Secondary Analysis and Timescapes ‘The plan for the dataset created from the Timescapes projects and their affiliates is that it will live on as an accessible and re-useable resource, available to other researchers over the years, growing and developing in line with the programme’s original aims. Secondary analysis is central to Timescapes’ work and is a core part of each project.’ (from Timescapes Blueprint)

Debating SA Epistemological: - inaccessibility of the ‘cultural habitus’ of the original researcher - missing data - the unasked questions - assumed ‘real’ nature of original data Contextual: - data are socially constructed - ethnographic significance of context undermined - boundedness of original fieldwork Ethical: - consent; confidentiality; ownership Hammersley (1997); Mauthner et al (1998); Parry & Mauthner (2004).

What re-use enables Reconceptualisation of data New questions and new interpretations Highlights the significance of time Foregrounds ethical debates

Shared Timescapes Questions What is the salience of time in people’s daily lives? How are different Timescapes (biographical, generational, historical) understood by individuals and groups and how do they intersect as lives unfold? What key events or ‘critical moments’ (biographical, intergenerational and historical) are significant for people, and what meaning and impact do they have on the course of a life or linked lives? How might people in very different life course and historical positions offer diverse perspectives?

Examples from Timescapes External User ‘Making the Long View’ & ‘Inventing Adulthoods’ - qualitative longitudinal datasets of young people growing up in England and N. Ireland (at London South Bank University)- used by Jane Ribbens McCarthy for studies of childhood and bereavement (2006; 2005; 2007). Emotional Well-being in Later Life: transitions and social support with ‘The Oldest Generation’. Links QLL and QNL data. (Bid to ESRC UPTAP with IPPR unsuccessful but is being resubmitted under the small grants scheme). Within Timescapes collaboration between ‘Siblings and Friends’ (LSBU) and ‘The Oldest Generation’ (Open University) funded by ESRC Festival of Social Science responses from people aged between 3 and 90 over a 2 week period (April 2008) to the theme ‘Sisters and brothers’.

Criteria for Affiliated Projects - 9 to date As affiliated members of the Timescapes consortium affiliates will: analyse data in the Timescapes archive, or generate new data for deposit in the archive, or do both within an integrated project have a Thematic link to the Timescapes study: that is a concern with the study of personal lives and relationships and their dynamic or temporal qualities use qualitative longitudinal methods of data generation to: generate base line & core conceptual data in line with pre-existing projects carry out secondary analysis of data in the Timescapes Archive Or, deposit QL data in the Timescapes Archive for re-use and data sharing, in consultation with the Timescapes Senior Research Archivist. Adopt Timescapes technical standards for the management, preparation and exploitation of their data sets, and ethical standards for data sharing within the team.

SA in Timescapes Collecting and sharing base data Running workshops to explore –Embedding of SA in project design ( ) –Comparing Primary and Secondary Analysis ( ) –Ethical issues ( ) –Temporality for researchers and data sets –Mixed method working –The significance of context –Working with CAQDAS packages Giving advice on using data sets Comparing results from methods-specific studies Working across Timescapes projects Publishing results of data sharing

Finally ‘ Timescapes is raising fundamental questions about what we think social science research is, about how we would like our research remembered (and perhaps as importantly what we would like forgotten!) and how social scientists, as well as “ordinary people”, are implicated in imagining and creating future worlds. The reflections which are already emerging out of Timescapes’ discussion on reuse are of relevance to all social science researchers, not only those interested in reuse.’ Moore, 2008.