Lee Monaghan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Lee Monaghan

Routledge International Handbook of Masculinity Studies, 2019

Crime, Criminal Justice and Masculinities, 2017

The Body in Qualitative Research, 2019

Journal of Interprofessional Care, 2002

The study was undertaken between 1998 and 1999 and funded, in part, by the Welsh Of ce of Resear... more The study was undertaken between 1998 and 1999 and funded, in part, by the Welsh Of ce of Research and Development for Health and Social Care. Its aim was to: (a) examine roles and responsibilities in the provision of services to people with complex health and social care needs; and (b) identify those factors which help or hinder integrated working. A cross-site comparative design was employed. Eight ethnographic case studies of adults undergoing stroke rehabilitation were carried out in two separate health authorities that differed in terms of geography, population density, socio-economic factors and other features. For each case, a snowball sampling technique was employed to trace the networks through which patient care was delivered. This allowed the identi cation of the key players and processes involved in the planning and provision of services to the case study subjects and critical nodes in the caring network. Audio tape-recorded interviews were carried out with the client,...

Crime Unlimited? Questions for the 21st Century, 1999

In the late 1980s the British media discovered a new and apparently widespread social problem —‘r... more In the late 1980s the British media discovered a new and apparently widespread social problem —‘roid rage’. The phenomena of ‘roid rage’, uncontrollable malevolent aggression and violence, was reputedly linked to the use or abuse of anabolic androgenic steroids. As in the classic moral panic, the media, institutions of the state and various ‘experts’ identified bodybuilding steroid users as a new group of ‘folk devils’. A byline in the Guardian (13 Oct. 1992) made this explicit: ‘Many bodybuilders abuse steroids, leading to the violent conduct known as Roid Rage. ’ The police added an authoritative voice with one Manchester detective inspector proclaiming: ‘the abuse of anabolic steroids makes a mild man a monster’ (Manchester Evening News, 15 June 1997). The culmination of this interest was the amendment of the Misuses of Drugs acts in 1996 which made ‘possession with intent to supply’ steroids a criminal offence. Yet, the scientific evidence for the link between anabolic steroids and violence was far from conclusive.

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2015

Much research on chronic illness, which views the experience as disruptive, is adult‐focused thou... more Much research on chronic illness, which views the experience as disruptive, is adult‐focused though there is an emerging literature on children's and young people's experiences. Drawing on 31 interviews conducted with young people diagnosed with asthma in south‐west Ireland, this article contributes to this literature. The sample includes boys (n = 15) and girls (n = 16) aged between 5 and 17 from the Irish Traveller community and the larger settled community. The study also explores the potential value of what might be called biographical contingency. This concept refers to the way in which a chronic illness may be an ‘only sometimes’ problem and takes account of the ‘now you see it, now you don't’ nature of a condition that varies in terms of its symptoms, meanings and consequences. In concluding, we consider the uses and limitations of this concept and the interpretivist paradigm that typically informs qualitative research on the illness experience.

Sociological Research Online, 2000

The instrumental use of steroids and analogous drugs is a normalised practice in bodybuilding sub... more The instrumental use of steroids and analogous drugs is a normalised practice in bodybuilding subculture. However, in a society where bodily health and lifestyle are conjoined, such risk-taking carries negative connotations. Bodybuilders using drugs for purposes of physique enhancement are able to resist accusations of opprobrium and maintain competent social identity by drawing a sharp contrast between themselves and ‘junkies’. This self-serving differentiation appears untenable, however, when bodybuilders take Ephedrine and Nubain: drugs that may be compared respectively and unfavourably to amphetamines and heroin. Using qualitative data, this paper considers the variable status of Ephedrine and Nubain as risk boundaries among bodybuilders. In operating as risk boundaries, these drugs signify limits beyond which ‘sensible’ drug-using bodybuilders should not venture. As social constructs, risk boundaries are also contingent. Correspondingly, bodybuilders using Ephedrine and Nubain ...

The Sociological Review, 2002

Emerging studies on private security work in Britain's night-time economy explore important s... more Emerging studies on private security work in Britain's night-time economy explore important sociological themes such as masculinities and violence. Contributing rich ethnography to this literature, and in furthering an embodied sociology, this paper describes the gendered construction of competency among ‘bouncers’ or door supervisors within the context of their potentially violent work. Centrally, it explores the door supervisors' variable bodily capital (comprising body build and acquired techniques of the body) alongside normative limits to their violence. Here physicality is central to the practicalities of doorwork, risk management and the embodiment of dominant and subordinate masculinities. Within doorwork culture, embodied typifications such as ‘hard men’, ‘shop boys’ and others (eg, ‘bullies’ and ‘nutters’) are related to assessments of possible violence against doorstaff, the delineation of (flexible) boundaries for their own (in)appropriate violence against ‘probl...

