End of Life Care in Care Homes
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bath
Department Name: Social and Policy Sciences
Abstract
The focus of the study specifically is on equity of access, which will be of value to policy makers, commissioners, providers and beneficiaries of the care home sector. It seeks to do so by using a mixed-method design; first combining secondary quantitative analysis of the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network's database on place of death (NEoLCIN, 2016) and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) ESRC database on End of Life interviews (Marmot et al., 2016), and second with ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing (Creswell, 2014).
Given the novelty of a mixed-method approach to the study of death and dying, this project is about capacity building for quantitative expertise in the field as well as upskilling my training in quantitative research methods provided by the MRes in Social Policy I am due to complete in September 2017.
Whilst recognising that a study of the kind envisaged appears ambitious, it is essential if the study is to illuminate the large and diverse care homes sector in its provision of end of life care. The first part of the project is quantitative in nature, and will expand on Professor Malcolm Johnson's work with Public Health England. The prime analytical category employed to interrogate NEoLCIN and ELSA datasets will be place of death. The intent is to map where older people die, and who are the older people most likely to die in assisted living, residential care homes or nursing homes, rather than in hospitals or private homes. The ESRC-funded ELSA dataset collects the results of exit interviews with close friends/relatives of respondents who died at least 6 months before the interview took place (NatCen, 2015: 5). Since the ELSA sample is issued at a household level, it will be possible to analyse the trends concerning older peoples' transition into institutional care when approaching the end of life. The ELSA dataset will be used in study one of the PhD as part of a mixed methods approach to inform the design and research questions associated with studies two and three which will be qualitative in nature. The ESRC database will be used as a basis to inform and develop new directions in research.
This immersion in the macro data will inform my smaller scale empirical investigations. During my second year of research, I will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in up to ten care homes located within a travelling distance from Bristol and Bath, i.e. about 30 to 50 miles. This second stage of research will draw on my previous experience of ethnographic methods in this setting and the ethical concerns they entail. In the later stages of analysis, I intend to use triangulation techniques to create a base for grounded indications of wider patterns in the sector.
Given the novelty of a mixed-method approach to the study of death and dying, this project is about capacity building for quantitative expertise in the field as well as upskilling my training in quantitative research methods provided by the MRes in Social Policy I am due to complete in September 2017.
Whilst recognising that a study of the kind envisaged appears ambitious, it is essential if the study is to illuminate the large and diverse care homes sector in its provision of end of life care. The first part of the project is quantitative in nature, and will expand on Professor Malcolm Johnson's work with Public Health England. The prime analytical category employed to interrogate NEoLCIN and ELSA datasets will be place of death. The intent is to map where older people die, and who are the older people most likely to die in assisted living, residential care homes or nursing homes, rather than in hospitals or private homes. The ESRC-funded ELSA dataset collects the results of exit interviews with close friends/relatives of respondents who died at least 6 months before the interview took place (NatCen, 2015: 5). Since the ELSA sample is issued at a household level, it will be possible to analyse the trends concerning older peoples' transition into institutional care when approaching the end of life. The ELSA dataset will be used in study one of the PhD as part of a mixed methods approach to inform the design and research questions associated with studies two and three which will be qualitative in nature. The ESRC database will be used as a basis to inform and develop new directions in research.
This immersion in the macro data will inform my smaller scale empirical investigations. During my second year of research, I will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in up to ten care homes located within a travelling distance from Bristol and Bath, i.e. about 30 to 50 miles. This second stage of research will draw on my previous experience of ethnographic methods in this setting and the ethical concerns they entail. In the later stages of analysis, I intend to use triangulation techniques to create a base for grounded indications of wider patterns in the sector.
