scholarly journals Recognizing research participants’ fluid positionalities in (post-)conflict zones

2020 ◽  
pp. 146879412090488
Author(s):  
Philipp Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Research Relationship ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Data Collection Process ◽  
Personal Experiences

This article re-conceptualizes the highly ambivalent relationships between researchers and research participants in conflict zones, with a focus on recognizing respondents’ multiple and fluid positionalities. Standardized and dominant approaches to qualitative research are largely based on essentialist and infantilized portrayals of research participants and neo-colonial assumptions regarding the research relationship: informants are presumed to be inevitably vulnerable and in need of external protection, while the researcher is positioned as the omnipresent expert in control of the research process. In reality, however, research participants rarely exclusively occupy the ‘oppressed victimhood’ axis of identity and frequently take on active roles in the research and data collection process in a myriad of ways. I elucidate how especially in (post-)conflict zones, research participants frequently re-shape power dynamics by exercising agency over the researcher and the research process. While previous studies have considered how informants’ agency can shape processes of knowledge production, in this article I expand this focus by examining how key-informants can, and frequently do, facilitate the researchers’ safety and security. I specifically draw on personal experiences of empirical research in Northern Uganda. I demonstrate how in a particular moment of post-conflict insecurity – while being trapped in-between the exchange of gunfire between the Ugandan police and an armed group – one of my key-informants ensured my physical protection and safety, thereby exercising power over me and the research relationship. The key-informants in this context thus occupied multiple positionalities – ranging from informant to protector, evidencing that research relationships are never static but rather contextual, shift and fluctuate. Such ambivalent and fluid power dynamics are more reflective of the lived realities of qualitative research and can influence the research process by positioning researchers and research participants on more equal terms.

Thinking About Data With Grounded Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 743-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Charmaz ◽  
Linda Liska Belgrave
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Access To Data ◽  
Deductive Research

This article examines qualitative data in an era of neoliberalism and focuses on the place of data in grounded theory studies. Neoliberal values of individual responsibility, self-sufficiency, competition, efficiency, and profit have entered the conduct of research. Neoliberalism fosters (a) reifying quantitative logical-deductive research, (b) imposing surveillance of types and sources of data, (c) marginalizing inductive qualitative research, and (d) limiting access to data in grounded theory studies. Grounded theory relies on data and resists current efforts to abandon data. The method resides in the space between reifying and rejecting data. Data allow us to learn from the stories of those left out and permits research participants to break silences. Data can help us look underneath and beyond our privileges, and alter our views. Grounded theory is predicated on data, but how researchers regard and render data depends on which version of the method they adopt. We propose developing a strong methodological self-consciousness to learn how we affect the research process and to counter the subtle effects of neoliberalism.

Embodied Research in Migration Studies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Vacchelli
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Invasive Approach ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Embodied Research ◽  
Definition Of

The definition of data in qualitative research is expanding. This book highlights the value of embodiment as a qualitative research tool and outlines what it means to do embodied research at various points of the research process. It shows how using this non-invasive approach with vulnerable research participants such as migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking women can help service users or research participants to be involved in the co-production of services and in participatory research. Drawing on both feminist and post-colonial theory, the author uses her own research with migrant women in London, focusing specifically on collage making and digital storytelling, whilst also considering other potential tools for practicing embodied research such as yoga, personal diaries, dance, and mindfulness. Situating the concept of ‘embodiment’ on the map of research methodologies, the book combines theoretical groundwork with actual examples of application to think pragmatically about intersectionality through embodiment.

