provide significant insights into the social worlds of the participants beyond the interviews. While discussions about whether to treat interviews as topic, resource or both are not new, I argue that we can treat interviews as both topic and resource because impression management is a product of the individual’s habitus and it and the accounts it produces are part of their social world

'I was just gobsmacked': care workers responses to BBC Panoramas 'Undercover care: the abuse exposed': invoking mental states as a means of distancing from abusive practices

This paper draws upon discourse analytic techniques and discursive psychology to examine how care workers build accounts of viewing the BBC Panorama programme “Undercover Care: The Abuse Exposed” which graphically documented the abuse of people with learning disabilities in a residential care setting. 56 interviews were conducted as part of a project concerning adult safeguarding. The analysis considers how careworkers report their reactions and the interactional strategies they use to construct themselves as shocked and disbelieving and thus, as oppositional to the extreme practices in the programme. Their role as careworkers, and therefore as ‘insiders’ of the industry that allowed such abuse to happen, makes matters of stake and agency live issues for this particular group; and constructions of ‘shock’ and ‘disbelief’ are potential ways for participants to distance themselves from the abuse shown in the programme. More broadly, these data show how the invocation of mental states contributes to the management of other discursive business, namely, that of fending off any association with the aforementioned extreme practices

Patients' perspectives on high-tech home care: a qualitative inquiry into the user-friendliness of four technologies

BACKGROUND: The delivery of technology-enhanced home care is growing in most industrialized countries. The objective of our study was to document, from the patient's perspective, how the level of user-friendliness of medical technology influences its integration into the private and social lives of patients. Understanding what makes a technology user-friendly should help improve the design of home care services. METHODS: Four home care interventions that are frequently used and vary in their technical and clinical features were selected: Antibiotic intravenous therapy, parenteral nutrition, peritoneal dialysis and oxygen therapy. Our qualitative study relied on the triangulation of three sources of data: 1) interviews with patients (n = 16); 2) interviews with carers (n = 6); and 3) direct observation of nursing visits of a different set of patients (n = 16). Participants of varying socioeconomic status were recruited through primary care organizations and hospitals that deliver home care within 100 km of Montreal, the largest urban area in the province of Quebec, Canada. RESULTS: The four interventions have both a negative and positive effect on patients' lives. These technologies were rarely perceived as user-friendly, and user-acceptance was closely linked to user-competence. Compared with acute I.V. patients, who tended to be passive, chronic patients seemed keener to master technical aspects. While some of the technical and human barriers were managed well in the home setting, engaging in the social world was more problematic. Most patients found it difficult to maintain a regular job because of the high frequency of treatment, while some carers found their autonomy and social lives restricted. Patients also tended to withdraw from social activities because of social stigmatization and technical barriers. CONCLUSIONS: While technology contributes to improving the patients' health, it also imposes significant constraints on their lives. Policies aimed at developing home care must clearly integrate principles and resources supporting the appropriate use of technology. Close monitoring of patients should be part of all technology-enhanced home care programs

Medicinal cannabis users downplaying and shifting stigma: Articulations of the ‘natural’, of what is/is not a ‘drug’ and oppositions with ‘chemical’ substances

Whilst sympathy exists among the general public for chronically ill and/or disabled people who use cannabis medicinally, cannabis remains a prohibited substance in the UK. How do medicinal cannabis users negotiate this potential stigma when talking about their use of this substance? I reflect on the spoken discourses of 10 medicinal cannabis users (from a sample of 32), obtained by way of qualitative interviews, adopting a critical discourse analysis approach to the data. Specifically, I focus on their articulations around three related themes: cannabis as a ‘natural’ substance, discursive oppositions between cannabis and other substances and articulations about what is/is not a ‘drug’. I examine how participants articulated these themes in ways that attempted to negotiate the potential for stigma that talking about their substance use involved. I found they used rhetorical strategies that downplay their own deviance, attempt to shift the application of stigma to users of other substances or both. I argue that the more powerful the discursive resources that are articulated, the less rhetorical work an individual has to do to negotiate positive moral standing in an encounter. I also consider to what degree these articulations involved constructions emphasising individual self-control. I argue that in asserting that cannabis is a ‘natural’ substance (and therefore is less inherently risky to use than manufactured substances) the participants do emphasise their individual self-control