Vanessa May | The University of Manchester (original) (raw)
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Papers by Vanessa May
Families, Relationships and Societies
This article contributes to a reconceptualisation of the boundaries of sociological attention reg... more This article contributes to a reconceptualisation of the boundaries of sociological attention regarding where family is enacted. Despite being aware of the cultural contingency of the distinction that is drawn between the public and private spheres, family scholars in the Global North tend to study families as bounded units with an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’, and as spatially centred in the home. I argue that there is a need to systematically explore how mundane interactions and activities in public settings are woven into family life. Furthermore, drawing from research into family life in cities, I make the case for conceptualising public spaces as aspects of and even as characters in family life, and ask how people realise their family capacities in these. I propose that keeping these different facets of family life in view both analytically and empirically could lead to a radical shake-up of sociological thinking about family.
cultural geographies
This paper examines the role that light and dark play in how residents of Claremont Court, a mode... more This paper examines the role that light and dark play in how residents of Claremont Court, a modernist housing scheme in Edinburgh, Scotland, form a sense of atmosphere of place. Our findings show that the design of Claremont Court affords particular experiences of light and dark and of related warmth and cold that are meaningful to how residents experience and feel about the Court. While atmospheres tend to be conceptualised as spatially and temporally singular, our analytical focus on light and dark allows us to conceptualise the atmosphere of Claremont Court as made up of simultaneously held but distinct micro-atmospheres, which interact, overlap and even contradict each other. Furthermore, speaking to residents about their home environment revealed the role that memory plays in how people perceive atmosphere. Drawing from Mason’s concept of socio-atmospherics, we theorise atmospheres not as spatially contained, but as trajectories through space, where the experience of atmospher...
Global Networks
This paper investigates transnational families' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic outb... more This paper investigates transnational families' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the accompanying sudden and unexpected travel restrictions. Our data consist of written stories collected in April-June 2020 from migrants with ageing kin living in another country. For many respondents, the situation provoked an acutely felt urge for physical proximity with their families. By analysing their experiences of 'not being there' , we seek to understand what exactly made the urge to 'be there' so forceful. Bringing into dialogue literature on transnational families with Jennifer Mason's recent theoretical work on affinities, we move the focus from families' transnational caregiving practices to the potent connections between family members. We argue that this approach can open important avenues for future research on families-transnational or otherwise-because it sheds light on the multisensory and often ineffable charges between family members that serve to connect them.
Families, Relationships and Societies
In 2012, David Morgan gave a talk titled ‘Neighbours, neighbouring and acquaintanceship: some fur... more In 2012, David Morgan gave a talk titled ‘Neighbours, neighbouring and acquaintanceship: some further thoughts’ at the University of Turku, Finland. In this article we engage in dialogue with Morgan’s talk, as well as his 2009 book Acquaintances, in particular the observations he made about the simultaneous closeness and distance that characterises neighbouring relationships. We suggest that using the metaphors of elasticity and stickiness instead allows us to explore neighbouring relationships as more than inhabiting a space between intimates and strangers (Morgan, 2009), but as textured and messy everyday relationalities. We consider also how the ‘stickiness’ of this relationship as well as the significance of its ‘elasticity’ are likely to have been heightened during COVID-19 lockdowns, which have altered the usual configurations of intimate and stranger relationships. In doing so, our aim is to contribute further to Morgan’s theorising of the nature of neighbouring as a specific...
Sociology of Personal Life, 2011
This essay examines a conference on narrative. The field of narrative studies is by nature interd... more This essay examines a conference on narrative. The field of narrative studies is by nature interdisciplinary, which leads to certain strengths and weaknesses, both of which were evident during the conference. On the one hand, as a result of the myriad approaches to and definitions of narrative and narrative analysis, the conference perhaps lacked a sense of coherence. However, the conference showed that overriding this weakness in narrative studies is the fruitful cross-fertilization that can occur when a field is truly interdisciplinary. Thus, concepts and theories can and do travel from one discipline to another, gaining new meaning and providing new insight on the way.
Contemporary grandparenting
Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasin... more Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future – as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future. Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.
Sociology of Personal Life, 2011
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
Parenting after Partnering : Containing Conflict after Separation
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
Social Beings, Future Belongings, 2019
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
This toolkit focuses on the issue of data integration within mixed methods research. The term ‘mi... more This toolkit focuses on the issue of data integration within mixed methods research. The term ‘mixed methods’ is used here to denote research that combines qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in one study. One of the main issues facing many mixed methods researchers is the question of how to integrate data, with the particular problem of ‘contradictory’ data. Mixed methods research is perhaps particularly prone to ‘contradictions’ in data because of the different categories and levels of analysis, as well as contrasting explanatory logics, that are employed. This toolkit discusses different approaches to the issue of integration and ‘contradictory’ data.