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000630/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2028 | |||
| 1931357 | Studentship | ES/P000630/1 | 30/09/2017 | 30/03/2021 | Diana Teggi |
| Description | Almost 30% of all deaths in England are now of care home residents, with care homes predicted to become the most common place-of-death in England by 2040. However, end-of-life care (EOLC) in care homes is often reported as suboptimal. In the first in-depth and wide-ranging study on the topic in nearly 20 years, this thesis examines the management of residents' dying in and by English care homes. Applying a mixed-methods design, the thesis is based on secondary quantitative analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), ethnographic fieldwork in five residential and nursing care homes in the South-West of England, and recorded interviews with 25 staff members. Building on Marxist-feminist social reproduction theory and Foucault's biopolitics, the thesis conceptualises issues of paid care work, the predictability of resident's dying, the governance of EOLC, and the good death in the care home context. The thesis argues that care work in care homes is shaped by the governance priorities to keep residents on the care home's premises (custodial), keep them alive (medico-legal), and achieve both while curtailing costs to NHS England and care home providers (economic). These priorities reduce care work to bodily care, extend residents' dying trajectories, and construct the good and natural death in care homes as the regulations-compliant death. The unpredictability of residents' deaths is the result of both residents' underlying conditions and the over-extension of their dying trajectories by the health and social care provided by carers, senior staff and GPs. The thesis concludes by arguing that the devaluation of the non-instrumental aspects of carers' emotional work marginalises existential questions about residents' desires to live or die and the loss of their capacity to act as persons. The devaluation of the non-instrumental aspects of emotional care work mirrors the devaluation of social reproduction work in English society. It further constrains carers' ability to treat residents as people with emotions and desires about the way they die as opposed to the mere recipients of bed and body care/work aimed at the realisation of regulations-compliant deaths. |
| Exploitation Route | I am in the process of engaging local policymakers in the NHS, local councils and Marie Curie with my findings on anticipatory prescribing (soon to be published in Palliative Medicine). I will be also producing two non-academic publications (one for professionals and one for the general public) on anticipatory prescribing in care homes. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Healthcare Other |
| Description | End of Life Care (EOLC) in Care Homes |
| Amount | £98,217 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/X006980/1 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | SWDTP OVERSEAS INTERNATIONAL VISIT: To spend the 2020 Spring Quarter as a Visiting Graduate Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) |
| Amount | £5,015 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2019 |
| End | 06/2020 |
| Description | SWDTP Research Training Support Grant (RSTG) TOP UP: Additional funding to complete my PhD fieldwork and attend international conferences in the summer of 2020 |
| Amount | £4,681 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 10/2021 |
| Description | ESRC SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) is an ESRC South West Doctoral Training Centre (SWDTP) Pathway Led Collaboration between the Universities of Bath (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), Bristol (Dr Magnus Feldman) and Exeter (Dr Nazrul Islam). This is an academic-led collaboration born out of the student-led collaboration: "Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway (Conference: https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-today-in-conversation-with-john-holloway ; £770 Awarded in 2018) which was led by me and supported by four other students at the University of Bath (Maria Ventura, Josie Hooker, Kalyan Kumar, Callum Cockbill). This team of PhD students operating under the guidance and inspiration of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein is the main organiser and founder of the SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). To establish the SSCT, the SWDTP awarded just below £10,000 to be managed by the founding team at the University of Bath to organise and deliver the following activities across the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: - Set up a website which functions as the showcase for the activities, events, workshops and the reading groups taking place in Bath, Bristol and Exeter: https://www.seminarct.com/about . It is an important point of reference for all ESRC students who met through the SSCT as well as for anyone wishing to join and collaborate with the SSCT - Set up student-led reading groups at the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: https://www.seminarct.com/study-reading-groups I have been prominent in organising and chairing the forthrightly session of the SSCT Bath Reading Group between October 2019 and January 2020. The tasks I was responsible of included: advertise the SSCT across the SWDTP; send out reminders to colleagues/other ESRC students; plan the sessions (select literature and facilitators), book the rooms and update the website with reading material, topic, facilitators' names etc; chair the first session myself. - Organise events at the University of Bath: 1) Mini-conference (chaired by me): 'Critical Theory in a Closing and Violent World' Speakers: John Holloway, Werner Bonefeld, Ana C. Dinerstein, and Theo Papadopoulos. Chair: Diana Teggi Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, May 15, 2019. https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-in-a-closing-and-violent-world/ 2) Workshop: 'Embodying hope: Mobilising the critical imagination through Art' Facilitated by Sara Vilardo, Artist Collective Victoria Deluxe. Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, Nov 21, 2019 https://www.seminarct.com/embodying-hope-workshop 3) Event: 'Taking the decolonial turn seriously: A call to unlearn the Eurocentric episteme of social sciences' Speakers: Ana C Dinerstein, Luisa Enria, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/taking-the-decolonial-turn-seriously-a-call-to-unlearn-the-eurocentric-episteme-of-social-sciences/ 15 Oct 2019 4) Event: 'From Fear to Hope: Shifting Narratives for Art, Social and Human Rights activism' Speakers: Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Thomas Coombes, Dr Ben Parry, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.seminarct.com/from-fear-to-hope 12 Jun 2019 - Organise the SSCT's first General Meeting, which took place on the 18th September 2019 from 1 to 5pm at the University of Bath. - Organise a workshop at the University of Exeter (February 2020) - Organise the SSCT Symposium in June 2020 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) aims to build a permanent, transdisciplinary and inter-institutional space for critical thought across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership institutions. The initiative seeks to unite critical theorists within and across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) institutions, and in dialogue with external partners and organisations. Critical theory, for us, is not simply a set of ideas that can be applied to understand reality. Rather, it is an active, iterative cycle of action and reflection that, embedded in social practices, seeks and enacts social transformation by offering a critique of society. The SSCT is intended as a transdisciplinary space where students and academic colleagues across the SWDTP can meet to discuss the critical theories and radical epistemologies stemmed from the Frankfurt School and the Marxist tradition, Feminist, and post/de/colonial studies, lies at the intersection of these students' and academics' respective subfields and research objects. The SSCT was born as a student-led initiative by a group of SWDTP doctoral students from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, under the guidance of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein. We were brought together by our interests in theories, epistemologies and practices that build alternatives to the violent and closing world offered by coloniality, capitalism, patriarchy, hetero-cis-normativity and anthropocentrism. Against the tide of the neoliberal University and the neoliberal - white Curriculum, we started to discuss the possibility of creating the kind of permanent, cross-disciplinary space for critical thought that we are now making reality. Following a series of successful "seed" events in 2018 - and thanks to the enthusiastic support from SWDTP Pathway leads from Bath, Bristol and Exeter - in April 2019 the initiative was awarded generous funding for our first year's activities by the SWDTP Collaboration fund. With this funding, we will now expand our community and activities to incorporate students and academic colleagues at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath. Our aim is to explore critical theories and radical epistemologies, including those born out of both the Frankfurt School and the heterodox Marxist tradition, critical feminist theory and decolonial theory, along with others arising from our own research projects. Over the course of 2019-2020 we will run a series of activities across the SWDTP institutions that together explore the conditions, role and horizons of critical theory today. The proposed activities will include reading groups, workshops and mini conferences. The community will bring together existing strengths in critical theory across a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, making a timely intervention into the most acute problems posed by today's world, and accompanying new practices for a world in crisis. Website: https://www.seminarct.com/about |
| Impact | The most important outcomes were in terms of academic development for ESRC doctoral students at the University of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. 1) We finally had a space to talk about Critical Theory and critical theories. A few lecturers also joined our reading group in Bath and found it very enriching. 2) We organised plenty of events (see above) which were well attended by both staff and students from the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary as it was set up by academics coming from different ESRC pathways such as: Global Political Economy (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), ---, and ----. It was also addressed to any scholar/academic staff and ESRC PhD students working in the humanities, social and economic sciences. Our list of attendees at the reading groups and the many events we organised testifies for that. A lot of students and staff attending the reading groups were based in the departments of Political Science and Education, while the funding members of the SSCT are mostly based in the department of Social & Policy Sciences. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | ESRC SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) |
