TY - JOUR
T1 - Social research at a time of fast feedback and rapid change The case for ‘slow science’
AU - Iedema, Rick
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Aalborg University. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/12/16
Y1 - 2021/12/16
N2 - This contribution offers a reflection on the shift in social science towards participative enquiry and collaborative research practices. In doing so, the paper challenges the common conception that the methodological indeterminacy that participatory research may occasion undermines its scientific credentials by rendering its processes and outcomes vulnerable to idiosyncratic events, subjective interpretations, local variability and chancy outcomes. The focus of the article is not just that participatory processes require research flexibility to enhance the pragmatic outcomes of research, but that the researcher ’s theory and methodology may need to be recalibrated from discipline-controlled givens to publicly-negotiable points of departure. This latter point expands the paper’s argument to advocate for research that has “the power to be affected” (Hardt 2007, x) by the views, feelings and experiences of those it targets, and of those affected by its processes and conclusions. Using videoreflexive ethnography to illustrate this point, the article exemplifies what it means for the researcher(s) to be affected by the constraints inherent in their own research approach and disciplinary priorities (Iedema 2021).
AB - This contribution offers a reflection on the shift in social science towards participative enquiry and collaborative research practices. In doing so, the paper challenges the common conception that the methodological indeterminacy that participatory research may occasion undermines its scientific credentials by rendering its processes and outcomes vulnerable to idiosyncratic events, subjective interpretations, local variability and chancy outcomes. The focus of the article is not just that participatory processes require research flexibility to enhance the pragmatic outcomes of research, but that the researcher ’s theory and methodology may need to be recalibrated from discipline-controlled givens to publicly-negotiable points of departure. This latter point expands the paper’s argument to advocate for research that has “the power to be affected” (Hardt 2007, x) by the views, feelings and experiences of those it targets, and of those affected by its processes and conclusions. Using videoreflexive ethnography to illustrate this point, the article exemplifies what it means for the researcher(s) to be affected by the constraints inherent in their own research approach and disciplinary priorities (Iedema 2021).
KW - affect
KW - participative research
KW - reflexivvideo-reflexive ethnography
KW - slow science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127623329&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5278/academicquarter.vi23.7032
DO - 10.5278/academicquarter.vi23.7032
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85127623329
SN - 1904-0008
VL - 23
SP - 109
EP - 122
JO - Academic Quarter
JF - Academic Quarter
ER -
