Reflexivity in social research (2021)
Book
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. (2021). Reflexivity in social research. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84095-2

This book provides students and researchers with clear guidance through this tricky, but fundamental, aspect of ethnographic and other qualitative research methods. This concise overview clarifies, illustrates and develops a highly popular methodolog... Read More about Reflexivity in social research.

Grasping the social life of documents in human service practice (2021)
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E. (2021). Grasping the social life of documents in human service practice. In K. Jacobsson, & J. Gubrium (Eds.), Doing Human Service Ethnography (83-99). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.47674/9781447355809

Human service work of all kinds is full of documentation; it is central to the creation and maintenance of the work itself and to stabilising local professional cultures and identities. Yet, all too often, practices of authorship and readership are o... Read More about Grasping the social life of documents in human service practice.

Interactionist research : extending methods, extending fields (2021)
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. (2021). Interactionist research : extending methods, extending fields. In D. vom Lehn, N. Ruiz-Junco, & W. Gibson (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism (425-434). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429276767-43

Symbolic interactionist research has long been associated with qualitative methods, and with ethnographic fieldwork in particular. This chapter outlines the basic principles that underpin such affinity, while acknowledging that there is no one-to-on... Read More about Interactionist research : extending methods, extending fields.

Interviewing – a final contribution (2021)
Journal Article
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. (2021). Interviewing – a final contribution. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(3), 397-398. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1847997

Article commentary

Response to Hughes, Hughes, Sykes and Wright (2020)
Journal Article
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. (2020). Response to Hughes, Hughes, Sykes and Wright. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(6), 757-758. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1806591

‘Bring yourself to work’ : rewriting the feeling rules in ‘personalised’ social work (2019)
Journal Article
Whitaker, E. (2019). ‘Bring yourself to work’ : rewriting the feeling rules in ‘personalised’ social work. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 8(3), 325-338. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-06-2018-0030

Purpose: This paper explores how feeling rules are constructed, experienced and contested within personalised social work practice. It considers how organisations seek to shape practitioners towards certain forms of emotional display in increasingly... Read More about ‘Bring yourself to work’ : rewriting the feeling rules in ‘personalised’ social work.

Authenticity and the interview : a positive response to a radical critique (2019)
Journal Article
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. (2019). Authenticity and the interview : a positive response to a radical critique. Qualitative Research, 19(6), 619-634. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794118816885

We respond to recent discussions of the interview, and the ‘radical critique’ of interviewing, as reiterated in publications by Silverman and Hammersley. Reviewing and extending the critical commentary on the social life of the interview and its impl... Read More about Authenticity and the interview : a positive response to a radical critique.

The cultural contemplation of death by the living : from sequestration to the 'Cosmopolitan Aesthetic' of death and dying (2015)
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E. (2015). The cultural contemplation of death by the living : from sequestration to the 'Cosmopolitan Aesthetic' of death and dying. In C. Tandy (Ed.), Death And Anti-Death, Volume 13: Sixty Years After Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Ann Arbor, MI, USA.: Ria University Press

Beyond black and green : children visioneering the future (2015)
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E. (2015). Beyond black and green : children visioneering the future. In J. Collier (Ed.), The Future of Social Epistemology : A Collective Vision (247-256). London: Rowman & Littlefield International

Finding Aristotle on the frontline : phronesis and social work (2014)
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E. (2014). Finding Aristotle on the frontline : phronesis and social work. In K. Farnsworth, Z. Irving, & M. Fenger (Eds.), Social Policy Review 26 Analysis and Debate in Social Policy 2014 (181-200). Bristol: Policy Press

This chapter outlines how Aristotle’s concept of phronesis has gained traction as an analytical concept for research in recent years, particularly in areas of social policy most concerned with the professions of social work, education and medicine. F... Read More about Finding Aristotle on the frontline : phronesis and social work.

Reflexive ethnography
Book Chapter
Whitaker, E., & Atkinson, P. Reflexive ethnography. In A. Poferl, & N. Schröer (Eds.), Handbook of Sociological Ethnography. Wiesbaden: Springer

Reflexivity refers to the fact that the perspectives and methods of the social sciences construct the phenomena that are studied. Reflexivity is not a matter of choice nor is it a researcher virtue. Ethnographic research needs to take account of the... Read More about Reflexive ethnography.