autoethnography

The Girl Guides are a charity for females in the United Kingdom, which are devoted to giving young girls and women alike a chance to build treasured relationships, attain valuable life skills and contribute positively to the communities in which they are surrounded by. The Girl Guides seek to integrate women of all backgrounds and circumstances, including those of various faiths and women with disabilities. Further, the Girl Guides seek and encourage membership from those belonging to hard-to-reach communities.

As a member of the girl guides, I felt that I was given a voice, and was encouraged to speak out about issues that may affect myself, or those around me. The Girl Guides further educated me about sensitive issues including violence against women. As a Girl Guide, I was encouraged to speak openly and voice my opinion surrounding important issues of all natures.

As a member of the Girl Guides I took part in a wide range of activities including regular meetings, camps, community action projects, sporting adventures and had the opportunity to travel. Further, I have the opportunity to work for honorable Guide badges, as well as explore diversity, relationship skills, global awareness, healthy living and the discovery of new challenges and experiences. Being a Girl Guide allowed me to feel a valued contributor to a hard working group, I also felt as though I was contributing positively to my community. I was given the opportunity to partake in exciting activities and was able to form strong bonds and friendships with the people that I was often surrounded by. I also felt that I was able to encourage others around me to maintain their faith in our community and the goals we had set, as they often encouraged myself.

For Durkheim (1997), groups such as this advocate social solidarity, whereby social cohesion and integration stem from the homogeneity of those belonging to the Girl Guides. Durkheim (1997) suggests that in society, people gain a sense of interconnectedness upon partaking in similar activities and possessing similar beliefs, known as social cohesion. Thus, for Durkheim (1997), social cohesion is achieved when a group or community is in a state of unity whilst working towards goals which satisfy the needs of each member. McQuail (1994) suggests that communities and groups such as the Girl Guides are often viewed positively by the media, with the word "community" primarily holding positive connotations. The media often advocates the charitable nature of the Girl Guides, the positive contributions they pay to their community and the social cohesion and bond held of said group.

            In relation to this, being a member of the girl guides enables me to feel part of a group, since we all partake in the same activities, wear the same uniform and are provided with the opportunity to share our thoughts and feelings with those around us. 

            Further, the Girl Guides rejects the ideas of Marx et al (1992); though Marx et al (1992) acknowledge the theory of social cohesion, he suggests that it is the dominant ideology that is transmitted through forces such as the media, through ideological control. However, as previously stated, The Girl Guides seek to integrate women of all backgrounds and circumstances, including those of various faiths and women with disabilities. The Girl Guides also seek and encourage membership from those belonging to hard-to-reach communities. Being a Girl Guide also allows for freedom of speech, with young girls and women alike receiving encouragement to speak openly and willingly about their beliefs and opinions. This allowed me to feel a sense of interconnectedness with the rest of my community, as I live in an area that is proudly diverse. 

             Autoethnography appears to a dominant feature throughout many online blogs. When conducting social research, I believe that autoethnography is useful since it allows for the writer to open up about their own thoughts and feelings surrounding the topic in which they are wishing to research; this enables a sense of personality, allows for the writer to build a sense of rapport with the reader, and enables an in-depth understanding of the topic being discussed. Though when hoping to use unbiased information, it may be unuseful to draw upon forms of autoethnography.  

References

McQuail, D (1994) Mass Communication Theory: an introduction, London: Sage Publications LTD

Durkheim, Emile (1997) The Division of Labor in Society, New York: The Free Press

Marx, K. Engels, F. Moore, S. & McLellan, D (1992) The Communist Manifesto, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

secondary data

"Secondary analysis involves the re-use of pre-existing qualitative data derived from previous research studies. These data include material such as semi-structured interviews, responses to open-ended questions in questionnaires, field notes and research diaries." (Heaton 2004:1) Thus, secondary data is that which the researcher hasn’t collected themselves, but has been previously gathered, and is ready for analysis. Heaton (2004) suggests two main purposes for secondary data; the first to investigate new research ventures, and the second to verify or contrast with findings concluded from previous research. A common example of secondary data includes the census.

For Ghauri (2005) the first advantage of using secondary data is that it is time saving, thus, the researcher is able to spend more time analyzing the data as opposed to collecting it. Ghauri (2005) draws upon new media technologies such as the Internet, in highlighting the accessibility of secondary data, stating that data sets can be obtained with ease via online searchers. Further, secondary data is often free which saves those conducting the research money; one is able to analyze data sets such as that collected from government surveys, at no extra cost. 

