Participatory and Collaborative

Applied

Research Methods

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepared by

 

Lee Williams

 

University of Tennessee

 

May 1995

 

Specialty Exam II

 

Political Economy/

Participatory Sociology

 

 

 

 

 

 

Participatory and Collaborative

Applied Research Methods

Annotated Bibliography

 

Table of Contents

 

 

Introduction to Collaborative and Participatory Research........................................... 1

Linking Research and the Community.......................................................................... 4

Academic Perspectives....................................................................................... 4

Community Perspectives.................................................................................... 6

Field Research Models.................................................................................................. 7

Critique of Traditional Research Models......................................................... 7

Action Research................................................................................................. 9

Applied Research............................................................................................... 11

Case Study Research......................................................................................... 13

Collaborative Research...................................................................................... 14

Critical Research................................................................................................ 16

Ethnography........................................................................................................ 18

Evaluation........................................................................................................... 21

Feminist Research.............................................................................................. 22

Participatory Research....................................................................................... 24

Social Geography................................................................................................ 29

Ways of Knowing—The Role of Indigenous Knowledge and Culture......................... 30

Working With Differences—Class, Ethnicity, Gender, and Culture........................... 34

Role of the Researcher.................................................................................................. 37

Ethics and Human Subjects in Social Research............................................................ 40

Developing a Collaborative Research Project—Research Designs........................... 42

Research Tools and Techniques—How We Do It . . ................................................... 45

General................................................................................................................ 45

Documentary Sources and Public Records....................................................... 47

Focus Groups...................................................................................................... 49

Interviewing........................................................................................................ 51

Oral History........................................................................................................ 53

Power Structure Research................................................................................. 55

Surveys................................................................................................................ 58

Visual................................................................................................................... 59

Using What You Find...................................................................................................... 61

Data Analysis...................................................................................................... 61

Putting the Message Out................................................................................... 64

Case Studies................................................................................................................... 66

International........................................................................................................ 66

National............................................................................................................... 69

Resources....................................................................................................................... 72

University-Based Collaborative Research Centers......................................... 72

 

 

Introduction to Collaborative and Participatory Research

 

 

Brown, David L.  and Rajesh Tandon.  1983.  "Ideology and Political Economy in Inquiry: Action Research and Participatory Research."  Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Technology.  19(3): 277-94.

 

This article examines two traditions of applied behavioral science inquiry: action and participatory research.  The focus is on the differences between these two research approaches.  The article is organized into several sections: (1) describes examples of action and participatory research; (2) considers the impacts of values and ideologies on inquiry between the two research approaches; (3) analyses the political economy of inquiry; (4) describes phases of inquiry and differences between strategies related to differences in ideology and political economy; and (5) analyzes the implications of those differences for the diffusion of the two traditions and their future interaction.

 

Cancian, Francesca M. and Cathleen Armstead.  1992.  "Participatory Research."  In Encyclopedia of Sociology.  pp. 1427-1432. 

 

This short article captures main points of participatory research.  The authors analyze and describe five characteristics of participatory research: participation by the people being studied, inclusion of popular knowledge, a focus on power and empowerment, consciousness-raising and education of the participants, and political action.  In sum, the paper provides a brief history of the field and its relations to other fields and identifies current issues within participatory research.

 

Collette, Will.  1984.  "Research for Organizing."  In Roots to Power: A Manual for Grassroots Organizing.  Lee Staples (ed.).  Praeger: New York.  pp. 142-51.

 

This brief article, written for community researchers, provides an introduction to social research, the reasons for doing research, types of research, and how to utilize the research findings.  The final section provides a number of tips for community research for organizing.  Excellent introductory article for novice community researchers.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando.  1982.  "Participatory Research and Rural Social Change."  Journal of Rural Cooperation, X(1): 25-39.

 

Popular science (or folk culture) is an emergent type of knowledge production attempting to make the latter politically dynamic as required in social development efforts.  The common people have a scientific apparatus no less valuable than that of other social classes or groups, although its rationality may not be Cartesian.  Participatory research is seen as a attempt to understand and go deep into people's cultures with a view of promoting radical social changes in society.  The author finds that this also requires changes in traditional conceptions of methodology in social science and offers in its place methodology based on a high standard of authenticity and commitment on the part of the researchers, systematic restitution of information to the people, an action reflection rythym, a modest attitude and dialogic techniques designed to break the subject-object relationship.  The impact if mass culture and the roloe of the region and organic intellectuals are also emphasized in the discussion.

 

Hall, Budd L.  1992.  "From Margins to Center? The Development and Purpose of Participatory Research."  American Sociologist.  23(4): 15-28. 

 

This article documents the liberatory stream of participatory research as experienced through the activities and connections of one of the key figures in the early development and dissemination of these ideas.  The author traces the developments in Tanzania in the early 1970's, through the establishment of the original Participatory Research Network to the elaboration of theoretical and political debates.  He highlights the formulation and elaboration of participatory research as a contribution to social change in a variety of settings.  The article includes discussions of the feminist advance, the question of voice and the relationship of power to knowledge in transformative practice and contains an extensive and historically valuable bibliography.

 

International Council for Adult Education.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Introduction.  Society for Participatory Research: Asia and New Delhi.

 

An excellent introduction to both the theory and practice of participatory research.  This short book begins with an overview of the theoretical frameworks, contains brief discussions of major debates, and finally illustrates the theory with schematic overviews and examples of participatory research.

 

Park, Peter.  1993  "What is Participatory Research? A Theoretical and Methodological Perspective."  In Peter Park, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.   

 

This book chapter presents an overview of what participatory research aims to accomplish.  In doing this the author describes how a participatory research project is carried out in principle by examining key moments in this process.  Park provides a solid general theoretical overview and framework for participatory research.  He discusses the production of and types of knowledge, an analysis of the participatory research process, questions of validity, and the recovery of popular knowledge.  

 

Rahman, Muhammad Anisur.  1993.  People's Self Development: Perspectives on Participatory Action Research.  Zed Books: London.

 

This book presents eminent author's reflections on development through local initiatives by people themselves, what he terms "self-development," and how to promote such development.  Key issues include: what does the notion of self reliance mean; an approach to participatory research in terms of the self emancipation of the popular classes; the importance of knowledge relations in the domination of people; an examination of the rationality of collectively generated popular knowledge; and an outline of an alternative development paradigm rooted in a perspective that sees fulfillment of the human urge for creative engagement as the primary task in development efforts.

 

Tandon, Rajesh.  1993.  "The Historical Roots and Contemporary Urges in Participatory Research."  Participatory Research International (PRIA) Newsletter, December, 1993. 

 

This brief explication traces participatory research from an alternative paradigm to its present status as a viable method especially as relates to development.  Cites seven contemporary trends influencing participatory research: new politics of science; linkage between ideology and education; feminist perspectives; ecological movement; developments in rural and indigenous peoples relations; new paradigm research; and the growth in applied participatory action research work. 

 

Wadsworth, Yolanda.  1984.  Do It Yourself Social Research.    Victorian Council of Social Service and Melbourne Family Care Association: Melbourne, Australia

 

An easy to read, step by step account, written primarily for lay researchers this book describes an approach to community research for beginning researchers.  The approach is based on participatory methods which puts the production of knowledge back into the hands of everyday people.  the volume addresses issues such as reasons for the research, how to get started, ways of finding information, generating data, analyzing data, and ways of getting the findings across.  Includes several case studies, a translation of common research language, and bibliography.

 

 

 

Linking Research and the Community

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Academic Perspectives

 

The American Sociologist.  Winter,  1992, Vol. 23(4) and Spring, 1993, Vol. 24(1).

 

Two special issues of AS  are devoted to participatory research edited by long-time practitioners, Randy Stoecker and Edna Bonacich.  The numerous articles address all aspects of participatory research, includes discussion of why participatory research, models, case studies, and participatory research techniques providing excellent overviews of each.  Between the two volumes are 9 case studies on wide-ranging, participatory research projects including high school students as researchers, community development in low income neighborhoods, immigrant women and participatory research, community health, and church-based organizing, among others.

 

Cassara, Beverly B.  1987.  "The How and Why of Preparing Graduate Students to Carry Out Participatory Research." Educational Considerations, Vol. 14, Nos. 2 & 3, Spring/Fall: 39-42.

 

This short article offers cogent reasons for why we practice participatory research and presents ideas on how to go about preparing graduate students to go do participatory research.  Cassara offers a description and explanation of the methodology, and two brief case studies.  Excellent article to lay a foundation for those who are teaching others to do participatory research. 

 

Convergence.  1981, Vol. 14(3) and 1988, Vol. 21(3).

 

Two special editions of journal deal with the definition of the field of participatory research and focus on the central debates among participatory researchers.  Contains extensive bibliographies and lists the Participatory Research Network.  These two volumes provide an excellent overview of the historical and contemporary issues and strategies of participatory research.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando and Muhammad Anisur Rahman (eds.).  1991.  Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research.  Apex Press: New York.

 

This volume is a collection of case studies and theoretical essays on the use of participatory research in communities world-wide.  The editors provide an excellent overview of the different contexts and strategies used in participatory research.  The authors use and describe different participatory research methods, but all share in common an approach to development which actively involves the people in generating their own knowledge, about their own condition, and how it can be changed.

 

Hall, Budd L.,  Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.).  1982.  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly?  Participatory Research in Development.  Society for Participatory Research in Asia and New Delhi: New Delhi.  

 

Six papers on participatory research emphasize the democratic relations between researcher and the community, the necessity for social transformation, and the subordination of academic interests.  These are followed by seven case studies which illustrate the premises discussed in other articles and the difficulties and rewards of participatory research. 

 

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This volume describes a grassroots approach to empowering people for democratic change.  It explains participatory research using exemplary case studies on community organizing, feminist theory, and ecological movements from a wide range of locations in North America.  This book provides a solid overview of what participatory research is, the role of knowledge in the process, the development of participatory research professionally, and case studies using participatory research methods.    

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1981.  Research for the People, Research by the People: An Introduction to Participatory Research.  Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-70.

 

The papers included in this volume were all presented at the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, in April 1980.  This meeting was the culmination of a stream of activity which can be identified concretely as having begun in Tanzania in the early 1970's with the work of a group of researchers who began to experiment with research which consciously involved the community in the entire research process.  The volume presents theoretical papers and practical case studies.  The papers address issues such as the role of the researcher, the concept of grassroots, base group or organic intellectuals, the nature of participation itself, the relationship of participatory research to historical materialism, and the importance of the creation of popular knowledge.  

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1984.  Research for the People, Research by the People: Selected papers from the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 1980.   Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-63.

 

This book is intended to present to teachers and students involved in adult education and development work, the theory and the practical implications of participatory research.  The papers in the volume deal with issues such as the role of the researcher, the nature of participation, popular knowledge, and the relationship between historical materialism and participatory research.  The papers represent both theoretical and practical aspects of participatory research and represent nearly all regions of the world through case studies.

 

Stoecker, Randy and David Beckwith.  1992.  "Advancing Toledo's Neighborhood Movement Through Participatory Action Research:  Integrating Activist and Academic Approaches."  Clinical Sociology Review, 17: 198-213.

 

This paper first develops the methodology of participatory action research as a research process originating from community-defined needs, involving community members in conducting the research, and leading to community-based action.  Within this research model, the authors discuss the difficulty of integrating the roles of activist and researcher.  Secondly, the paper describes the outcomes of the coordinated efforts of an activist academic and a professional community organizer who have engaged in a series of research projects to increase the organizational effectiveness and urban redevelopment capacity of community-based development organizations in Toledo, OH.  Thirdly, the paper evaluates their research project, discussing how the problem of integrating activist and researcher roles was addressed.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Community Perspectives

 

Merrifield, Juliet.  1979.  "Putting Scientists in Their Place: Participatory Research in Environmental and Occupational Health."  Highlander Center Working Paper.  (Available from Highlander Research and Education Center, 1959 Highlander Way, New Market, TN, 37820.)

 

This short booklet provides an example of community participatory research organized around the issue of toxic waste.  Participatory research is seen as a way of systematizing the people's knowledge.  In this case statistical data was gathered to document the increase in birth defects and environmentally related diseases in the Southeast.  The author also reviews some of the issues of control over the production and use of scientific knowledge.

 

Perkins, Douglas D.  and Abraham Wandersman.  1990.  "You'll Have to Work to Overcome Our Suspicions: The Benefits and Pitfalls of Research with Community Organizations."  Social Policy.  Summer: pp. 32-41.

 

This article discusses the different role constraints and value conflicts between research practitioners including community members, leaders, organizers and agency staff on one hand, and academic researchers on the other.  The authors analyze the benefits and pitfalls of the partnership between academic researchers and the community.  The article provides several brief case studies of community and academic research partnerships in action.  Perkins and Wandersman conclude that even given the pitfalls of such a research strategy the many practical and empirical benefits of such arrangements greatly outweigh the negatives, and further, that with planning and foresight by academic researchers many of the pitfalls can be avoided.  

 

Sclove, Richard E.  1995.  “Putting Science to Work in Communities.”  Chronicle of Higher Education.”  March 31: B1-B3.

 

This article describes a low-cost method for doing learning on local, urgent social problems.  Dutch universities, for over 20 years, have established a network of over 50 public “science shops” that conduct coordinate and summarize research on social and technological issues in response to specific questions and concerns posed by community groups, public-interest organizations, local governments, and workers.  Each shop’s paid staff members and student interns screen questions and refer challenging problems to faculty members and students.  The science shops provide answers to several thousand inquiries each year.  Author describes origins of science shops, how centers work, what sorts of results are generated, and how such a system may be able to work in the US.   

 

Routledge, Rodney.  1993.  "Grass Tip Consumer Policy Input."  Community Development Journal, 28(2), April: 101-107.

 

This paper outlines how a community development process of participatory research was used in working with a small group of inner city unemployed people.  Through this process, the participant researchers are able to clarify the macro issues shaping the reality of their lack of paid employment and then develop strategies to influence government policies.  The paper concludes with an analysis of the issues and processes involved in using a participatory research approach.  Some implications for policy making and service delivery that genuinely seeks to be consumer-based are noted.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Field Research Models

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Critique of Traditional Research Models

 

Fonow, Mary M. and Judith A. Cook.  (eds.).  1991.  Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research.  Indiana University Press: Bloomington

 

This book offers a collection of papers on the philosophies and methods of feminist research. The authors all raise key issues for consideration in all forms of research.  The analysis focuses on feminist methodology in the field of sociology by surveying the techniques used in recent research concerning gender-related topics as well as feminist analyses of epistemological assumptions underlying the conduct of inquiry.  The authors povide a critique and reformulation of standard research practice by using innovative methodological approaches including, visual techniques, conversational and textual analysis, and analysis of spontaneous events.

 

Hall, Budd L.,  Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.).  1982.  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly?  Participatory Research in Development.  Society for Participatory Research in Asia and New Delhi: New Delhi.  

 

Six papers on participatory research emphasize the democratic relations between researcher and the community, the necessity for social transformation, and the subordination of academic interests.  These are followed by seven case studies which illustrate the premises discussed in other articles and the difficulties and rewards of participatory research.  Part one of the book provides an overview of the many critiques levied at mainstream social science research.  While part two explains alternative strategies through case studies.

 

Lather, Patti.  1986.  "Research as Praxis."  Harvard Educational Review.  56(3): 257-77.

 

This article explores integrating research with political action.  The author emphasizes critical theory and gives a brief overview and critique of three critical research paradigms: neo-Marxist ethnographies; feminist research; and participatory research.

 

Reason, Peter.  1988.  Human Inquiry in Action: Developments in New Paradigm Research.  Sage Publication: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This volume is a collection of papers on a variety of collaborative research methods.  Articles identify issues, problems, and examples of participatory research.  Several authors provide detailed critiques of standard social science research.  Carries on  and furthers earlier work (see below).

 

Reason, Peter and John Rowan (eds.).  1981.  Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research.  John Wiley and Sons: London.

 

This book covers the philosophy, methodology, practice, and prospects of new paradigm research.  New paradigm research is based on experience and collaboration, doing research with people rather than on them, and involves working with people so that they may discover some truth about themselves.  Contains materials collected from researchers pursuing similar paths in Europe, North America, Africa, and India, as well as reprints of relevant classics.  Numerous articles provide cogent critiques of the dominant research paradigm in the social sciences.

 

Roth, Julius.  1975.  "Hired Hand Research."  Fist Fights in the Kitchen.  Gierge Lewis (ed.).  Goodyear: Santa Monica, CA.

 

In this brief article Roth examines, quite truthfully, three case studies of hired hand research.  Case one illustrates the real dimensions of hired hands doing observational counting research on ward patients in a mental hospital; faked counts, missed assignments, mad-up results.  Case two addresses the inconsistencies found in the coding of data among different members of a hired research team leading to gross inconsistencies in the research.  Case three addresses the problems inherent in a misconstructed interview schedule question.  The second part of the article analyzes these problems and the ethics involved in social research done with hired hands and offers solutions to the hired hand mentality of research.

 

Tandon, Rajesh.  1982.  "A Critique of Monopolistic Research,"  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly? Participatory Research in Development.  Budd Hall, Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.) .  Society for Participatory Research in Asia, New Delhi: New Delhi.  pp. 79-84.

 

Tandon describes the major characteristics of the dominant research paradigm in the social sciences and provides a critiques of this method of research.  The dominant mode of research has four major features: (a) the purpose of the research is to generate knowledge for knowledge sake; (b) the methods for research should be totally objective, with a controlled research situation; (c) manipulation of symbols and concepts are the main ingredients of knowledge;  (d) the research entails communication of findings to other professional colleagues.  Critiques of this method take the forms of absolutist, purist, rationalist, and elitist.

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Action Research

 

Argryis, Chris, Robert Putnam, and Diana McLain Smith.  1985.  Action Science: Concepts, Methods  and Skills for Research.  Josey-Bass: San Francisco, CA.

 

This volume offers a methodology for researching social systems in ways to gain more valid data while treating those researched as mature and responsible adults.  In effect it is equivalent to a form of participatory action research, with a particular emphasis on generating more valid information.

 

Carr, Wilfred and Stephen Kemmis.  1986.  Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research.  Falmer Press: London.

 

Carr and Kemmis provide a strongly-put case for participatory action research.  This form of research is cyclic, is done by the researched, and incorporates critical theory.  The cycle is: plan, act, observe, reflect, plan. . . . start again.  The purpose of the book is to offer a rationale for classroom teachers to do their own research and curriculum theorizing.  The authors believe that teachers have a special role as researchers and that the most plausible way to construe educational research is as a form of critical social science.  The book provides a good overview of the theory and practice of a critical social science based on action research methods for all types of educators.

 

Flora, Cornelia and Jan L. Flora.  n.d.  "Quality of Life Concerns and Sustainable Agriculture: Overview of Useful Methods for Action Research." Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and John Allen, University of Nebraska

 

This excellent outline offers some of the basic techniques for gathering social data in rural areas and the methodologies which drive the collection of said data.  Fantastic introductory piece for any qualitative researcher.  Very basic, straight forward, easy to understand explication of qualitative methods as they apply to action research. 

 

French, Wendell and Cecil H. Bell.  1990.  Organisation Development: Behavioural Science Interventions for Organisational Improvement (Fourth Edition).  Prentice-Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

 

One of the bibles on organization development.  Is set firmly within an action research framework and provides a good mix of theory, practice, and history.

 

Human Relations.  1993, 46(2). 

 

This special issue of journal devoted to action research edited by Max Elden and Rupert F. Chisholm.  The volume provides several articles on theoretical and methodological aspects of action research along with case studies based on action research.

 

Kemmis, Stephen and Robin McTaggart.  1988.  The Action Research Planner (Third Edition).  Deakin University: Victoria, Australia.

 

The authors teach action research to educators at Deakin University.  They are probably one of the important reasons why education is an active discipline in the use of action research in Australia.  Their approach is participatory and critical providing a basic overview of action research methods and theory, along with workbook-like chapters which provide systematic approaches to action research, also includes several case studies. 

