Doing collaborative research: doing what feels right and makes sense

Drawing on current doctoral research in the UK, this paper discusses the benefits, challenges and dilemmas associated with adopting a collaborative approach to exploring the experiences of women offenders as consumers of community-based health and social care services. The initial focus is on the rationale for setting up an advisory group of 'expert advisers/knowers', as a means of collaborating with women with direct and personal experience of the criminal justice system. In addition, the group's role in supporting, advising and guiding the research process is explored with particular emphasis on examining the practice of building long-term relationships with 'vulnerable' groups of women. Both short and long-term ethical issues are considered, for example, the implications of adopting an approach based on reciprocity, mutual disclosure and 'friendship' and the impact of 'role reversal' where it is the researcher who ultimately feels powerless and abandoned in the relationship. A key theme that underpins the work is the notion that in this context, 'doing' collaborative research essentially embraced 'doing' what fundamentally 'felt right' and 'made sense' thus ensuring that the study was meaningful to all involved.     

Reflections on doing participatory research in health: participation,method and power

The author has reflected on her experience in facilitating three participatory research (PR) projects to identify key issues surrounding participation, method and power. The three PR projects in health, all undertaken in the same region in southeast Australia, assessed the needs of women who have experienced breast cancer, evaluated an Indigenous healthy lifestyle programme and developed and documented a model of coordinated care by a consumer group. In particular, the three participatory projects suggested that participants do not always want to maximise their own participation and may prefer external researcher involvement – relationships, confidentiality, anonymity and time‐impacted perspectives of participation. In one study, quantitative methods were selected and time and previous knowledge of research shaped participants' selection of method. In the projects, power relations were complex and issues of negotiation, inclusion, quality of research, agendas, roles and integrity are discussed. The lessons learned here are that participatory researchers can be open to differing levels of participation and methods while also comfortable with sharing decision‐making in research, even if it alters the research outcome.     

Men with learning difficulties doing research: challenging views of learning difficulties

This paper explores the views of men with learning difficulties living in a secure environment. Reflecting findings from a doctoral thesis based upon a research project where the participants looked at the processes and concepts of research, the dialogues within the study were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Thesis aims relevant here include investigating given ‘truths’ about the positives of having a learning disability. The men are not only categorised as having a learning difficulty, but also have the added stigma of being offenders, and commonly having mental health issues which expose them to the worst of myths surrounding learning difficulty. Despite this, the findings suggest that the men are very positive about their lives – reporting that they have many attributes and talents – and view having a learning difficulty as an advantage at times. This affirms Foucauldian ideas on the way that dominant knowledge may be challenged.     

Texts in action: how nurses are doing the fiscal work of health care reform

Canada's publicly insured system of socialized health care is coming under intense scrutiny by governments firmly focused on the politics of national indebtedness and public spending. Contemporary health care reforms aimed at cutting costs and increasing productivity place new emphasis on “official knowledge” constituted through particular textual practices. Since 1994 the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) has become a powerful regulator of patient care. It has entered business-like accountability and rationing practices based on competitive, market-like comparisons into Canadian hospitals in order to “assist leaders in the health sector make informed decisions” (CIHI 2000). Using Canadian sociologist Dorothy E. Smith's (1987) Institutional Ethnography, with a specific focus explicating a Smithian textual analysis (1990a, 1990b, 1999), this paper explores, in depth, one feature of how a business genre is being inserted into the everyday practices of nurses and doctors who work with the frail elderly in a small community hospital in British Columbia.     

“What problems do you confront?” an approach to doing qualitative research

Social life is filled with problems — situations that are perceived and defined as problems by individuals as they interact with each other. As such, these problems are often of more concern to those individuals than are other matters. The sociologist can gain insight into the structure of social relations by focusing the investigation on those problems rather than directly on the underlying structure. That is, the discussion of the problems that those being studied see in their situation or setting is revealing of the structured relations in those settings. This approach to doing social research is illustrated by two of the author's studies — one a study of an emergency department, and the second a study of how commercial art galleries affect the production and consumption of art.     

The gap between gender research and action in Uganda

The author considers who is currently involved in gender research in Uganda and what areas are being covered. She also discusses the methodologies commonly used and why, to whom findings are disseminated, who uses the findings and for what purpose, and researcher responsibility to researched subjects. The strengths and weaknesses of gender research in Uganda are noted, as well as what could be done to improve the quality and quantity of gender research. That gender research material remains fragmented and uncoordinated, buried in documents which remain limited to one area of expertise, is the main problem with gender research in Uganda. Moreover, some material fails to reflect the Ugandan reality. Frameworks must be developed which are defined in gender systems specific to Uganda's historical and cultural practices rather than basing them upon western knowledge.     