            However, there are disadvantages when using secondary data. Denscombe (2007) highlights the inappropriateness of data; whilst secondary data sources may provide vast information, it may not be relevant to the question in which the researcher is attempting to answer. Thus, the researcher has a lack of control over the quality of the data. Secondary data also poses an ethical threat; the researcher may be unaware if the participants, whose data has been collected, have given consent for the data to be used further. The secondary data available may also be outdated, thus may no longer be relevant to the researcher, which means that contemporary issues may be ignored when research is being undertaken (Gillies and Edwards (2005).

            When taking part in our own study of child abuse, our group was to rely on secondary data, as the sensitive nature of our topic meant that it was unethical to collect primary data. Though it was useful throughout our study, the disadvantage highlighted by Denscombe (2007)  caused us significant problems. Since we did not collect the data ourselves, we had limited control over what information was included in the data set. For example: though we had chosen to specifically focus on child abuse with the exclusion of sexual abuse, it has proven difficult to find official statistics from the Department of Education which focused on domestic child abuse exclusively. Further, many of the official statistics that were published by the Department of Education focused on those who were killed by child abuse, those who were on the child protection register or those who were subject to a child protection plan, which again, left gaps in our data set.

References

Denscombe, M. (2010). The good research guide: for small-scale social research projects, Open University Press.

Ghauri, P. N. (2005). Research methods in business studies: A practical guide, Pearson Education.

Gillies and Edwards (2005) Secondary analysis in exploring family and social change:addressing the issue of context Vol. 6, no1. Art 44

Heaton, J (2004) Secondary analysis of Qualitative data: an overview Historical social research, Vol 33-2008- No. 3, 33-45

partaking in group research and the ethical problems we are facing

As a group, we have chosen to focus our research on child abuse, and have together agreed on the question; “To what extent can it be argued that the representation of child abuse in the media is indicative of Cohen’s understanding of ‘Moral Panics’?” We chose not to research sexual abuse, as we believe that this is an umbrella term which would prevent us conducting a study which is both in depth and reliable, in the short time frame allowed to us. The inclusion of sexual abuse would mean that we would have to explore subjects inclusive of, but not exclusive to child trafficking, child labour and child migration. This would also mean that we could not limit our research to the United Kingdom.

Though we acknowledge the sensitive nature of this topic, we believe that it has been well and thoroughly researched amongst the social sciences. Thus, we expect to find a broad range of published literature surrounding the topic, which we hope will help us when undertaking our study. We have chosen to conduct both quantitative and qualitative research, as we understand that this will allow for a larger data set, in which we will attempt to analyse at a later date. Due to the subject of child abuse being high on both the public and political agenda, we expect there to be a range of statistics readily available.

To begin with, we were a group of three, before two other members of our class asking to join our group. Though we allowed this, I was worried how the dynamics in our group would flow, as I felt that had too many members. Though I was wary that a large number would allow for some members of the group to complete more work than others, I later felt that a larger group may be to our advantage, as it meant we could conjure up plenty of ideas before selecting only the best. However, it is currently proving difficult to gather the group together as a whole, though I am sure that this will change as the project develops, as this assessment accounts for 60% of our grade.

Formulating a question in which the whole group was happy with proved difficult. We had first agreed on a question had submitted a proposal, which meant that we were able to begin conducting our research. It was later discovered that some members of the group were unhappy with the proposed question and so we selected a new one, meaning that we had previously wasted time gathering and analyzing data that was no longer relevant.

Though this is an emotive and sensitive topic, as a group we understand that it is important to put our feelings aside when conducting research, and ensure that we refrain from being bias. We are aware that we can not use language such as 'evil' when talking about child abuse, as this would be including our own perceptions throughout our work. Though we are allowed to include photographs on our poster, we must also be wary that there are photographs in which will be deemed unacceptable and unpresentable; as they may upset our peers. We also acknowledge that it would be greatly unethical to perform primary research, and thus will only gather secondary data to help us during our study (Walliman 2oo6).

I am excited, though apprehensions, about partaking in a new form of assessment that was previously unfamiliar to me. I am aware that working as a group will force me to confront new challenges, but I am sure that as a group we will all work together to enable that we complete a piece of work in which we are all happy with.

References

Walliman, N (2006) Social Research Methods, London: Sage