 

Kemmis, Stephen and Robin McTaggart.  1988.  Action Research Reader (Third Edition).  Deakin University Press: Victoria, Australia.

 

Readings from earlier editions along with new selections provide a historical picture of the development of action research through the work of some of the classical exponents along with the range of perspectives in action research.  Readings are organized into three sections: origins and development; international perspectives including North America, United Kingdom, continental Europe, and Developing Nations on the theory and practice of action research; and recent developments in action research in Australia.

 

McNiff, Jean with Jack Whitehead and Moira Laidlaw.  1992.  Creating a Good Social Order Through Action Research.  Hyde Publications Brancsome, Dorset. 

 

The authors and other colleagues engage in a collaborative inquiry to show how a community can develop through dialogue.  The book address current critical issues within the action research movement, and offers ideas about the generative transformational nature of educational inquiry.  The author's widen the debate about the nature of action research for personal and professional development.

 

McNiff, Jean.  1992.  Action Research: Principles and Practice.  Routledge: London.

 

The author explains the philosophies and practices of action research clearly, illustrating her explanations with case studies of recent projects organized from Bath University.  The book reviews current trends in action research and examines key concepts in its development.  The book urges teachers to develop and improve their own classroom practice by taking education research out of the confines of academia and conducting it themselves.  McNiff illustrates that there are widely divergent views on the application and contribution of action research for educational thought.

 

Whyte, William Foote (ed.).  1991.  Participatory Action Research.  Sage: Newbury Park, CA.

 

Author is a highly regarded field researcher for over 50 years.  He tells how he has plied his craft over that time.  The book addresses the author's failures and successes in studying street corner society in Boston, oil companies in Oklahoma and Venezuela, restaurants in Chicago, worker cooperatives in Spain, factories in New York State, and villages in Peru.  With the goal of taking the reader into the field with him, Whyte discusses and dissects the chief tools of a field researcher: participant observation and the semi-structured interview. 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Applied Research

 

Abreo, Desmond A,  1983.  From Development Worker to Activist: A Case Study in Participatory Training.  DEEDS: Mangalore, Karnataka

 

This book is a case study of training held for the members of a development organization in South India by the Development Education Service.  The method used in the training programs is aimed at being totally participatory.  The trainees evolve the syllabus, and through various exercises, arrive at the insights needed for authentic development work.  The book describes this process as it took place in four weeks spaced out over the course of a year, and through the actual work of the trainees.  The methods described include case studies, group and individual research, reflection on actual development work, role-plays, and simulation exercises.  This book is aimed at development workers in applied settings.  Most of the sections contain the actual summaries made by the trainees themselves of their discussions.  Additional papers given to the trainees for their reflection and group discussion are included where appropriate.

 

Freidenberg, Judith.  1991.  "Participatory Research and Grassroots Development: A Case Study from HarlemCity and Society, 5(1), June: 64-75.

 

This article documents an anthropologist's experiences in an applied research and development project with elderly minorities in the inner city.  The main question addressed in the report is how, and to what extent, is collaboration between the anthropologist, professional colleagues, funding agencies, informants and community groups conducive to grassroots development within the context of the political economy in which the program is being developed.  Focusing on the natural history of the project, this study illustrates some of the complexities involved.  The implications for participatory research, planned social change, and styles of community development emerge from an understanding of the project as a social process.

 

Frideres, James S.  1992.  A World of Communities: Participatory Research Perspectives.  Captus University Publications: North York, Ontario, Canada.

 

Emerging from the First International Conference on Participatory Research held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, this book provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the community participation strategies employed to carry out a variety of applied research projects.  Beginning with a critical review of the concept "participatory research," the editor takes the reader to nine different countries where researchers have utilized the process of involving communities in the resolution of their own concerns.  Whether focusing on health care issues, distance education, or community reaction to relocation, the articles demonstrate the advantages of public participation in the research process.  Students, academics, and practicing professional will find this book an essential resource for understanding participatory research.

 

Miller, William L.  and Benjamin Crabtree.  1994.  "Clinical Research."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.  pp. 340-352.

 

The guiding premise of this article is that the questions emerging from the clinical experience frame conversations and determine research designs.  The chapter is structured around three goals: creating an open research space that celebrates qualitative and critical approaches to the clinical world; providing the tools necessary for discovering and confirming clinical stories and knowledge within this space; and identifying and describing the means for sharing the stories and knowledge.  The emphasis is on the clinical text of Western biomedicine and the particular subtext of the patient-physician clinical encounter, but the discussion is easily transferable to other clinical contexts, such as nursing care, education, and organizational management. 

 

Rebach, Howard M.  and John G. Bruhn.  1991.  Handbook of Clinical Sociology.  Plenum Press.

 

This book provides a wide-ranging compilation of articles on clinical sociology giving definition to a significant but often invisible tradition in American sociology.  The field of clinical sociology is broadly defined by the authors as "the application of sociological perspectives to facilitate change."  Its practitioners are primarily change agents, rather than scholars or researchers, who work with a client, be that an individual, family, group, organization, or community to facilitate change.  The volume is divided into four parts: (1) an outline of the history and definition of the field of clinical sociology; (2) the general themes and practice of clinical sociology; (3) the application of clinical sociology in specific settings; and (4) work with special populations (e.g. people in a mental hospital). 

 

Singer, Merrill.  1994.  "Community-centered Praxis: Toward an Alternative Non-dominative Applied Anthropology.  Human Organization, 53(4): 336-344.

 

Applied anthropologists have long grappled with the problem of determining their appropriate relationship with "target" communities.  Recently Johannsen (1992) has proposed the developement of a post-modern applied anthropology that would neither impose solutions nor even define community problems in need of response, but would instead use its skills to foster indigenous community initiatives and self representations.  This paper stongly supports Johannsens goal of developing what is termed by this author as a nonimperialsit praxis, but questions whether this goal can be achieved by incorporating the framework of postmodernism.  An alternative approach —community-centered praxis— is proposed and illustrated through the case of the Hartford Needle Exchange Project. 

 

Case Study Research

 

Hamel, Jacques.  1993.  Case Study Methods.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book provides a good introduction to understanding, researching, and doing case studies in the social sciences and related fields.  In this brief monograph, the author outlines several differing traditions of case study research from the Chicago School of sociology, to the anthropological case studies of Malinowski, to the French Le Play School tradition.  Hamel shows how each school developed, changed, and has been practiced over time up to the present.

 

Stake, Robert B.  1994.  "Case Studies."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.  pp. 236-247.

 

The name case study is emphasized by this author to draw attention to the question of, what specifically can be learned from the single case?  That is the driving epistemological question of this chapter.  The article emphasizes designing the study to optimize understanding of the case rather than generalizations beyond.  The chapter begins with an overview of intrinsic and instrumental interests in cases.  This is followed by sections which deal with the study of the particular and what we can learn from a particular case.  The final section deals with methodological issues including case selection, sampling, and ethics, followed by a summary. 

 

Yin, Robert K.  1994.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods.  Second Edition.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This best selling book has been carefully revised, updated and expanded.  Materials include a discussion on the debate in evaluation between qualitative and quantitative research, the role of theory in doing good case studies, triangulation as a rationale for multiple sources of evidence, and the inclusion of program logic models as another analytic option.  In addition the text has many updated examples, including ones dealing with international trade and world economy.  The volume addresses designing case study research, conducting case study research, analyzing the evidence, and composing the case study report.

 

Yin, Robert K.  1993.  Applications of Case Study Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

This volume provides students and research investigators with extensive applications of actual case study research, as well as discussions on how case study research can be applied to broad areas of inquiry.  The author demonstrates how to integrate theoretical concerns into exploratory case studies, how to select units of analysis, how to define data collection needs, and how to establish rival hypotheses.  The book also examines the use of case studies as an evaluative tool, and covers distinctions among different qualitative research studies. 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Collaborative Research

 

Curtis, Karen A.  1989.  "Help From Within: Participatory Research in a Low-Income Neighborhood."  Urban Anthropology, 18(2): 203-217.

 

This article examines the role of ethnography as a resource in the process of needs assessment in a multi-ethnic, low-income section of Philadelphia, PA.  The goals of the project were to analyze the relationship between the targeted neighborhood's socioeconomic characteristics and human service environment and to work with neighborhood leaders in developing an action plan based on the research findings.  A number of considerations regarding collaborative research and practice are raised.  In the case discussed in this paper, the producers of knowledge were anthropologists and community  members, while the consumers were funders, planners, and local government.  Collaboration with area agency leaders produced information useful to the community and involved community actors directly in research and planning activities as a tool for social change.

 

Delgado-Gaitan, Concha.  1993.  "Researcher Change and Changing the Researcher."  Harvard Educational Review.  Vol. 63 No. 4, Winter: 389-411. 

 

In this volume the author describes her experience as a researcher in Carpinteria, a predominantly Mexican-American Community in CA.  After collecting data about family literacy practices through traditional ethnographic methods, she began meeting with the parents regularly to share her findings and solicit input.  These meetings became a turning point for the researcher, redirecting the focus of her research from literacy activities to the process of community empowerment.  The situation challenged the researcher to redefine her role and this is the story of how it happened. 

 

Nyden, Phillip and Wim Wiewel.  1992.  "Collaborative Research: Harnessing the Tensions Between Researcher and Practitioner.  In The American Sociologist, Winter: 43-55.

 

The impetus for this article comes out of the authors research work with community organizations and their role in helping to set up the Policy Research Action Group (PRAG), aimed at encouraging stronger links between researchers and community leaders in and around Chicago, IL.  The purpose of the article is to examine their recent Chicago experiences in developing a collaborative research model that more effectively links researchers and community activists together.  The analysis grows from the authors own experience in completing social change-oriented, community-based research, it also reflects observations and comments made by community activists and other academics throughout the four year research and action project.  Article identifies their collaborative research model, discusses the relationship between academic researcher and community practitioner, and analyzes the roles of the academic, the community activist, and the granting agency in research for social change.

 

Reason, Peter.  1994.  "Three Approaches to Participative Inquiry."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

Reason investigates three approaches to research as participation: cooperative inquiry; participatory action research, and action research.  Each approach is taken separately and the underlying assumptions and practice are set out, along with a flavor of the language and perspective of each.  In later sections of the paper the author explores some of the similarities and differences in the approaches while making critical distinctions and comparisons of the three approaches.  Finally an attempt is made to show how the approaches complement each other so that together they stand as the beginnings of a robust collaborative paradigm of research with people.

 

Reason, Peter (ed.).  1988.  Human Inquiry in Action: Developments in New Paradigm Research.  Sage Publication: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This volume is comprised of collected papers on a variety of collaborative research methods.  The articles identify issues, problems, and examples of participatory research.  Carries on  and furthers earlier work (see below).  The authors vision of research is a collaborative process, researching with and for people rather than on people.  Research is not treated as a neutral, value-free process, but as always supporting and questioning something: not just a systematic quest for understanding, but as an action science which involves learning through risk-taking in life.  The book presents an assessment of the state of theoretical and methodological debates in collaborative human research, and provides a summary of projects undertaken using collaborative methodologies.

 

Reason, Peter and John Rowan (eds.).  1981.  Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research.  John Wiley and Sons: London.

 

This book covers the philosophy, methodology, practice, and prospects of new paradigm research.  New paradigm research is based on experience and collaboration, doing research with people rather than on them, and involves working with people so that they may discover some truth about themselves.  Contains materials collected from researchers pursuing similar paths in Europe, North America, Africa, and India, as well as reprints of relevant classics.

 

 

Critical Research

 

 Brodkey, Linda.  1987.  "Writing Critical Ethnographic Narratives"  Anthropology and Education Quarterly.  Vol. 18: 67-76.

 

The author argues from a critical theory standpoint that the goal of ethnography is always the same: to help create the possibility of transforming such institutions as schools—through a process of negative critique.  The article is directed at academics and uses works of Friere, Bowles and Gintis, Apple and Giroux as a basis.  The piece provides discussion of "negative critique." Negative critique is at once a story of cultural hegemony and an argument for social change.  Dominant hegemonic institutions (e.g., schools) must be changed.  Brodkey offers a theory of this change or a theory of critical narrative.  The gist of the article attempts to offer grounding for a position which assumes that third person narratives must revert to perceptual rather than conceptual narrative stances.  Interesting discussion of ethnography rather than participatory research, but wants to move academic ethnography in a participatory direction.

 

Carr, Wilfred and Stephen Kemmis.  1986.  Becoming Critical: Education, Knowledge and Action Research.  Falmer Press: London.

 

Carr and Kemmis offer a strongly-put case for participatory action research.  This form of research is cyclic, is done by the researched, and incorporates critical theory.  The cycle is: plan, act, observe, reflect, plan. . . . start again.  The purpose of the book is to offer a rationale for classroom teachers to do their own research and curriculum theorizing.  The authors believe that teachers have a special role as researchers and that the most plausible way to construe educational research is as a form of critical social science.  The book provides a good overview of the theory and practice of a critical social science based on action research methods for all types of educators.

 

Comstock, Don.  1982.  "A Method for Critical Research." Knowledge and Values in Social and Educational Research.  Edited by Eric Bredo and Walter Feinberg.  Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA.  pp. 370-390.

 

The author develops a critical method of empirical research based on the Frankfurt school.  The central argument in the paper is that the development of critical theories of contemporary social institutions requires a critical research method.  Presents the distinctions between positive social science and critical social science which are relevant to research methods.  Comstock's method for critical research follows seven steps: (1) identification of movements or social groups whose interests are progressive; (2) develop an interpretive understanding of the intersubjective meanings, values and motives held by all groups in the subject milieu; (3) study the historical development of the social conditions and the current social structures that constrain the participants actions and shape their understanding; (4) construct models to determine relations between social conditions, intersubjective interpretations of those conditions and participants actions; (5) elucidate the fundamental contradictions which are developing as a result of current actions based on ideologically frozen understandings; (6) participate in a program of critical education with the subjects; and (7) participate in a theoretically grounded program of action.

 

Kincheloe, Joe L. and Peter L. McLaren.  1994.  "Rethinking Critical Theory and Qualitative Research."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The authors investigate four different emergent schools of critical social inquiry: the neo-Marxist theory of critical theory associated with the Frankfurt School; the genealogical writings of Michel Foucault; the practices of poststructuralist deconstruction associated most closely with Derrida; and postmodernist currents associated with Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard and others.  Critical ethnography is seen to be influenced by all of these research strategies and traditions.  Critical research is found to be best understood in the context of the empowerment of individuals.  Inquiry which aspires to be critical, according to the author's must be connected to an attempt to confront the injustice of a particular society or sphere within the society.  Research can then be seen as a transformative endeavor involving those who are traditionally the researched in the process itself.  Article also provides a case study of workers as critical researchers.  The final section offers directions for further consideration. 

 

Lather, Patti.  1986.  "Research as Praxis."  Harvard Educational Review.  56(3): 257-77.

 

This article explores integrating research with political action.  The author emphasizes critical theory and gives a brief overview and critique of three critical research paradigms: neo-Marxist ethnographies; feminist research; and participatory research.  Lather defines the concept of research as praxis, examines it in the context of social science research, and discusses examples of empirical research designed to advance emancipatory knowledge.  The primary objective of the article is to help researchers involve the researched in a democratized process of inquiry characterized by negotiation, reciprocity, and empowerment-research as praxis.

 

Morrow, Raymond A. and David D. Brown.  1994.  Critical Theory and Methodology: Interpretive Structuralism as a Research Paradigm.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

The authors outline and recount the development of the major tenets of critical theory from the Frankfurt School through to present day practitioners.  Critical theory is exemplified through the work of influential adherents: Jurgen Habermas and Anthony Giddens.  Beginning with a comprehensive and meticulous explication of critical theory and its history, the authors next discuss it within the context of a research program.  The final section of the book is devoted to an examination of empirical methods within a critical theory framework.  This volume provides an excellent overview of critical theory in general and of the necessity of empirical methods driven by a critical or emancipatory underpinnings.

 

 

Ethnography

 

 Brodkey, Linda.  1987.  "Writing Critical Ethnographic Narratives"  Anthropology and Education Quarterly.  Vol. 18: 67-76.

 

This article argues from a critical theory standpoint that the goal of ethnography is always the same: to help create the possibility of transforming such institutions as schools—through a process of negative critique.  Article is directed at academics and uses works of Friere, Bowles and Gintis, Apple and Giroux as a basis.  Provides discussion of "negative critique." Negative critique is at once a story of cultural hegemony and an argument for social change.  Dominant hegemonic institutions (e.g., schools) must be changed.  Brodkey offers a theory of this change or a theory of critical narrative.  The gist of the article attempts to offer grounding for a position which assumes that third person narratives must revert to perceptual rather than conceptual narrative stances.  Interesting discussion of ethnography rather than participatory research, but wants to move academic ethnography in a participatory direction.

 

Comaroff, John and Jean Comaroff.  1992.  Ethnography and the Historical Imagination.  Westview Press: Boulder, CO.

 

This volume argues for the continuing value of a historical anthropology in which ethnography and culture are revitalized.  Provides a detailed analysis of the authors vision of what historical anthropology is.  Ethnography in this volume is seen as a humanist examination into, mass culture and social movements, rapidly changing societies and state formations, nationalism and ethnicity, colonialism and other global processes, through the people who experience the lived reality at the bottom of these social constructs.  To do ethnography in, and ethnographies of, the contemporary world order.  Uses a number of case studies on the processes of social change and colonization in South Africa to delineate the ethnographic method.  Book is divided into three parts.  Essays in section one examine the interconnections between theory, ethnography, and historiography.  Section to deals with dialectical systems of knowing and the creation of imaginative sociologies.  Part three addresses the effects of colonialism  and modernity in the lives of persons in developing nations.

 

Curtis, Karen A.  1989.  "Help From Within: Participatory Research in a Low-Income Neighborhood."  Urban Anthropology, 18(2): 203-217.

 

This article examines the role of ethnography as a resource in the process of needs assessment in a multi-ethnic, low-income section of Philadelphia, PA.  The goals of the project were to analyze the relationship between the targeted neighborhood's socioeconomic characteristics and human service environment and to work with neighborhood leaders in developing an action plan based on the research findings.  A number of considerations regarding collaborative research and practice are raised.  In the case discussed in this paper, the producers of knowledge were anthropologists and community  members, while the consumers were funders, planners, and local government.  Collaboration with area agency leaders produced information useful to the community and involved community actors directly in research and planning activities as a tool for social change.

 

Hansen, Phillip Hansen and Alicja Muszynski.  1990.  "Crisis in Rural Life and Crisis in Thinking: Directions for Critical Research.  Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology.  27(1): 1-22.

 

Using both the resources of social theory and the results of primary empirical research this paper attempts to suggest new directions for critical research into rural life.  It argues that this research  should adopt a more explicitly hermeneutical and phenomenological focus which should put the perceptions, self-understandings and activities of rural people themselves, particularly as they strive to preserve their communities against outside forces, more fully at the center of the analysis.  No longer should it be assumed that researchers and those studied must remain separate if research is to be truly scholarly and scientific.  The paper addresses some of the possible theoretical, empirical, and historical implications of this argument.

 

Harrison, Faye V. (ed.).  1991.  Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation.  American Anthropological Association: Washington, D.C. 

 

This volume of edited works reassesses and transcends the limitations of the radical and critical anthropology which has emerged over the last two decades.  Critiques of the critiques and provocative synthesis provide the ground for mapping paths to an anthropology designed to promote equality- and justice-inducing social transformations.  The perspectives expressed by the authors are those of activist anthropologists committed to and engaged in struggles against racist oppression, gender inequality, class disparities, and international patterns of exploitation and difference largely rooted in capitalist world development.  The works in this volume draw upon four major streams of thought: (1) a neo-Marxist political economy; (2) experiments in interpretive and reflexive ethnographic analysis; (3) a feminism which underscores the impact race and class have upon gender; and (4) traditions of Black and other Third world scholarship which acknowledge the interplay between race and other forms of invidious difference.

