VIRTUAL EVENT: The value of collaboration between researchers of poverty and low income during COVID

COVID-19 has changed the way researchers work, not only in terms of fieldwork, but also in terms of collaboration.

Underpinning the Covid Realities research programme is a commitment to ensuring that researchers adopt a sensitive and ethical approach to research with low-income communities during the pandemic.

The 'COVID-19 and low-income families: Researching together' Special Interest Group (SIG) is a unique collaboration that has presented an opportunity to re-tool existing funded research for these new times, and to ensure that the challenges of conducting research in a context of social distancing are collectively overcome.  

This seminar will highlight several key themes emerging from the 'COVID-19 and low-income families: Researching together' SIG's work: 

• the (in)adequacy and complexity of the social security system
• social isolation and mental health impacts, including gendered impact of care 
• changing relationships – with family; friends; support services.

Working across 14 different research projects, including academics and researchers from the voluntary sector, these projects are taking a range of methodological approaches.

Speakers will explore the unique insights into our understanding of the experiences of families on a low income during COVID-19 by taking this mixed method, interdisciplinary approach. 

Speakers

• Kayleigh Garthwaite, Birmingham Fellow at the University of Birmingham
• Fiona McHardy, Research and Information Manager at The Poverty Alliance
• Anna Tarrant, Associate Professor in Sociology and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Lincoln.

TCRU seminar series

The Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) hosts a weekly seminar series, where invited speakers present work of relevance to the research interests of the unit.

Links

• TCRU seminar series
• Thomas Coram Research Unit
• Social Research Institute

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