Advancing scientific knowledge through participatory action research

This paper aims to demonstrate the value of participatory action research (PAR) for advancing scientific knowledge as well as for solving practical problems. The article supports the argument through brief summaries of three PAR cases in industry: Norwegian shipping, Xerox Corporation, and the FAGOR group of the Mondragón cooperatives. While noting the practical gains achieved through PAR, the author concentrates particularly on the advances in substantive knowledge and theory that would have been unlikely to emerge out of more orthodox sociological research. The author suggests finally that wider use of participatory action research can have a stimulating effect upon the future development of sociology.     

What a Difference a Decade Makes: Reflections on doing ‘emancipatory’ disability research

This paper provides a broad-based overview of the development of emancipa tory disability research in the UK since its emergence in 1992. Drawing on personal experience in the field, the author responds to several important considerations that need to be addressed before considering adopting this controversial perspective. The paper is divided into two main sections. The first part provides a concise introduction to the thinking that underpins the concept of emancipatory disability research. The second section discusses key elements of this approach including the problem of accountability, the social model of disability, choice of methods and, empowerment, dissemination and outcomes. The paper concludes by suggesting that whilst there has been considerable progress over the last decade the future of emancipatory disability research remains precarious.     

Beginnings: participatory action research and adults with developmental disabilities

This paper discusses the emergence of Participatory Action Research (PAR), and its use with individuals with cognitive disabilities. A brief history of PAR is given, with a focus on its uses for empowerment and self-determination for persons with disabilities. Using literature-based standards for participatory, action and emancipatory research approaches, a 3-year research project with goals of increasing community participation by adults with developmental disabilities is described and evaluated. The "Transition into Community Life" project used an adapted form of the "Farmer-back-to-Farmer" PAR model (Rhoades & Booth, 1982), and the article discusses the successes and challenges of the model in a context quite different from how it was originally designed. The author describes lessons learned concerning the use of PAR with people with developmental disabilities. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the feasibility of PAR with individuals with cognitive challenges.     

Synergistic development and participatory action research in a Nahuat community

This is a report of twenty years of participatory action research conducted by a team of Mexican urban professionals with community members in a Nahuat indigenous region at Sierra Norte de Puebla (Mexico). The article first outlines three main issues of Latin American participatory action research projects. The context and the unfolding of the case are presented through five stages highlighting the role of the team, its relationship with the community along the years, and the development of some of their joint activities. In the final pages the authors evaluate the case in relation to the issues raised in the first section and discuss what is important about this process. María Eugenia Sánchez is a sociologist and President and Founder of Proyecto de Animación y Desarrollo, Asociación Civil (PRADE A.C.), the nongovernmental organization living and working since 1973 in San Miguel Tzinacapan (Mexico). She is currently (1992–1993) a Fulbright Scholar at the Latin American Studies Program, Center for International Studies at Cornell University. He is currently (1992–1993) a Fulbright Scholar at the Latin American Studies Program, Center for International Studies at Cornell University. Address for correspondence: María Eugenia Sánchez or Eduardo Almeida, 190 Uris Hall, Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-7601. In Mexico: PRADE, A.C., Apartado Postal 6, Cuetzalan, Pue. 73560 Mexico.     

Reconsidering participatory action research for organizational transformation and social change

Abstract

Considering the notion of vagueness of organizational and social contexts during the processes of organizational transformation and social change, a dramaturgical model of organizations is proposed for facilitating the process of organizational transformation and learning in local and contingent contexts. Our strategy for participatory action research (PAR) is suggested for appreciating the importance of the multiple uses of research methods, hence the need to come to terms with pluralism and holism. In this paper, the design of participant-driven research, using the post-structuralist thought of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, is critically reviewed.     

Participatory action research: Easier said than done

This article describes participatory action research as an alternative methodology for conducting community needs assessment. The research model empowers individuals by recognizing they have the ability to identify their own needs, and to generate practical long lasting solutions (Rappaport, 1981). A case study is presented in which two community members attempted a participatory community needs assessment. The article concludes with a discussion of how this attempt deviated from the ideal participatory action research model, and the consequences of the compromises made during the research process.     

Problems of participation: The limits of action research

Alvin Gouldner (1979) suggests knowledge is both culture and capital. Knowledge enables meaningful action. Capital is culture privatized. Culture is capital generalized. This raises the question of ownership in social research. Detachment in social research is praised as a virtue but also viewed as a source of difficulties epistemologically and ethically. Participatory action research offers a critique of detachment and advocates its opposite, 'commitment'. This may not necessarily involve 'political' advocacy. However, commitment to involve participants, and to further their goals through the conduct of research, does become a form of 'advocacy'. This paper draws on problematic experiences as a 'participatory action researcher' in social movement and evaluation research. Drawing on the recent work of Fuller, this paper suggests, rather bluntly, that when asked 'whose side are we on', academics might be more bold and suggest 'we are on our own side'.