 

Harrison, Faye V.  1991.  "Ethnography as Politics."  In  Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation.  Faye V. Harrison (ed.).  American Anthropological Association: Washington, D.C.  pp. 88-109.

 

Harrison discusses her fieldwork experience in the politically charged setting of Kingston, Jamaica during the late 1970's.  The discussion is reflexive and presents an ethnography of ethnographic experience as a heuristic means of uncovering the salient political and ideological processes that conditioned the lived experiences of the studied population as well as those of the fieldworker herself.  By analyzing her research agenda and goals, fieldwork techniques and problems, the local setting, and the larger context of Jamaican underdevelopment and Jamaican-American relations, the account illuminates the manner in which a multiple consciousness based on nationality, race, color, class and gender can be heightened by ethnographic experience and then in turn converted into a useful research instrument.  Through this discussion the author attempts to contribute to the general understanding of the various roles ethnographers can play in decolonizing anthropology and in anti-imperialist struggle.

 

Singer, Merrill.  1994.  "Community-centered Praxis: Toward an Alternative Non-dominative Applied Anthropology.  Human Organization, 53(4): 336-344.

 

Applied anthropologists have long grappled with the problem of determining their appropriate relationship with "target" communities.  Recently Johannsen (1992) has proposed the developement of a post-modern applied anthropology that would neither impose solutions nor even define community problems in need of response, but would instead use its skills to foster indigenous community initiatives and self representations.  This paper stongly supports Johannsens goal of developing what is termed by this author as a nonimperialsit praxis, but questions whether this goal can be achieved by incorporating the framework of postmodernism.  An alternative approach —community-centered praxis— is proposed and illustrated through the case of the Hartford Needle Exchange Project. 

 

Thomas, Jim.  1992.  Doing Critical Ethnography.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

This innovative volume does not oppose conventional ethnography; rather it offers a style of thinking about the direct relationship between knowledge, society and political action.  The author defines the rules and guidelines for a praxis-oriented ethnographic tradition.  This tradition is viewed as both ideologically engaged and scientifically valid.  In this short volume the author outlines the various types of critical ethnography and explains the major theoretical and methodological practices within each.  He argues for a critical ethnography based on good empirical science.

 

Whitehead, Tony Larry and Mary Ellen Conway.  (eds.).  1986.  Self, Sex, and Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL.

 

This book is about the systemic relationship between the experience of doing cross-cultural fieldwork and the fieldworker's sense of gender self.  Each chapter is written by an anthropologist, although the book is not for anthropologists only.  The volume contributes directly to two emerging areas of interest: the inclusion of self in professional reports on fieldwork and the impact of the fieldworker's sex and gender identity on fieldwork processes, and of fieldwork on the fieldworker's view of gender and gender self-identity.  The theme of the book is the influence of self, sex and gender on the fieldworker's adjustment to the field setting, on information gathering, and on data interpretation.  As a consequence the book is organized into three sections: (1) Self, Sex, Gender and Field Adjustment; (2) Sex, Gender, and Information Gathering; and (3) Self, Gender, and Interpretation.  As a way of furthering dialogue, the volume concludes with a chapter which interprets the contributions of the various essays to the five views of female writers cited within.

 

Von Maanen, John.  (ed.).  1995.  Representation in Ethnography.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Recently the function of an ethnographers work as simple cultural description has been challenged by feminists, critical theorists, post-structuralists and others.  The result is that ethnographic texts have been deconstructed for their origins, biases, and literary devices resulting in a period of heightened methodological self consciousness and concern for reflexivity among ethnographers across disciplines.  This book chronicles these debates and their resultant changes in the practice of contemporary ethnography.  The contributors cover such topics as fieldnotes, the role of description, narratives, humor, acknowledgments, the relationship between ethnography and other forms of writing, and alternative means of presenting ethnographic work. 

 

 

Evaluation

 

Craig, Dorothy.  1978.  Hip Pocket Guide to Planning and Evaluation.  University Associates: San Diego, CA.

 

Intended for the lay reader, this is a clear exposition of a change-oriented approach to evaluation.  In workbook format, it is readable and systematic enough to follow in step by step fashion if necessary.  It is a good introduction to evaluation for practitioners.

 

Greene, Jennifer C.  1994.  "Qualitative Program Evaluation: Practice and Promise."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This article provides an overview of the major approaches to program evaluation: post-positivist, pragmatist, interpretivist, and critical.  Also provides background on the history of qualitative evaluation research and justifications for its validation as a legitimate method of evaluation.  The authors identify several critical dimensions of qualitative evaluation practice: case study methods for framing the research; qualitative methods for meaning construction; the presence of self in the research; and to seek through the work to augment practical program understanding.  Finally the continuing challenges facing qualitative evaluation of programs are identified.

 

International Participatory Research Network.  1988.  Report of  International Forum on Participatory Evaluation.  International Participatory Research Network: New Delhi, India.

 

The International Forum on Participatory Evaluation was held in Delhi from March 1-5, 1988.  The report attempts to capture the spirit and intensity of the discussion around issues related to participatory evaluation.  The report is divided in to three sections.  The first part describes the process—the process of coming together, creating a learning environment, and working through issues, agendas and experiences.  The second part identifies some of the key issues debated, discussed and analyzed during the Forum.  They are the issues of theory, practice, steps, methods, methodology, the role of the facilitator, and others.  The final part reproduces the case studies which the participants brought, shared, and discussed during the Forum.

 

Salmen, Lawrence F.  1987.  Listen to the People: Participant-Observer Evaluation of Development Projects.  Oxford University Press: New York

 

This book is an account of the author's experience living among poor inhabitants of World Bank urban development projects in La Paz, Bolivia and Guayaquil, Ecuador.  By viewing slum upgrading and new housing through the eyes of the people who live through it the author explains some of the project's failings and some unexpected benefits.  The book testifies to the effectiveness with which the qualitative research technique -participant observation- can be applied in the context of economic development.  The book describes the application of participant-observer evaluation through multiple case studies.

 

Wadsworth, Yolanda.  1991.  Everyday Evaluation on the Run.  Action Research Issues Association: Melbourne, Australia.

 

This short workbook is a practical account, well written and extremely readable.  Provides an approach to evaluation based on participatory techniques.  Written in much the same style as Do It Yourself Social Research (see below under participatory research).

 

 

Feminist Research

 

Bookman, Ann and Sandra Morgen (eds.).  1988.  Women and the Politics of Empowerment.  Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA.

 

This book is a collection of feminist research projects discussing the intersection between race, gender and class as women participate in collective action.  The researchers develop different forms of participatory models to conduct and carry out the research projects.  The focus of all research strategies is on combining research, education, and action toward progressive social change in the lives of women and men.

 

Cancian, Francesca M.  1992.  "Feminist Science: Methodologies that Challenge Inequality."  Gender and Society.  Vol. 6, No. 4, December: 623-642.

 

The author identifies one of the goals of feminist research as challenging inequality.  Toward that end distinctive methods must be used such as combining social action with research and using participatory approaches to generate research results.  Cancian finds that these approaches strengthen scientific standards of good evidence and open debate.  But, since they also conflict with elitism and careerism in academia they are rarely used.  She argues that to create non-hierarchical social structures within society we must use and foster non-hierarchical methods in doing our research.  The author presents three exemplars of feminist research to illustrate the five features of feminist methodology: (1) addressing gender and inequality; (2) research based on experience; (3) action as a component of the research process; (4) a critique of traditional research methods; and (5) the use of participatory research methods.

 

Fonow, Mary M. and Judith A. Cook.  1991.  Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research.  Indiana University Press: Bloomington

 

This volume is an edited collection of papers on the philosophies and methods of feminist research. Raises key issues for consideration in all forms of research.  The analysis focuses on feminist methodology in the field of sociology by surveying the techniques used in recent research concerning gender-related topics as well as feminist analyses of epistemological assumptions underlying the conduct of inquiry.  The articles provide a critique and reformulation of standard research practice by using innovative methodological approaches including, visual techniques, conversational and textual analysis, and analysis of spontaneous events.

 

Hill Collins, Patricia.  1989.  "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought."  Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14(41): 745-773.

 

This article outlines the contours of a black feminist way of knowing.  The core features include: concrete experience as a criterion of meaning, a capacity for empathy, an ethic of caring, the use of dialogue in assessing knowledge claims, and the ethic of personal accountability.  These features all converge with the values and methods of participatory research.

 

Lewis, Helen, et al.  1986.  Picking Up the Pieces: Women in and out of Work in the Rural South.  Highlander Research and Education Center: New Market, TN. 

 

This book was developed from a 1984 Highlander workshop where 30 women of diverse race, ethnicity, age, and community backgrounds discuss their economic situations as individuals and within Southern communities.  Their focus is to encourage other women to look at their own histories, to understand their own importance, and to work to change the dominant patterns of economic life for themselves and for other women.

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

Smith, Dorothy.  1990.  The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge.  Northeastern University Press. 

 

Setting her analysis in the contexts of  feminist theory, Marxism, the history of sociology, phenomenology, ethnomethodology and analyses of taken-for-granted political practices of individuals and organizations in late twentieth-century politics Smith recommends that research practitioners subvert contemporary practices of domination by rejecting the ideology of the disembodied researcher.  She recommends an inquiry which is interested in  and begins from a particular site in the world.  Her argument is divided into four parts: an abbreviated statement of the theory that women's experience as the basis for an alternative sociology; the need to redefine ideology and knowledge in keeping with Marx's and feminist insight; the privileging of textual reality combined with the revolution in information technology makes traditional social research instruments of control and domination; and, it is the duty of sociologists to reveal the social relations that produce a given fact of the possibility of a fact as objective absolute.  The last half of the book is a series of exemplars for describing, identifying and dissecting conceptual practices of power.

 

Waring, Marilyn.  1984.  Counting for Nothing: What Men Value and What Women Are Worth.  Allen and Unwin.

                                                                                                                                                           

Waring puts human beings and human values into both national and international economics.  Drawing from a political economic base she provides a critique and challenges the assumptions of male-centered economic theory and practice.  Women's work fuels the economies of every country in the world.  Yet no value is placed on this labor in the definitive system of national accounts used worldwide (e.g., Gross National Product).  Using the concepts and thinking from  feminist perspectives she explores the wide-ranging implications of discounting the work of half the world's women. 

 

 

Participatory Research

 

Abreo, Desmond A,  1983.  From Development Worker to Activist: A Case Study in Participatory Training.  DEEDS: Mangalore, Karnataka

 

This book is a case study of training held for the members of a development organization in South India by the Development Education Service.  The method used in the training programs is aimed at being totally participatory.  The trainees evolve the syllabus, and through various exercises, arrive at the insights needed for authentic development work.  The book describes this process as it took place in four weeks spaced out over the course of a year, and through the actual work of the trainees.  The methods described include case studies, group and individual research, reflection on actual development work, role-plays, simulation exercises among others.  Book is aimed at development workers in applied settings.  Most of the sections contain the actual summaries made by the trainees themselves of their discussions.  Additional papers given to the trainees for their reflection and group discussion are included where appropriate.

 

The American Sociologist.  Winter,  1992, Vol. 23  (4) and Spring, 1993, Vol. 24  (1).

 

Two special issues of AS  are devoted to participatory research edited by long-time practitioners, Randy Stoecker and Edna Bonacich.  The numerous articles address all aspects of participatory research, includes discussion of why participatory research, models, case studies, and participatory research techniques providing excellent overviews of each.  Between the two volumes are 9 case studies on wide-ranging, participatory research projects including high school students as researchers, community development in low income neighborhoods, immigrant women and participatory research, community health, and church-based organizing, among others.

 

Convergence.  1981, Vol. 14(3) and 1988, Vol. 21(3)

 

Two special editions of journal deal with the definition of the field of participatory research and focus on the central debates among participatory researchers.  Contains extensive bibliographies and lists the Participatory Research Network.  These two volumes provide an excellent overview of the historical and contemporary issues and strategies of participatory research.

 

Dubell, Folke.  1981.  Research For the People, Research By the People.  The Netherlands Study and Development Center for Adult Education: Amersfoot, Netherlands.

 

A collection of international papers on participatory research including science and the common people, the dynamics of participation in participatory research, the issue of methodology in participatory research, the socio-political implications of participatory research, and the epistemology of participatory research.  The book also includes case studies on a women's movement in India, land ownership in Appalachia, rural training in traditional communities in Peru, the role of culture and development in Tanzania, and a trade union facing automation in Norway.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando and Muhammad Anisur Rahman (eds.).  1991.  Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research.  Apex Press: New York.

 

This volume is a collection of case studies and theoretical essays on the use of participatory research in communities world-wide.  The well chosen articles provide an excellent overview of the different contexts and strategies used in participatory research.  The authors use and describe different participatory research methods, but all share in common an approach to development which actively involves the people in generating their own knowledge, about their own condition, and how it can be changed.

 

Fals-Borda Orlando.  1985.  Knowledge and People's Power: Lessons with Peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico and Columbia.  Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, India

 

This book defines and describes participatory research.  Participatory research is seen as a tool for people's mobilization and developing people's organizations to support their struggles.  Based on participatory action research in a number of Latin American countries, the authors have put together a methodology and variety of techniques for the production and dissemination of knowledge among the rural poor as a mode of empowering them.  They find that participatory research is a mode of defending the interests of the rural poor.  This relatively short book provides basic theoretical foundations, practical techniques and case studies of participatory research in action.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando.  1982.  "Participatory Research and Rural Social Change."  Journal of Rural Cooperation, X(1): 25-39.

 

Popular science (or folk culture) is an emergent type of knowledge production attempting to make the latter politically dynamic as required in social development efforts.  The common people have a scientific apparatus no less valuable than that of other social classes or groups, although its rationality may not be Cartesian.  Participatory research is seen as a attempt to understand and go deep into people's cultures with a view of promoting radical social changes in society.  The author finds that this also requires changes in traditional conceptions of methodology in social science and offers in its place methodology based on a high standard of authenticity and commitment on the part of the researchers, systematic restitution of information to the people, an action reflection rythym, a modest attitude and dialogic techniques designed to break the subject-object relationship.  The impact if mass culture and the roloe of the region and organic intellectuals are also emphasized in the discussion.

 

Forester, John, Jessica Pitt, and John Walsh (eds.).  1993.  Profiles of Participatory Action ResearchersEinaudi Center for International Studies and Department of City and Regional Planning, Cornell University: Ithaca, NY

 

The profiles of Participatory Action Researchers were produced by editing telephone interviews with university based PAR practitioners.  The researchers tell in their own words about the projects they have worked on, their successes and failures as researchers and organizers, and the broader problems and promises of participatory action research.  Provides excellent overview of PAR and its practitioners, and major issues around PAR.  Interesting insight into the PAR methodological technique.  Topical areas include: Organizational Change and Problem Solving; International Development and NGO's; Community Development; Local Planning and Urban Design.  Excellent current source with a number of articles for information on PR for faculty, graduate students, undergraduates and community members. Good source for both those just beginning PAR or for those with a more advanced understanding.

 

Freire, Paulo.  1970.  Pedagogy of the Oppressed.  Seabury Press: New York.

 

This book is based upon the experiences of author in teaching illiterate persons to read and also to articulate and act on their knowledge about social situations.  Learning is seen as a political process, with the goal of "conscientization" or the articulation of a critical consciousness.  The process emphasizes dialogue among participants and reciprocal relationships between teachers and students.

 

Hall, Budd L.,  Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.).  1982.  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly?  Participatory Research in Development.  Society for Participatory Research in Asia and New Delhi: New Delhi.  

 

Six papers on participatory research emphasize the democratic relations between researcher and the community, the necessity for social transformation, and the subordination of academic interests.  These are followed by seven case studies which illustrate the premises discussed in other articles and the difficulties and rewards of participatory research. 

 

International Council for Adult Education.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Introduction.  Society for Participatory Research: Asia and New Delhi.

 

An excellent introduction to both the theory and practice of participatory research.  This short book begins with an overview of the theoretical frameworks, contains brief discussions of major debates, and finally illustrates the theory with schematic overviews of examples of participatory research.

 

Kassam, Yusuf and Kemal Mustafa.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Emerging Alternative Methodology in Social Science Research.  Society for Participatory Research: New Delhi, India.

 

This book is a compilation of all the theoretical papers and case studies presented at the African Regional Workshop on Participatory Research, held in Tanzania in 1979.  The book exemplifies the nature and level of analysis that is taking place on the concept, theory, and practice of participatory research among persons concerned with issues of research, adult education, popular knowledge, and power.  The specific issues examined in this book, enlightened by concrete case studies of participatory research from Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania, include the concepts of development in the social sciences, the politics of research methodology in the context of ideological struggles, epistemology, and the question of power social class, and historical materialism.

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1981.  Research for the People, Research by the People: An Introduction to Participatory Research.  Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-70.

 

The papers included in this volume were all presented at the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, in April 1980.  This meeting was the culmination of a stream of activity which can be identified concretely as having begun in Tanzania in the early 1970's with the work of a group of researchers who began to experiment with research which consciously involved the community in the entire research process.  The volume presents theoretical papers and practical case studies.  The papers address issues such as the role of the researcher, the concept of grassroots, base group or organic intellectuals, the nature of participation itself, the relationship of participatory research to historical materialism, and the importance of the creation of popular knowledge.  

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1984.  Research for the People, Research by the People: Selected papers from the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 1980.   Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-63.

 

This book is intended to present to teachers and students involved in adult education and development work, the theory and the practical implications of participatory research.  The papers in the volume deal with issues such as the role of the researcher, the nature of participation, popular knowledge, and the relationship between historical materialism and participatory research.  The papers represent both theoretical and practical aspects of participatory research and represent nearly all regions of the world through case studies.

 

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This volume describes a grassroots approach to empowering people for democratic change.  It explains participatory research using exemplary case studies on community organizing, feminist theory, and ecological movements from a wide range of locations in North America.  This book provides a solid overview of what participatory research is, the role of knowledge in the process, the development of participatory research professionally, and case studies using participatory research methods.    

 

Rahman, Muhammad Anisur.  1993.  People's Self Development: Perspectives on Participatory Action Research.  Zed Books: London.

 

This monograph presents the eminent author's reflections on development through local initiatives by people themselves, what he terms "self-development," and how to promote such development.  Key issues include: what does the notion of self reliance mean; an approach to participatory research in terms of the self emancipation of the popular classes; the importance of knowledge relations in the domination of people; an examination of the rationality of collectively generated popular knowledge; and an outline of an alternative development paradigm rooted in a perspective that sees fulfillment of the human urge for creative engagement as the primary task in development efforts.

 

Reason, Peter (ed.).  1995.  Participation in Human Inquiry: Research With People.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This volume addresses both the theory and practice of participative inquiry.  It explores a distinctive range of approaches to research— cooperative, collaborative, participatory, and experiential — which all share a concern with research as a collaborative process, or research with and for people, rather than on people.  The first part of the book outlines a theoretical foundation for understanding participation and undertaking participatory research.  It discusses the emergence of a worldview that is more holistic, pluralist, and egalitarian rather than the traditional western scientific perspective.  The second section of the book presents examples of participative research in action with examples ranging from work with women’s groups, students, and health.   

 

Reason, Peter.  1994.  "Three Approaches to Participative Inquiry."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

Reason investigates three approaches to research as participation: cooperative inquiry; participatory action research, and action research.  Each approach is taken separately and the underlying assumptions and practice are set out, along with a flavor of the language and perspective of each.  In later sections of the paper the author explores some of the similarities and differences in the approaches while making critical distinctions and comparisons of the three approaches.  Finally an attempt is made to show how the approaches complement each other so that together they stand as the beginnings of a robust collaborative paradigm of research with people.

 

Tandon, Rajesh.  1993.  "The Historical Roots and Contemporary Urges in Participatory Research."  Participatory Research International (PRIA) Newsletter, December, 1993. 

