Bradford Scholars
Bradford Scholars is the University of Bradford online research archive. Access is free to anyone interested in research being conducted at Bradford. In the repository you will find a range of materials from journal articles and conference papers to research reports and theses.
Contact the repository team via openaccess@bradford.ac.uk with any queries about Open Access or how to deposit your research papers.
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Publication Using the self-regulatory model to explore cultural understandings of dementia and inform a culturally sensitive interventionIn the UK, it is estimated, by the year 2025, 50,000 people from minority ethnic communities will be living with dementia. Focusing on people with dementia who have immigrated to the UK from Ireland and the Caribbean, the aim of this thesis was to explore how these families perceived and coped with dementia, to find out whether there were specific cultural influences that required distinctive support. Two systematic literature reviews were conducted; one explored how people from Irish and African Caribbean backgrounds cope with chronic illnesses. The second, considered how interventions can be successfully adapted for different cultural groups. Twenty-four families (eight Irish, eight African Caribbean, and eight white British) were involved in this study. Families, including the person with dementia where possible, took part in interviews. Using an analytic template based on the self-regulatory model of illness, relevant interview material was collated under ten themes: dementia identity, cure, personal control, treatment control, timeline, emotions, causes, coherence, consequences, and coping. Minority ethnic groups distrusted formal services, often due to past discrimination. They experienced care home environments as culturally alien and community stigma discouraged them from using mainstream services. There was a high level of familism and trust between family members, and families looked to their own communities for support. These communities were not always dementia aware and there were high levels of stigma. Based on these finding and preliminary co-design work, future work should consider developing interventions to address stigma in communities and raise awareness in health care professionals.Publication Peace, War and Gender in the Modern Era(2019-03-19)The practices and conceptions of peace and war have been highly gendered throughout world history. Indeed, the defining of genders has often itself been rooted in ideas and experiences of war and violence, with men as warriors, and women as the embodiment of peace. It is certainly the case that throughout human history the majority of war combatants have been men. By contrast many women have used their gendered identities, as mothers and guardians of life, in their activism in global peace movements, and in peacemaking at very local levels all over the globe. These gendered experiences of women and men have resonance everywhere in the world, but are also stereotypes. As well as being warriors and the bearers of violence, men have also resisted dominant social pressures to fight, and been active in movements to build peace. Women have also cajoled men, and socialised boys, to fight, and shamed those who did not. Thus, whereas a focus on the stereotypes suggests that the differences between women and men are due to their violent or peaceful natures, paying attention to the full range of behaviour of women and men makes it self-evident that these differences cannot be explained by biological differences alone, because they are so varied. Nonetheless, the roles played by women and men that go beyond the simple stereotypes are persistently regarded as transgressive or insignificant in many cultures, making it difficult to keep the broader picture in mind. That is not to say that gender differences are not significant however; gender remains one of the most important lenses through which to understand war and peace.Publication Life story narratives of Ethiopian women activists: the journey to feminist activism(2016)Through the life story narratives of Ethiopian women activists, this research explores the journey of Ethiopian women activists during three political and historical periods (1955–1974; 1974–1991; 1991–2015). Thus, the study proposes a new perspective on the forms of Ethiopian women’s activism and subsequently the different types of feminism emerging from their narratives. Through examination of how the activists reflect on, reconstruct and give meaning to their life stories, this research unravels that their activism is informed by feminist principles. It also exposes that it is shaped by a long history of resistance to patriarchy, which enabled women in traditional Ethiopia to negotiate a certain level of “autonomy and liberty”. Contrary to the general expectation, the research demonstrates that the process of modernization (read: westernization) came with its own structure based on western patriarchy, and reinforced local patriarchy. In this new, formalized patriarchy, the rights that women had negotiated through their resistance in earlier times were diminished. This study on women activists, categorized for the purpose of this research as pioneers, revolutionaries and negotiators, suggests that Ethiopian women activists have since adopted different forms of engagement that tend to improve the social, cultural, economic and political conditions of Ethiopian women. Consequently, I argue that, while Ethiopian women’s activism and feminism is firmly embedded in the history of resistance of previous generations of Ethiopian women, the form of activism varies according to the political and historical context in which the activists negotiate and adapt the way they act.Publication The influence of psychological and social factors on the lived experience of ageing with co-existent frailty and cognitive impairmentGlobal policy has recognised the need to promote healthy ageing. Risk of frailty with co-existent cognitive impairment increases with age and is associated with adverse outcomes, which services may struggle to support. Understanding life experiences which could contribute to, or promote the self-management of, co-existent frailty and cognitive impairment would enable identification of those at risk and target services appropriately. This thesis aimed to understand how past and present, psychological, and social factors, may influence the experience of ageing with co-existent frailty and cognitive impairment and explore how services support those living with this co-existent decline. This thesis involved two research studies. Older people living with co-existent frailty and cognitive impairment took part in participant-led life-history interviews. Health and social care professionals were also interviewed. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse and explore patterns in the data. Findings indicate that a range of psychological and social factors, throughout life, may contribute to decline. Physical decline was associated with ageing and accepted, whilst cognitive impairment was feared. Wealth, social networks, and lifelong psychological resilience were seen to promote coping and the management of age associated decline. Future dependency was a source of apprehension. The relative importance of factors is complex, as the impact of experiences and circumstances accumulate and interact. A need to implement preventative measures across the life-course is implied. Professionals require training to understand how best to approach individualised care for those living with co-existent frailty and cognitive impairment, to promote independence and support dependency in old age.Publication A Narrative Study Carried Out With Older Women With Dementia Who Live Alone: Storytelling About Their Living Arrangements and Wishes For The FutureThis study sets out to explore the significance of gender as an element in the experience of older women living alone at the time of a diagnosis of dementia. It places particular emphasis on power, voice and in/visibility in both research practice and co-production. Older women who live alone may experience difficulties after diagnosis in adapting to their environments. There is not a clear picture of support networks, such as the roles within broader families, neighbours or friends and access to services. Fewer studies focus on women and dementia from a gendered perspective and more on dementia and caregivers. As such, questions about gender, dementia and ageing are not being raised as interrelated and the voices of these women are silent. The study was informed by feminist theory and the concept of intersectionality which become the principal way to theorise the relations between systems of oppression and privilege. This provided a lens with which to expose and examine gendered assumptions within dementia. The design was a qualitative study, and the approach was narrative research. The approach that was taken to collect the data was storytelling, which was analysed by re-storying the stories, and developing themes, in a chronology order. The thesis also discusses my positionality as a Black British female researcher, including experiences of racism, both within the academia and in the research field.