Sam Murphy

Sharon Mallon

Erica Borgstrom

The term ‘sensitive research’ is applied to a wide range of issues and settings. It is used to denote projects that may involve risk to people, stigmatising topics, and/or require a degree of sensitivity on behalf of the researcher. Rather than take the notion of ‘sensitive research’ for granted, this collection unpacks and challenges what the term means. This book is a collective endeavour to reflect on research practices around ‘sensitive research’, providing in-depth explorations about what this label means to different researchers, how it is done – including the need to be sensitive as a researcher – and what impacts this has on methods and knowledge creation. The book includes chapters from researchers who have explored a diverse range of research topics, including sex and sexuality, death, abortion, and learning disabilities, from several disciplinary perspectives, including sociology, anthropology, health services research and interdisciplinary work. The researchers included here collectively argue that current approaches fail to adequately account for the complex mix of emotions, experiences, and ethical dilemmas at the heart of many ‘sensitive’ research encounters. Overall, this book moves the field of ‘sensitive research’ beyond the genericity of this label, showing ways in which researchers have in practice addressed the methodological threats that are triggered when we uncritically embark on ‘sensitive research'. The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology and the journal Mortality.

Epistemological and Methodological Implications

Unpacking Sensitive Research

Jo Smith

This practical book covers issues related to suicide risk, prevention and postvention in Higher and Further Education communities. Compiled by 37 experts, it is an authoritative guide to an issue that is causing increasingly large concern for FE and HE institutions and covers multiple evidence-backed approaches with a pragmatic focus. It is the first that specifically deals with student suicide in FE Colleges and universities, encouraging a holistic, institutional response. Chapters are split into three sections, beginning with understanding and preventing student suicide among students, followed by responses to risk, including a model for student prevention in HE settings. The book concludes with the response to student death by suicide with advice on postvention, and how to support bereaved family, staff, and students.

Sharon Mallon

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