About the project

Project background

During times of rapid social change, future directions are uncertain. People are challenged to realign cultural understandings and institutions, forge new social relationships and reconfigure biographies. These changes may lead to sustainable outcomes, or down harmful paths that reduce our resilience.

The LINLOSS project begins from the premise that new social directions depend on the shape of what is left behind: cultural and institutional disposals; forgotten social relationships and genealogical dead-ends; rejected constructs of self. What we give up, and how, will shape our futures.

Project Objectives

The LINLOSS project has two main objectives:

Trace the effects of loss within and across two study areas – one in Ireland and one in Poland – using an innovative comparative approach

Develop a comprehensive explanation of social loss by identifying shared patterns across diverse instances

Research methods

The research is organized across three stages:

1. Selection of study areas and data collection

The research will take place in two rural residential areas that are within commuting distance of an urban area. The study begins by identifying appropriate areas to study and securing the support of local communities (see our Community page for more information). We will then invite people to complete interviews with members of the research team. The interviews will document people’s life stories and the social connections and places that are important to them. We will interview a diverse range of people, including up to two adults of different generations within the same families.

2. Tracing the effects of loss (Objective 1)

Data analysis will begin with identifying those events that led to shared experiences of loss. We aim to explain how losses and breaks affected change over time across multiple dimensions. We will examine how events such as the financial crisis, or Covid pandemic, led to loss and innovation in individual lives, families and communities, comparing cases within and between our study areas.

3. Developing a social theory of loss (Objective 2)

The second stage of analysis will use a thematic comparative approach to seek common patterns underpinning the forms of loss identified in the study.
More technical information on our research methodology will be available on our Open Science Foundation project page

Ethics

All our research is subject to approval by the research ethics committees at Maynooth University and University of Silesia-Katowice.