The death of the Christian, female generation A: social, religious, economic impacts

Day, Abigail (2017). The death of the Christian, female generation A: social, religious, economic impacts. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851399

Data description (abstract)

This data collection consists of three interviews with elderly Christian women. Ethnographic data unavailable for archive as explained in request for waiver granted.

'Generation A' refers to older lay women who have attended mainstream churches most Sundays for the past 60-80 years and have largely been responsible for church and associated community activities. This research project asks: Why, when church attendance in general has declined and young people are less religious than their elders, has the specific generation of women born in the 1920s and 1930s - the female Christian Generation A - stayed?

Research methods, ethically approved, include observing and participating in their activities, social networks, family and friendship groups and exploring their beliefs and values through conversation, interviews and life narratives. About 30 - 50 women will be closely involved in several different churches, and likely 100-150 people within their relevant social and family networks.

The study will also help predict the religious, social and economic impact of the female Christian Generation A's impending absence. Beneficiaries include the churches dependent on Generation A for the most significant portion of their attendance, funding and labour; associated charities; members of the community benefiting from Generation A's significant role in pastoral care and community events.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Day Abigail	University of Kent

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council

Grant reference:

RES-000-22-4584

Topic classification:

Society and culture

Keywords:

christians, women, religion

Project title:

The death of the Christian, female Generation A: social, religious, economic impacts. -

Grant holders:

Dr Abby Day PI, Dr Gordon Lynch Co-I

Project dates:

From	To
1 March 2012	28 February 2014

Date published:

05 Sep 2014 16:09

Last modified:

13 Jul 2017 15:16

Coverage and Methodology

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Interviews recorded, transcribed, anonymised Rationale for waiver concerning ethnographic information 1. Sampling technique used and issues of consent: My concern is about research ethics that arise from the sampling techniques used in deep, as opposed to superficial, ethnographic research where informed consent cannot always be given. I have already once been granted a waiver for similar reasons in a different project ac (A longitudinal qualitative study of belief and identity Grant number: RES-000-22-3562) Because many of my observations included people in small and sometimes spontaneous social gatherings, it was impossible to gain informed consent. Due to the nature of my work, this is unavoidable, which is why I need to protect those who have become unintentional informants. The core participants in my study – women in their 80s, and 90s – knew of my work and agreed to allow me to be present to study ‘them’. But, the study also involved many people who were not and could not have been informed: members of congregations at church services, mourners at a funeral, members of a wedding party, attendees at a Women’s Institute lunch’ etc. My field notes include observations of the interactions between my ‘subjects’ and each other, and with wider members of the community. 2. Lack of anonymity and protection of confidentiality Although I have taken pains to not mention the name of the churches that have been involved in my research, many of my research participants were not so circumspect and it is now generally known that I have been involved in several churches in one particular town. Given the size of their congregations (30-50) and the small numbers of elderly women in each (8-12) it is therefore not possible to guarantee that their identities will be unknown – and this now overturns the very principle of informed consent to which they agreed. As most of these women live alone and are vulnerable in many ways, I am not willing to expose their identities beyond the very generalised summaries I will make in my published work. 3. Refusal to participate in interviews One potential source of archival data I had assumed was formal interview data, of either recordings or notes from interviews. In practice, most of my informants declined to be ‘interviewed’. This raises an interesting question about research methods from the viewpoint of the informant and will be the subject of future reflections and publications concerning method. Why are elderly women not willing to place themselves in the position of expert? With the lack of formal interview techniques no longer available, I conducted the research in a very traditional anthropological manner and became involved in their activities so that we could engage in informal conversations. These were later recorded as field notes and will be of use in my general reflections, but due to the small sample and personal nature of the conversations and inability to preserve anonymity and confidentiality are unsuitable for archive. 4. Unsuitability of recorded material When I sought comparisons outside my host churches in different geographical areas I did conduct and had transcribed six recorded audio interviews with data archiving in mind. The people did agree that I could use portions of the interview for archival purposes if the content was stripped of identifying features. Due to their age and inability to focus at times, three of those interviews are unusable: they wandered off topic and became confused and in one case revealed so much information about a history of personal abuse that I ended the interview prematurely. I arranged the remaining three to be stripped of identifying features. I think they are of little use as they do not reflect the main body of my research are attached here.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Day Abigail	University of Kent

Contact:

Name	Email	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Day, Abby	a.f.day@kent.ac.uk	University of Kent	Unspecified

Notes on access:

The Data Collection only consists of metadata and documentation as the data could not be archived due to legal, ethical or commercial constraints. For further information, please contact the contact person for this data collection.

Publisher:

UK Data Archive

Last modified:

13 Jul 2017 15:16