| Organisation | University of Bristol |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) is an ESRC South West Doctoral Training Centre (SWDTP) Pathway Led Collaboration between the Universities of Bath (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), Bristol (Dr Magnus Feldman) and Exeter (Dr Nazrul Islam). This is an academic-led collaboration born out of the student-led collaboration: "Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway (Conference: https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-today-in-conversation-with-john-holloway ; £770 Awarded in 2018) which was led by me and supported by four other students at the University of Bath (Maria Ventura, Josie Hooker, Kalyan Kumar, Callum Cockbill). This team of PhD students operating under the guidance and inspiration of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein is the main organiser and founder of the SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). To establish the SSCT, the SWDTP awarded just below £10,000 to be managed by the founding team at the University of Bath to organise and deliver the following activities across the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: - Set up a website which functions as the showcase for the activities, events, workshops and the reading groups taking place in Bath, Bristol and Exeter: https://www.seminarct.com/about . It is an important point of reference for all ESRC students who met through the SSCT as well as for anyone wishing to join and collaborate with the SSCT - Set up student-led reading groups at the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: https://www.seminarct.com/study-reading-groups I have been prominent in organising and chairing the forthrightly session of the SSCT Bath Reading Group between October 2019 and January 2020. The tasks I was responsible of included: advertise the SSCT across the SWDTP; send out reminders to colleagues/other ESRC students; plan the sessions (select literature and facilitators), book the rooms and update the website with reading material, topic, facilitators' names etc; chair the first session myself. - Organise events at the University of Bath: 1) Mini-conference (chaired by me): 'Critical Theory in a Closing and Violent World' Speakers: John Holloway, Werner Bonefeld, Ana C. Dinerstein, and Theo Papadopoulos. Chair: Diana Teggi Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, May 15, 2019. https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-in-a-closing-and-violent-world/ 2) Workshop: 'Embodying hope: Mobilising the critical imagination through Art' Facilitated by Sara Vilardo, Artist Collective Victoria Deluxe. Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, Nov 21, 2019 https://www.seminarct.com/embodying-hope-workshop 3) Event: 'Taking the decolonial turn seriously: A call to unlearn the Eurocentric episteme of social sciences' Speakers: Ana C Dinerstein, Luisa Enria, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/taking-the-decolonial-turn-seriously-a-call-to-unlearn-the-eurocentric-episteme-of-social-sciences/ 15 Oct 2019 4) Event: 'From Fear to Hope: Shifting Narratives for Art, Social and Human Rights activism' Speakers: Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Thomas Coombes, Dr Ben Parry, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.seminarct.com/from-fear-to-hope 12 Jun 2019 - Organise the SSCT's first General Meeting, which took place on the 18th September 2019 from 1 to 5pm at the University of Bath. - Organise a workshop at the University of Exeter (February 2020) - Organise the SSCT Symposium in June 2020 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) aims to build a permanent, transdisciplinary and inter-institutional space for critical thought across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership institutions. The initiative seeks to unite critical theorists within and across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) institutions, and in dialogue with external partners and organisations. Critical theory, for us, is not simply a set of ideas that can be applied to understand reality. Rather, it is an active, iterative cycle of action and reflection that, embedded in social practices, seeks and enacts social transformation by offering a critique of society. The SSCT is intended as a transdisciplinary space where students and academic colleagues across the SWDTP can meet to discuss the critical theories and radical epistemologies stemmed from the Frankfurt School and the Marxist tradition, Feminist, and post/de/colonial studies, lies at the intersection of these students' and academics' respective subfields and research objects. The SSCT was born as a student-led initiative by a group of SWDTP doctoral students from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, under the guidance of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein. We were brought together by our interests in theories, epistemologies and practices that build alternatives to the violent and closing world offered by coloniality, capitalism, patriarchy, hetero-cis-normativity and anthropocentrism. Against the tide of the neoliberal University and the neoliberal - white Curriculum, we started to discuss the possibility of creating the kind of permanent, cross-disciplinary space for critical thought that we are now making reality. Following a series of successful "seed" events in 2018 - and thanks to the enthusiastic support from SWDTP Pathway leads from Bath, Bristol and Exeter - in April 2019 the initiative was awarded generous funding for our first year's activities by the SWDTP Collaboration fund. With this funding, we will now expand our community and activities to incorporate students and academic colleagues at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath. Our aim is to explore critical theories and radical epistemologies, including those born out of both the Frankfurt School and the heterodox Marxist tradition, critical feminist theory and decolonial theory, along with others arising from our own research projects. Over the course of 2019-2020 we will run a series of activities across the SWDTP institutions that together explore the conditions, role and horizons of critical theory today. The proposed activities will include reading groups, workshops and mini conferences. The community will bring together existing strengths in critical theory across a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, making a timely intervention into the most acute problems posed by today's world, and accompanying new practices for a world in crisis. Website: https://www.seminarct.com/about |