 

This brief explication which traces participatory research from an alternative paradigm to its present status as a viable method especially as relates to development.  Cites seven contemporary trends influencing participatory research: new politics of science; linkage between ideology and education; feminist perspectives; ecological movement; developments in rural and indigenous peoples relations; new paradigm research; and the growth in applied participatory action research work. 

 

Wadsworth, Yolanda.  1984.  Do It Yourself Social Research.    Victorian Council of Social Service and Melbourne Family Care Association: Melbourne, Australia

 

This workbook on participatory research is an easy to read, step by step account, written primarily for lay researchers.  The approach is based on participatory methods which puts the production of knowledge back into the hands of everyday people.  Addresses issues such as reasons for the research, how to get started, ways of finding information and generating data, analyzing data, and ways of getting the findings across.  Includes several case studies, a translation of common research language, and bibliography.

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Social Geography

 

Dennison, Derek.  1994.  "Defending the Land With Maps" World Watch.  January/ February: 27-31. 

 

In a brief article two case studies are used to demonstrate "participatory cartography" to help indigenous peoples maintain land against colonizers etc.  The collaborators in the project use participatory research methods and collaborative research to redraw and redefine maps so indigenous understanding and geography is taken into account.

 

Paulston, Roland and Martin Liebman.  1993.  "The Promise of a Critical Postmodern Cartography."  Occasional Paper Series, Department of Administrative and Policy Studies, School of Education, University of Pittsburgh.  August 1993.  APS Conceptual Mapping Project, Research Report No. 2.

 

This paper demonstrates how, through the employment of a critical "social cartography" —the creation of maps addressing questions of location and power in the social milieu— social research can move to distance itself from positivistic restraints of modernism.  Proposed that social cartography has the potential to be a useful discourse style for demonstrating the attributes and capacities, as well as the development and perceptions of people and cultures operating within the social milieu.  It offers a new and effective method for visually demonstrating the sensitivity of postmodern influences for opening social dialogue, especially to those who have experienced disenfranchisement by modernism.  Social cartography suggests not a synthesis, but the further opening of dialogue among diverse social players, including those individuals and cultural clusters who want their "mininarratives" included in the social discourse.

 

Smith, David M.  1994.  Geography and Social Justice.  Blackwell: Oxford.

 

The intention of the book is to take the basic problem of distributive justice, along with some related issues of morality, and see what can be make of this in a geographical context.  The concern is with normative thinking: with how we conceive of what is  right or wrong, better or worse, in human affairs lived out in geographical space.  Provides a critical and accessible review of relevant issues in moral philosophy, in particular the contrasting claims of different theories of social justice, and the nature of rights and needs.  These theoretical perspectives are then applied to case studies collected by the author.  Topics cover: racial justice in the American South; inequality under socialism and its aftermath in Eastern Europe, and the prospects for social justice in post-apartheid South Africa among others.  He then draws together the elements of theory and experience to present trenchantly argued conclusions on the justice of a market -led society, the ideals of egalitarianism, and the universality of the principles of justice.

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Ways of Knowing—The Role of Indigenous Knowledge and Culture

 

 

 

Alasuutari, Pertti.  1995.  Researching Culture: Qualitative Methods and Cultural Studies.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This volume explores how cultural studies transcends the traditional divisions between qualitative and quantitative method, and between the social sciences and the humanities.  In this comprehensive text, the author introduces approaches and methodological tools available for undertaking critical and rigorous research.  Three main methods are considered: the qualitative traditions in sociology and anthropology, including ethnography and symbolic interactionism; methods for studying images and languages, including semiotics, narrative analysis, conversational analysis, and discourse analysis; and the relevance of quantitative analysis to the kind of data produced by research on culture.

 

Chambers, Robert.  1983.  Rural Development : Putting the Last First.  Longman Scientific and Technical: Essex, England.

 

Beginning with an uncompromising position on the outrage at the extremes of rural poverty in the Third World, the author challenges preconceptions of the dominant mode of rural development.  The central theme is that rural poverty is often unseen or misperceived by outsiders.  Chambers contends that researchers and fieldworkers rarely appreciate indigenous knowledge in understanding the hidden nature of rural poverty.  He argues for a new professionalism, with fundamental reversals in outsiders' learning, values and behavior, and proposes more realistic participatory action for tackling rural poverty.

 

Epstein, Steven.  1991.  "Democratic Science? AIDS Activism and the Contested Construction of Knowledge."  Socialist Review.  21(2), April-June: 35-64. 

 

In this article Epstein accounts for the specific character of the U.S. AIDS movements' involvement with science.  He shows how this involvement extends beyond the critique of authority or public policy and into the realm of scientific method and even epistemology.  He then uses the example of the U.S. AIDS movement to raise questions about the prospects for a democratization of medical science.  The struggle for democratization may be expressed in demands that scientific elites and institutions be responsive to community concerns, that the public should exercise greater participation in setting research priorities, that popular control should be established over the medical-industrial complex, or even that medical science should be reorganized to facilitate universal access.  But AIDS activism adds a radical spin to the democratization of science.  It maintains that grassroots activists, acting on equal footing with the credentialed experts, can participate in advancing knowledge about AIDS; and that lay spokespersons can attain a level of qualification that permits them to speak authoritatively about scientific theories, facts, and methods.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando and Muhammad Anisur Rahman (eds.).  1991.  Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research.  Apex Press: New York.

 

A collection of case studies and theoretical essays on the use of participatory research in communities world-wide.  Provides an excellent overview of the different contexts and strategies used in participatory research.  The authors use and describe different participatory research methods, but all share in common an approach to development which actively involves the people in generating their own knowledge, about their own condition, and how it can be changed.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando.  1985.  Knowledge and People's Power: Lessons with Peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico, and ColumbiaIndian Social Institute.  Distributed by New Horizons Press: New York, NY.

 

This book defines and describes participatory research.  Participatory research is seen as a tool for people's mobilization and developing people's organizations to support their struggles.  Based on participatory action research in a number of Latin American countries, the authors have put together a methodology and variety of techniques for the production and dissemination of knowledge among the rural poor as a mode of empowering them.  They find that participatory research is a mode of defending the interests of the rural poor.  This relatively short book provides basic theoretical foundations, practical techniques and case studies of participatory research in action.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando.  1982.  "Participatory Research and Rural Social Change."  Journal of Rural Cooperation, X(1): 25-39.

 

Popular science (or folk culture) is an emergent type of knowledge production attempting to make the latter politically dynamic as required in social development efforts.  The common people have a scientific apparatus no less valuable than that of other social classes or groups, although its rationality may not be Cartesian.  Participatory research is seen as a attempt to understand and go deep into people's cultures with a view of promoting radical social changes in society.  The author finds that this also requires changes in traditional conceptions of methodology in social science and offers in its place methodology based on a high standard of authenticity and commitment on the part of the researchers, systematic restitution of information to the people, an action reflection rythym, a modest attitude and dialogic techniques designed to break the subject-object relationship.  The impact if mass culture and the roloe of the region and organic intellectuals are also emphasized in the discussion.

 

Frideres, James S.  1992.  A World of Communities: Participatory Research Perspectives.  Captus University Publications: North York, Ontario, Canada.

 

Emerging from the First International Conference on Participatory Research held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, this book provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the community participation strategies employed to carry out a variety of applied research projects.  Beginning with a critical review of the concept "participatory research," the editor takes the reader to nine different countries where researchers have utilized the process of involving communities in the resolution of their own concerns.  Whether focusing on health care issues, distance education, or community reaction to relocation, the articles demonstrate the advantages of public participation in the research process.  Students, academics, and practicing professional will find this book an essential resource for understanding participatory research.

 

Fuglesang, Andreas.  1985.  "Myth of People's Ignorance."  Development Dialogue.  Vol. 1-2: 42-62. 

 

A central theme in this article is the idea that the conventional economistic approach to development prevailing in the north has had devastating effects by suppressing local knowledge and technology, and by equating physical poverty with mental ignorance all over the Third World.  In arguing this case the author presents a series of examples illustrating that contrary to being ignorant different peoples in Africa have often developed much more subtle solutions to their basic survival problems, based on a detailed and intimate knowledge of their environment, than those brought in by development "experts" from the outside.  Fuglesang maintains that the ethnocentricity of the north, reinforced by material progress and affluence, reveals an aspect of our culture inferior to many other cultures.  Insensitivity to others has led us again and again to make the grossest misrepresentations of the nature and aspirations of the peoples of traditional societies.  This defective trait is found rooted in individualism, which must be redressed and balanced immediately. 

 

Gaventa, John.  1993.  "The Powerful, the Powerless, and the Experts: Knowledge Struggles in an Information Age."  In Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This book chapter addresses questions such as: Who has the right to define knowledge? How does the control of knowledge effect power relations? What is the relation of "popular" knowledge to "official" knowledge? and How do relatively powerless groups empower themselves through research and information?  The first part of the chapter looks at the growth of the "knowledge society," suggesting that the change in the political economy of the U.S. has had a major impact upon power relations.  The second part examines strategies by which relatively powerless groups in our society can mobilize information and knowledge resources, as one piece of their broader strategies for empowerment.  Strategies involved in knowledge struggles can take several forms: reforming the existing system, blind action, faith in experts, or research with people.  The author recommends a participatory research strategy which aims to redress power imbalances through the: reappropriation of knowledge; developing a people's science; and through the popular control of knowledge production.

 

Hall, Budd L.  1992.  "From Margins to Center? The Development and Purpose of Participatory Research."  American Sociologist.  23(4): 15-28. 

 

This article documents the liberatory stream of participatory research as experienced through the activities and connections of one of the key figures in the early development and dissemination of these ideas.  It traces the developments in Tanzania in the early 1970's, through the establishment of the original Participatory Research Network to the elaboration of theoretical and political debates.  It highlights the formulation and elaboration of participatory research as a contribution to social change in a variety of settings.  It includes discussions of the feminist advance, the question of voice and the relationship of power to knowledge in transformative practice.  It contains an extensive and historically valuable bibliography.

 

Hall, Budd L.,  Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.).  1982.  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly?  Participatory Research in Development.  Society for Participatory Research in Asia and New Delhi: New Delhi.  

 

Six papers on participatory research emphasize the democratic relations between researcher and the community, the necessity for social transformation, and the subordination of academic interests.  Each article addresses the role of knowledge production and the power dynamic involved.  Chapter four entitled "Whose Knowledge" is especially insightful.  These writings are followed by seven case studies which illustrate the premises discussed in other articles and the difficulties and rewards of participatory research.   

 

Raskin, Marcus G.  and Herbert J. Bernstein.  1987.  New Ways of Knowing: The Sciences, Society and Reconstructive Knowledge.  Rowan and Littlefield: Totowa, NJ.

 

Although the need to limit and control our runaway technologies is widely recognized, the editors and authors in this volume contend, the current debate on this subject is primarily concerned with technical questions that largely overlook the social and ethical issues at the heart of the knowledge process.  In this volume, noted physicists and social scientists challenge the bedrock of scientific thinking and shift the debate to the need for a radical change of directions that replaces traditional value-free inquiry and research with a knowledge model that incorporates social responsibility, democratic principles, and comprehensive ethical standards.

 

 

Working With Differences—Class, Ethnicity, Gender, and Culture

 

 

 

Fine, Michelle.  1993.  "Working the Hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research.  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1993.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The author finds that much of qualitative research has reproduced, if contradiction filled, a colonizing discourse of the "Other."  She attempts to review how qualitative research projects have Othered and to examine an emergent set of activist and or postmodern texts that interrupt Othering.  First the author investigates how the hyphen of self and other join in the politics of everyday life, that is, the hyphen that both separates and merges personal identities with our inventions of others.  This is followed by a discussion of the role of qualitative researchers actually working this hyphen.  The second section of the paper examines arguments posed by critical, feminist, and Third World researchers about social science as a tool of  domination by addressing questions of methods, ethics, and epistemologies.  The final section provides an overview of projects which represent qualitative research designed to promote democratic social change. 

 

Harrison, Faye V.  1991.  "Ethnography as Politics."  In  Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation.  Faye V. Harrison (ed.).  American Anthropological Association: Washington, D.C.  pp. 88-109.

 

Harrison discusses her fieldwork experience in the politically charged setting of Kingston, Jamaica during the late 1970's.  The discussion is reflexive and presents an ethnography of ethnographic experience as a heuristic means of uncovering the salient political and ideological processes that conditioned the lived experiences of the studied population as well as those of the fieldworker herself.  By analyzing her research agenda and goals, fieldwork techniques and problems, the local setting, and the larger context of Jamaican underdevelopment and Jamaican-American relations, the account illuminates the manner in which a multiple consciousness based on nationality, race, color, class and gender can be heightened by ethnographic experience and then in turn converted into a useful research instrument.  Through this discussion the author attempts to contribute to the general understanding of the various roles ethnographers can play in decolonizing anthropology and in anti-imperialist struggle.

 

Hill Collins, Patricia.  1989.  "The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought."  Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14(41): 745-773.

 

This article outlines the contours of a black feminist way of knowing.  The core features include: concrete experience as a criterion of meaning, a capacity for empathy, an ethic of caring, the use of dialogue in assessing knowledge claims, and the ethic of personal accountability.  These features all converge with the values and methods of participatory research.

 

Kennedy, Marie and Chris Tilly with Mauricio Gaston.  1990.  "Transformative Populism and the Development of a Community of Color" in Dilemmas of Activism: Class Community and the Politics of Local  Mobilization.  Edited by Kling and Posner.  Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA.

 

Researchers use a case study of community development in Roxbury, MA to weigh the merits of two populist approaches to democracy.  One approach is redistributive populism, "which suppresses nonclass differences such as that of race, seeks to unite 'the people' around a least common denominator program based on traditional ideology, and holds redistribution of resources as the central goal."  The second approach, transformative populism differs markedly, "it emphasizes and even celebrates diversity as well as unity, explicitly introduces derived ideology in a process of mutual education of coalition members, and targets as its central goal the transformation of consciousness through empowerment."  The authors argue that "transformative populism is a superior strategy for achieving progressive goals related to community development.  The case is presented in five steps: (1) history and context of current community development struggles; (2) an account of the two populist development strategies; (3) a contrast in the relationship between traditional ideology and derived ideology; (4) description of the strategies used by redistributive and transformative movements to approach the state; (5) conclusions. Offers nice reading list at end of article on participatory development and democracy. 

 

Mio, Jeffery Scott and Gayle Iwamasa.  1993.  "To Do, or Not to Do: That is the Question for White Cross-Cultural Workers."  The Counseling Psychologist, 21(2), April: 197-212.

 

Cross-cultural issues in counseling and therapy have been a major topic of interest drawing people of different ethnic backgrounds together.  However, this has often come about at a cost to minority communities, due to inappropriate or misleading conclusions further stigmatizing members of the communities.  To examine the feelings of ethnic-minority researchers about the impact of white researchers investigating cross-cultural issues, Ponterotto organized a symposium addressing this topic at the 1990 American Psychological Convention.  This article is a summary of what transpired at the symposium.  It concludes with four lessons to be drawn from the whole topic of minority and majority researchers investigating ethnic-minority populations and other cross-cultural issues: recognize others who have done research in your area of interest; use each opportunity presented to you to understand what it means to be an oppressed minority; recognize the motivations of the researcher; do more collaborative research.

 

Von Maanen, John.  (ed.).  1995.  Representation in Ethnography.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Recently the function of an ethnographers work as simple cultural description has been challenged by feminists, critical theorists, post-structuralists and others.  The result is that ethnographic texts have been deconstructed for their origins, biases, and literary devices resulting in a period of heightened methodological self consciousness and concern for reflexivity among ethnographers across disciplines.  This book chronicles these debates and their resultant changes in the practice of contemporary ethnography.  The contributors cover such topics as fieldnotes, the role of description, narratives, humor, acknowledgments, the relationship between ethnography and other forms of writing, and alternative means of presenting ethnographic work. 

 

Whitehead, Tony Larry and Mary Ellen Conway.  1986.  Self, Sex, and Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL.

 

This book is about the systemic relationship between the experience of doing cross-cultural fieldwork and the fieldworker's sense of gender self.  Each chapter is written by an anthropologist, although the book is not for anthropologists only.  The volume contributes directly to two emerging areas of interest: the inclusion of self in professional reports on fieldwork and the impact of the fieldworker's sex and gender identity on fieldwork processes, and of fieldwork on the fieldworker's view of gender and gender self-identity.  The theme of the book is the influence of self, sex and gender on the fieldworker's adjustment to the field setting, on information gathering, and on data interpretation.  As a consequence the book is organized into three sections: (1) Self, Sex, Gender and Field Adjustment; (2) Sex, Gender, and Information Gathering; and (3) Self, Gender, and Interpretation.  As a way of furthering dialogue, the volume concludes with a chapter which interprets the contributions of the various essays to the five views of female writers cited within.

 

 

Role of the Researcher

 

 

 

Cancian, Francesca M.  "Conflicts Between Activist Research and Academic Success: Participatory Research and Alternative Strategies.  The American Sociologist, Spring 1993: 92-106.

 

This article compares participatory research and alternative activist approaches, based on the literature on participatory research and interviews with nine successful sociologists who use alternative approaches.  Participatory research, distinguished by high control over the research by community members, equalizes power within the research process, but often retards academic publication and career advancement.  The interviews show that successful academics retain control over their research, experience mild to severe conflicts with departments, and develop various strategies for combining activism and career success.  All types of activist research are more effective in challenging inequality if they involve activist community organizations. 

 

Delgado-Gaitan, Concha.  1993.  "Researcher Change and Changing the Researcher."  Harvard Educational Review.  Vol. 63 No. 4, Winter: 389-411. 

 

In this article the author describes her experience as a researcher in Carpinteria, a predominantly Mexican-American Community in CA.  After collecting data about family literacy practices through traditional ethnographic methods, she began meeting with the parents regularly to share her findings and solicit input.  These meetings became a turning point for the researcher, redirecting the focus of her research from literacy activities to the process of community empowerment.  The situation challenged the researcher to redefine her role and this is the story of how it happened. 

 

Fine, Michelle.  1993.  "Working the Hyphens: Reinventing Self and Other in Qualitative Research.  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1993.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The author finds that much of qualitative research has reproduced, if contradiction filled, a colonizing discourse of the "Other."  She attempts to review how qualitative research projects have Othered and to examine an emergent set of activist and or postmodern texts that interrupt Othering.  First the author investigates the hyphen of self and other join in the politics of everyday life, that is, the hyphen that both separates and merges personal identities with our inventions of others.  This is followed by an discussion of the role of qualitative researchers actually working this hyphen.  The second section of the paper examines arguments posed by critical, feminist, and Third World researchers have posed about social science as a tool of  domination by addressing questions of methods, ethics, and epistemologies.  The final section provides an overview of projects which represent qualitative research designed to promote democratic social change. 

 

Harrison, Faye V.  1991.  "Ethnography as Politics."  In  Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation.  Faye V. Harrison (ed.).  American Anthropological Association: Washington, D.C.  pp. 88-109.

 

Harrison discusses her fieldwork experience in the politically charged setting of Kingston, Jamaica during the late 1970's.  The discussion is reflexive and presents an ethnography of ethnographic experience as a heuristic means of uncovering the salient political and ideological processes that conditioned the lived experiences of the studied population as well as those of the fieldworker herself.  By analyzing her research agenda and goals, fieldwork techniques and problems, the local setting, and the larger context of Jamaican underdevelopment and Jamaican-American relations, the account illuminates the manner in which a multiple consciousness based on nationality, race, color, class and gender can be heightened by ethnographic experience and then in turn converted into a useful research instrument.  Through this discussion the author attempts to contribute to the general understanding of the various roles ethnographers can play in decolonizing anthropology and in anti-imperialist struggle.

