As a
sociologist who engages in research, scholarly writing, teaching supervision,
mentorship and so on I reflect often on the reasons for such activity. In 2013 I
wrote:
In
thinking back to the beginnings of my academic career it makes me smile to
think how when starting my doctoral research on the experience of ‘infertility’
and ‘involuntary childlessness’ I was excited about what a difference I could
make. My doctoral research was invaluable to me. It taught me a lot about the
whole process of research, it fuelled my fascination in methodological and
epistemological debate, it enabled me to say some useful (I hope) things about
childlessness, parenthood and identity, it gave me the resources to work in an
environment I continue to find rewarding and challenging. What my PhD did not
do was have the impact I hoped it would. I spoke about my work at conferences,
wrote some articles and chapters and a few small pieces for non-academic
audiences and I am gratified that I am still sometimes asked to speak, write,
examine on the topic. I could have done more but at that time I did not have
the skills or the support to do so. More recently with colleagues from Coventry
University I was involved in a series of projects concerned to explore the
experience of teenage pregnancy and young parenthood. All of this work was
commissioned by practitioners, themselves responsible for the care and support
of young women, their partners and their children. In addition to positive
responses to our calls for the need for further research in specific areas
(e.g. violence and abuse in the lives of pregnant teenagers and young mothers,
antenatal care, father’s experience) as a research team we have been, and
continue to be involved in activities that could be described both as impact and as ‘public sociology’. We
have, for example, developed and
delivered (with young mothers) training packs for health and social care
professionals; trained young mothers to become peer researchers and developed a
questionnaire for young women entering and leaving semi-supported housing. In
addition we have presented and published of our findings within and beyond the
academy (e.g. at local and regional meetings of those responsible for the
deliverance of the UK Teenage
Pregnancy Strategy, in the local and national press and in
practitioner-focused publications) … (Gayle Letherby, (2013) ‘Objectivity and Subjectivity in Practice’, in
Letherby, G. Scott, J. and Williams, M. Objectivity
and Subjectivity in Social Research London: Sage).
What my research experiences have taught me is that the impact we make is in part down to our own efforts and in part determined by the work of others including funders, research partners, those responsible for policy and practice change etc. (Gayle Letherby and Paul Bywaters (2007) Extending Social Research: application, implementation, presentation Buckingham: Open University). What I hope, along with others I work with, is that my research will make some kind of difference,
make some small impact (in the broadest sense within, beyond and besides the
academy). Thus, there is a political motivation here. Acknowledging both the strengths and the limitations of the academic
project (I’ll write more on this another day) I research, write and all the
rest because following Alvin W. Gouldner (1970 The Coming Crisis of
Western Sociology London: Sage) I support and aim
for a
morally responsible, reflexive, radical, critical sociology. I do not want to exaggerate the significance and reach of my work, I am not so arrogant as to claim any greatness in it but the small steps
and changes we can all make are invaluable.
I have compared research to a relay race whilst one
person carries the baton for a while and then passes it on (Gayle Letherby,
(2003) Feminist Research in Theory and Practice Buckingham: Open
University) and the sharing of thoughts and ideas through written and verbal
presentations is similar I think. I know that reading about and listening to
the ideas of others encourages me to reflect and to challenge, and stimulates
me to add something to discussion and debate. I hope that my work does the same
for others.
With specific reference to writing there are many examples of people sharing what motivates them. Just a few that I find
particularly inspiring:
‘I want to write, but
more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in
my heart'
Anne Frank
I Rise (first verse)
You may write me
down in history
With your bitter,
twisted lies,
You may trod me
down in the very dirt
But still, like
dust, I'll rise.
Maya Angelou
And:
. . .
writing as a method of inquiry,
a way of finding out about yourself and your topic. Although we usually think
about writing as a mode of “telling” about the social world, writing is not
just a mopping-up activity at the end of a research project. Writing is also a
way of “knowing” – a method of discovery and analysis. By writing in different
ways, we discover new aspects of our topic and our relationship to it. Form and
content are inseparable (Laurel Richardson (1994) ‘Writing: a method of
inquiry’ in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (eds.) A Handbook of Qualitative
Research, (first edition) Thousand Oaks: Sage 515).
Most recently I read George Orwell's essay Why I
Write (George Orwell (1946) ‘Why I
Write’ in Orwell, G. (1984) Why I write (Great Ideas Series) London:
Penguin). Orwell suggests:
I think there are four great motives for writing, at any
rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in
any own writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the
atmosphere in which he is living. They are:
1. Sheer egotism. Desire to seem
clever, to be talked about, to be remembered …
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception
of beauty in the external world, on the other hand, in words and their right
arrangement….
3. Historical impulse. Desire to see
things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of
posterity.
4. Political purpose – using the
word ‘political’ in the wildest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a
certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society that
they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political
bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with political is itself a
political attitude.
(NB: I’ve just started
reading Deborah Levy's (2013) Things I Don't Want to Know: A response
to George Orwell's 1946 essay 'Why I write' London: Penguin, which I feel
sure will lead to further reflection).
I accept
almost all of Orwell’s points although I’m wary of the term ‘true facts’ in point 3 (see Bias, Truth, Trust.... below) and I’d
add to point 4 that all writing, be
it book, article, story, poem, research thesis and so on, is in some ways
political. With this latter acknowledgement in mind at least one of the reasons
I write is because of ducks with hats on:
‘Mummy, mummy there's a man at the door with a bill.’
‘Don’t be silly darling, it’s a duck with a hat on.’
OR
THINGS ARE NOT
ALWAYS AS THEY SEEM
For the last few years in my attempt to work beyond and besides
the academy (see above), and in trying to tell important stories in different ways I
have, alongside (and sometimes within) my academic work written ‘fiction’ (acknowledging
that there are truths to be found in ‘stories’ and that there is always
interpretation in research*) memoir and some overtly political opinion pieces. I
have also become an occasional political letter writer sending such communications to
newspapers and to politicians.
*Katherine Frank (2000) “The management of hunger”: Using fiction in
writing anthropology. Qualitative Inquiry, 6(4), 474-488)
What follows are links to some of my non-academic writings over the last year or so, all inevitably informed by my sociological understandings, much of which drawing on my own professional AND personal auto/biography, all - in recognition that the personal is political and the political personal - political whether overtly so or not:
A COUPLE OF PIECES THAT DRAW ON MY ACADEMIC WRITING:
Bias, Truth, Trust | what the media can learn from social research(ers)
Sex, Gender and All the Rest | Hidden,
Airbrushed, Suppressed and Oppressed PART TWO (reproductive rights,
experiences, identities)
AN OPINION PIECE OR TWO AND A LETTER:
84 Men, Millicent, Mary, Jesus and a
‘Monument to Tory Britain’ | #VoteLabour3dMay
‘Mind Your Language’ | Watching our Ps
& Qs OR Cs & Ts in Political Debate
Dear Mrs May | ‘deeds not words’
SOME MEMOIR:
For John – Experiences and legacies of brutality
Reflections of Mother’s Day as a Motherless, Childless Woman
AND SOME FICTION:
'T'was the Night Before Christmas' | a
version for 2017
Poppy
The Seven, Or So, Ages of Man
WHERE THE GENRES OBVIOUSLY OVERLAP:
Childhood Memories, Food Poverty and Political Responsibilities |
Personal Reflections and Experiences
Snow Days
Grief and Loss, Emotional and Material Concerns | Part Memoir, Part Rant
