School of Geography - Faculty of Environment

PROJECTS & WORK IN PROGRESS

Current Projects

Childhood and Family Life

I have made a significant contribution to the development of the new sub-disciplinary field of children and young people’s geographies (e.g. two research monographs and two research collections). My work on young people’s negotiation of space (public space and cyberspace) and experiences of marginalisation in the transition to adulthood (funded by two ESRC grants both graded ‘outstanding’ by end of award assessors, and a UK Department for Education and Skills contract) have advanced understandings of young people’s social agency and the cultural politics of ‘other’ childhoods. This research has had a UK policy impact by providing an evidence base for DfES (renamed Department for Children, Schools and Families, DCSF) about the relationship between children’s home use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and their educational attainment which subsequently resulted in a commission to write a paper for the DCSF about the future of ICT in schools. My monograph Public Space & the Culture of Childhood has been translated into Japanese.

Urban Cultures and Consumption

This research - including five awards from: Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Leverhulme Trust, ESRC and AHRC - has addressed the changing nature of cultures of consumption including the role of food and alcohol in night-time economies; and the role of the internet in shaping the socio-spatial nature of gambling. These studies have each examined: the meaning of these ‘goods’ in domestic and public environments; the role of these forms of consumption in the negotiation of gender/age/household identities; the processes through which eating, drinking and gambling patterns are transmitted within families; the extent to which people’s consumption habits may have their roots in earlier childhood; and questions of access to consumption opportunities and thus social exclusion.  The JRF Drinking Places project (http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/drinking-places-where-people-drink-and-why) was one of the first studies to critique the UK policy focus on binge drinking in public space and to highlight the significance of high levels of home-based consumption. The findings were fed into the Government’s consultation on its Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy and I was appointed as a Trustee of the Drinkaware Trust (an independent charity with the objective of changing national drinking culture). I was invited by the Gambling Commission to write an international review about young people’s gambling to inform the development of its policy.

Research Methods

I am interested in methodological innovation. As well as specialising in conventional qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, I have pioneered the use of time and photo diaries, web logs, and other on-line methods in my research; as well as working in partnership with art therapists to explore asylum seeker and refugees’ post-conflict identities. I am currently interested in re-using and scaling up qualitative research data as well as developing, and building capacity, in innovative visual methods (ESRC funded Researcher Development Initiative award). I have published a number of papers and book chapters about methodological issues including: doing research with households, the ethical issues of working with children, positionality in the interview process and the specificities of working with ‘vulnerable’ or hard to reach groups. This work has also been disseminated to a student audience in the form of an undergraduate text book.

Grants

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Family life and alcohol consumption: a study of the transmission of drinking practices
Principal investigator, G.Valentine; co-investigators, M.Gould (Geography, Leeds) and Mark Jayne (Geography, Manchester). Researcher: Julia Keenan.
While there is a significant body of research about young people’s (aged 13-24) alcohol consumption and some evidence of changing intergenerational patterns of drinking, less is known about the processes through which drinking patterns are transmitted within families; and the extent to which young people’s current/future drinking habits may have their roots in earlier childhood experiences. This research is addressing this gap in the evidence base through the following aims: (i) to map parents’/carers’ attitudes towards the role of alcohol within the family and their perceptions of the relationship between their attitudes and children’s potential future drinking; (ii) to examine families’ own practices around the use of alcohol and to explore the possible relationship between these practices and children’s potential future drinking; (iii) to understand how these attitudes and practices are transmitted and how processes of transmission vary according to: socio-economic status; family structure/support; age/gender, and positioning of children within the family; (iv) to identify the implications of these processes of transmission/interruption for alcohol harm reduction and family policies. http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/alcohol-consumption-family-life

Economic & Social Research Council (Researcher Development Inititative)

Building Capacity in Visual Methods
Principal investigator, J. Prosser (Education, Leeds); co-investigators, G. Valentine, D. Gauntlett, R. Holliday, M. Banks, S. Pearson, C. Dyer, J. Mason,  K. Wall, R. Walker, S. Pink, S. Walker, Bates, S. Higgins, M. Birkin and G. Conole
Over the last decade there has been a significant growth worldwide in visual research. The training and development of resources required to meet the burgeoning need for qualitatively and quantitatively driven visual methods across the social sciences has been inadequate. The main aim of this project is to build visual method capacity across the social sciences. This aim will be achieved by establishing a national infrastructure of training and development through an accessible, rigorous and substantively focused programme.
http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/visual-methods/

