Lead supervisor:
Prof Donald Forrester 
Start date: October 2017
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Social Care, Social Work and Social Policy
Thematic Cluster:
Society and Well-Being Cluster
Knowledge and interactional possibilities across spaces of child protection practice
My PhD uses ethnographic and mobile methods to explore social work expertise, work practices, and interactional possibilities across spaces of practice. Social workers at the fieldwork sites plan to work with me to develop examples of promising practices emerging from a year of shadowing social workers in the office, family homes, meetings and court.
My research interest is social care generally, though I am interested in interdisciplinary research and have used varied research methods including detailed microanalysis of in talk interaction, ethnographic and mobile methods more broadly, and participatory research methods. I value developing flexible methodological approaches to social research that can constructively engage with one another.
Prior research includes a study of the interactional construction of poverty in social work home visits and I have a continued interest in such micro-practices. I also developed research with children and young people to evaluate their impact on policy consultation with Welsh Government and continue to be interested in the possibilities of co-constructed research. My professional background is in social care, I have worked in the voluntary and statutory sector, most recently as a social worker in child protection and substance misuse services. Alongside my PhD, I work as a Research Associate at Cascade and contribute to teaching.