Homes, families and relationships

Homes, families and relationships research

Home

MyGlobalHome provides expertise that streamlines and guides how these new, sustainable technologies can be adopted into the home. Through carefully managed data analysis across every stage of a home’s life and every aspect of home, MyGlobalHome provides richer insights that inform the creation of more resilient, cost-efficient, responsive and individualised homes.

As part of a major five-year research collaboration, Russell Mason is examining future spatial audio for an immersive listener experience at home. S3A involves internationally leading experts in 3D audio and visual processing, the BBC and UK industry. Its goal is to enable listeners to experience the sense of "being there" at a live event, such as a concert or football match, from the comfort of their living room, through delivery of immersive 3D sound to the home.

Research project, HomeSense, will develop and demonstrate how digital sensors can be used to an advantage in social research. Nigel Gilbert’s project is a collaboration between the Centre for Research in Social Simulation (CRESS) and the 5G/6G Innovation Centre.

Parenthood

Ranjana Das has conducted research on early motherhood in digital societies. Her book, Early Motherhood in Digital Societies, offers a nuanced understanding of what the digital turn has meant for new mothers in an intense and critical period before and after they have a baby, often called the ‘perinatal’ period. The book looks at an array of digital communication and content by drawing on an extensive research project involving in-depth qualitative data from interviews with new mothers in the United Kingdom and online case studies.

New fathers, mental health and digital communication is the subject of Paul Hodkinson and Ranjana Das’s joint research on the digital mediation of emotions around paternal mental health, the emergence of new, networked paternal intimacies, and new forms of connection and disconnection which shape, resource, and potentially empower fathers communicating about mental health. Paul Hodkinson and Ranjana Das have been building a suite of impact outputs together in partnership with the National Childbirth Trust and the Institute of Health Visiting in their ESRC Impact Project.

The changing nature of parenting (particularly the intensification of parenting and the notion of children at risk) has influenced grandparents’ narratives and practices, this is part of Vicki Harman’s research on intensive grandparenting? Exploring the changing nature of grandparenting in the UK. Although many grandparents provide regular care for their grandchildren, relatively little academic attention has been paid to the nature of contemporary grandparenting.

Youth cultures

Emily Setty is researching youth sexual cultures. Emily’s research focuses on contemporary youth sexual cultures, particularly within digital contexts, including examining issues such as ‘sexting.’