http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50302 Sat, 18 Apr 2026 03:51:44 GMT 2026-04-18T03:51:44Z https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl:443/bitstream/id/73882674-f3f6-49dc-99e9-12c8dce8e1fa/ http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50302 http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50308 “Am I Going to Die?” Considering the Preparation for Research on an Example of Hospice Patients Kamińska, Weronika This article concerns the situations experienced by the researcher in one of the sensitive research groups—hospice patients. The article is based on the author’s experiences in three studies in Poland—94 in-depth interviews and observations in inpatient and home care hospices. Through the seven presented categories the author faced during the interviews, she analyzes the dilemmas of conducting qualitative research from a practical perspective. During studies, we learn about our preferences, sometimes defining ourselves on one of the sides—becoming a quantitative or qualitative researcher, thus deciding further scientific paths. Conducting qualitative research requires specific activities, including knowledge of the literature, selection of the proper method, and analysis of the research group (Silverman 2012). These principles turn out to be only the beginning of the process in which we intuitively, through trial and error, pave the way to deal with demanding situations, previously inexperienced emotions, coordination, and technical and ethical problems. Some studies require special preparation, particularly considering the specificity of certain research groups, such as hospice patients, who will face the dying process soon. Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50308 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50309 Book Review. Bjørgo, Tore, ed. 2005. Root Causes of Terrorism: Myths, Reality and Ways Forward. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Ahmed, Pavel; Akter, Mst. Safia Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50309 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50307 Transitioning (on the) Internet: Shifting Challenges and Contradictions of Ethics of Studying Online Gender Transition Narratives Chojnicka, Joanna The use of social media in qualitative research has become extremely popular. YouTube, in particular, has attracted attention from scholars working on (self-)representation of minority groups, including the transgender community (e.g., Dame 2013; Horak 2014). Most academic disciplines, however, have been slow in responding to the increasingly challenging nature of social media in terms of their ethics and methodologies. For example, there is a common misconception that any publicly available YouTube videos can be freely used for research. Many studies openly reference the YouTube channels they discuss (Wotanis and McMillan 2014) or anonymize data, but do not seek informed consent from creators (Raun 2020). What is more, researchers rarely reflect on how their work could impact the communities under study or the way creators use social media (Leonelli et al. 2021). At the same time, researchers wishing to protect vulnerable communities may find themselves falling short of FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable) research principles required by funders. In this contribution, I discuss these and other challenges using, as a case study, my project, which investigates gender transition narratives on Polish social media. I wish to show that there is no one-fits-all approach to the ethics of social media studies—as the very nature of social media is in constant flux—and call for attentiveness and reflexivity as an inextricable component of qualitative social media research methodology. Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50307 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50306 Biographical Work of Parents of Children with Non-Normative Sexual Orientation and/or Gender Identity Gajek, Katarzyna This paper aims to reconstruct the biographical work (Corbin and Strauss) undertaken by parents of non-normative people. The initiating event of biographical work is the disclosure of a non-normative sexual orientation and/or gender identity by the child. For many parents, this is an event that causes a breakdown of previous schemes of action, a gradual loss of control, and suffering.The empirical data consist of autobiographical narratives of parents of people with non-normative sexual orientation and/or gender identity. The study involved mothers and fathers residing throughout Poland, who were selected according to the snowball procedure. The data were collected through the narrative interview technique and compiled according to the analytical procedure proposed by Fritz Schütze, which is part of the interpretative research paradigm.In the course of four parallel biographical processes (contextualizing, coming to terms, reconstituting identity, and recasting biography), the new experience is integrated into the biography, its consequences are understood and accepted, a coherent identity is reconstituted and a new course for one’s life are charted. The analysis of the narrators’ biographical work has made it possible to identify three categories that organize the course of the parents’ lives and identities—stigma, normalization, and activism. Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/50306 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z