| Impact | The most important outcomes were in terms of academic development for ESRC doctoral students at the University of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. 1) We finally had a space to talk about Critical Theory and critical theories. A few lecturers also joined our reading group in Bath and found it very enriching. 2) We organised plenty of events (see above) which were well attended by both staff and students from the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary as it was set up by academics coming from different ESRC pathways such as: Global Political Economy (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), ---, and ----. It was also addressed to any scholar/academic staff and ESRC PhD students working in the humanities, social and economic sciences. Our list of attendees at the reading groups and the many events we organised testifies for that. A lot of students and staff attending the reading groups were based in the departments of Political Science and Education, while the funding members of the SSCT are mostly based in the department of Social & Policy Sciences. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | ESRC SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) |
| Organisation | University of Exeter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) is an ESRC South West Doctoral Training Centre (SWDTP) Pathway Led Collaboration between the Universities of Bath (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), Bristol (Dr Magnus Feldman) and Exeter (Dr Nazrul Islam). This is an academic-led collaboration born out of the student-led collaboration: "Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway (Conference: https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-today-in-conversation-with-john-holloway ; £770 Awarded in 2018) which was led by me and supported by four other students at the University of Bath (Maria Ventura, Josie Hooker, Kalyan Kumar, Callum Cockbill). This team of PhD students operating under the guidance and inspiration of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein is the main organiser and founder of the SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). To establish the SSCT, the SWDTP awarded just below £10,000 to be managed by the founding team at the University of Bath to organise and deliver the following activities across the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: - Set up a website which functions as the showcase for the activities, events, workshops and the reading groups taking place in Bath, Bristol and Exeter: https://www.seminarct.com/about . It is an important point of reference for all ESRC students who met through the SSCT as well as for anyone wishing to join and collaborate with the SSCT - Set up student-led reading groups at the Universities of Bath, Exeter and Bristol: https://www.seminarct.com/study-reading-groups I have been prominent in organising and chairing the forthrightly session of the SSCT Bath Reading Group between October 2019 and January 2020. The tasks I was responsible of included: advertise the SSCT across the SWDTP; send out reminders to colleagues/other ESRC students; plan the sessions (select literature and facilitators), book the rooms and update the website with reading material, topic, facilitators' names etc; chair the first session myself. - Organise events at the University of Bath: 1) Mini-conference (chaired by me): 'Critical Theory in a Closing and Violent World' Speakers: John Holloway, Werner Bonefeld, Ana C. Dinerstein, and Theo Papadopoulos. Chair: Diana Teggi Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, May 15, 2019. https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/critical-theory-in-a-closing-and-violent-world/ 2) Workshop: 'Embodying hope: Mobilising the critical imagination through Art' Facilitated by Sara Vilardo, Artist Collective Victoria Deluxe. Convened by Dr Ana C. Dinerstein as part of the Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT). University of Bath, UK, Nov 21, 2019 https://www.seminarct.com/embodying-hope-workshop 3) Event: 'Taking the decolonial turn seriously: A call to unlearn the Eurocentric episteme of social sciences' Speakers: Ana C Dinerstein, Luisa Enria, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.bath.ac.uk/events/taking-the-decolonial-turn-seriously-a-call-to-unlearn-the-eurocentric-episteme-of-social-sciences/ 15 Oct 2019 4) Event: 'From Fear to Hope: Shifting Narratives for Art, Social and Human Rights activism' Speakers: Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, Thomas Coombes, Dr Ben Parry, María José Ventura Alfaro https://www.seminarct.com/from-fear-to-hope 12 Jun 2019 - Organise the SSCT's first General Meeting, which took place on the 18th September 2019 from 1 to 5pm at the University of Bath. - Organise a workshop at the University of Exeter (February 2020) - Organise the SSCT Symposium in June 2020 |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) aims to build a permanent, transdisciplinary and inter-institutional space for critical thought across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership institutions. The initiative seeks to unite critical theorists within and across the South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) institutions, and in dialogue with external partners and organisations. Critical theory, for us, is not simply a set of ideas that can be applied to understand reality. Rather, it is an active, iterative cycle of action and reflection that, embedded in social practices, seeks and enacts social transformation by offering a critique of society. The SSCT is intended as a transdisciplinary space where students and academic colleagues across the SWDTP can meet to discuss the critical theories and radical epistemologies stemmed from the Frankfurt School and the Marxist tradition, Feminist, and post/de/colonial studies, lies at the intersection of these students' and academics' respective subfields and research objects. The SSCT was born as a student-led initiative by a group of SWDTP doctoral students from the Department of Social & Policy Sciences at the University of Bath, under the guidance of Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein. We were brought together by our interests in theories, epistemologies and practices that build alternatives to the violent and closing world offered by coloniality, capitalism, patriarchy, hetero-cis-normativity and anthropocentrism. Against the tide of the