Up close and personal: A qualitative study exploring the lived experience of older carers. Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Research. 8 (1). Pp.15-29.

This study explored the experiences of informal carers who were aged 65 years and over. It has been estimated that 15 per cent of those aged 65 or over provide some form of informal care in England. Despite a growing literature on the involvement of older people in research, there is a paucity of literature on the involvement of older carers. In this study, older carers were identified via a General Practice (GP) register in one urban medical practice. Data was collected through a series of focus groups, which were transcribed and analysed using
thematic analysis. Every carer aged 55 or over and registered with the medical practice was invited to take part in the study. Four female carers and one male carer took part in the study (age range 65-83). Themes that emerged during data analysis included, 1) managing things in an emergency, 2) feeling valued because they took part in the research and 3) the day-to-day reality of living with social exclusion. GP registers provide a valuable tool for identifying older
carers who may otherwise be difficult to engage in research. However, persuading GPs to engage with qualitative research may be a challenge.

The Landscape of Differences: Contact and Segregation in the Everyday Encounters

The article examines everyday life in Northern Ireland’s segregated communities and focus on a neglected empirical dimension of ethnic and social segregation developed within the socio-spatial relations between people and their built environment. It shows how the everyday urban encounters are reproduced through negotiating differences and the ways in which living in divided communities lead to social inequality and imbalanced use of space. The article employed qualitative research methods with individuals and community groups from the Fountain estate, a small Protestant enclave in Derry/Londonderry. Their stories were replete with cases of injustice and insights into the daily struggles that have generally occurred within theories of contact and social segregation as a whole. In fact, people in the Fountain presented their own intertextual references on what was more significant for them as a matter of routine survival and belonging, which allowed them to be more constructive about themselves. While segregation has persisted for multiple decades; time is believed to be the factor most likely to change it, as it is hoped that the younger generation will provide lasting change to Northern Ireland and eventual peace between currently segregated communities.

Reconciliation in Northern Ireland: The Value of Intergroup contact

Northern Ireland is still a country riven by segregation, caught between peace and reconciliation. Extensive survey research shows that intergroup contact has a key role to play in achieving reconciliation, whether through generic contact, cross-group friends (most effective) or indirect forms of contact. Segregation is most profound in education, but we show the benefits of contact in all mixed schools. A recent evaluation of a new Shared Education Programme (SEP), that provides children with the opportunity to study with and meet pupils from the other community, reveals reliable effects via promoting contact. The Northern Ireland Assembly’s support for SEP is based on sound psychological principles and robust research evidence.