Partisanship and positionality in qualitative research: Exploring the influences of the researcher’s experiences of serious crime on the research process

Debates on positionality and partisanship in the research process are long-standing, complex and often highly contentious. Engaging with, and contributing to both these key debates, this paper introduces the concept of victim-as-researcher. There is a growing body of literature which engages with participatory research undertaken with victims of crime. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of literature which speaks to the experiences of victims of serious, violent crime who subsequently engage in qualitative research with offenders who have been convicted of offences similar to the ones experienced by the researcher and which, therefore, can elicit trauma whilst in the field and through analysis. In reflecting on the dilemmas and challenges navigated by the victim-as-researcher seeking to produce an authentic, appreciative account that foregrounds the voices of offenders and seeks to humanise them, this paper engages with a number of key issues including, emotional labour, victimology and reflexivity. Following this discussion of relevant concepts and ideas, the second part of the paper focusses on practical tips to help others who share a positionality as victim-as-researcher. Thus, this paper aims to extend the literature on positionality and victimology by foregrounding the victim-as-researcher as an important category in reflexive sociological and criminological research

Sociology Back to the Publics

This article is a reading of the `new sociology' that is mainly identified with the works of C. Wright Mills and Alvin Gouldner. Its main argument is that during the past 40 years the new sociology gave back a public face to sociology. This distinguishes it from the `old sociology' that had not been able to free itself from `private' social values. It is argued that Mills' power elite and Gouldner's coming crisis theses provided the foundation for a common enterprise among many `new sociologists' to develop a critical and public sociology that would seek to shape what Mills called the `democratic society of publics'.`New sociologists' share a critique of modern societies, namely, that though most modern societies have formal democracies, a substantial democratic social structure of publics is often lacking, due to the erosion of the public sphere by private values

Perspectives on safety culture

Overviewing selected elements from the literature, this paper locates the notion of safety culture within its parent concept of organisational culture. A distinction is drawn between functionalist and interpretive perspectives on organisational culture. The terms ‘culture’ and ‘climate’ are clarified as they are typically applied to organisations and to safety. A contrast is drawn between strategic top down and data-driven bottom up approaches to human factors as an illustrative aspect of safety. A safety case study is used to illustrate two measurement approaches. Key issues for future study include valid measurement of safety culture and developing methods to adequately represent mechanisms through which safety culture might influence, and be influenced by, other safety factors

Human Values as Determinants of Fairtrade Consumption in the Czech Republic

Ethical consumerism is a growing field. It attracts increasingly more attention not only from the supply and demand sides, but also from researchers. Numerous surveys are trying to describe consumers' behaviour; many studies are trying to identify and analyse what contributes to the higher ethical consumption. While this is also the case of the Czech Republic, empirical evidence focused on the effect of consumers' values on ethical consumerism in the Czech Republic is still missing. Therefore, our goal is to examine the effect of consumers' values on Fairtrade consumption in the Czech Republic. We measure the values through the Human Values Scale (developed by S. Schwartz) and use socio-demographic characteristics as control variables in a multivariate model. We find that Universalism and Power are values which can predict the frequency of Fairtrade purchases among Czech online Fairtrade shoppers. Along with Universalism, gender proves to be an important predictor too. While generalizing our results, we must bear in mind that our sample describes only those who do purchase Fair trade products on-line

Distant Encounters of a Third Kind: Problems of Generalism in the Teaching of Development Studies

SUMMARY Is ‘the Third World’, as it is commonly and distantly conceptualised and perceived ‘in the West’, more an invention than a discovery? Development studies persist in construing it predominantly in ‘other?cultural’ terms. As a result, cultural descriptions of, or by, ‘rural folk’, ‘ethnic folk’, and ‘summit folk’ have become overloaded with a too socio?centric and culturally?bound burden of explanation. Both ‘aspectual’ and ‘synthetic’ interdisciplinary approaches to public policy problems only encounter these concepts indirectly if the problems themselves are non?disciplinary in the first place. RESUME Rencontres à distance: Problèmes de généralisme dans l'enseignement des études sur le développement Le Tiers Monde, comme il est communément et de loin conceptualisé et perçu dans le monde occidental, est?il plus une invention qu'une découverte? Les études sur le développement persistent à l'interpréter en utilisant surtout des termes ‘d'une autre culture’. Il s'ensuit que les descriptions de, ou par, les gens de la campagne, les gens ethniques et les gens de rang élevé se sont chargées d'un poids d'explication trop socio?centrique et lié à la culture. Les méthodes interdisciplinaires tant ‘aspectuelles’ que ‘synthétiques’ appliquées aux problèmes de politique publique ne rencontrent ces concepts qu'indirectement si les problèmes eux?mêmes sont non?disciplinaires. RESUMEN Problemas de la generalización en la enseñanza para los estudios sobre el desarrollo ¿Es el ‘Tercer Mundo’, según se ha conceptualizado y percibido en general y a distancia en ‘Occidente’, más un invento que un descubrimiento? Los estudios sobre el desarrollo persisten en interpretarlo de manera predominante en términos de ‘otras culturas’. Como resultado, las descripciones culturales de ó por ‘el pueblo rural’, ‘el pueblo étnico’ y ‘el pueblo superior’ se han sobrecargado de explicaciones demasiado sociocentradas y vinculadas a la cultura. Las actitudes interdisciplinarias de carácter ‘aspectivo’ y ‘sintético’ hacia los problemas de política oficial sólo tropiezan con estos conceptos de manera indirecta si los problemas mismos no se derivan de la disciplina misma en primer lugar

Age and trust as moderators in the relation between procedural justice and turnover: a large-scale longitudinal study

Item does not contain fulltextThe current study investigated the moderating roles of age and trust in the relation of procedural justice with turnover. It was expected that the relation between procedural justice and turnover was weaker for older workers and those with high prior trust in their leader. Older workers are better at regulating their emotions, and focus more on positive aspects of their relationships with others, and therefore react less intensely to unfair treatment. Moreover, people with high trust are more likely to attribute unfair treatment to circumstances instead of deliberate intention than people with low trust. Finally, we expected a three-way interaction between age, trust, and procedural justice in relation to turnover, where older workers with high trust would have less strong reactions than younger workers and older workers with low trust. Results from a three-wave longitudinal survey among 1,597 Dutch employees indeed revealed significant interactions between trust and procedural justice in relation to turnover. Furthermore, the three-way interaction was significant, with negative relations for younger workers, but a non-significant relation was found for older workers with low trust. Contrary to expectations, negative relations were found between procedural justice and turnover for older workers with high trust

Unsettling Appearances: Diane Arbus, Erving Goffman and the Sociological Eye

Both the photographer Diane Arbus and sociologist Erving Goffman were fascinated by the way we present ourselves to others and this paper sets out how each understood the drama of human interaction. It begins by exploring how their work parallels some developments in the sociology of deviance, and notes how Goffman was one of the earliest critics of this field, before briefly sketching out Arbus’s controversial career and then turning to a more detailed look at three of her images. It concentrates on how the gap between intention and effect, or what Goffman terms the difference between the impressions we ‘give’ and those we actually ‘give off’, are at the core of her work and this sociological insight animates her compositions. The paper then describes how their work unsettles ‘normal appearances’ and provides rich resources for understanding human conduct