neoliberal University and the neoliberal - white Curriculum, we started to discuss the possibility of creating the kind of permanent, cross-disciplinary space for critical thought that we are now making reality. Following a series of successful "seed" events in 2018 - and thanks to the enthusiastic support from SWDTP Pathway leads from Bath, Bristol and Exeter - in April 2019 the initiative was awarded generous funding for our first year's activities by the SWDTP Collaboration fund. With this funding, we will now expand our community and activities to incorporate students and academic colleagues at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath. Our aim is to explore critical theories and radical epistemologies, including those born out of both the Frankfurt School and the heterodox Marxist tradition, critical feminist theory and decolonial theory, along with others arising from our own research projects. Over the course of 2019-2020 we will run a series of activities across the SWDTP institutions that together explore the conditions, role and horizons of critical theory today. The proposed activities will include reading groups, workshops and mini conferences. The community will bring together existing strengths in critical theory across a range of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, making a timely intervention into the most acute problems posed by today's world, and accompanying new practices for a world in crisis. Website: https://www.seminarct.com/about |
| Impact | The most important outcomes were in terms of academic development for ESRC doctoral students at the University of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. 1) We finally had a space to talk about Critical Theory and critical theories. A few lecturers also joined our reading group in Bath and found it very enriching. 2) We organised plenty of events (see above) which were well attended by both staff and students from the Universities of Bath, Bristol and Exeter. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary as it was set up by academics coming from different ESRC pathways such as: Global Political Economy (Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein), ---, and ----. It was also addressed to any scholar/academic staff and ESRC PhD students working in the humanities, social and economic sciences. Our list of attendees at the reading groups and the many events we organised testifies for that. A lot of students and staff attending the reading groups were based in the departments of Political Science and Education, while the funding members of the SSCT are mostly based in the department of Social & Policy Sciences. |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | Exploring emotional loneliness in older people living in retirement communities: A cross cultural study |
| Organisation | Legal and General Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | I work as a Research Assistant and Interviewer for the project 'Exploring emotional loneliness in older people living in retirement communities' under the direction of Dr Sam Carr, who is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Bath. The project was funded by Guild Living (part of Legal & Generals) at the University of Bath with a total budget of £392,000. I received direct compensation and expense reimbursement for my work as a research assistant and interviewer on the project. Emeritus Professor Malcolm Johnson, one of my academic supervisors on the ESRC-funded PhD project 'End of Life Care in Care Homes' and Visiting Professor of Gerontology and End of Life Care at the University of Bath, played a fundamental role in making the project happen and was the key mediator between the University and Guild Living. Professor Johnson was first contacted by Guild Living following the success of Channel 4's Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds, in which he featured as lead experimenter and in which pre-school children partnered with older people living in a retirement home in Bristol to meet new and old challenges. The overarching aim of the programme was to see what the health and wellbeing benefits for the elderly participants might be. Professor Johnson is now supporting Guild Living to create an academic-led approach to support better ageing in later life ( https://www.guildliving.co.uk ). As a Research Assistant, I received training for and I was tasked with completing 14 of 40 in-depth interviews with adults aged 65 and above living in four different retirement communities in England. The interviews were biographical in nature, lasting between one to four hours and focussing on the relational and emotional history of the interviewees before and after moving into retirement living. The challenges of ageing, loss, bereavement, isolation, and loneliness were all addressed in the interviews. During this time, I often met or exchanged emails with Dr Sam Carr and the other research group members - Dr Chao Fang (Post-doc, Social & Policy Science, University of Bath) and Joy Craham (PhD Candidate, Education, University of Bath) - to discuss the methodological challenges of conducting such personal interviews as well as the emergent findings from the interviews. I also wrote extensive field notes after each interview. I found a lot of common ground with Dr Sam Carr about care and wellbeing in old age. There is scope for me to be involved in some of the future data analysis and publications from this study. As a Research Assistant, I was also responsible for some administrative tasks such as: - recruit three new research participants as some others dropped out - contact the research participants, check with them that they were still interested in the project and book a meeting with them - archive consent forms and interview guides - upload interview recordings - check interview transcripts - book travels and accommodations - file expense claims. Overall, the research project involves 80 interviews, 40 in Australia and 40 in England. