Navigating difficult family relationships in rural Mongolia
Veronica Gruca discusses the challenges of maintaining family ties in Mongolia in the face of complex relational dynamics.
Relationships, communities and investment: what our recent CRFR blogs tell us
Over the past year, the CRFR blog has hosted contributions from researchers and third-sector partners working across youth work, policing, volunteering and family support. Each blog focuses on a different and unique issue. But as we reviewed the writings, it was striking to see that they all have a shared message about what helps young people, families and communities to thrive.
Rebuilding Trust – How Police and Young Marginalised People Can Shape Better Relationships
Alan Mackie explores one of the most pressing challenges for contemporary policing: how to repair and strengthen relationships between young people and the police in resource-deprived communities.
Small acts, big impact: how communities can support families through everyday challenges
Jean Lowe discusses how communities can support families through everyday challenges, and the reasons that can impact someone’s willingness to offer and/or receive a supportive action.
What Happens to Friendship When We Marry? Insights from Urban India
Himalika Mohanty discusses how marriage and anticipated motherhood reshape friendships among urban middle-class adults in India, particularly for women.
Beyond the Youth Worker: Why Families Are the Missing Link in Youth Work
Olivia Darby discusses their recent research on youth work and family engagement. The WONDER Foundation works in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America to empower women and girls to get the education they need to exit poverty for good.
Muslim women’s entrepreneurial spaces as spaces of care and solidarity in Delhi, India
Entrepreneurship is commonly associated with productivity and performance, infrastructures, and more recently “start-up” culture. But what when entrepreneurship is grounded in informal, home-based, small-scale businesses driven not by capitalistic notions of profit making but instead by feminist notions of care and empathy?
Who Do You Think We Are?: The Seen and Unseen in Family History
Read Yoshinori Kasai on how we search for our roots, uncovering the records, memories, and hidden gaps that shape family histories in Japan and elsewhere.
Thinking of Children’s Socializing
Read Yoshinori Kasai on how children build connections within their communities, drawing own his research on how a traditional folk event once provided an important opportunity for children to socialize.
Beyond Religion: Social Functions of Japan’s Traditional Pilgrimage Groups
Read Yoshinori Kasai on Japan’s traditional pilgrimage associations and their social functions, including the Ise-kō, an organization formed to carry out pilgrimages to the Ise Shrine, one of Japan’s most revered Shinto shrines.
Youth work in Scotland: Lifelong impact, urgent challenges
Last week, Youth Scotland released ‘Acting on Funding’, highlighting the huge challenge of securing sustainable funding for youth work. Earlier this year, with Youth Link Scotland, we published The Power of Youth Work, a longitudinal biographical study which explored how youth work shapes lives far beyond adolescence. Together, these studies tell a clear story: youth work matters, not just in the moment but across the lifecourse.
Is it possible to truly understand the value of volunteering?
Read Bethany Sikes, Research and Policy manager at Volunteer Scotland, on the challenges of articulating the impact of volunteering, and work carried out with social value specialists State of Life to evidence the difference volunteering makes to people’s wellbeing.
Caring Together Yet Apart: Emotional and Spatial Negotiations in Informal Childcare Work in Istanbul, Turkey
Most research on migrant care work traces women’s journeys from the Global South to the Global North, where they care for someone else’s children while leaving their own behind. But what happens when this story unfolds within the Global South, in a context marked by a care deficit and an informal care economy? Read Dr Canan Neşe Kınıkoğlu on recent research in Istanbul, which stands out as a significant hub for migrant care within the Global South.
“The Pill. Angry chuckles.” Exploring contracepting through poetry
Marie Larsson has been researching contraceptive experiences and practices for almost 10 years, primarily using “traditional” qualitative methods. In this blog, Marie reflects on her new project, delivering a creative workshop using guided poetry methods, targeted an interdisciplinary audience with a particular interest in, or experience of working with, issues related to contraception, sexual and reproductive health, or pregnancy and STI prevention.
Baos and Bagpipes: Exploring sibling influence on the lived experience of Scottish-born Chinese individuals
Louise Ho has explored how, in the context of the Chinese diaspora in Scotland, the role of siblings extends beyond childhood companionship, delving into the complexities of cultural identity while also reflecting on their own experiences.
“My Father Told Me That If I Didn’t Get Married, I’d Be Done For.”
I am Chinese and it seems that I have always lived under the persistent prodding of my elders. From childhood, when I was urged to speak and walk, to my teenage years, when the pressure was on to study hard, and now, as an adult, to marry.
Young People and Contraception
Throughout human history, there has always been a desire and need to contracept. That is, a desire to prevent or be able to plan pregnancies or prevent against sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
In this blog, Dr Marie Larsson introduces her new research briefing, which outlines and summarises the key findings and insights from her research on young people’s experiences and practices with contraceptives in Sweden.