Emerging age asymmetries in the research relationship: challenges of exploring transition to the fourth age

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 409-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
TATIANA SEDLÁKOVÁ ◽  
ADÉLA SOURALOVÁ
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Research Relationship ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Age Relations

ABSTRACTThis article opens the discussion on age asymmetries within the research relationship between researchers who are young and able-bodied and research participants who are much older and have acquired impairments in later life. Based on the knowledge of age relations, we present our conceptualisation of power imbalances based on age. We see these asymmetries as co-existing with other forms of power imbalances between researchers and participants, and argue that these asymmetries are not the results of the limitations of the older adults but rather the consequences of different constellations of possibilities for researchers and participants. Moreover, we assert that taking these asymmetries into account is a necessary step when conducting research with people with acquired impairment in later life. As researchers, reflecting on age asymmetries helped us to avoid othering our research participants and prevented us from marginalising their life experiences. Drawing upon our own research, we reflect upon the network of cognitive, physical and social asymmetries that emerged in our research relationships and identify the main challenges that we faced. In the presence of some of these age asymmetries, we approach the research relationship through the roles which we played vis-à-vis the participants. We consider reflecting and addressing these asymmetries to be a necessary step in creating and maintaining a research relationship based on equality. Only a reflexive and transparent approach to these power imbalances can ensure that data collection and analysis do not contribute to their reproduction. This article presents some general insights on research practices and contributes to the debate on power imbalances in qualitative research. The article also contributes to gerontology and provides new insights about the lives of those individuals with acquired impairment in later life, a topic that has so far received inadequate research attention.

scholarly journals ‘Now that I know what you’re about’: black feminist reflections on power in the research relationship

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 519-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Feminist Methodology ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Institutional Ethics ◽  
Research Relationship ◽  
Reflexive Space ◽  
Conducting Research

Feminists have identified reflexivity as a particularly incisive tool for navigating shifting power dynamics, using it to draw attention to how a researcher’s positionality informs every aspect of the research process, from development of the research question to interactions with research participants. In this article, I describe my reflections as a black feminist researcher conducting research with black women. I examine the unexpected ways in which power can manifest during the research process, complicating the theoretical advice offered by institutional ethics board and feminist methodology textbooks. Intersectionality serves as a useful tool to tease out these dilemmas and though it cannot preempt or solve all challenges, it provides reflexive space for exploring such dilemmas and a tool for navigating power in the research process.

scholarly journals The unequal power relation in the final interpretation

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernille Almlund
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Power Relation ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Final Interpretation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Meta Theory

This article addresses the power relation in qualitative research and especially the importance of taking into consideration the problematic aspects of the power relation when executing the final interpretation of qualitative research. The methodology literature examines the unequal power relation in qualitative research by focusing on how society has become an interview society and on the lack of equality in interviews. Although the literature recommends being aware of asymmetry between research participants, it fails to look at how to address the final interpretation of qualitative research if the interpretation also takes the unequal power relation into account. Consequently, interpreting the researched in a respectful manner is difficult. This article demonstrates the necessity of increasing awareness of the unequal power relation by posing, discussing and, to some extent answering, three methodological questions inspired by meta-theory that are significant for qualitative research and qualitative researchers to reflect on. This article concludes that respectful interpretation and consciously paying attention to the unequal power relation in the final interpretation require decentring the subject, dissociating from the ideal of intersubjectivity, being descriptive instead of normative, accepting the unconquerable distance between the researcher and the researched and looking at the entire research process and analyses as an undeniable coproduction and interpretation.

Learning through a Reunion of Mind-Body-Emotion-Spirits

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-431
Author(s):  
Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Important Concept ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Critical Qualitative Research

While reflexivity has been taken up as an important concept in critical qualitative research, there are few texts that illustrate explicit approaches to practicing reflexivity. Drawing on my doctoral research experience, this article fills this gap and explores how the practice of mindfulness may guide us to a rich engagement with reflexivity during the critical qualitative research process, in particular within the context of interactions with research participants. More specifically, mindfulness is put forth as a practice to invite an embodied and holistic form of learning that goes beyond cognitive knowing. I argue that a mindfulness-based reflexivity has the potential to open up a space to learn from the messiness and discomfort experienced in the research process and deepen our understanding about the operation of power relations in critical qualitative research and beyond.

