Dr. Leigh Rooney
Research Fellow

Profile

Biography

Leigh Rooney is a qualitative social care researcher. He is interested in the different ways that everyday practices are ordered, and how multiple modes of ordering precariously ‘hang together’ to produce functional systems. In the past he has applied this thinking to medicine and health, and since 2019 has been involved in several NIHR-funded social care research projects. He has a broader interest in methodological questions around practices of knowledge production, specifically in the context of qualitative methods. He also has a background in psychological practice, where he has applied these ideas to understanding the everyday practices of being human.

Research

Overview

Leigh currently works on evaluating the Curiosity Partnership, a regional research capacity-building intervention within adult social care. He has previously worked on other social care projects, including those related to homecare innovation, and bathing adaptations.

He has particular interest in research approaches that draw from the Actor Network Theory tradition, including questions regarding:

• The relationships between people, technologies, and institutions
• How knowledge is shaped by social and material networks
• Tracing how authority and expertise are built and maintained
• Everyday infrastructures and their impact on how we live and work
• How objects and tools participate in organising social life
• How technologies gain influence and legitimacy
• Sociotechnical systems and how they evolve
• Mapping the connections between policy, expertise, and innovation
• How knowledge travels and transforms across different settings

Publications

Selected publications

McAnuff, J., Rapley, T., Rooney, L., & Whitehead, P. (2024). Navigating uncharted territory with a borrowed map: lessons from setting up the BATH-OUT-2 randomised controlled trial in adult social care and housing services in English local authorities. Trials, 25(1), 1-9.

Rooney, L., Rapley, T., & Whitehead, P. J. (2023). Normative puzzles for local government: Managing the introduction of single‐handed care in England. Sociology of Health & Illness, 45(4), 718-33.

Whitehead, P.J., Rooney, L., Adams‐Thomas, J., Bailey, C., Greenup, M., Southall, C., Raffle, A., Rapley, T., & Whittington, S. (2022). ‘Single‐handed care’ initiatives and reviews of double‐handed homecare packages: A survey of practices in English local authorities with adult social care responsibilities. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(6), e5560-e5569.

Bradley, G., Rooney, L., & Whitehead, P.J. (2022). Service user perspectives on engagement in an occupational therapy-led pulmonary rehabilitation programme: a qualitative interview study. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 85(12), 984-92.