Revisiting Residential Care

Abstract

In this article, ‘revisiting’ refers to a variety of ways in which the researcher visits the research site again and in which the relations between the first and later visits are given some consideration substantially and methodologically. Revisiting may be done either for testing and/or enriching existing knowledge. It is claimed that time-aware research is needed in social work especially now when postmodern notions of continuous change are commonly present. Some ethnographic experiences of youth residential care are used to demonstrate the characteristics of revisiting. Revisiting tends to underline the importance of time, in particular biographical and institutional time and (shared) memories, as well as social relations within the field and their interwovenness. In the presented case study, revisiting highlights stability and changes equally and frames the issue of ‘change’ in a new way.