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.