 

Kleinman, Sherryl and Martha A. Copp.  1993.  Emotions and Fieldwork.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The significant costs associated with ignoring feelings are taken up in this short volume as the author's explore links between emotions and analysis.  The book addresses how fieldworkers feelings about their professional identity, their work, and the people they study, inform their analyses.  The conclusion offers an extended example from one of the author's field studies to highlight how a fieldworkers emotions can add power to qualitative analyses.  An appendix demonstrates how to weave emotions into fieldnotes and into the analysis.

 

Nyden, Phillip and Wim Wiewel.  1992.  "Collaborative Research: Harnessing the Tensions Between Researcher and Practitioner.  In The American Sociologist, Winter: 43-55.

 

The impetus for this article comes out of the authors research work with community organizations and their role in helping to set up the Policy Research Action Group (PRAG), aimed at encouraging stronger links between researchers and community leaders in and around Chicago, IL.  The purpose of the article is to examine their recent Chicago experiences in developing a collaborative research model that more effectively links researchers and community activists together.  The analysis grows from the authors own experience in completing social change-oriented, community-based research, it also reflects observations and comments made by community activists and other academics throughout the four year research and action project.  Article identifies their collaborative research model, discusses the relationship between academic researcher and community practitioner, and analyzes the roles of the academic, the community activist, and the granting agency in research for social change.

 

Stoecker, Randy and David Beckwith.  1992.  "Advancing Toledo's Neighborhood Movement Through Participatory Action Research:  Integrating Activist and Academic Approaches."  Clinical Sociology Review, 17: 198-213.

 

This paper first develops the methodology of participatory action research as a research process originating from community-defined needs, involving community members in conducting the research, and leading to community-based action.  Within this research model, the authors discuss the difficulty of integrating the roles of activist and researcher.  Secondly, the paper describes the outcomes of the coordinated efforts of an activist academic and a professional community organizer who have engaged in a series of research projects to increase the organizational effectiveness and urban redevelopment capacity of community-based development organizations in Toledo, OH.  Thirdly, the paper evaluates their research project, discussing how the problem of integrating activist and researcher roles was addressed.

 

Whitehead, Tony Larry and Mary Ellen Conway.  1986.  Self, Sex, and Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL.

 

This book is about the systemic relationship between the experience of doing cross-cultural fieldwork and the fieldworker's sense of gender self.  Each chapter is written by an anthropologist, although the book is not for anthropologists only.  The volume contributes directly to two emerging areas of interest: the inclusion of self in professional reports on fieldwork and the impact of the fieldworker's sex and gender identity on fieldwork processes, and of fieldwork on the fieldworker's view of gender and gender self-identity.  The theme of the book is the influence of self, sex and gender on the fieldworker's adjustment to the field setting, on information gathering, and on data interpretation.  As a consequence the book is organized into three sections: (1) Self, Sex, Gender and Field Adjustment; (2) Sex, Gender, and Information Gathering; and (3) Self, Gender, and Interpretation.  As a way of furthering dialogue, the volume concludes with a chapter which interprets the contributions of the various essays to the five views of female writers cited within.

 

 

 

Ethics and Human Subjects in Social Research

 

 

 

Cassell, Joan.  1980.  "Ethical Principles for Conducting Fieldwork."  The American Anthropologist, 82(19): 28-41.

 

Relationships with those who study and those who are studied vary with the kind of research.  Such variations depend on the relative power and control of the researcher, the direction of the interaction, and the level of possible harms and benefits.  Measured on these continua, fieldwork is at the opposite end of the spectrum from biomedical research.  Yet federal regulations to protect human subjects assume a particular relation between experimenter and subject based on biomedical research models.  Consequently, the ethical system on which these regulations are based , using utilitarian cost/benefit analyses, is found to be ineffective and inappropriate when applied to proposed fieldwork.  Here, investigators have very little power and less control of the setting and context of the research, interaction flows two directions, and calculable harms and benefits are comparably low.  Various models of fieldwork are described, each having differing relationships between investigators and subjects.  It is suggested that the Kantian categorical imperative, with its principle respect for human autonomy, might be useful in judging the ethical adequacy of these varieties of fieldwork.

 

Ceci, Stephen J., Douglas Peters, and Jonathan Plotkin.  1985.  "Human Subjects Review, Personal Values, and the Regulation of Social Science Research."  American Psychologist,  40(9): 994-1002.

 

Human subject committees were asked to provide reviews of hypothetical proposals that were identical in their proposed treatment of human subjects by differed in their sociopolitical sensitivity and in their levels of ethical concerns (presence or absence of deception, debriefing etc.).  The socially sensitive proposals were designed to document discrimination or reverse discrimination according to race or sex in corporate hiring practices, whereas nonsensitive proposals were designed to document discrimination based on height or weight.  All aspects of the proposals were otherwise identical.  Socially sensitive proposals were twice as likely to be rejected by human subjects committees.  Among other findings, content analysis of the narratives that accompanied the decisions revealed that the primary reason for rejection of sensitive proposals was the potential political impact of the proposed findings. 

 

Homan, Roger.  1992.  "The Ethics of Open Methods."  British Journal of Sociology, 43(3): 321-332.

 

Professional codes and guidelines and literature on ethical issues in social research generally find that open methods of research are virtuous whereas cover ones are unethical.  In particular ethical conduct is assured in the acquisition of informed consent.  This paper is concerned with the unethical aspects of open methods.  It is suggested that researchers perceive negotiations with participants as situations of conflict and normally prevail by virtue of superior and practiced skills.  While research subjects are told that participation is voluntary, their defenses —in particular of their privacy — are systematically eroded.  Invasion is inherent in the textbook paradigm of the interview.  Consent becomes a license and the self-esteem of the investigator is measured in terms which run counter to the interests of the subjects.  It is argued that consent is a procedure which protects not the participants of social research but researchers themselves, from whom moral responsibility for adverse consequences immediately passes.  One of the implications of the practices surveyed is that ethical principles for social research should be safeguarded less in prescriptions of acceptable procedures than in the recognition of moral obligations.

 

Morse, Janice M.  (ed.).  1993.  Critical Issues in Qualitative Research Methods.  Sage
Publications:
Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This theoretically rich volume targets some of the major issues inherent in qualitative social science research.  It addresses some of the lesser known or explicated qualitative research methods, such as ethology, and also the essential concepts of rigor and evaluation, dilemmas in data collection and issues of scientific misconduct.  Each chapter in this volume deals with an unresolved issue in the existing literature on qualitative research.  In addition several articles pay special concern to ethical issues and scientific integrity such as: Which set of ethics should a researcher use? Should one divulge their research purposes?  and Are there potential risks to informants?  This stimulating volume of works is appropriate for the lay or advanced researcher.  

 

Seiler, Lauren H. and James M. Murtha.  1980.  "Federal Regulation of Social Research Using "Human Subjects:" A Critical Assessment.  The American Sociologist.  Vol. 15 (August): 146-157.

 

Prior review of social research by Institutional Review Boards (IRB's) is designed to protect human subjects and foster ethical conduct, but such review does not adequately balance the rights of research participants with the value of academic freedom.  The IRB system is, in fact, a licensing technique which holds great potential for abuse and political control of researchers.  The data suggest IRB's do not effectively distinguish between ethical review and censorship.  Other potential consequences of prior review are also discussed. 

 

Warren, Carol A. and Tracy X. Karner.  1990.  "Permissions and the Social Context."  The American Sociologist.  Summer: 116-135.

 

By focusing on formal intensive interview research, this essay explores how the sociohistorical context influences the routine procedures by which sociologists obtain permission to conduct their studies.  The authors examine the permissions process within the specific historical context of the 1950's and contrast it with contemporary issues of informed consent.  The need for a more theoretical and situational understanding of permissions is identified, both in regard to human-subjects regulations and social control.

 

Wax, Murray L. and Joan Cassell.  1981.  "From Regulation to Reflection: Ethics in Social Research.  The American Sociologist, 16, November: 224-229.

 

The various kinds of research can be placed along a spectrum from experimentation to ethnographic fieldwork, in which each is characterized by particular degrees of risk and benefit, as well s potential wrongs, to the subject.  Because previous regulations to protect human subjects were designed to control the abuses characteristic of some biomedical research, they were fitted poorly to regulate those varieties of social research at the opposite end of the spectrum.  The newly issued regulations by DHHS are better tailored to some social research, but sociology is still not prepared to contest arbitrary regulatory constraints, because of the lack of systematic, empirically-based knowledge of the ethical issues generated by its researchers and because some of the leading paradigms leave no room for moral choice.

 

 

Developing a Collaborative Research Project—Research Designs

 

 

 

Abreo, Desmond A,  1983.  From Development Worker to Activist: A Case Study in Participatory Training.  DEEDS: Mangalore, Karnataka

 

This book is a case study of training held for the members of a development organization in South India by the Development Education Service.  The method used in the training programs is aimed at being totally participatory.  The trainees evolve the syllabus, and through various exercises, arrive at the insights needed for authentic development work.  The book describes this process as it took place in four weeks spaced out over the course of a year, and through the actual work of the trainees.  The methods described include case studies, group and individual research, reflection on actual development work, role-plays, simulation exercises among others.  Book is aimed at development workers in applied settings.  Most of the sections contain the actual summaries made by the trainees themselves of their discussions.  Additional papers given to the trainees for their reflection and group discussion are included where appropriate.

 

Burgess, Robert E.  1991.  Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Research Manual.  Routledge: London

 

The focus of this volume is on the strategies, processes, and problems associated with work in the field.  Chapters by distinguished social scientists cover gaining entry, note-taking, interviewing, observing, historical sources, and analyzing and reporting field research.  This sourcebook provides valuable guidance for undergraduate and graduate students, and workers in the social sciences engaged in research in the field.

 

Chambers, Robert.  1981.  "Rapid Rural Appraisal: Rationale and Repertoire."  Public Administration and Development 1: 95-106.

 

Describes rapid rural appraisal techniques based on participatory methods.  Especially useful to agricultural extension workers and field workers in rural environments.

 

Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This compendium provides information on nearly every aspect of qualitative research.  A number of articles on participatory research are cogent accounts of participatory research strategies, techniques, methods, theories, and philosophy.  In general the book moves from the theoretical to the specific, examining various paradigms for doing qualitative research; the strategies developed for studying people in their settings; and a variety of techniques for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting findings.

 

Lofland, John and Lyn H. Lofland.  1994.  Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. 

 

The authors provide a step by step approach to the techniques of gathering, focusing and analyzing qualitative data.  Provides a number of insights into the applications of this type of research and a number of case examples.  The book is divided into four parts: gathering data, focusing data, analyzing data, and guiding consequences.  The first three sections provide ideas, techniques and strategies for qualitative research.  Part four provides a discussion of the ethical implications and consequences to the researcher and the researched in qualitative research methods.  This book is considered by some to be a classic in the field.

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

Marshall, Catherine and Gretchen B. Rossman.  1994.  Designing Qualitative Research. Second Edition.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks: CA.

 

This book offers systematic guidance in the conceptual process and methodological strategies for developing sound, defensible proposals for qualitative research.  It features lucid discussions on the critical traditions within qualitative inquiry, showing how this critique expands the scope of possible research strategies; conceptualization of researchers roles; and the possibilities for more collaborative ways of doing qualitative research.  The book highlights data collection methods, data management and analysis, resource allocation decisions, and the proposal process.

 

Morse, Janice M.  1994.  "Designing Funded Qualitative Research."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book chapter identifies and describes the major design issues in the planning stage of a qualitative project and suggests practical ways for the researcher to overcome the paradoxes inherent in qualitative inquiry.  Author provides a guide to the planning of qualitative proposals and includes suggestions for avoiding the pitfalls inherent in the research process.  The chapter is organized in the same manner on would use when conducting a qualitative research project: reflection and idea building; planning and writing the proposal; entry into the field; data collection ion; withdrawal from the field; and writing the results up. 

 

Morse, Janice M.  1993.  Critical Issues in Qualitative Research Methods.  Sage
Publications:
Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This theoretically rich volume targets some of the major issues inherent in qualitative social science research.  It addresses some of the lesser known or explicated qualitative research methods, such as ethology, and also the essential concepts of rigor and evaluation, dilemmas in data collection and issues of scientific misconduct.  Each chapter in this volume deals with an unresolved issue in the existing literature on qualitative research.  In addition special concern is paid to ethical issues and scientific integrity such as: Which set of ethics should a researcher use? Should one divulge their research purposes?  and Are there potential risks to informants?  This stimulating volume of works is appropriate for the lay or advanced researcher.  

 

Ragin, Charles C.  1994.  Constructing Social Research.  Pine Forge Press: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book provides an interesting perspective on social science research.  The author finds that the difference between quantitative and qualitative researchers is not a numbers versus words distinction.  Rather, it is the simple fact that quantitative researchers typically focus on the links among a small number of attributes across many cases while they construct representations of social life, while qualitative researchers focus on the links among a larger number of attributes across relatively few cases in their representations.  The first part of the book examines the implications of these differences in orientation and then discusses the similarities in the systematic interplay between ideas and evidence in qualitative and quantitative research.  Part two of the book examines these research strategies in depth as well as a third kind of research, the comparative approach.  The comparative approach is envisioned to lie halfway between the two major types. 

 

Shaffir, William B.  and Robert A. Stebbins.  1991.  Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Research.  Sage: Newbury Park, CA.

 

Shaffir and Stebbins offer a collection of papers grouped under four phases: getting in, learning the ropes, maintaining relationships, and leaving and staying in touch.  Special emphasis is on the relationships formed during the research process.  The authors suggest a number of ways to cultivate and maintain relationships before, during and after the research project is completed. 

 

Smith, Carolyn D. and William Kornblum.  1989.  In the Field.  Praeger: New York

 

This volume presents a set of personal accounts by practicing field researchers.  It is about how they do their research and how they feel while they are doing it.  The authors describe how they became accepted by the people they wished to know, how they built and maintained relationships with people, how they worked to maintain their objectivity as researchers, how they sorted through their research findings, and worried about the privacy of friends they had made in the field. 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Research Tools and Techniques—How We Do It . . .

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

General

 

Burgess, Robert E.  1991.  Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Research Manual.  Routledge: London

 

The focus is on the strategies, processes, and problems associated with work in the field.  Chapters by distinguished social scientists cover gaining entry, note-taking, interviewing, observing, historical sources, and analyzing and reporting field research.  This sourcebook provides valuable guidance for undergraduate and graduate students, and workers in the social sciences engaged in research in the field.

 

Chambers, Robert.  1981.  "Rapid Rural Appraisal: Rationale and Repertoire."  Public Administration and Development 1: 95-106.

 

Describes rapid rural appraisal techniques based on participatory methods.  Especially useful to agricultural extension workers and field workers in rural environments.

 

Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This compendium provides information on nearly every aspect of qualitative research.  A number of articles on participatory research are cogent accounts of participatory research strategies, techniques, methods, theories, and philosophy.  In general the book moves from the theoretical to the specific, examining various paradigms for doing qualitative research; the strategies developed for studying people in their settings; and a variety of techniques for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting findings.

 

Fals-Borda Orlando.  1985.  Knowledge and People's Power: Lessons with Peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico and Columbia.  Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, India

 

This book defines and describes participatory research.  Participatory research is seen as a tool for people's mobilization and developing people's organizations to support their struggles.  Based on participatory action research in a number of Latin American countries, the authors have put together a methodology and variety of techniques for the production and dissemination of knowledge among the rural poor as a mode of empowering them.  They find that participatory research is a mode of defending the interests of the rural poor.  This relatively short book provides basic theoretical foundations, practical techniques and case studies of participatory research in action.

 

International Council for Adult Education.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Introduction.  Society for Participatory Research: Asia and New Delhi.

 

This short volume provides an excellent introduction to both the theory and practice of participatory research.  The book begins with an overview of the theoretical frameworks, contains brief discussions of major debates, and illustrates the theory with schematic overviews of examples of participatory research.

 

Jenkins, Richard.  1995.  “Social Skills, Social Research Skills, Sociological Skills: Teaching Reflexivity.”  Teaching Sociology. 23, January: 16-27.

 

Training ins social research methods is a central part of undergraduate and postgraduate education in sociology, social and cultural anthropology, and social psychology.  Yet, the model of research skills which informs this teaching is impoverished in important respects.  Although social and communication skills are managerially and epistemologically important to successful research, they are absent from most research methods courses.  This paper argues for the inclusion of these skills in methods training, and discusses some of the implications for doing so.  The teaching of social and communication skills is suggested as one avenue that deserves further exploration in the pursuit of greater sociological reflexivity. 

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

Marshall, Catherine and Gretchen B. Rossman.  1994.  Designing Qualitative Research. Second Edition.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks: CA.

 

This book offers systematic guidance in the conceptual process and methodological strategies for developing sound, defensible proposals for qualitative research.  It features lucid discussions on the critical traditions within qualitative inquiry, showing how this critique expands the scope of possible research strategies; conceptualization of researchers roles; and the possibilities for more collaborative ways of doing qualitative research.  The book highlights data collection methods, data management and analysis, resource allocation decisions, and the proposal process.

 

Reason, Peter (ed.).  1988.  Human Inquiry in Action: Developments in New Paradigm Research.  Sage Publication: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This volume presents collected papers on a variety of collaborative research methods.  The articles identify issues, problems, and examples of participatory research.  The authors vision of research is a collaborative process, researching with and for people rather than on people.  Research is not treated as a neutral, value-free process, but as always supporting and questioning something: not just a systematic quest for understanding, but as an action science which involves learning through risk-taking in life.  The book presents an assessment of the state of theoretical and methodological debates in collaborative human research, and provides a summary of projects undertaken using collaborative methodologies.

 

Shaffir, William B.  and Robert A. Stebbins.  1991.  Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Research.  Sage: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This volume offers a collection of papers on doing fieldwork grouped under four phases: getting in, learning the ropes, maintaining relationships, and leaving and staying in touch.  Special emphasis is placed by the author on the relationships formed during the research process. 

 

Documentary Sources and Public Records

 

Hill, Michael R.  1993.  Archival Strategies and Techniques.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA

 

This book describes the excitements, joys, frustrations, hard work, and ethical considerations of archival research.  The author provides concrete techniques along with lively anecdotes and a bit of wit in presenting the case for archival research.  The book covers: targets and tool kits; orientation interviews; life in the reading room, strategies for organizing archival data; publication cites and permissions; non-archival sources of data; and special tips for searching for needles in archival haystacks.  Provides a thorough overview of archival data gathering for the social researcher.

 

Hodder, Ivan.  1994.  "The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This chapter is concerned with the interpretation of mute evidence, that is, with written texts and artifacts.  Such evidence, unlike the spoken work, endures physically and thus can be separated across space and time from its author, producer, or user.  The author contends that this material culture poses a serious challenge for interpretive social science approaches that often stress the importance of dialogue with and spoken critical comment form participants.  He then constructs some ideas and procedures so that data and different levels of theory may be drawn from this material culture which is unable to "speak back" in the traditional sense.  The key to the strategy combines thick description of the associations and contexts which allow the material practices to be set within specific historical situations.

 

Murphy, Harry J.  1976.  Where's What: Sources of Information for Federal Investigators.  Warner Books: New York.

 

This is a book by an investigator for investigators.  It is the manual that tells federal investigators how and where to look for information that has been declassified.  It tells where to find the records, printed information that can be researched, the facts compiled by federal, state, and local agencies that can be pursued.  There are examples of official forms so the reader can determine which will supply the data you need.  The book provides a glossary of legal terms to aid in the reading of court proceedings, contains keys to codes used by bureaus to classify information.  Throughout the text the author presents professional investigator's tips on gleaning the most knowledge from every source.  Not a literary work of art, but effective in getting points across.

 

Stewart, David W.  1993.  Secondary Research: Information Sources and Methods.  Second Edition. Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

                                                                                                                                                           

This compendium provides information and resources on a number of sources of secondary data and the methods to research it.  Provides a chapter devoted to the evaluation of secondary sources or information.  Secondary sources which are covered in the text include: government information; census data; syndicated commercial and other non-governmental sources; computer assisted information acquisition; and CD-ROM technology.  The book has been updated to provide the most up-to-date information on computer-based storage and retrieval systems.  The book concludes with chapters on secondary research in practice and using and integrating secondary information in your work.

