Increasing awareness of racial identity among white social workers - a narrative approach

This study was developed on the premise that lack of white racial identity awareness is a contributor to the experience of racism in the social services by Indigenous people. It sought to increase racial identity awareness among social workers who identified as white. This study was a process evaluation intended to discover if individuals felt that their racial identity awareness had changed after participating in the study. Nine social workers were interviewed before and after an intervention, in which they spent two hours a week, for eight weeks, in a narrative working group examining whiteness. Data was analyzed using dialogical/performative analysis examined through the lens of critical whiteness theory, and an Indigenous framework. The findings indicated that participants felt an increase in their ability to talk about whiteness and more confidence in addressing racism in their lives and workplaces after participating in this study.October 201

Perception, Identity, Territory: Social Dimensions of Climate Change Adaptation in Northern Norway

It is often contended that individuals and states fail to act on knowledge of climate change as it is too abstract and intangible. What then of the so-called hotspot communities situated in the most dramatically impacted regions on the frontlines of climate change? This project aims to identify a community particularly exposed to climate change and to answer whether or not changes here occur at a sufficient magnitude to be perceived and if so, to what degree are its inhabitants responding? Qualitative, ground-up, sector-based research conducted in one such hotspot, Arctic Norway, found that 1) environmental changes are indeed being perceived and acted upon by local inhabitants, though with varying degrees across industries 2) that social identities relating to livelihoods serve as both enablers and limitations to adaptation and 3) that overlapping territorial claims/needs significantly limit current and future adaptation possibilities

Advancing rigour in solicited diary research

Solicited diaries/journals are increasingly popular as an innovative qualitative method in the social sciences for better understanding people’s everyday lived experiences. In this article we create a framework for maintaining rigour while using such diaries. First, we systematically evaluate 43 research papers focusing on the method, drawing on Baxter and Eyles’ (1997) seminal evaluation of rigour in qualitative human geography research. We ascertain that significant improvements could be made to procedures for obtaining and analysing diary content. Second, we develop a framework to encourage rigour in diary research. We test our framework by evaluating research conducted by two of our authors who employed solicited diaries with street vendors in Vietnam. We propose that our analysis and framework can help social scientists improve the rigour of solicited diaries as a research method, and provide a model for enhancing rigour in other emerging qualitative approaches. </jats:p