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The purpose of this project is to explore older people's experiences of emotional loneliness using attachment theory as a critical lens. Governments and service providers have devoted comparatively little attention to the psychosocial aspects of older people's lives and inner life in long-lived individuals is almost wholly ignored. Theoretical frameworks that offer promising ways of understanding issues such as emotional loneliness could be highly profitable. This is particularly important for those seeking to develop retirement communities that support older people's experiences of loneliness from a platform of objective empirical evidence. Accordingly, this project has the following key aims: To advance understanding about how older people experience emotional loneliness and attachment and how these experiences change as they move into retirement community living. To generate detailed qualitative data from 80 long-lived individuals in retirement communities across two countries (UK and Australia), involving (a) in-depth, systematic qualitative interviews about experiences of attachment and close relationships, (b) interviews to provide systematic data about experiences of emotional loneliness, and (c) interviews to explore how close relationships and feelings of loneliness have changed across the transition to retirement community living. To translate data into key messages (in collaboration with our industrial partner, Guild Living) designed to facilitate improvements in care education, provision, and policy in relation to retirement community living. Interviews with older adults living in retirement communities/villages were conducted by all members of the research group, Dr Sam Carr (4), Joy Craham (10), Dr Chao Fang (12) and myself (14). Analysis of the data will be conducted by Dr Sam Carr and Dr Chao Fang in the first instance, with contributions from Joy Craham and myself in the second instance. |
| Impact | As already mentioned, one of the main aims of the project is to translate data into key messages designed to facilitate improvements in care education, provision, and policy in relation to retirement community living. In collaboration with our industrial partner, Guild Living, these messages are highly likely to be put into practice and translate into concrete changes in the industry and society. Guild Living pledged to build new retirement complexes in the UK guided by cutting-edge, independent research and inspired by the wish to promote and develop a new concept of retirement living and wellbeing in later life (see https://healthcarebusiness.co.uk/legal-general-looks-to-transform-the-way-we-age-with-new-uk-city-centre-retirement-concept/ and https://www.guildliving.co.uk/guild-living-is-expanding-with-new-site-in-walton-on-thames/). Therefore, this project has great potential to have direct societal, economic and cultural impact . Given the size of Guild Living's investment and plans, it is likely that the change produced will percolate other aspects of the ageing industry as well as societal attitudes towards ageing in general. A first concrete example of how this project can feed into practice and into changing public's perspectives are Professor Johnson's videos about 'what is ageing?' made available to a large public through the Guild Living website: https://www.guildliving.co.uk/category/ageing-unlocked/ |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Description | LEAD APPLICANT ESRC SWDTP STUDENT LED COLLABORATION: Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway (Mini-Conference) |
| Organisation | University of Bath |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I was the lead applicant for an ESRC South West Doctoral Training Centre (SWDTP) Student Led Collaboration to set up the one-day conference 'Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway' which was successfully awarded £700 and took place on the 11th of October 2018 at the University of Bath. I was in charge of writing the application as well as advertise the event and take care of some of the logistics. The other students supporting the application were: Maria Ventura, Josie Hooker, Kalyan Kumar and Callum Cockbill (University of Bath). From the application for the 'Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway' event: "This collaborative event will consist of a mini-conference that will bring together Professor John Holloway from the University of Puebla Mexico in conversation with Dr Ana Dinerstein (University of Bath), Josie Hooker (SWDTP MREs student, 1+3, GPE) and F.Harry Pitts, former PhD (SPS, University of Bath) and now Lecturer in Management at the University of Bristol. John Holloway is one of the most celebrated Marxists of our time with a longstanding commitment to the practical application of theoretical concepts. His books, including, 'Change the World without Taking Power' (Pluto Press 2002) and 'Crack Capitalism' (2010) have been translated into many languages and have been influential both theoretically and in terms of social movement practices. Dr Ana Cecilia Dinerstein, is a political sociologist and critical theorist at the University of Bath. She has known and followed Professor John Holloway's work critically for many years. She, herself is well known for her work on unemployment and the global politics of hope and is a leading scholar in the field of social movements and emancipation in Latin America. Ana is the author of 'The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The art of Organising Hope' (2014), and editor and author of 'Social Sciences for An Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes' (2016). The other two panellists are a PhD candidate (Josie Hooker) and an early career scholar (Harry Pitts) both from the Universit of Bristol. The mini conference intends to openly discuss the role of critical theory today and its potential to inform meaningful social change and academic enquiry. The event is not conceived as a series of key-notes nor as a closed discussion among the panellists. Rather, we will invite our fellow SWDTP students personally by email and ask them to send us their reply to the question: "What is critical theory?". The answers will be used to stimulate discussion on the