scholarly journals Reflexive Accounts: An Intersectional Approach to Exploring the Fluidity of Insider/Outsider Status and the Researcher’s Impact on Culturally Sensitive Post-Positivist Qualitative Research

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda L. Couture ◽  
Arshia U. Zaidi ◽  
Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Data Collection Process ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Intersecting Identities ◽  
Sensitive Issues ◽  
Collection Phase

Reflexivity and acknowledging the role of the researcher in the research is a well-established practice in post-positivist research. In this paper we use reflexivity to examine our personal experiences in conducting qualitative research. We use reflexivity to understand how our intersecting identities and resulting insider/outsider status may have influenced the data collection phase of a study regarding the culturally and religiously sensitive issue of male-female intimate relationships. Using an intersectional approach, we explore the fluidity of our insider/outsider statuses resulting from our multiple and intersecting identities such as ethnicity, religion, age, and sex. The multiple identities a researcher possesses can cause him/her to be perceived as an insider and outsider simultaneously, which can play a significant role in shaping the interactions between the interviewer and interviewee. We present reflexive accounts on how our identities may have affected the data collection process and participants’ comfort level when discussing sensitive issues, in this case sexuality. Overall, we seek to provide insight into the role of intersecting multiple identities and the resulting insider/outsider status in qualitative data collection when examining culturally and religiously sensitive issues from the perspective of the researchers.

Becoming-with research participants: Possibilities in qualitative research with children

Childhood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-497
Author(s):  
Silke Daelman ◽  
Elisabeth De Schauwer ◽  
Geert Van Hove
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Research With Children ◽  
Ethics In Research ◽  
Active Research ◽  
Children’S Voices

This article takes a post-qualitative stance upon the construction and taking up of certain positions in research by children and adults, and explores how emergent assemblages of (non-)human agents shape how children’s voices are expressed and genuinely listened to within intra-active research encounters. Plugging in post-qualitative concepts as ‘listening’, ‘response-ability’ and ‘becoming-with’, this article analyses key incidents (that emerged during a research process in Flanders) in order to reconfigure voices, discourses, methodologies and ethics in research with children.

What is ‘access’ in the context of qualitative research?

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 669-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliane Riese
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Vantage Points

In this article, I reflect upon access in the context of qualitative research, which I define as the process by which a researcher and the sites and/or individuals he or she studies relate to each other, through which the research in question is enabled. Access is a dynamic and multidirectional process, which depends on the researcher’s ability to access and to develop a ‘multiple vision’, and on the researcher’s and the research’s accessibility. Access influences the research process and results, and is shaped by power dynamics. Awareness of the complexity of access will help qualitative researchers to make more conscious and deliberate decisions, for example on which vantage points to include or exclude, or on how to protect participants and themselves. I illustrate my points of reflection with the help of vignettes from my research on the organizational dynamics behind the Greenpeace campaign against Norwegian whaling. I discuss implications for practice, and argue that perceiving of qualitative research as craftwork can help researchers to sustain complex notions of access.

‘Keen as fuck’: youth participation in qualitative research as ‘parallel projects’

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Arnold Lohmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Young People ◽  
Youth Participation ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Central Concern ◽  
Ethics Review ◽  
Active Research ◽  
Participation In Research

Youth researchers continue to pursue the ideals of youth participation in research. This pursuit reflects a broader concern for the problems of participant-researcher power dynamics in qualitative research. Youth researchers develop and adopt a variety of techniques and ethical principles that attempt to position young people as active research participants. However, these methods and principles have not solved the challenges of participation. In this article, I argue that there is a need to accept that some of the power asymmetries of participation might be unsolvable, and to reposition the power relationship between young people and researchers. A central concern in this article is the paradoxically unethical outcomes produced by adult-centric ethics review processes. I argue that youth participation in qualitative research can be understood as parallel projects and that in doing so researchers can value young people’s reasons for participation. In fact, young people might be ‘keen as fuck’ (participant quote) to participate.

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