 

Villarejo, Don.  1980.  Research for Action: A Guidebook to Public Records Investigation for Community Activists.  California Institute for Rural Studies: Davis, CA.

 

This guidebook is intended to help activists who are working for social change.  The material presented in this guidebook is designed to acquaint activists with the techniques used in public records investigation.  Chapter one provides several case studies in which research involving public records played a central role.  The following chapters outline strategies for carrying out research using public records.  Five appendices provide information on the freedom of information act, how to write a freedom of information act request, and a list of further resources.  The book provides copies of forms, documents and other public records information sheets to familiarize the reader with these items.  The experiences represented in this material include general conclusions about how information can be used to promote social change.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1984.  Finding Company Intelligence: A Case Study.  Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1984.  Company Information: A Model Investigation.   Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1985.  How to Find Information About Companies: The Corporate Intelligence Sourcebook.. Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1985.  Business Researchers Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide for Business Professionals.  Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

This group of books is part of the Washington Researchers' Business Research Series.  They each  describes the process of investigating companies from concrete case studies to more general sources and strategies for researching corporations.  Finding Company Intelligence,  is designed to help business researchers sharpen their skills.  It is a case study of a leading player in the competitive, technologically sophisticated business of radio paging and cellular telephones.  The author takes the reader through the complex task of piecing together a company profile and includes a candid account of how he went about his investigation.  Company Information, provides a model investigation of a closely held private company.  It reveals the depth of information that can be uncovered even about privately held companies.  It describes methodology, techniques, and sources for finding facts about a companies structure, marketing and finance.  How to Find Information About Companies,  is a do-it-yourself guide to business research.  The volume identifies sources of corporate facts available through the federal, state, and local governments, and through private sector sources.  It is a guide to literally thousands of company information sources.  The Business Researcher's Handbook,  is a how-to guide to working with information requesters, getting the best research results, and putting together cogent, effective research reports.  As a whole this series of volumes provides a comprehensive guide to researching your local company.

 

 

Focus Groups

 

Krueger, Richard A.  1994.  Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book provides a step-by-step approach to planning and conducting a successful focus group in applied research settings.  The book provides excellent overviews on analyzing focus group results and exploring various collaborative strategies for carrying out focus group research.  It also includes material on questioning strategies, moderator roles, selecting participants, and accounting for cultural diversity within a focus group.  The book is divided into four sections: groups and focus groups; the process of conducting focus groups; issues and concerns; and the future of focus groups. 

 

Moore, Carl M.  1994.  Group Techniques for Idea Building.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book provides information on specific processes which can be used to improve the productivity of small groups.  It provides a task-oriented approach for helping small groups generate, develop, and select among ideas.  The chapters offer an overview on focus groups and group interviews, including nominal group techniques, idea-writing, and interpretive structural modeling.  Concluding chapters offer insights as to when to use the process and what comes after completing the group technique process.  The author also provides step-by-step detailed descriptions of exactly what someone might say and do when using these data gathering processes.

 

Morgan, David L.  1993.  Successful Focus Groups: Advancing the State of the Art.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This is a well-integrated collection of articles which represents the state of the art in focus group applications.  It is written by an experienced and knowledgeable, interdisciplinary group of scholars.  The chapters cover the basic principles of when and how to use focus groups, the applicability of focus group interviews to survey research and other research methods, general issues in the use of focus groups, the specific problems of focus groups with different populations or settings, and an agenda for future development of the method. 

 

Morgan, David L. and Margaret T. Spanish.  1984.  "Focus Groups a New Tool for Qualitative Research."  Qualitative Sociology, 7(3): 253-270.

 

The data collected in focus group sessions typically consist of tape-recorded group discussions among four to ten participants who share their thoughts and experiences on a set of topics selected by the researcher.  This article presents a brief description of the dimensions along which focus groups vary in their format and relate these dimensions to an example from a focus groups conducted by the authors on how people think about the causes and prevention of heart attacks.  The authors compare focus groups to informant interviews and participant observation.  The article concludes with a discussion of the value of focus groups in triangulating data collection from several different methods.

 

Plaut, Thomas, Suzanne Landis and June Trevor.  1990.  "Focus Groups, Participatory Research and Community Change: Experience Gained in the Madison County, NC Community Oriented Primary Care Project."  Paper presented at the American Sociological Association, Portland, OR, October 4-6, 1990.

 

In July 1989, a four year Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) project was initiated by a multiple agency consortium in Madison County, a rural mountain county with limited economic resources in western, Appalachian North Carolina.  COPC focuses on the community as "patient" and involves its residents in a process of discernment of health needs and consequent action.  As part of a "community assessment," which included a review of census and epidemiological data, a research team made up of an epidemiologist, and community organizer, and a sociologist conducted 41 focus group interviews between August and December.  This paper describes the role focus groups played in the community assessment and in the overall development of the project.

 

 

Interviewing

 

Ammar, Nawal H.  and Robert R. Weaver.  1992.  "A Collaborative Approach to Applied Survey Research: The Interview Process."  Sociological Practice Review, 3(1): 32-36.

 

The process of survey research is predominantly social.  In a previous paper the authors have described this process as they took a collaborative approach to generating a sampling frame for a sociodemographic survey.  This paper discusses interviewing, the next phase of the process.  Again a collaborative approach is offered in order to attempt to cultivate increased participation by community members.  It was hoped that participation would enhance levels of trust and improve the response rate and accuracy of the responses for the study as a whole.  The article discusses the social processes that underlie the author's collaborative approach in conducting an applied social research project, creating a data base which would describe the demographic, economic, and social characteristics of individuals, families, and households of a medium-sized New England city.

 

Fontana, Andrea and James H. Frey.  1994.  "Interviewing: The Art of Science."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book chapter briefly outlines the history of interviewing before turning to a discussion of the academic uses of interviewing.  The major types of interviewing —structured, group and unstructured— as well as other ways to conduct interviews are reviewed in turn.  Next the details of the various elements of qualitative research such as accessing the setting, locating informants, etc. are addressed.  Problems of gender as it relates to interviewing presented followed by a discussion of the issues of interpretation and reporting.  The article finishes with a consideration of the ethical issues involved in interviewing.

 

Gorden, Raymond.  1992.  Basic Interviewing Skills.  F. E. Peacock Publishers: Itasca, IL.

 

This book provides a process model and a corresponding set of structured, classroom-tested exercise, designed to improve basic interviewing skills.  The model is called the Skill Learning Cycle.  Twelve basic interviewing skills fit into the three phases of the Skill Learning Cycle:  1) the Planning Phase which includes formulating relevant questions, designing motivating questions, and establishing a communicative atmosphere; 2) the Doing Phase which covers delivering the question, listening to the responses, observing non-verbal behavior, evaluating the response, probing, recording the information; and 3) the Analysis Phase which examines coding the relevant information, testing reliability, and analyzing one's own interview behavior.  The book offers a number of exercises and skill building techniques for field interviewers of all sorts.    

 

Holstein, James A. and Jaber F. Gubrium.  1995.  The Active Interview.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The active interview described by Holstein and Gubrium considers the interviewer and the interviewee as equal partners in constructing meaning around an interview event.  This new dynamic is seen to change everything from the way of conceiving a sample to the ways in which the interview may be conducted and the results analyzed.  In this brief volume the authors outline the differences between the active interview and traditional interviews.  The book gives novice researchers clear guidance on conducting an interview that is the rich product of both parties as active participants in the data gathering process. 

 

Rubin, Irene B. and Herbert J. Rubin.  1995.  Hearing Data: The Art of Qualitative Interviewing.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-data introduction to the theory and practice of qualitative interviewing.  Readers will learn how to design research based on interview data, to stimulate conversation, to absorb what is being said, and to synthesize, analyze, and present and informed description of the data.  The authors are both experienced teachers and researchers in qualitative interviewing with nearly 50 years of post Ph.D.. experience.  They emphasize the importance of cultural, contextual, and personal influences on the sharing and unveiling of meaning.  Throughout the book links are established between qualitative interviewing and theories of how people communicate meaning.  Several chapters devote special emphasis on listening to and hearing data.

 

Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher, and Gideon Sjoberg.  1982.  "Interviewing by Comment: An Adjunct to the Direct Question.  Qualitative Sociology, 6(1): 285-311.

 

Interviewing by direct question has long been the sociologists favored means of collecting data.  This article seeks to expand understanding of the research interview by proposing the comment as a supplementary data gathering technique.  Several methodological and theoretical considerations are discussed that indicate the appropriateness of interviewing by comment for the general purpose of discovery and for eliciting information about certain, behaviors, events and relationships.  Eight types of comments that can be employed for a variety of research purposes are presented and illustrated: puzzlement, humorous, replay, descriptive, outrageous, altercasting, motivational, and evaluative.

 

Whitehead, Tony Larry and Mary Ellen Conway.  1986.  Self, Sex, and Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL.

 

This book is about the systemic relationship between the experience of doing cross-cultural fieldwork and the fieldworker's sense of gender self.  Each chapter is written by an anthropologist, although the book is not for anthropologists only.  The volume contributes directly to two emerging areas of interest: the inclusion of self in professional reports on fieldwork and the impact of the fieldworker's sex and gender identity on fieldwork processes, and of fieldwork on the fieldworker's view of gender and gender self-identity.  The theme of the book is the influence of self, sex and gender on the fieldworker's adjustment to the field setting, on information gathering, and on data interpretation.  As a consequence the book is organized into three sections: (1) Self, Sex, Gender and Field Adjustment; (2) Sex, Gender, and Information Gathering; and (3) Self, Gender, and Interpretation.  As a way of furthering dialogue, the volume concludes with a chapter which interprets the contributions of the various essays to the five views of female writers cited within.

 

 

Oral History

 

Allen, Barbara.  1981.  Toward A Fuller Historical Record.  American Association for State and Local History: Nashville, TN.

 

A number of manuals have been published describing the methods of setting up oral history programs, conducting interviews, and processing the recorded material.  This book is an attempt to fill a void in that it sets forth ways to evaluate and use oral materials once they have been gathered.  It serves as a guidebook for those researchers wishing to tap the rich storehouse of personal memories and community traditions in reconstructing and writing local history.  The book is designed as both a descriptive guide to the oral materials available to local historians and as a manual for evaluating and interpreting those materials.  Topics include: relevance and scope of local history; the differences between oral and written history; tests for validity; evaluation; and some specific suggestions for incorporating oral historical materials into a written manuscript.

 

Berndardt, Deborah.  1980.  Working Womenroots: An Oral History Primer.  Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations: Ann Arbor: MI.

 

This book provides information on the methods and resource materials necessary to do oral histories.  One chapter is devoted how to do oral histories while another addresses equipment, and the care and preservation of tapes.  The remainder of the book is divided into appendices which provide sample documents used while conducting an oral history project on working women.  Bibliographies are provided on further resources for doing oral history and sources which illustrate exemplary use of oral histories.  Also provides information on selected labor libraries, archives and projects, and selected labor history societies for those especially interested in doing oral histories based on working life such as the one outlined in this book.

 

Josselson, Ruthellen and Amia Lieblich.  1995.  Interpreting Experience: The Narrative Study of Lives.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

How does context shape biography?  How do language and relationships affect the development of peoples work lives?  An international group of scholars from diverse disciplines address these and other issues in this volume.  They explore what it means to take narrative seriously and how an empathic stance in narrative research opens out on the dialogic of self.  The contributors also consider questions of how participants make meaning out of their experience in the framework of available interpretive horizons.  In addition, there are sections that use narrative approaches to develop a deeper understanding of loneliness and the "coming out" process in homosexuality.

 

Lindqvist, Sven.  198?.  Dig Where You Stand: How to Research a Job.  Sweden.

 

Rather than write or rewrite the history of working people in Sweden the author decided that a better way might be to provide the resources for workers to document their own work histories and in the process document the business history of his native Sweden.  This book is a hand book which helps persons to write factory histories in their own neighborhoods and their own places of work based on oral history and other data collection methods.  Using the cement industry in Sweden as an example it describes a concrete and practical way how to use thirty different sources of information about the history of one's own job.  The book has since spawned a nation wide movement across Sweden involving thousands or persons, hundreds of trade unions, and numerous communities all documenting a people's history of business in Sweden.

 

Yow, Valerie Raleigh.  1994.  Recording Oral History: A Practical Guide for Social Scientists.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The author places oral history in context as a method of history and historical analysis and as qualitative social science.  This easy to read, well-written book shows novice oral historians how to select narrators, phrase questions, build rapport, use the proper equipment, deal with troublesome situations while interviewing, analyzing the collected data, and how to write up the project.  The volume takes the reader in linear fashion through the entire oral history research process. 

 

 

Power Structure Research

 

Community Research and Publications Group.  1972.  People Before Property: A Real Estate Primer and Research Guide.  The Midwest Academy: Chicago, IL.

 

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the basics of real estate.  The book is divided into three parts, plus several appendices.  The first part provides a general background on real estate ownership, profits and financing.  The second part describes the major information sources that are used in doing real estate research.  Most of this section is devoted to the principal types of public records that are found at city or town halls, county registries of deeds, and the State House in Boston.  The third part outlines step-by-step procedures for getting different types of real estate information.  This section explains how to find out who owns a piece of property of what property an individual owns.  The appendices provide amortization tables, income and expense analysis sheets, addresses of major sources of real estate information, sample deeds and mortgages, and getting access to information.

 

Community Research and Publications Group.  1974.  Open the Books: How to Research a Corporation.  The Midwest Academy: Chicago, IL.

 

This book is for people who want to research a local corporation: specifically, it tells you how to research a multinational corporation's overseas investments; how to determine who owns and controls a corporation; how to research a large corporation's local subsidiary; how to research a real estate company; how to research a small, non-real estate company; and a section on how to read a companies financial statements.  Besides outlining research steps and sources, the book also explains some of the rudiments of the corporate economy: for example, the difference between a commercial bank and an investment bank; how the stock market works; what is the relationship between banks and corporations.  In most cases the background information and research steps are illustrated with case histories of specific companies.  The case histories (Boston Edison, Boston Gas, Bethlehem Steel, First Realty Corporation, and Yellow Cab) show how specific issues were researched step by step. 

 

Domhoff, William G.  (ed.).  1975.  "Power Structure Research I"  The Insurgent Sociologist, 5(3). 

 

Domhoff, William G.  (ed.).  1979/80.  "Power Structure Research II."  The Insurgent Sociologist, Special Double Issue.  4(2-3).

 

Burris, Val.  (ed.).  1989.  "Analyzing Power Structures."  Critical Sociology, Special Double Issue, 16(2-3).  (formerly the Insurgent Sociologist)

 

These three volumes trace the roots of power structure research from its inception to the late 1980's.  Each volume addresses a number of topics using a variety of strategies to generate data.  Methodological strategies include participant observation, interviews, document analysis, and interpretation.  Topics addressed in the articles which business leaders help govern? the interlocking of corporations, non-profits and government, and Star Wars, among others.  Domhoff and Burris provide excellent overviews of the field in their introductions to each volume.  Domhoff is the founder of what is today known as power structure research and he provides an excellent theoretical and methodological overview of power structure research in the article titled, " New Directions in Power Structure Research (1975).  The first two volumes concentrate more on primary data and inductive theory, while the later volume seems based on secondary data and deductive theories although the research in all three volumes is exemplary power structure research.

 

Hertz, Rosanna and Jonathan B. Imber. (eds.).  1995.  Studying Elites Using Qualitative Methods.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

The contributors to this volume provide valuable insights into how researchers can successfully penetrate elite settings.  This book's coverage includes three broad research domains: business elites, professional elites, and community and political elites.  The studies all focus on different types of qualitative research methods which have led to successful studies of elites.  The chapters cover issues such as how researchers can gather data on elites, construct interview strategies, and write about their subjects.  Many of the articles also address the author's personal experience during the research process.

 

Murphy, Harry J.  1976.  Where's What: Sources of Information for Federal Investigators.  Warner Books: New York.

 

This is a book by an investigator for investigators.  It is the manual that tells federal investigators how and where to look for information that has been declassified.  It tells where to find the records, printed information that can be researched, the facts compiled by federal, state, and local agencies that can be pursued.  There are examples of official forms so the reader can determine which will supply the data you need.  The book provides a glossary of legal terms to aid in the reading of court proceedings, contains keys to codes used by bureaus to classify information.  Throughout the text the author presents professional investigator's tips on gleaning the most knowledge from every source.  Not a literary work of art, but effective in getting points across.

 

Villarejo, Don.  1980.  Research for Action: A Guidebook to Public Records Investigation for Community Activists.  California Institute for Rural Studies: Davis, CA.

 

This guidebook is intended to help activists who are working for social change.  The material presented in this guidebook is designed to acquaint activists with the techniques used in public records investigation.  Chapter one provides several case studies in which research involving public records played a central role.  The following chapters outline strategies for carrying out research using public records.  Five appendices provide information on the freedom of information act, how to write a freedom of information act request, and a list of further resources.  The book provides copies of forms, documents and other public records information sheets to familiarize the reader with these items.  The experiences represented in this material include general conclusions about how information can be used to promote social change.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1984.  Finding Company Intelligence: A Case Study.  Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1984.  Company Information: A Model Investigation.   Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1985.  How to Find Information About Companies: The Corporate Intelligence Sourcebook.. Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

Washington Researchers Publishing.  1985.  Business Researchers Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide for Business Professionals.  Washington Researchers Publishing: Washington, DC.

 

This group of books is part of the Washington Researchers' Business Research Series.  They each  describes the process of investigating companies from concrete case studies to more general sources and strategies for researching corporations.  Finding Company Intelligence,  is designed to help business researchers sharpen their skills.  It is a case study of a leading player in the competitive, technologically sophisticated business of radio paging and cellular telephones.  The author takes the reader through the complex task of piecing together a company profile and includes a candid account of how he went about his investigation.  Company Information, provides a model investigation of a closely held private company.  It reveals the depth of information that can be uncovered even about privately held companies.  It describes methodology, techniques, and sources for finding facts about a companies structure, marketing and finance.  How to Find Information About Companies,  is a do-it-yourself guide to business research.  The volume identifies sources of corporate facts available through the federal, state, and local governments, and through private sector sources.  It is a guide to literally thousands of company information sources.  The Business Researcher's Handbook,  is a how-to guide to working with information requesters, getting the best research results, and putting together cogent, effective research reports.  As a whole this series of volumes provides a comprehensive guide to researching your local company.

 

Surveys

 

Ammar, Nawal H.  and Robert R. Weaver.  1992.  "A Collaborative Approach to Applied Survey Research: The Interview Process."  Sociological Practice Review, 3(1): 32-36.

 

The process of survey research is predominantly social.  In a previous paper the authors have described this process as they took a collaborative approach to generating a sampling frame for a sociodemographic survey.  This paper discusses interviewing, the next phase of the process.  Again a collaborative approach is offered in order to attempt to cultivate increased participation by community members.  It was hoped that participation would enhance levels of trust and improve the response rate and accuracy of the responses for the study as a whole.  The article discusses the social processes that underlie the author's collaborative approach in conducting an applied social research project, creating a data base which would describe the demographic, economic, and social characteristics of individuals, families, and households of a medium-sized New England city.

                                                                                                                                                           

Carr-Hill, Roy A.  1984.  "Radicalizing Survey Methodology."  Quality and Quantity  Vol. 18: 275-292.

 

The researchers and members of a working-class coal community in England, collectively surveyed the attitudes of adults toward their formal education.  The survey results provided directions for the development of local school curriculum, and were themselves used as an instrument of education and consciousness raising among community members.  Provides a good example of how quantitative methodology need not be oppressive.

 

Merrifield, Juliet.  1979.  "Putting Scientists in Their Place: Participatory Research in Environmental and Occupational Health."  Highlander Center Working Paper.  (Available from Highlander Research and Education Center, 1959 Highlander Way, New Market, TN, 37820.)

