Exploring men’s experiences of care in low-income localities

Start date: 1 October 2014
End date: 30 June 2018
Primary investigator: Anna Tarrant
Co-investigators: Professor Kahryn Hughes

About the Project

We currently know very little about men’s perspectives and experiences of work and care within highly vulnerable families with complex and enduring needs. This study will explore their experiences in low-income localities in order to understand the impact that economic, social and material vulnerability has on their social and familial relationships and their interactions with a number of services.

Proposed study aims

To address an important and under researched topic – men’s experiences of care and work in low-income localities;
To find out what men do with their time when they are not working in order to assess the extent to which worklessness is risky for men and for those who have relationships with them;
To understand the impact that men’s insecure work trajectories have on their familial and social relationships over time;
To address these gaps in knowledge in ways that are theoretically engaged, empirically innovative and policy relevant.

Core method

Qualitative longitudinal research conducted in two phases;

Secondary analysis of existing qualitative evidence (from the Timescapes archive),
Two waves of in-depth interviews with men living in a low-income locality in the north of England, combined with other creative methods such as time diaries and photo voice.