‘Rocky road’ & ‘brick walls’ – Multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context through the lens of critical realist Informed grounded theory

Abstract

This study seeks to build an explanation of the multiple meanings of resilience in a social work context, centralising the interplay between human agency (meaning-making, motivations and intentionality) and social structures (enduring patterns, social rules, norms and laws). Specifically, this research provides insight into how care-experienced people (aged 17–50 years old) and social workers and affiliated practitioners in England make sense of ‘resilience’ and ‘resilient’ behaviours. Critical realist informed grounded theory (CRGT) provides unique opportunities here, with critical realist’s primacy of ontology as the starting point and grounded theory providing the epistemological force, contextualising research and imbedding this more firmly into practice. Drawing on the four stages of retroductive argumentation proposed by Kempster and Parry (2014) and developed by us, we identify a number of key themes, namely, ‘Having/Building an Ability’ – ‘Rocky Road’ and ‘Brick Walls’ – Resilience as Resistance – ‘Compliance’, as well as causal factors impacting upon the themes (such as traumatic life experiences, protective factors, external support systems, political agendas, structure-agency relationships and stigma, discrimination and marginalisation). The research highlights how multiple causal mechanisms, including interpretations of situations by individuals (in this case care-experienced individuals and social workers/affiliated practitioners) interact and generate multiple meaning in relation to process and outcomes of resilience. The research thus provides insight into deeply embedded interpretations of resilience, which should be viewed in light of the stratified non-linear dynamics of embodied experiences, material/institutional forces and social relationships, that co-constitute subjectivity, as well as having an ongoing influence on body–brain systems.