The impact of COVID19 on fieldwork with ‘hard to reach’ groups: The ups and downs of online focus groups

Mann, Natalie and Lundrigan, Samantha (2022) The impact of COVID19 on fieldwork with ‘hard to reach’ groups: The ups and downs of online focus groups. SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online.

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Abstract

In January 2020, we began a two-year research project to investigate the process and outcome effectiveness of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) which oversee the monitoring and management of sexual and violent offenders in the community. A large part of the research involved qualitative fieldwork with practitioners from groups which are notoriously ‘hard to reach’ for the purposes of research; these included the Police, HM Prison Service, and the National Probation Service (NPS). The onset of the pandemic three months later seemingly made these ‘hard to reach’ groups even more difficult to access. Exceptional working models scaled back services and simply operating amid the chaos created by the pandemic meant that participation in research was understandably not considered a priority by the agencies we sought to involve.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Keywords:	Online research, Microsoft Teams, Online focus groups, COVID-19, Fieldwork, Teams, Moderator, Prison service, Rapport
Faculty:	COVID-19 Research Collection Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic User
Depositing User:	Symplectic User
Date Deposited:	24 Nov 2021 10:07
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2022 12:07
URI:	https://arro.anglia.ac.uk/id/eprint/707126

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