Nov 12th Identity and positioning

A research colleague, Alan Armstrong, couldn’t understand why he was only supposed to do learning disability research. He had no issue with researchers who chose to position themselves in this field. But he had been positioned there by others. 

Alan wanted to research other social topics, such as the lives of working class men. And why not? 

Why not indeed. 

Alan was starting to build an academic profile. However, no-one seemed to expect him to be interested in anything except learning disability research. They just saw someone with learning disabilities. 

I wish he’d lived long enough to challenge this. 

Nov 11th Co-produced BY

One part of my doctoral research was co-produced by five women. One of the women was me. 

We all signed the informed consent pack. We all share ownership of the co-created data. We are all named in that part of the research by our names, even though elsewhere I am not ‘Anne’ but ‘I’. 

I did not co-produce WITH four other women. That part of my research was coproduced BY five women. We knew it was just one jewel that we could co-produce. We recognised it was my research overall. 

Sadly, that was the price for it being a doctorate.

Nov 10th “Co-produced with”

“Co-produced with” is a red flag for me, whether used in a statement like “This leaflet was co-produced with” or “Organisation X co-produced this with”. 

It’s not usually helpful to argue over meanings of words, especially weasel-words like co-production, but here’s my take. 

Co-production happens BY people working together - whether those people are employed by an organisation or volunteers, members or fee-paid experts by experience. Only naming ‘outsiders’ you coproduction WITH perpetuates the power imbalance that is inherent in engagement, the power of one party choose when to invite ‘others’ to help them. 

And for me that is not co-production. 

Nov 9th Research is not my life

Today I listened to Dr Helen Kara on planning research projects.* One of her ten tips is to remember the other parts of your life and plan space for them. 

Some branches of social research treat the whole of life as research and data. For some, being researcher is their core identity. It is their backstage performance not just when they are on display. It cannot be switched off because it is who they are. 

I used to be like that. But I am learning the importance of just being and not continually observing and thinking. My research is richer.  

* https://t.co/dJHid4p6OR?amp=1

Nov 8th Paying to take part in research

There are debates about paying participants to take part in research. There are discussions about reimbursement of expenses. What I tend not to hear are debates about paying to take part in research. 

I am not suggesting that people are paying with cash to take part in research. However cash is not the only currency or price we can be asked to pay. 

Often there’s an emotional price to pay to being a participant. Too often the price goes unacknowledged. Don’t expect people to be grateful for the chance to have a voice. It is researchers who should be grateful.  

Nov 7th Campaign for thinking

I had a university timesheet returned because ‘thinking’ was an inadequate description of my activity. I changed it to ‘cognitive reflective practices’ and my timesheet was accepted. 

This illustrates two aspects of academic life. Firstly, if you dress things up to sound academic, what you say is more likely to be treated with respect. Secondly, time for simply thinking appears undervalued in universities. 

And yet, without time to stare, think about nothing in particular and have no pressure to be productive, where is creativity and inspiration to come from? Perhaps it is time for a campaign for slower deeper thinking. 

Nov 6th Ditch the transcript

I was taught to record and transcribe interviews. All the interpretative power was put in my hands. I decided what words mattered out of the deluge of words I heard and read. I was often explicitly guided by theory and too often unconsciously by what I already knew and how I made sense of the world.

What if we co-construct - mid interview - an agreed set of notes and text fragments, that represents what matters from our conversation? 

The data are suddenly not ‘rich’ but they are deep. Most importantly, my power to interpret is reduced and my interviewee’s power increased.

Nov 5th Research design as shape sorting

There are multiple ways of making sense of the world. There are a myriad of types of research questions. And then there are different methods and very different reasons for doing research. 

Is one way better or right? Not exactly. However it is vital that square pegs are put into square holes. Not all types of question can be answered using all methods. And some reasons for doing research and ways of making sense of the world lend themselves to certain methods and types of question. 

The moral is to know enough to avoid hammering square pegs into round holes.

Nov 4th Equality

If you want a bit of extra reading, you may want to look at the version of my doctoral thesis that is written ‘bilingually’ for readers of ‘Everyday’ and readers of ‘Academic’. It’s just one practice I use to reconcile my non-negotiable beliefs with working in the academic world. I call it the Alongsider Thesis https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/39200483/Alongsider_Thesis_online_version.pdf

All lives have equal value. That’s my non-negotiable belief even though I don’t always act on it and I haven’t fully thought through its implications. If you look at life in Wales, our mainstream discrimination suggests equality is not a mainstream belief. 

What has this to do with academic life? I believe we carry into our academic work a fundamental belief in inequality when it comes to knowledges and people as knowers, thinkers and sense-makers. 

I see it in our research practices, in our ‘business as usual’. And I have committed to doing things differently, starting with how I write. 

Nov 3rd Who’s the Boss?

My third drabble. Bit of a rant today. But I kept it to 100 words.

Designing research? 

So… 

Who decides what to study? Who decided what data are important enough to collect or co-create? Who decides who should be involved in data collection/co-creation? Who decides how to analyse the data? Who decides what is important in the data? Who decides what is important enough to write into a report? 

Please don’t call it co-design or coproduction or any of the other ‘co’s unless the answer to ‘who?’ includes those whose lives are most affected by the research, the people who know from the insider, as well as people with suitable lived experience as academics. 

Nov 2nd Research or Finding out?

Drabble 2: The difference between research and finding out

Finding out is a human activity. Some of us are more curious than others. Some specialise in searching for information, or working out ways to piece information together. 

Research is like ‘finding out plus’. So what are the pluses? 

Research is finding out that leaves a trail so we can see and show others how we did the finding out. Research needs a good reason why we did what we did. Research needs a convincing argument for how we have interpreted the information. If it’s academic research, it also needs to show how it relates to past theories and academic knowledge. 

November writing challenge

November is AcWriMo - academic writing month. I’m not formally signed up to it. However I’ve seen people talking about producing daily ‘atomic notes’. These are 250-300 word pieces with one idea. I thought I might give that a go. But I find 250-300 words is both too much and too little for many ideas. 

I’ve decided to try a daily ‘drabble’. This is a 100 word short story. I learned about these from the author Hannah Retallick. 

So, belatedly, here is yesterday’s drabble.

Knowing

By habit, I equate ‘know’ with ‘can articulate in words’. I think thoughts in words. I communicate knowledge in words. In other words, I am ‘logo-centric’. 

This is profoundly ableist. When I assume knowing requires words, I diminish people as knowers if they have no words. I falsely equate word skills with value and skill at knowing. I deny their knowledge. 

Equating words with knowing removes my ability to ever claim to ‘know’ anything. Words are fluid. Meanings shape-shift in time, culture and transfer among people. 

This drabble has fixed and shared 100 words. Its meaning is not fixed. 

Discuss!