Dr Louise O’Connor recently completed ethnographic research on the constructions and uses of emotions in social work practice, a significantly under-researched area.

Drawing on ethnographic principles, sociological and psychosocial theories, the study looked beyond subjective emotions as abstract concepts to analyse these in the social and institutional relations of child protection practice. Conducted in an English Local Authority Children and Families service using systemic practice, the research explored how practitioners’ emotions were constructed and worked with in practice, and the structural, organisational and individual factors that influenced this.

This research identified problematic ways in which emotions are understood by practitioners and how this in turn influenced their use in practice. Findings offer new knowledge on how emotions are constructed paradoxically in professional practice and the ways in which emotion practices are influenced by the social locations and ambivalent positions of practitioners as policy actors. Detailed findings from this research will become available in future publications. An initial review of the literature is available here:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1473325019843991