The paper examines some methodological issues associated with the use and analysis of focus groups in social science research. It is argued that what distinguishes this methodology from other methods is the interactions which take place within focus groups, and that this should be reflected in analysis of the data. Interactive features considered here include individuals dominating within the groups, constructing the Other, tendencies towards normative discourses, and conflicts and arguments within focus groups. These are considered in relation to examples from a study of young adults' expectations of the future, and their orientations towards work and family. Possible moderator strategies and analysis approaches which take account of the interactions are discussed.

https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Smithson-2000-Using&AnalysingFocusGroups.pdf

Using and analysing focus groups: Limitations and possibilities

Following Hochschild's The Managed Heart, which emphasized the problematic features that emotional labour had for women flight attendants, a critical literature emerged which focused on the more enjoyable aspects of emotional labour in service employee experience. This article draws on this literature and analyses emotional labour as a gendered cultural performance but takes issue with the individualizing and pluralistic tenor in the post-Hochschild discussions. Using a qualitative and quantitative study of nearly 3000 Australian flight attendants, it focuses on organizational and occupational health and safety variables, as well as sexual harass-ment and passenger abuse — factors barely discussed by Hochschild's critics. The qualitative data indicate that emotional labour is both pleasurable and difficult at different times for the same individual. Gender is still pivotal, as Hochschild suggested, linking emotional labour with sexual harassment. At the same time, the most significant predictors from the quantitative study of whether emotional labour would be costly were organizational. Variables such as whether flight attendants felt valued by the company show that the airline management context is highly influential in the way in which emotional labour is experienced. As a means of understanding the complex relations in this important and eroticized area of service work where flight attendants, airline crews, airline management and passengers have convergent and conflicting interests, the article also deploys a new concept: ‘demanding publics’, to refer to trangressions of the legitimate boundaries of the service worker.

Sky Service: The Demands of Emotional Labour in the Airline Industry

V. Outsider/Insider: The Politics of Shifting Identities in the Research Process

Although practicing reflexivity is accepted as an important ingredient in qualitative psychological research, it is frequently only engaged with to examine how researchers' perspectives affect research interactions, data collection and analyses. Typically, little attention is paid to how physical bodies affect research activities and participants. Drawing upon interview research with women who practise ‘bulimia’ and using feminist post-structuralism as a framework for conceptualizing the body as simultaneously material/textual, this article examines how the bodies of participants and researchers are thoroughly implicated in research processes via reciprocal intersubjective exchanges. This paper explores the opportunities offered by adopting embodied reflexive practice and, despite the challenges it poses, concludes that this has much to offer (critical) qualitative psychologists. Embodied reflexivity can be deployed to interrogate ethical commitments, guide research discussions, enrich analyses, provide a...

Bodies that speak: examining the dialogues in research interactions

Due to the dynamic nature of construction projects, multiple stakeholders with various expectations are often involved. To achieve consensus among different stakeholders, public engagement (PE) is increasingly adopted for mega development projects. However, it is really difficult to satisfy various stakeholder needs if PE is inappropriately conducted. PE has been criticized for its illogical and unsystematic processes underlying decisions. Hence, the current study aimed to explore and identify critical factors of the PE process in order to improve final performance. To achieve this aim, four focus groups were held involving different types of stakeholders (e.g., governmental departments, construction professionals, interest groups, and local residents). PE process factors, addressed in the focus groups, fell into two main categories: logical decision-making process and team behaviors, with the latter divided into task and personal dimensions. The results of the current study were used as the first...

Focus group study to explore critical factors of public engagement process for mega development projects

VIII. The Seduction of Sameness: Similarity and Representing the Other:

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VIII. The Seduction of Sameness: Similarity and Representing the Other: