School of Social and Political Science

Description

Care experienced adults have consistently reported the limitations of their care records in meeting their memory and identity needs. Many have highlighted the lack of self and everyday childhood in these records, alongside other issues such as difficulties accessing them, redaction, and the one-sidedness of accounts. Much of the research attention in this area has been on individual casefiles. The ARCH project set out to explore whether and how the everyday experiences of children and adults in residential childcare in Scotland and Germany could be captured and retained for future access. During fieldwork, the importance of memory for identity and the differences between record-keeping and memory-keeping emerged as key findings. In this interactive workshop, we will explore how the framing of information gathering influences thinking and practices in this area.

Ruth Emond is a part-time Professor of Social Work at the University of Stirling, where her research has focussed on the everyday experiences of children in residential care. The rest of the week she is a Social Worker with The Family Change Service, Perth and Kinross.

Andrew Burns was the Principal Research Fellow (Scotland) on the ARCH project and he has research interests in memory and identify, and time and temporalities. He is currently the Research Lead at AFKA Scotland and an Associate Tutor at the University of Glasgow.

This is an in-person event, which takes place in the Violet Laidlaw Room (6.02).

This event may be recorded. The recording will be used for internal University of Edinburgh teaching purposes only.