 

An example of community participatory research organized around the issue of toxic waste.  Participatory research is seen as a way of systematizing the people's knowledge.  In this case statistical data was gathered to document the increase in birth defects and environmentally related diseases in the Southeast.  Reviews some of the issues of control over the production and use of scientific knowledge.

 

 

Visual

 

Cary, Mark S.  1982.  "Data Collection: Film and Videotape."  Sociological Methods and Research, 11(2): 167-174.

 

This dated review compares videotape and film systems to help the researcher choose the one most suited to the specific research problem.  The review treats resolution, versatility, ease of operation and costs.  Although technology has advanced, this review provides insights into some of the key questions a researchers should as herself before videotaping in the field.

 

Dowdall, George W. and Janet Golden.  1989.  "Photographs as Data: An Analysis of Images from a Mental Hospital."  Qualitative Sociology, 12(2): 183-214.

 

This paper presents a case study in the use of photographs as data for historical sociological analysis.  Based on a larger study of the first century of the social development of a large state mental hospital, the paper describes how a sample of 343 photographs were generated from the 800 images the authors collected.  The authors develop a layered analysis in which they examine the images in continuously greater depth and discuss the connections between each consecutive stratum of explanation.  At the first level, appraisal, a comparison of the images with the written historical record is done.  The next level, inquiry, concentrates on the themes in the collection as a whole.  Finally the concept of "thick description" guides the third level, interpretation, in which individual images are examined in depth.  The authors present a series of images that correspond to each of these layers of analysis.  The concluding section evaluates the costs and benefits of photographic evidence for the historical sociology of organizational change.

 

Erickson, Frederick.  1982.  "Audiovisual Records as a Primary Data Source."  Sociological Methods and Research, 11(2): 213-232. 

 

The author believes that full understanding of the reflexivity of social action necessitates the specification of modes of interactional coordination through investigation of (1) directly observable content of action, and (2) interpretations of meaningfulness held by the actors.  This article outlines procedures for analyzing sound-image records of interaction—identifying hierarchical organization, constituent subevents and more or less typical behaviors.  The approach advocated is one of moving from whole events to increasingly small constituent units.  The method of microethnography is contrasted with more traditional participant observation.

 

Harper, Douglas.  1994.  "On the Authority of the Image: Visual Methods at the Crossroads."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Visual sociology is primarily a subfield of qualitative sociology—the recording, analysis and communication of social life through photographs, film, and video.  At the present time, ethnography and documentary photography are being questioned and fundamentally recast theoretically and methodologically by the postmodern turn.  The author finds that this change in position creates an opportunity to hold on to what is valuable in the traditional approach to visual sociology while embracing and adopting appropriate elements from the new paradigm and its practitioners.  This article traces the origins and development of visual sociology, discusses the current debates among the postmodern critics, and suggests and integrated approach for the future.

 

Hraba, Joseph, Edward Powers, William Woodman, and Martin Miller.  1990.  "Social Change Through Photographs and Music: A Qualitative Method for Teaching."  Qualitative Sociology,  3(2): 123-135. 

 

This paper examines the use of qualitative methodology in the sociology classroom by demonstrating the use of photographs and music in teaching the human element of social change.  The authors maintain that students are traditionally only taught one side of social change; the objective view with facts and figures.  By adding the other side of social change, the subjective view, the students are better able to appreciate the significance of the larger social change process.  By using the modernization of American society as an example, the authors proceed to identify specific pictures and music which they feel most accurately depict this view of social change.  A detailed description of their selection process is also presented.

 

Schwartz, Donna.  1989.  "Visual Ethnography: Using Photography in Qualitative Research."  Qualitative Sociology, 12(2): 119-154.

 

This article proposes a new way to use photographs in ethnographic research.  The method builds on earlier examination of the unique properties of photographic articulation, interpretation, and use, employing the inherent ambiguities of photographic imagery.  Responses to ethnographic photographs of a rural farm community were recorded during the group interview sessions and analyzed in relation to additional ethnographic data gathered in order to study sociocultural continuity and change across generations in farm families.

 

Walker, Andrew L. and Rosalind Kimball Moulton.  1989.  "Photo Albums: Images of Time and Reflections of Self."  Qualitative Sociology, 12(2): 155-182. 

 

The authors examined more than forty photo albums created by amateur photographers in order to investigate the psychological and social functions of photo albums and their value to scholars as documentations of social life.  Albums are intensely personal; they create a relationship between the presenter and viewer; the audience is small; the possessor play an active role in the album's presentation; and there is an accompanying verbal narrative.  The narrative is seen as crucial to the understanding of the album.  This paper explores the structure of these narratives and their role in creating the meaning of the album.  In the absence of a presenter/possessor, a narrative can be constructed by determining the type of album being examined and establishing the personal relationships and themes within the album.  The authors suggest devices and procedures for reconstruction of such a narrative in the absence of a presenter.

 

                                                                                                                                                           

 

Using What You Find

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Data Analysis

 

Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This compendium provides information on nearly every aspect of qualitative research.  A number of articles on participatory research are cogent accounts of participatory research strategies, techniques, methods, theories, and philosophy.  In general the book moves from the theoretical to the specific, examining various paradigms for doing qualitative research; the strategies developed for studying people in their settings; and a variety of techniques for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting findings.

 

Denzin, Norman K.  1994.  "The Art and Politics of Interpretation."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

Social scientists as interpreters are storytellers who tell narrative tales with beginnings, middles, ends.  These tales always embody implicit and explicit theories of causality, where narrative or textual causality is presumed to map the actual goings-on in the real world.  How this complex art of interpretation and storytelling is practiced is the topic of this chapter.  Several methods, or traditions, of interpretation in the social sciences are investigated with special attention paid to those that have been employed most recently including: constructivist, grounded theory, feminist, Marxist, cultural studies, and post-structural perspectives.  Problems generic to these perspectives are discussed and Denzin provides some insight into his own chosen perspective, interpretive interactionism.

 

Feldman, Martha S.  1994.  Strategies for Interpreting Qualitative Data: Four Techniques.  Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA.

 

Analyzing and interpreting the mounds of notes you have accumulated from the field is a daunting task.  Sometimes it is not even clear which analytic strategy will best answer the questions that drew you into the field to do the investigation in the first place.  This brief volume outlines four key interpreting strategies for dealing with qualitative data: ethnomethodology, semiotics, dramaturgy, and deconstruction.  The author examines the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and shows when to use them.  In addition, each technique is applied to a single data set to illustrate potential differences in results.

 

International Council for Adult Education.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Introduction.  Society for Participatory Research: Asia and New Delhi.

 

This short volume provides an excellent introduction to both the theory and practice of participatory research.  The book begins with an overview of the theoretical frameworks, contains brief discussions of major debates, and finally illustrates the theory with schematic overviews of examples of participatory research.

 

Kelle, Udo.  1995.  Computer-Aided Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This volume explores ways to improve the reliability and validity of social research.  The book addresses the central issues in using computers to support the process of qualitative research.  International experts provide a guide to the complex and constantly changing area of research practice.  The author discusses the impact of computer-assisted analysis, outlines some strategies that capitalize on the computer’s capacity to analyze large amounts of data in a short time, and offers new ways of integrating qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. 

 

Lofland, John and Lyn H. Lofland.  1994.  Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. 

 

The authors provide a step by step approach to the techniques of gathering, focusing and analyzing qualitative data.  Provides a number of insights into the applications of this type of research and a number of case examples.  The book is divided into four parts: gathering data, focusing data, analyzing data, and guiding consequences.  The first three sections provide ideas, techniques and strategies for qualitative research.  Part four provides a discussion of the ethical implications and consequences to the researcher and the researched in qualitative research methods.  This book is considered by some to be a classic in the field.

 

Maier, Mark H.  1991.  The Data Game: Controversies in Social Science Statistics.  M.E. Sharpe, Inc.: New York.

 

The subject areas in this book include demography, housing, health, education, crime, the national economy, wealth and poverty, labor, business, and government.  Cases such as these are included to bring social statistics to the real world, demonstrating the critical role that data play in a wide variety of social issues.  Several common questions which occur across the disciplinary spectrum are addressed: How do the popular media misinterpret social statistics/ Why are some social statistics continually cited, even though they are widely known to be misleading? Why are some data collected in abundance, while much critically needed data are missing?  Why are the categories into which data are organized so critical for statistical analysis?  In addition, fundamental statistical techniques are reviewed, including the difference between surveys and complete counts, index numbers, the use of means and medians, and the use of absolute and relative measures.  The issues are probed further in case study questions at the end of each chapter, and are summarized in the final chapter. 

 

Miles, Matthew B. and A. Michael Huberman.  1994.  Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook.  Second Edition.  Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA.

 

In this updated edition the authors bring the art of qualitative data analysis up to date, adding hundreds of new techniques , ideas, and references.  Each method of data display and analysis is illustrated in detail, with practical suggestions for adaptation and use.  The growth of computer use in qualitative analysis is reflected throughout this volume, which also includes an extensive appendix on criteria useful for choosing among the currently available analysis packages.  The book offers practical advice on how to code text and how to compare cases systematically.

 

Weitzman, Eben A. and Matthew B. Miles.  1995.  Computer Programs for Qualitative Data Analysis: A Software Sourcebook.  Sage Publications: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This book takes a critical and practical look at the wide range of qualitative data analysis software currently available on the market.  It gives detailed reviews of 24 programs in five major categories (text retrievers, text-base managers, code and retrieve programs, code-based theory builders, and conceptual network builders), and it gives the ratings of over 75 features per program.  The authors also provide detailed guidance in the operation of each program.  This book is an excellent resource for anyone thinking of purchasing or deciding which computer-based, qualitative, data analysis program to use. 

 

Whitehead, Tony Larry and Mary Ellen Conway.  1986.  Self, Sex, and Gender in Cross-Cultural Fieldwork.  University of Illinois Press: Urbana, IL.

 

This book is about the systemic relationship between the experience of doing cross-cultural fieldwork and the fieldworker's sense of gender self.  Each chapter is written by an anthropologist, although the book is not for anthropologists only.  The volume contributes directly to two emerging areas of interest: the inclusion of self in professional reports on fieldwork and the impact of the fieldworker's sex and gender identity on fieldwork processes, and of fieldwork on the fieldworker's view of gender and gender self-identity.  The theme of the book is the influence of self, sex and gender on the fieldworker's adjustment to the field setting, on information gathering, and on data interpretation.  As a consequence the book is organized into three sections: (1) Self, Sex, Gender and Field Adjustment; (2) Sex, Gender, and Information Gathering; and (3) Self, Gender, and Interpretation.  As a way of furthering dialogue, the volume concludes with a chapter which interprets the contributions of the various essays to the five views of female writers cited within.

 

Wolcott, Harry F.  1994.  Transforming Qualitative Data: Description, Analysis and Interpretation.  Sage Press: Newbury Park, CA.

 

This is more than a how to book.  Wolcott conceptualizes, contextualizes and qualifies qualitative research in a way that only a humane, mature, and reflective practitioner could.  Addressing an area at least as perplexing as fieldwork itself, Transforming Qualitative Data, Wolcott examines description, analysis, and interpretation as the major alternatives among which qualitative researchers choose based on the purpose of their research.  To illustrate the ramifications of each style of analysis the author critically examines 9 selections from his own previous work.  The final section of the book is devoted to teaching and learning qualitative inquiry making this a good choice for those attempting to teach qualitative data analysis techniques to others. 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

Putting the Message Out

 

 Brodkey, Linda.  1987.  "Writing Critical Ethnographic Narratives"  Anthropology and Education Quarterly.  Vol. 18: 67-76.

 

Brodkey argues from a critical theory standpoint that the goal of ethnography is always the same: to help create the possibility of transforming such institutions as schools—through a process of negative critique.  The article is directed at academics and uses works of Friere, Bowles and Gintis, Apple and Giroux as a basis.  She provides discussion of "negative critique." Negative critique is at once a story of cultural hegemony and an argument for social change.  Dominant hegemonic institutions (e.g., schools) must be changed and Brodkey offers a theory of this change or a theory of critical narrative.  The gist of the article attempts to offer grounding for a position which assumes that third person narratives must revert to perceptual rather than conceptual narrative stances.  Interesting discussion of ethnography rather than participatory research, but wants to move academic ethnography in a participatory direction.

 

Lynd, Mark.  1992.  "Creating Knowledge Through Theater: A Case Study with Developmentally Disabled Adults."  American Sociologist,  23(4): 100-115.

 

In this case study, the author describes a participatory research project in which he assisted a group of developmentally disabled adults with the creation of two musical theater productions and an interview project.  The article begins with a discussion of the ideas of Paulo Freire and the feminist consciousness-raising movement.  The two theater productions are then described and analyzed using Habermas's notions of instrumental, relational, and critical knowledge as a way of understanding what kinds of knowledge are produced.  The analysis shows how three kinds of educational activities were taking place: outsiders educating insiders, us educating each other, and us educating others.  The analysis also shows how outsiders educating insiders did not occur in the relational and critical categories, suggesting that if relational and critical knowledge are sought, the researcher cannot remain an outsider, but must become co-learner and co-researcher with group members.

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This volume describes a grassroots approach to empowering people for democratic change.  It explains participatory research using exemplary case studies on community organizing, feminist theory, and ecological movements from a wide range of locations in North America.  This book provides a solid overview of what participatory research is, the role of knowledge in the process, the development of participatory research professionally, and case studies using participatory research methods.    

 

Richardson, Laurel.  1994.  "Writing: A Method of Inquiry."  In Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln.  1994.  Handbook of Qualitative Research.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This chapter is set up into two equally important, but differently formatted, sections.  The first section is an essay, "Writing in Contexts" in which the author takes the position of reader/writer of qualitative research.  Then she discusses the historical roots of social scientific writing, including its dependence upon metaphor and prescribed formats, and the postmodernist possibilities for qualitative writing.  In the second section, "Writing Practices" the author offers a compendium of writing suggestions and exercises organized around the topics in the text. 

 

Watters, Ann and Marjorie Ford.  1995.  Writing for Change: A Community Reader.  McGraw-Hill, Inc.: New York

 

This text is a thematically organized composition reader based on the principle of enabling students to move from private reflection to public statement and to an active role in changing their community on issues of public concern.  Sixty issue-oriented readings concerning family, community, work, education, health and the environment are designed to help students to think critically about the issues they face as members of their community and the nation.  A selection of essays, a student essay, a poem, a work of fiction, and a sample of community service research are provided in every chapter.  A diverse selection of writing activities and assignments, which encourage reflective writing and critical thinking, and which focus on collaboration and writing as a process are provided.

 

 

Case Studies

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

International

 

Dubell, Folke.  1981.  Research For the People, Research By the People.  The Netherlands Study and Development Center for Adult Education: Amersfoot, Netherlands.

 

This volume is a collection of international papers on participatory research including science and the common people, the dynamics of participation in participatory research, the issue of methodology in participatory research, the socio-political implications of participatory research, and the epistemology of participatory research.  The book also includes case studies on a women's movement in India, land ownership in Appalachia, rural training in traditional communities in Peru, the role of culture and development in Tanzania, and a trade union facing automation in Norway.

 

Fals-Borda, Orlando and Muhammad Anisur Rahman (eds.).  1991.  Action and Knowledge: Breaking the Monopoly with Participatory Action Research.  Apex Press: New York.

 

This book offers a collection of case studies and theoretical essays on the use of participatory research in communities world-wide.  Provides an excellent overview of the different contexts and strategies used in participatory research.  The authors use and describe different participatory research methods, but all share in common an approach to development which actively involves the people in generating their own knowledge, about their own condition, and how it can be changed.

 

Fals-Borda Orlando.  1985.  Knowledge and People's Power: Lessons with Peasants in Nicaragua, Mexico and Columbia.  Indian Social Institute: New Delhi, India

 

This book defines and describes participatory research.  Participatory research is seen as a tool for people's mobilization and developing people's organizations to support their struggles.  Based on participatory action research in a number of Latin American countries, the authors have put together a methodology and variety of techniques for the production and dissemination of knowledge among the rural poor as a mode of empowering them.  They find that participatory research is a mode of defending the interests of the rural poor.  This relatively short book provides basic theoretical foundations, practical techniques and case studies of participatory research in action.

 

Frideres, James S.  1992.  A World of Communities: Participatory Research Perspectives.  Captus University Publications: North York, Ontario, Canada.

 

Emerging from the First International Conference on Participatory Research held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, this book provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the community participation strategies employed to carry out a variety of applied research projects.  Beginning with a critical review of the concept "participatory research," the editor takes the reader to nine different countries where researchers have utilized the process of involving communities in the resolution of their own concerns.  Whether focusing on health care issues, distance education, or community reaction to relocation, the articles demonstrate the advantages of public participation in the research process.  Students, academics, and practicing professional will find this book an essential resource for understanding participatory research.

 

Hall, Budd L.,  Arthur Gillette, and Rajesh Tandon (eds.).  1982.  Creating Knowledge: A Monopoly?  Participatory Research in Development.  Society for Participatory Research in Asia and New Delhi: New Delhi.  

 

Six papers on participatory research emphasize the democratic relations between researcher and the community, the necessity for social transformation, and the subordination of academic interests.  These are followed by seven case studies which illustrate the premises discussed in other articles and the difficulties and rewards of participatory research. 

 

International Participatory Research Network.  1988.  Report of  International Forum on Participatory Evaluation.  International Participatory Research Network: New Delhi, India.

 

The International Forum on Participatory Evaluation was held in Delhi from March 1-5, 1988.  The report attempts to capture the spirit and intensity of the discussion around issues related to participatory evaluation.  The report is divided in to three sections.  The first part describes the process—the process of coming together, creating a learning environment, and working through issues, agendas and experiences.  The second part identifies some of the key issues debated, discussed and analyzed during the Forum.  The are the issues of theory, practice, steps, methods, methodology, the role of the facilitator, and others.  The final part reproduces the case studies which the participants brought, shared, and discussed during the Forum.

 

Kassam, Yusuf and Kemal Mustafa.  1982.  Participatory Research: An Emerging Alternative Methodology in Social Science Research.  Society for Participatory Research: New Delhi, India.

 

This book is a compilation of all the theoretical papers and case studies presented at the African Regional Workshop on Participatory Research, held in Tanzania in 1979.  The book exemplifies the nature and level of analysis that is taking place on the concept, theory, and practice of participatory research among persons concerned with issues of research, adult education, popular knowledge, and power.  The specific issues examined in this book, enlightened by concrete case studies of participatory research from Botswana, Kenya, and Tanzania, include the concepts of development in the social sciences, the politics of research methodology in the context of ideological struggles, epistemology, and the question of power social class, and historical materialism.

 

Lammerink, Marc P. and Ivan Wolffers (eds.)  1994.  Some Selected Examples of Participatory Research.  Special Programme on Research (DGIS): The Hague, Netherlands.

 

This publication provides numerous international case studies based on participatory research methodology and insights into the underlying theory and methods of participatory research.  In the introductory papers different ideas concerning participatory research in general are discussed, along with the motivation for such research and the social contexts in which it is set.  The second section with five papers, deals with the methodology and the quality control of participatory research.  Part three is made up of six case studies which show the connections between participatory research and action.  Part four provides a summary discussion of the afore-mentioned cases followed by information on networks for participatory research.

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1981.  Research for the People, Research by the People: An Introduction to Participatory Research.  Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-70.

 

The papers included in this volume were all presented at the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, in April 1980.  This meeting was the culmination of a stream of activity which can be identified concretely as having begun in Tanzania in the early 1970's with the work of a group of researchers who began to experiment with research which consciously involved the community in the entire research process.  The volume presents theoretical papers and practical case studies.  The papers address issues such as the role of the researcher, the concept of grassroots, base group or organic intellectuals, the nature of participation itself, the relationship of participatory research to historical materialism, and the importance of the creation of popular knowledge.  