Families, Relationships and Societies
This article contributes to a reconceptualisation of the boundaries of sociological attention reg... more This article contributes to a reconceptualisation of the boundaries of sociological attention regarding where family is enacted. Despite being aware of the cultural contingency of the distinction that is drawn between the public and private spheres, family scholars in the Global North tend to study families as bounded units with an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’, and as spatially centred in the home. I argue that there is a need to systematically explore how mundane interactions and activities in public settings are woven into family life. Furthermore, drawing from research into family life in cities, I make the case for conceptualising public spaces as aspects of and even as characters in family life, and ask how people realise their family capacities in these. I propose that keeping these different facets of family life in view both analytically and empirically could lead to a radical shake-up of sociological thinking about family.
cultural geographies
This paper examines the role that light and dark play in how residents of Claremont Court, a mode... more This paper examines the role that light and dark play in how residents of Claremont Court, a modernist housing scheme in Edinburgh, Scotland, form a sense of atmosphere of place. Our findings show that the design of Claremont Court affords particular experiences of light and dark and of related warmth and cold that are meaningful to how residents experience and feel about the Court. While atmospheres tend to be conceptualised as spatially and temporally singular, our analytical focus on light and dark allows us to conceptualise the atmosphere of Claremont Court as made up of simultaneously held but distinct micro-atmospheres, which interact, overlap and even contradict each other. Furthermore, speaking to residents about their home environment revealed the role that memory plays in how people perceive atmosphere. Drawing from Mason’s concept of socio-atmospherics, we theorise atmospheres not as spatially contained, but as trajectories through space, where the experience of atmospher...
Global Networks
This paper investigates transnational families' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic outb... more This paper investigates transnational families' experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the accompanying sudden and unexpected travel restrictions. Our data consist of written stories collected in April-June 2020 from migrants with ageing kin living in another country. For many respondents, the situation provoked an acutely felt urge for physical proximity with their families. By analysing their experiences of 'not being there' , we seek to understand what exactly made the urge to 'be there' so forceful. Bringing into dialogue literature on transnational families with Jennifer Mason's recent theoretical work on affinities, we move the focus from families' transnational caregiving practices to the potent connections between family members. We argue that this approach can open important avenues for future research on families-transnational or otherwise-because it sheds light on the multisensory and often ineffable charges between family members that serve to connect them.
Families, Relationships and Societies
In 2012, David Morgan gave a talk titled ‘Neighbours, neighbouring and acquaintanceship: some fur... more In 2012, David Morgan gave a talk titled ‘Neighbours, neighbouring and acquaintanceship: some further thoughts’ at the University of Turku, Finland. In this article we engage in dialogue with Morgan’s talk, as well as his 2009 book Acquaintances, in particular the observations he made about the simultaneous closeness and distance that characterises neighbouring relationships. We suggest that using the metaphors of elasticity and stickiness instead allows us to explore neighbouring relationships as more than inhabiting a space between intimates and strangers (Morgan, 2009), but as textured and messy everyday relationalities. We consider also how the ‘stickiness’ of this relationship as well as the significance of its ‘elasticity’ are likely to have been heightened during COVID-19 lockdowns, which have altered the usual configurations of intimate and stranger relationships. In doing so, our aim is to contribute further to Morgan’s theorising of the nature of neighbouring as a specific...
Sociology of Personal Life, 2011
This essay examines a conference on narrative. The field of narrative studies is by nature interd... more This essay examines a conference on narrative. The field of narrative studies is by nature interdisciplinary, which leads to certain strengths and weaknesses, both of which were evident during the conference. On the one hand, as a result of the myriad approaches to and definitions of narrative and narrative analysis, the conference perhaps lacked a sense of coherence. However, the conference showed that overriding this weakness in narrative studies is the fruitful cross-fertilization that can occur when a field is truly interdisciplinary. Thus, concepts and theories can and do travel from one discipline to another, gaining new meaning and providing new insight on the way.
Contemporary grandparenting
Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasin... more Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future – as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future. Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.
Sociology of Personal Life, 2011
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
Parenting after Partnering : Containing Conflict after Separation
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
Social Beings, Future Belongings, 2019
Connecting Self to Society, 2013
This toolkit focuses on the issue of data integration within mixed methods research. The term ‘mi... more This toolkit focuses on the issue of data integration within mixed methods research. The term ‘mixed methods’ is used here to denote research that combines qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in one study. One of the main issues facing many mixed methods researchers is the question of how to integrate data, with the particular problem of ‘contradictory’ data. Mixed methods research is perhaps particularly prone to ‘contradictions’ in data because of the different categories and levels of analysis, as well as contrasting explanatory logics, that are employed. This toolkit discusses different approaches to the issue of integration and ‘contradictory’ data.
Taylor & Francis, 2019
Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasin... more Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals.
Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future – as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future.
Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.
Contemporary Grandparenting, 2013
Researching Society and Culture, 2013
Doing Social Science, 2009
Parenting after partnering, 2007
Det sunda livets trånga ramar, 2006
Narrative, Memory & Identity: Theoretical and Methodological Issue, 2004