Working with time, intersubjectivity, and the vernacular imaginary: perspectives and practices from history and sociology

13th, 18th, and 20th May 2021

Professor Jon Lawrence and Dr Dawn Lyon

Description

This multi-part workshop across three mornings is concerned with time, intersubjectivity, and the vernacular imaginary. It is led by a historian – Jon Lawrence – and a sociologist – Dawn Lyon - and starts with an interdisciplinary dialogue on ways of working with qualitative secondary data from history and sociology. Across the three workshops, we share material from Ray Pahl’s Sheppey studies (archived at the UK Data Service) with participants, discuss the range of research tools and practices it is built on, and consider the different ways each of us has approached and worked with elements of this data set. We provide a context for the data and confront the ethical issues implied by re-use across a time period where norms and sensitivities have changed. We explore the relationship between oral testimony and transcripts, and the scope for writing histories of the self, subjectivity and emotion using social-science sources. We reflect on intimacy and the direct experience of data collection and analysis alongside the process of doing qualitative secondary analysis. And we work through notions of time and temporality that underpin all of this work.

The workshop will involve:

• Live streamed presentations
• Guided data analysis activities including first-hand re/analysis of original materials
• Individual, group and/or paired work
• A chat function to facilitate learning and exchange

Participants will gain appreciation of:

• A range of approaches and methodological tools to do qualitative secondary data analysis across history and sociology
• Working with archive materials
• The ethical and practical challenges of data reuse
• The role of time and temporality in the research process

Further details are available on the National Centre for Research Methods website.

Contact

Claire Spencer
NCRM, University of Manchester
claire.spencer@manchester.ac.uk