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2010

Foreword K.Hunt Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Introduction What is the Point of This Book... more Foreword K.Hunt Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Introduction What is the Point of This Book? B.Gough& S.Robertson PART I: CURRENT ISSUES AND DEBATES IN THE FIELD OF MEN'S HEALTH Developing a Critical Men's Health Debate in Academic Scholarship M.Lohan A Grand Illusion: Masculinity, 'Passing' and Men's Health D.Buchbinder Men, Public Health and Health Promotion: Towards a Critically Structural and Embodied Understanding S.Robertson & R.Williams Bugging the Cone of Silence With Men's Health Interviews J.L.Oliffe PART II: POPULAR CONCEPTIONS OF MEN'S HEALTH AND WELLBEING Men's Negotiations of a 'Legitimate' Self-help Group Identity S.Seymour-Smith Older Men's Health: The Role of Marital Status and Masculinities K.Davidson& R.Meadows Promoting 'Masculinity' Over Health: A Critical Analysis of Men's Health Promotion With Particular Reference to an Obesity Reduction 'Manual' B.Gough The Health Experiences of African-Caribbean and White Working Class Fathers R.Williams PART III: MEN, MASCULINITIES AND ILLNESS Pathologizing Fatherhood: The Case of Male Post Natal Depression in Britain E.Lee Prostate Cancer and Masculinities in Australia A.Broom Understanding Masculinities within the Context of Men, Body Image and Eating Disorders M.Drummond The Role of Masculinities in White and South Asian Men's Help-seeking Behaviour for Cardiac Chest Pain P.Galdas Afterword: What Next for Men's Health Research? S.Robertson& B.Gough Index

Sociology of Health and Illness, 1996

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2001

Social scientists of medicine have largely, although by no means exclusively, focused their resea... more Social scientists of medicine have largely, although by no means exclusively, focused their research on illness and sickness thus obscuring social scientific investigations of positive health and wellbeing. Undoubtedly, important reasons exist for this but the relevance of studying `healthy' bodies requires emphasis and wider acknowledgement within the newer (embodied, non-dualistic) sociology of health and illness. This is necessary because the concrete corporeal manifestations of `health' in everyday life ± components of and preconditions for embodied social practice ± may, paradoxically, erode bodily capital while simultaneously contributing to it. Using qualitative data generated during an ethnography of bodybuilding subculture, this paper contributes to the sociology of `healthy' (transgressive) bodies. It describes the somatic representation of health and youth, the so-called erotics of the gym and the perceived benefits of anaerobic exercise for everyday pragmatic embodiment. Contra critical feminist studies, it furthers an appreciative understanding of `risky' bodywork in post-or late modernity and underscores the value of bringing healthy lived bodies into medical sociology.

Sociology of Health & Illness, 1999

This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of bodybuilding and drug‐taking. It discusses t... more This paper draws on data from a qualitative study of bodybuilding and drug‐taking. It discusses the ambiguous role of medicine as a source of knowledge and expertise among participants who systematically disavow medical pronouncements on the uses and dangers of ‘physique‐enhancing’ drugs. Empirical data on perceptions of the medical profession, risk, and bodybuilders’ various sources of ethno‐scientific knowledge, suggest that medicine is simply one ‘authority’ among many in the construction of the self and body within late modernity. These ethno‐graphic observations correlate with sociological claims that medical orthodoxy is currently being subjected to an external critique and that implicit trust in both the individuals who practice medicine and the underlying system of knowledge may have been weakening.

Social Theory & Health, 2006

Using embodied sociology, literature on overweight/obesity/fatness and qualitative data generated... more Using embodied sociology, literature on overweight/obesity/fatness and qualitative data generated during a study of masculinities and weight-related issues, this paper explores various accounts that help bridge the gap between slim ideals and bulky realities. As well as bringing together and categorizing weight-related accounts according to their status as justifications or excuses, two additional aligning actions are discussed: contrition and repudiation. These concepts are grounded, respectively, in a discussion of intentional weight loss and size activism. The value of re-reading classic social theory in a corporeal light is underscored and qualitative data on male embodiment are presented.