day and the question will be (re)posed many times during the conference - to the public and to the discussants, so as to encourage a dynamic exchange between activists and academics, different fields of study, personal experiences and generations. The event remains committed to the Socratic practice of learning through dialogue, collective questioning and the imagination of alternatives. The mini-conference will be open to undergraduate and postgraduate students from Bath and Bristol, as well as advertised to the general public in both cities. To facilitate access to anyone interested, the event will be held in the evening and will last for approximately 2 hours. After the conversation/talk, we will have a drinks reception and then the organising team will have dinner together with John Holloway. The event will mark the launch of a project called the 'Bath-Bristol Standing Seminar in Critical Theory'. This is an ongoing and long-term project, and in order to allow this to develop the Bath-Bristol Standing Seminar in Critical Theory will apply for SWDTC funding -Pathway collaboration. The Standing Seminar in Critical Theory will be a student-led collaborative network within our SWDTP cohorts at the Universities of Bath and Bristol. The collaborative seminar will focus on the exploration of the radical epistemologies born out of the Frankfurt School and the Marxist tradition as well as the emancipatory movements of the second half of the 20th century (which are still ongoing). To name just a few, these are: anti-racisms and decolonialisation movements, feminism(s), environmentalism, gay, lesbian and trans liberation movements, disability and neurodiversity movements, and anti-ageism. We are preparing this application with the support of Dr Ana Dinerstein and other pathway-leads in both universities." |
| Collaborator Contribution | The first of the Bath-Bristol Standing Seminars in Critical Theory, this event focussed on how to bring about radical change in a world governed by violence. Speakers John Holloway, Maria Nikolakaki, Ana Dinerstein, Frederick Harry Pitts, and Josie Hooker addressed what critical theory is today and how we can reconnect theory and practice to produce radical change in a world that is governed by abstractions and violence. This is the first event of the SWDTP Standing Seminar in Critical Theory (SSCT) series which is sponsored by the ESRC South-West Doctoral Training Partnership. Speaker profiles Professor John Holloway, Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla, Mexico, is one of the most important contemporary marxists and author of many books, including Change the world without taking power (2002) and Crack Capitalism (2010). He will join the talk through Skype. Maria Nikolakaki is Associate Professor at the University of Corinth and the creator and convenor of the Cooperative Institute for Transnational Studies. Ana Dinerstein is an Associate Professor at the University of Bath. She is the author of The Politics of Autonomy in Latin America: The Art of Organizing Hope (Palgrave 2015) and editor of Social Sciences for An Other Politics: Women Theorising without Parachutes. Frederick Harry Pitts is a Lecturer in Management at University of Bristol. He is co-editor of Futures of Work (Bristol University Press) and his main publication is Critiquing Capitalism Today: New Ways to Read Marx (Palgrave MacMillan 2017). Josie Hooker is an ESRC awarded MRES - PhD candidate in Global Political Economy, in the Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath. She has written papers on topics ranging from crisis and resistance in the global food system and indigenous knowledge in Latin America, to green theories of Marxism. |
| Impact | The one day conference was very well attended with many ESRC (and other) students travelling from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter (as well as Bath were the conference was held) to hear John Holloway speak. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary as it was set up by students coming from different ESRC pathways such as: Social Policy (myself), International Development (Maria Ventura), Global Political Economy (Josie Hooker, Callum Cockbill) and Advanced Quantitative Methods (Kalyan Kumar). It was also addressed to any scholar/academic staff and ESRC PhD students working in the humanities, social and economic sciences. Out list of attendees at the 'Critical Theory Today: In Conversation with John Holloway' mini-conference testified for that. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | NEW RESEARCH: Practices and Policies for end-of-life care |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I wrote a blog to advertise a research paper I wrote based on my PhD research findings and during the time of the Fellowship. Advertisign of the blog and article was also supported by an "X" post reachign 1675 people in the UK. Blog's core content: Our new paper explores how care home staff collaborate with GPs to prescribe medication for the management of dying symptoms to residents ahead of need. This process is called anticipatory prescribing. The paper reveals that anticipatory prescribing extends the GP's medico-legal authority to make life-altering decisions to care home nurses and senior carers. Therefore, in the care home context, anticipatory prescribing is not only a pharmacological intervention for pain management and symptom control. It is also a mechanism allowing care home nurses and senior carers to decide to forego emergency ambulance care (mostly leading to hospital transfer) and enable palliative care provision and dying in the care home setting. The paper recommends that the timeframe for the GP to review palliative care medication should match the period before death in which a doctor must visit a patient dying in the community in order to release the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) without triggering an automatic Coroner's referral. This period is currently 28 days and was 14 days pre-pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.bath.ac.uk/announcements/new-research-practices-and-policies-for-end-of-life-care/ |