Economic & Social Research Council

New forms of participation: problem internet gambling and the role of the family
Principal investigator, G. Valentine ; co-investigator, K. Hughes (Sociology & Social Policy). Researcher: Charlotte Kenten.
The emergence of the Internet has opened up new spaces of gambling allowing for example, gambling to take place at home and in the workplace. Some commentators have suggested that on-line gambling is more psychologically enticing than off-line forms of gambling because it offers gamblers: anonymity, accessibility and (controllable) interactivity. This has lead to some conjecture that Internet gambling encourages new forms of participation because these unique characteristics of on-line gambling make it particularly attractive to 'new' groups such as women, minority ethnic groups, young people and older adults. These are all groups who may be deterred from using traditional gambling venues because these are regarded as masculine, unsafe or adult spaces. It has been suggested that the Internet marks a shift away from gambling as a social to an asocial activity, although new forms of sociality on-line mean that there may be alternative on-line groups where participants can get encouragement and acknowledgement for their on-line gambling, for example, through online forums or chat rooms. This study addressed some of some these issues raised by the ubiquity of on-line gambling, specifically it aimed: (i) to explore whether Internet gambling generates new forms of participation for people who would not consider traditional gambling; (ii) to explore the role of the family around Internet gambling and elicit new information on what is currently described as 'self-correcting' behaviour in problem Internet gambling. http://lssi.leeds.ac.uk/projects/5

Arts and Humanities Research Board

The role of the Internet in D/deaf people’s inclusion in the information society
Principal investigator, G. Valentine; co-investigators, T. Skelton (Geography, Loughborough) and P Levy (Information Studies, Sheffield).
Researchers: Takao Maruyama and Jemma Correll.
The project explored the use of the Internet by D/deaf people. It has examined how D/deaf people are using the Internet to gain access to information and to share information proactively in creative ways, the constraints on their use of Internet technologies and resources, and their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of the Internet. This research has evaluated the impact that the Internet is having on D/deaf people’s social inclusion/exclusion in the information society, and has identified implications for appropriate policies, strategies and services relating to their use of the Internet as an information environment.
http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/projects/deafweb/

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Drinking places: social geographies of alcohol consumption
Principal investigator, G. Valentine; co-investigator, S. Holloway (Geography, Loughborough).
Researchers: Mark Jayne and Charlotte Knell
In the past decade urban regeneration initiatives have developed night-time economies. Alongside traditional pubs new hybrid café/bar/club venues have emerged, attracting a more diverse clientele. However these consumption landscapes have prompted concern about alcohol-fuelled disorder. The White Paper Time For Reform has given local states new powers to tackle this by shaping local landscapes of consumption. Patterns of drinking are also changing. More women are drinking to unsafe levels, and drinking is on the increase among young and older people. Even among those who abstain for religious reasons, such as Muslims, there is evidence of some drinking. Yet the temperance movement also persists. This research takes a holistic approach to alcohol consumption across social groupings within place-specific communities, and considers a range of drinking practices from abstinence to bingeing. In doing so it considers intergenerational patterns of drinking and the home as an overlooked site of consumption.

Previous Projects

Leverhulme Trust

Phillip Leverhulme prize fellowship
Sole investigator, G. Valentine

Economic & Social Research Council (Youth, Citizenship & Social Change Programme)

Living on the edge: understanding the marginalisation and resistance of vulnerable youth, Principal investigator, G. Valentine, co-investigator T. Skelton (Geography, Loughborough), and Ruth Butler (Applied Social Studies, Hull)

Economic & Social Research Council (Children 5-16 Programme)

Cyberkids: children's social networks, 'virtual communities' and on-line spaces
Principal investigator, G. Valentine, co-investigator S. Holloway (Geography, Loughborough)

The Leverhulme Trust

The effect of new food technologies and foodscapes on home based eating patterns
Principal and sole investigator, G. Valentine

Economic & Social Research Council

Stranger-danger: parental fears and restrictions on children's use of space
Principal and sole investigator, G. Valentine