Bio

Dr Cliona Loughnane is a postdoctoral researcher on the CareVisions project. Previously, Cliona worked for more than 15 years in research and policy positions in the health and social care sector. Most recently, Cliona worked as women’s health coordinator with the National Women's Council, working to improve women’s health outcomes and experiences of healthcare. Throughout her career, Cliona has been active social researcher, leading and involved in a wide-range of projects, including: women’s mental health in their own words; national stroke services audit; examining the proposal for Universal Health Insurance; and women’s experiences of caring during COVID-19. Cliona undertook her Doctorate at the School of Applied Social Studies, UCC. Her research was a critical discourse analysis problematising Big Food’s involvement in obesity policymaking. Her research interests include women’s health, inequitable access to health and social care, and public/patient involvement in health reform. 

CareVisions: Envisioning a Care-Centred Society Within and Beyond COVID19

CareVisions is a 3-year (2020-2023) research project funded by the Carolan Research Trust, run by a team within the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) in UCC.

The CareVisions project has been established by an interdisciplinary team of academics and researchers with diverse research, policy and activist experiences in the care arena. Drawing on a range of innovative social science methodologies, CareVisions is reflecting on care experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to explore and reimagine how we might envision future care relations, practices and policies in Ireland.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus significant deficits and inequalities in care in Ireland, and raised important questions about how we think about and conceptualise care itself. CareVisions addresses these questions by drawing on a feminist ethics of care perspective which suggests that care and caring should not be understood in narrow, functionalist terms, but rather as fundamental to society and for human life to flourish.

The overall aim of CareVisions is to develop an experience-based care ethics to reframe how we understand present and future care relations and practices in contemporary Ireland. It will do so by exploring care experiences of two groups in society: people with disabilities, and asylum seekers and refugees.

CareVisions is also working to build a collaborative, interdisciplinary network of scholars, policymakers and community/voluntary organisations committed to advancing knowledge, theory and public policy debate about the ethics and practice of care in Ireland and internationally.

Website: www.carevisionsucc.ie

Twitter: @CareVisionsUCC (project) | @Cliona_l (personal)

Email: cliona.loughnane@ucc.ie