Dependencia afectiva

Research ethics are an integral aspect of the act of research and of each of the phases of the research process. It was integral to this PhD research project that the research was ethical, as ethical research empowers participants, ethical research benefits participants and ethical research prevents harm to participants and those involved in the research project (Peled and Leichtentritt 2002, Clifford 2000, Denzin 1989). Ethics were a continuous consideration throughout the research project and they should be considered in the context of the relationship between the researcher and the researched (Clifford 2000, Denzin 1989).

4.17.1 Defining Feminist Ethics

I take a feminist communitarian approach to ethics (Clifford 2000, Denzin 1989). Feminist communitarian ethics ‘hold the community as ontologically and axiologically prior to the person’ (Clifford 2000, Denzin 1989). A community is considered to have common morals and these common morals morally guide the researcher. Community morals in this context can be seen as conceptions of care, shared governance and neighbourliness. Researchers, as moral individuals working with a community, need to

create and modify their moral acts through non-hierarchical dialogue with research participants within the social context in which the research is conducted. (Clifford 2000, Denzin 1989)

In a feminist communitarian approach to ethics, ethics are considered contextual. The ethical obligation for the researcher is not simply to their professional code of ethics but to ‘situated moral rules that are grounded in the local community and group understanding’ (Denzin 1997:227). A feminist communitarian approach argues that responsibility for proper ethical

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conduct lies with individual researchers. This research project adheres to the British Sociological Association (2004) code of ethics and the Manchester Metropolitan University (2011) code of ethics.

4.17.2 Prevention of Harm

Prevention of harm is a general ethical rule. Harm in the context of a qualitative study could be seen as an invasion of privacy, unwanted identification, breach of confidentiality and trust, misrepresentation and exploitation (Punch 1994). Peled and Leichtentritt (2002) focus on the need of ethical research to achieve informed consent. They state that ethical research should avoid coerced participation in the recruitment of participants; they remind the researcher of the power dynamic between researchers and researched when recruiting participants. My PhD research project gained informed consent from all persons to be part of the study45_{. At each}

stage of my research I asked for written informed consent. At each PAR workshop consent was obtained as part of the workshop registration process. Each semi-structured interview began with an explanation of the research and individual written consent forms were signed. The trustees of the organisation in which my ethnography was conducted signed a written consent form. Verbal consent was also sought from staff during each of my participant observation visits. All data collected is securely stored on my university H drive and on a USB memory stick in a locked cabinet in my home.

4.17.3 Confidentiality

The privacy and confidentiality of the participants are maintained through the anonymity of both individual participants and organisations. Pseudonyms are used instead of real organisation and individual identities (Punch 1994). The research focussed at organisational level and as such did not focus on vulnerable groups. Organisations and their employees were the focus of the

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research. Service user groups and clients of the adult social care organisations were not involved in the research project. I have provided a list of my research interactions in Appendix Five. All names have been changed to pseudonyms.

4.17.4 Ensuring Authenticity

A participatory workshop towards the end of the PhD research in July 2015, enabled the VCS to reflect and feed back on my research findings (Yin 2009, Stake 2006). This ensured authenticity of voice (Manning 1997) and catalytic validity (Lather 2009). This workshop offered a Sustainable Livelihoods Toolkit. This was an opportunity for organisations to use my PhD research in order to conduct their own assets based organisational evaluation. This workshop fits with my social justice research ontology, reflected in research objective three: the objective of making my research empowering to the VCS of Greater Manchester. At this workshop research participants were asked to feed back on my research findings. This ensured that the study avoided any deception and that the participants could confirm or question the interpretations of the study. Reiman (1979) states that the outcome of ethical research should enhance the freedom of the participants more than it enhances the careers of the researchers. The PAR focus of this PhD and the workshop at the end of the study empowered VCS participant organisations (Buchanan 2007, Farrington 2001) to develop adaptive strategies by which they can better respond to the challenges of Coalition policy. These adaptive strategies, discussed and developed in participatory workshop four, were developed and written up into the Sustainable Livelihoods Toolkit, which is available in Appendix Six.

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4.18 Chapter Summary

This chapter first considers my theoretical approach and then considers how my research was conducted, and how my research was analysed. The chapter, in line with feminist research methodologies, situates me as a researcher within the research process. The chapter considers the ethical considerations of my research project.

In taking a feminist emancipatory approach to my methodology, the VCS’s experience of austerity was explored. By examining the opportunities and challenges specific to Manchester from macro, meso and micro perspectives, my PhD builds on the theoretical perspectives of NCIA (2015), Rochester (2014), Milbourne (2013), Ishkanian and Szreter (2012), Hilton and McKay (2011), Malani and Posner (2007), Wolch (1990) and DiMaggio and Powell (1983) to develop a Manchester specific field of academic knowledge on the adult social care voluntary sector’s reaction to Coalition policy. My hope is that the research will contribute to Manchester VCS’s policy development and practice. By developing a Sustainable Livelihoods Toolkit for small VCS organisations, in partnership with CAEC46, Oxfam GB47 and Church Action on Poverty48_{, which can be used to conduct an assets based evaluation of an organisation, I hope}

to contribute to Greater Manchester VCS’s policy and practice.

My research considered the opportunities and challenges that the VCS of Greater Manchester faces, and many of these are reflections of those experienced by the VCS nationally. Having considered my methodology I now consider the effects of Coalition policy on the VCS of Greater Manchester. This next, meso level, chapter is an analysis of my research findings.

46 _{CAEC Community Audit and Evaluation Centre at Manchester Metropolitan University http://www.ioe.mmu.ac.uk/caec/} 47 _{Oxfam GB. Oxfam’s British anti-poverty department http://www.oxfam.org.uk/}

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CHAPTER FIVE: The Opportunities and Challenges Faced by Greater Manchester’s Voluntary and Community Sector

5.1 Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to consider the experience of the Greater Manchester adult social care VCS. I have developed three layers (macro, meso and micro) of analysis in order to explore the effects of Coalition policy on the adult social care VCS of Greater Manchester, reflecting research objective one. Having considered the experience of the adult social care VCS from a macro, national level, perspective, I now consider my research findings. My next chapter analyses the micro level experience of one adult social care VCS organisation. In this way the macro, meso and micro context of the VCS experience of Coalition policy is built.

This chapter begins with a reflection of my experiences of conducting the research, the research process and how I analysed the research, before focussing on my research findings. The chapter considers my research findings from ten research interactions. This research was made up of three participatory workshops, two participant observations of adult social care infrastructure groups and five semi-structured interviews with adult social care VCS organisations.

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5.2 How my Greater Manchester Research was Conducted: Reflections, Rituals and