The research team has an extensive track record of completing research in the field of families and personal relationship research. Their expertise spans across social policy, sociology, historical and socio-cultural studies and includes internationally renowned work in qualitative mixed methods approaches to the study of family lives, childhood and intimacy.
Dr Jacqui Gabb
My current research interests centre on interdisciplinary psycho-social approaches for researching and theorizing personal relationships and emotional wellbeing, with particular interest in the areas of families, intimacy, sexuality and gender. I have a longstanding interest in studying how intimacy and sexuality are experienced ‘at home’, including in same-sex parent families. I have published widely in this area. I have established expertise in qualitative mixed methods research, notably in developing innovative methodological approaches for the study of intimate life and family relationships. I am currently undertaking research in two areas: understandings and experiences of quality in long-term couple relationships, and how ideas of risk and regulation affect father–child relationships.
Jacqui Gabb's Open University profile
Dr Janet Fink
My work has largely been focused upon 20th century Britain with an emphasis on how personal relationships were constructed and negotiated not only in policy and legislation but also through popular culture. More recently my research has been concerned with experiences of disadvantaged neighbourhoods in contemporary Britain, explored through visual methodologies and questions of interpretation and meaning-making. I am particularly interested in the value of visual resources as ‘evidence’ in the policy arena and their potential to acknowledge, address and challenge understandings of everyday life, personal relationships and social inequalities.
Janet Fink's Open University profile
Dr Jane McCarthy
My long-standing substantive interest has been in the area of contemporary family lives as these are experienced and understood in everyday contexts, with particular focus on parent-child relations. Theoretically, my interests lie at the intersections of sociology, family studies, youth studies, social policy, and feminist approaches. I have a long-standing interest in the concepts of public and private in elucidating these areas, and the meanings of family and individuality, relatedness and autonomy, in different contexts. Methodologically, my experience has centred on qualitative approaches, including the use of life histories and auto/biographies. In recent years I have become interested in relationships at the end of life, particularly with regard to children and young people's experiences of death.
Jane McCarthy's Open University profile
Dr Martina Klett-Davies
My research has specialised in relationships, family and gender studies and modern social theories, with a focus on the interplay between social identities, social policies and cultural understandings. While working at the Family and Parenting Institute (FPI), I have written on motherhood and paid and unpaid work and conducted two mixed-method research projects for the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Martina Klett-Davies's Open University profile
Laura Harvey
My research explores intimate, everyday experiences and cultural representations. I take an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on social psychology, sociology and cultural studies. I am currently writing up my doctoral thesis, which examines the negotiation and representation of condom-use in the UK. I have published work on cultural representations of gender and qualitative methodologies. Details of my publications can be found at open.academia.edu/LauraHarvey/Papers.
Dr Reenee Singh