Social Theory & Health, 2010

Clinicians are being urged personally to fight fat lest their credibility, health and effectivene... more Clinicians are being urged personally to fight fat lest their credibility, health and effectiveness are threatened. Contributing to burgeoning critical weight studies, this paper extends the analysis presented in ‘Physician Heal Thyself’, Part 1 (Monaghan, 2010). Drawing from over 200 postings from an Internet site, Medscape, on the subject of ‘overweight’ clinicians, this paper explores three types of accountability: the excusable, the critically compliant and the justifiably resistant. Centrally, this paper critiques obesity discourse, which encircles clinicians’ embodied identities, and points the way towards an approach that makes sociological and clinical sense.

Social Science & Medicine, 2002

Illicit steroid use, for purposes of performance and physique enhancement, is widely deemed unnec... more Illicit steroid use, for purposes of performance and physique enhancement, is widely deemed unnecessary, wrong and dangerous. Such activity would appear especially foolhardy when engaged in by non-professional athletes who otherwise adhere to 'healthy' exercise regimens. Here a gap exists between many illicit steroid users' actions and societal expectations. Using qualitative data generated in South Wales, this paper explores bodybuilders' vocabularies of motive for illicit steroid use. These accounts which justified, rather than excused, steroid use were predominant during question situations between the participant observer and the researched. In supporting the fundamental tenets of their drug subculture, and as part of the underlying negotiation of self-identity, respondents espoused three main justifications for their own and/or other bodybuilders' illicit steroid use; namely: self-fulfilment accounts, condemnation of condemners and a denial of injury. Here steroid use was rationalised as a legitimate means to an end, observers passing negative judgements were rejected and it was claimed steroids do not (seriously) harm the user's health or threaten society more generally. These vocabularies of motive, acquired and honoured within bodybuilding settings, comprise a complex of subjective meanings which seem to the actor to be an adequate ground for the conduct in question. Similar to other sociological studies, this paper states that it is imperative to explore the social meanings which illicit drug users attach to their 'risk' practices. Without these understandings, researchers and health promoters may struggle to appreciate fully why illicit drug users behave as they do.

Social & Legal Studies, 2004

Door supervisors or ‘bouncers’ are charged with privately policing Britain’s nighttime leisure ec... more Door supervisors or ‘bouncers’ are charged with privately policing Britain’s nighttime leisure economy, sometimes using ‘normal’ force to ensure order inside and at the entrances to urban licensed premises. Using ethnography generated in Southwest Britain, this article explores the lived realities of legal risk among these predominantly male workers. As well as empirically charting interrelated factors associated with the imposition, amplification and avoidance of legal risk, this article supports an embodied, non dualist approach to socio legal study. Such an approach, in rethinking unhelpful dichotomies (for example, mind–body, reason–emotion, victim–oppressor, conformity–deviance, order–disorder), incorporates the ‘lived body’ and ‘sex specific corporeality’ when exploring legal risk, violence and society.

International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 2010

Female bodybuilding raises an obvious question: how should we judge these metamorphosized bodies ... more Female bodybuilding raises an obvious question: how should we judge these metamorphosized bodies and associated practices? We will reframe this question as part of a short communication on what many people judge to be a paroxysmal body that is deservedly discredited. Drawing from Kant’s distinction between ‘free beauty’ and ‘adherent beauty’, our commentary revolves around the notion of aesthetic judgment. Different expressions of this are considered. For our purposes, manifestations of these judgments are discussed in two ‘ideal typical’ interactional contexts: one between bodybuilding enthusiasts and the other between female bodybuilders and non-affiliates within the cultural mainstream. The issue of judgment within sociological writing on female bodybuilding is also raised alongside our endorsement of an embodied, interactionist approach and qualitative research.

International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2013

Abstract Seeking Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval in the humanities and social sciences (... more Abstract Seeking Research Ethics Committee (REC) approval in the humanities and social sciences (HSS) is increasingly encumbered by bureaucratic rules and regulations. Termed 'ethics creep', such governance is challenged by an emerging body of international ...

Sociology of health & illness, 2007

Based on the Body Mass Index (BMI, kg/m(2)), most men in nations such as the UK and USA are repor... more Based on the Body Mass Index (BMI, kg/m(2)), most men in nations such as the UK and USA are reportedly overweight or obese. This is authoritatively defined as a massive and growing problem. Drawing from embodied sociology, critical obesity literature and qualitative data generated during an Economic and Social Research Council funded project on masculinities and weight-related issues, this paper offers a critical realist contribution to the obesity debate. Rather than endorsing the institutionalised war on fat, and correcting so-called 'laymen' who dismiss medicalized weight-for-height recommendations, the following presents and honours men's justificatory accounts for levels of body mass that medicine labels too heavy (implicitly or explicitly too fat). Men's critical understandings, which are connected to their displays of moral worth, are considered under three headings: the compatibility of heaviness, healthiness and physical fitness; looking and feeling ill ...