 

The Netherlands Study and Development Centre for Adult Education.  1984.  Research for the People, Research by the People: Selected papers from the International Forum on Participatory Research in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 1980.   Linkoping University Report # LiU-PEK-R-63.

 

This book is intended to present to teachers and students involved in adult education and development work, the theory and the practical implications of participatory research.  The papers in the volume deal with issues such as the role of the researcher, the nature of participation, popular knowledge, and the relationship between historical materialism and participatory research.  The papers represent both theoretical and practical aspects of participatory research and represent nearly all regions of the world through case studies.

 

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This volume describes a grassroots approach to empowering people for democratic change.  It explains participatory research using exemplary case studies on community organizing, feminist theory, and ecological movements from a wide range of locations in North America.  This book provides a solid overview of what participatory research is, the role of knowledge in the process, the development of participatory research professionally, and case studies using participatory research methods.    

 

 

 

National

 

The American Sociologist.  Winter,  1992, Vol. 23  (4) and Spring, 1993, Vol. 24  (1).

 

Two special issues of AS  are devoted to participatory research edited by long-time practitioners, Randy Stoecker and Edna Bonacich.  The numerous articles address all aspects of participatory research, includes discussion of why participatory research, models, case studies, and participatory research techniques providing excellent overviews of each.  Between the two volumes are 9 case studies on wide-ranging, participatory research projects including high school students as researchers, community development in low income neighborhoods, immigrant women and participatory research, community health, and church-based organizing, among others.

 

Curtis, Karen A.  1989.  "Help From Within: Participatory Research in a Low-Income Neighborhood."  Urban Anthropology, 18(2): 203-217.

 

This article examines the role of ethnography as a resource in the process of needs assessment in a multi-ethnic, low-income section of Philadelphia, PA.  The goals of the project were to analyze the relationship between the targeted neighborhood's socioeconomic characteristics and human service environment and to work with neighborhood leaders in developing an action plan based on the research findings.  A number of considerations regarding collaborative research and practice are raised.  In the case discussed in this paper, the producers of knowledge were anthropologists and community  members, while the consumers were funders, planners, and local government.  Collaboration with area agency leaders produced information useful to the community and involved community actors directly in research and planning activities as a tool for social change.

 

Freidenberg, Judith.  1991.  "Participatory Research and Grassroots Development: A Case Study from HarlemCity and Society, 5(1), June: 64-75.

 

This article documents an anthropologist's experiences in an applied research and development project with elderly minorities in the inner city.  The main question addressed in the report is how, and to what extent, is collaboration between the anthropologist, professional colleagues, funding agencies, informants and community groups conducive to grassroots development within the context of the political economy in which the program is being developed? Focusing on the natural history of the project, this study illustrates some of the complexities involved.  The implications for participatory research, planned social change, and styles of community development emerge from an understanding of the project as a social process.

 

Gaventa John and Billy D. Horton.  1981.  "A Citizens Research Project in Appalachia, USA."  Convergence 14 (3): 30-41.

 

This article provides an analysis of land ownership and taxation patterns in rural Appalachia.  The project includes the use of structured data collection, statistical analysis and intensive interviews with community members, all based on participatory research strategies.  The data was then used to educate communities and document rural land ownership and tax patterns.  The study encompasses over 100 counties, and involved literally hundreds of community researchers in the rural Southeast.

 

Lewis, Helen, et al.  1986.  Picking Up the Pieces: Women In and Out of Work in the Rural South.  Highlander Research and Education Center: New Market, TN.

 

This book was developed from a 1984 Highlander workshop where 30 women of diverse race, age, and community backgrounds discuss their economic situations as individuals and within Southern communities.  Their focus is to encourage other women to look at their own histories, to understand their own importance and to work to change the dominant patterns of economic life for themselves and for other women.

 

Lynd, Mark.  1992.  "Creating Knowledge Through Theater: A Case Study with Developmentally Disabled Adults."  American Sociologist,  23(4): 100-115.

 

In this case study, the author describes a participatory research project in which he assisted a group of developmentally disabled adults with the creation of two musical theater productions and an interview project.  The article begins with a discussion of the ideas of Paulo Freire and the feminist consciousness-raising movement.  The two theater productions are then described and analyzed using Habermas's notions of instrumental, relational, and critical knowledge as a way of understanding what kinds of knowledge are produced.  The analysis shows how three kinds of educational activities were taking place: outsiders educating insiders, us educating each other, and us educating others.  The analysis also shows how outsiders educating insiders did not occur in the relational and critical categories, suggesting that if relational and critical knowledge are sought, the researcher cannot remain an outsider, but must become co-learner and co-researcher with group members.

 

Maguire, Patricia.  1987.  Doing Participatory Research: A Feminist Approach.  Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts: Amherst, MA.

 

This volume provides a complete description of how to do participatory research.  The author describes a feminist and participatory project among Navajo women in a battered women's center.  Using Paulo Friere's concept of dialogue, Maguire talks with former battered women in their kitchens, painstakingly transcribes the interviews, and hand the women their own words.  Together they move through a cycle of reflection and action working towards a solution to their problem—How to move forward after the soul-destroying experiences of living with violent men.  The volume contains a good bibliography and literature review of both feminist and participatory methods, and a valuable framework for feminist participatory research. 

 

Merrifield, Juliet.  1979.  "Putting Scientists in Their Place: Participatory Research in Environmental and Occupational Health."  Highlander Center Working Paper.  (Available from Highlander Research and Education Center, 1959 Highlander Way, New Market, TN, 37820.)

 

This booklet provides an excellent example of community participatory research organized around the issue of toxic waste.  Participatory research is seen as a way of systematizing the people's knowledge.  In this case statistical data was gathered to document the increase in birth defects and environmentally related diseases in the Southeast.  Merrifield also reviews some of the issues of control over the production and use of scientific knowledge in the research process.

 

Nash, Fred.  1993.  "Church-Based Organizing as Participatory Research: The Northwest Community Organization and the Pilsen Resurrection Project."  In The American Sociologist  Vol. 24 No. 1.  1993, December. 

 

Nash uses Northwest community organization and the Pilsen project to demonstrate the applicability of participatory research in both the community and the academy.  Provides adequate definition of participatory research and uses case study to identify techniques.  Suggests that academic researchers should, forget that participatory research exists when they go into the field and concentrate only on the needs of the community then figure out the research agenda (good point).

 

Park, Peter, Mary Brydon-Miller, Budd Hall, and Ted Jackson (eds.).  1993.  Voices of Change: Participatory Research in the United States and CanadaOISE Press: Ontario Institute for Education.

 

This volume describes a grassroots approach to empowering people for democratic change.  It explains participatory research using exemplary case studies on community organizing, feminist theory, and ecological movements from a wide range of locations in North America.  This book provides a solid overview of what participatory research is, the role of knowledge in the process, the development of participatory research professionally, and case studies using participatory research methods.    

 

Reason, Peter (ed.).  1995.  Participation in Human Inquiry: Research With People.  Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

 

This volume addresses both the theory and practice of participative inquiry.  It explores a distinctive range of approaches to research— cooperative, collaborative, participatory, and experiential — which all share a concern with research as a collaborative process, or research with and for people, rather than on people.  The first part of the book outlines a theoretical foundation for understanding participation and undertaking participatory research.  It discusses the emergence of a worldview that is more holistic, pluralist, and egalitarian rather than the traditional western scientific perspective.  The second section of the book presents examples of participative research in action with examples ranging from work with women’s groups, students, and health.   

 

                                                                                                                                                                       

 

Resources

 

 

                                                                                                                                                           

University-Based Collaborative Research Centers

 

Appalachian Civic Leadership Project

University of Kentucky Appalachian Center

641 South Limestone

Lexington KY 40506-0333

tel. 606 257-4013

 

The Appalachian Center is a three year old joint project of the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and the Brushy Fork Institute at Berea College.  Among other projects the center now puts out a publication, Issue Briefs.  Briefs address issues of community concern are written by project staff members of UK and its community college system, county cooperative extension agents, and Commonwealth fellows—participants in the Appalachian Civic Leadership Project.  Topic areas include: health care reform, school consolidation, land use planning, solid waste management, public integrity, auto insurance rates, sewage sludge disposal, and post-mining land use.

 

Center for Community Partnerships

University of Pennsylvania

133S. 36th Street, Suite 519

Philadelphia PA 19104-3246

tel. 215 898-5351

fax. 215 573-2799

 

The Center fro Community Partnerships strives to develop genuinely democratic and mutually beneficial partnerships between the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Community.  The centers goals are: to build effective partnerships between Penn and the community; to promote internal coordination and collaboration among Penn community service programs; to stimulate new creative initiatives linking Penn and the community.  The center initiates, develops, and coordinates the following service activities: traditional service involving the volunteer activity of faculty, students, staff, and alumni; academically-based community service involving the service rooted in and intrinsically tied to teaching and research; institutionally-related service involving the university as a partner with community groups and institutions in community development-related activity, including purchasing, job training, hiring and housing.

 

Center for Neighborhood Development

Cleveland State University

Urban Affairs Bldg.., Room 228

Cleveland OH 44115

tel.  216 687-2166

fax  216 687-9239

 

The Center for Neighborhood Development was established in recognition of the idea that neighborhoods play a pivotal role in the revitalization of the city.  The technical support of the Center focuses on supporting the resources and skills necessary for the creative self help programs of community based organizations.  CND has four major programs: neighborhood development policy; housing and economic development; energy conservation; neighborhood leadership.  CND also provides assistance to development organizations through neighborhood intern programs.  The Urban Center which houses the CND is a prototype center linking the skills and resources of the college and the university with the Community.  The Center has five major emphases: housing and neighborhood development; economic development; public leadership and management; public finance; and public works management.  The Urban Center provides training and technical assistance and operates a broad scale data base development program for urban research. 

 

Center for Urban Economic Development

University of Illinois at Chicago

CUED

M/C 345

815 W. Van Buren, Suite 500

Chicago

tel. 312 996-6336

 

CUED is part of an Urban Planning School they work on community planning and market feasibility and coops.  Topic areas include housing, job training, school to work programs, impact of globalization, dislocated workers, transit investment policy.  Special concern is with low-income communities.  Center has staff of 13 professional, five of whom are members of the teaching faculty of School of Urban Planning and Policy Work part-time with the center, assisted by 13 graduate students.  The work has two main emphases: technical and educational assistance to community-based organizations and governments in the area of economic development; research on a wide range of issues related to the urban economy.  CUED believes that community residents must be active and given a voice in decision-making, planning and policy developments as they effect their communities. 

 

Center for Urban Poverty and Social Change

Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences

Case Western Reserve University

10900 Euclid Ave.

Cleveland OH 44107-71634

tel. 216 368-6946

 

The Center's mission is to link the university's strengths in social policy and social welfare-related-research, analysis and data management with community-based organizations and groups addressing aspects of urban poverty.  The center collaborates with faculty from many departments seeking to achieve the following goals: raise awareness and understanding of urban poverty and how it affects people and communities by conducting research, writing reports, and hosting or participating in public forums; enhance the effectiveness of community based organization efforts to reduce poverty and its consequences by providing data analysis, technical assistance, and evaluation; increase the university's and community's capability to investigate and implement strategies to reduce persistent poverty and its effects by providing practical research experiences for students and technical instruction for community-based personnel.  The Center's activities are divide into four primary areas: core functions which include acquisition, storage, analysis and dissemination of local data to raise awareness and understanding of persistent poverty and aid in local planning and action; collaborative projects between the center and community based organizations to design and evaluate neighborhood-based initiatives in low-income communities; special studies on the process of urban restructuring at the neighborhood level and studies of the affects on residents of low-income neighborhoods; research and analysis of public policies related to the low-income population conducted in conjunction with state and local leaders and advocates. 

 

Center for Urban Studies

Wayne State University

656 W. Kirby

Faculty/Administration Bldg.

Detroit MI 48202

 

Center for Urban Studies (CUS) is located in the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs.  Major functions include facilitating and conducting research, acting as a resource for technical assistance and professional service, and initiating and developing demonstration models in urban settings.  CUS offers an interdisciplinary approach encouraging faculty members participation in urban issues pertinent to their academic disciplines.  CUS maintains the following — City/University Consortium: links city to university, places 18 to 20 student interns in city departments each year, students can earn credits and experience; Economic Development Center: researches economic, community and commercial development problems, works with business, commercial revitalization; Michigan Metropolitan Information Center: research on demographic, social and economic issues and census information for local business, also provides research and consulting to general public (e.g., custom data products computer mapping, population and housing schedules, training on census topics, and public census taped library); Survey and Evaluation Services: does survey research; Technology Transfer Center: provides manufacturers, entrepreneurs and inventors access to technical resources across state; Urban Families Program: forum for professional working in family and children's issues, administers, demonstration and program models, and conducts and stimulates research, operates six Neighborhood Family Resource Centers designed to strengthen family, and Detroit Family Project; Urban Institute: basic and applied research in the areas of transportation, port planning, transit operations and finance. 

  

Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI)

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Human Ecology

                                                                                                                                                            and Cornell Cooperative Extension

Cornell University

48 Warren Hall

Ithaca, NY 14853-7801

Contacts:

Director, Paul Eberts (607) 255-1685

Associate Director, Mildred Warner (607) 255-1693

 

A broad program  linking rural areas to research and technology.  Offer seminars and programs themselves on rural issues and link together with other Cornell programs to sponsor events.  Through the Rural Alliances Initiative (a project of CaRDI) placed four graduate students from departments of Natural Resources and City & Regional Planning as interns in two multi-county rural alliances.  CaRDI provides a forum for the research, news, conference updates, etc. in form of newsletter and a research report, Community Development Research Briefs and Case Studies.

Additional note: Cornell has formed a group, Cornell Participatory Action Research Network, contact person Nimat Barazangi (607) 255-1004.

 

Community Mediation Center

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

615 974-4736

 

The purpose of this organization is the development and provision and promotion of mediation services to resolve conflicts amicable, economically, and expeditiously within the greater community without regard for ability to pay; to train and supervise mediators; to educate (the public, professionals and educators) about mediation; and to encourage collaboration and cooperation between mediation providers and all individuals, agencies, organization and institutions.  The Conflict Resolution center on UTK campus has been working with the Community to form the Community Mediation Center. 

 

Community Partnership Center (CPC)

115 Henson Hall

University of Tennessee

 

The CPC serves as a one-stop facility where community groups from Knoxville and the surrounding region can come for help in developing solutions to community problems, especially those affecting low-income constituencies.  Primary program areas include jobs and economic development, housing, and neighborhood empowerment.  The center contains three distinct hubs of activity: collaborative research, capacity building and leadership development, and technical assistance and information exchange.  Research agendas are primarily driven by community needs and groups.  The center provides graduate students and faculty the opportunity to work first-hand on community oriented research.  The CPC matches community-identified needs with existing programs, faculty/student researchers, and technical assistance providers at the university.  Center staff actively conducts outreach activities to local groups and programs to inform them about programs and resources available and to solicit their input on which problems they believe to be most pressing, and to offer respectful and collaborative assistance in tacking those problems in a planned and strategic way.   

 

Environmental Resource Program (ERP)

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

School of Public Health

CB# 8165 Miller Hall

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8165

(919) 966-7754

 

ERP established in 1985 to provide a link between resources of university and Citizens of North Carolina.  Mission is "to promote environmental stewardship and public health through education and democratic decision-making."  24 person board comprised representatives from citizen groups, government, business, industry, and university.  ERP has four main program areas: ERP in schools, focuses primarily on teacher training in K-12; Technical Assistance and Information, includes the "Scientists Register" a list of 200 scientists who consult pro bono for citizen groups, also publish guide to NC environmental groups and guide to information on environment; Collaborative Decision-making, local state and regional workshops and conferences for education and problem solving, on numerous topics; and Environmental Equity, which focuses on childhood lead poisoning prevention in NC.

 

Fourth World Law Center for the Study of Indigenous Law and Politics

University of Colorado at Denver

Department of Political Science

Campus Box 190

PO Box 173364

Denver CO 80217-3364

Tel. 303 556-2850

 

The Fourth World Center focuses specifically on the affairs of indigenous peoples: American Indians and their counterparts elsewhere in the world.  The Fourth World Studies program at CU-Denver sponsors numerous courses, both graduate and undergraduate, in pol. sci., anthro., phil., as well as in international studies, among others.  The Center also sponsors public forums and guest lectures on the CU-Denver campus and publishes the Fourth World Bulletin.  The Center is an educational organization which seeks to promote peaceful change through dissemination of information and ideas, utilizing the university classroom, the written word, public fora, and international legal arena to stimulate dialogue and considerations in national and international politics.  The center seeks to explain the current global trend of ethnic nationalism and secessionism, as will as the disappearance of native peoples in all parts of the world.  The Center is organized to provide a perspective on law and politics which is sensitive to indigenous peoples.  Areas of interest include: federal Indian law, Comparative Indigenous politics, theory of the fourth world, fourth world economics, among others. 

 

Political Economy of the Good Society (PEGS)

Department of Government and Politics

University of Maryland

College Park, MD 20742

 

PEGS is "a nonpartisan, ideologically diverse nonprofit organization with goal: to help create new, realistic vision of the good society that will guide and inspire social progress.  PEGS aim is to change the way that both theorists and practitioners approach fundamental social problems.  PEGS publishes the newsletter and sponsors panels at academic conferences, has held its first independent conference and published a book.  PEGS attempts to include active participation  by interested thinkers from business, politics, journalism, the activist community, and academia. Newsletter includes articles by scholars, activists and others, resource lists, bibliographies, book reviews, recommended readings, conferences, etc.  

 

Policy Research and Action Group (PRAG)

Charles Saxe

C/C Loyola Univ., Department of Sociology

6525 N. Sheridan Rd.

Chicago, IL 60626

(312) 508-3468  FAX  (312) 508-3514

 

PRAG is a group of Chicago based academics and community activists building a collaborative research network in order to better link research to grass roots activism.  Article in PRRAC newsletter describes group, its origins, the network itself, and PRAG's programs and projects.  PRAG matches researchers with community organizations; develops research "apprentices" within community-based organizations; encourages graduate and undergraduate students to consider career options in community-based research; funds grassroots policy research projects identified and developed by community organizations and disseminates research results to policy makers and community activists.  

 

Poverty & Race Research and Action Council (PRRAC)

1711 Connecticut Ave. NW

Suite 207

Washington DC 20009

(202) 387-9887

FAX (202) 387-0764

 

No information on organization; could be a funding source for participatory research work.

 

Program on Social Change and Development

Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Johns Hopkins University

1740 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington DC 20036

tel.  202 663-5691

fax.  202 663-5656

contact: Margaret Hardt Frondorf

 

The Program on Social Change and Development (SC&D) was created in response to a demand for academic study of developing countries and to meet the needs for professional preparation for careers in development.  The program includes the study of less-developed countries, the emerging civil societies in Eastern Europe, and low-income areas in the US.  SC&D encourages innovative thinking among academics, students and practitioners who favor development based on the initiatives of the low-income people themselves, locally initiated development.  The program, reflects a commitment to understanding the special cultural, historical, and institutional, and local circumstances in different societies.  The primary goal of SC&D Program is to assist graduate-level students to explore and define domestic and international poverty issues and to help them analyze, synthesize, and assimilate the "best practices of development," which could be replicated throughout the world.  The program offers coursework ranging from development theory to hands on practicums in the inner city.  Priority is given to students who have at least two years previous work experience at the local level in developing countries, the US and Eastern Europe.

 

Poverty and Race Participatory Action Research Project

The College of Public and Community Service

University of Massachusetts at Boston

100 Morrissey Boulevard

Boston MA 02125-3393

Contact: Marie Kennedy

tel. 617 287-7262

 

The overall goal of this project is to expand and improve participatory action research on issues of race and poverty by and for community advocacy organizations in Eastern Massachusetts.  The proposal seeks to do this through a series of working sessions and the development of a directory linking progressive grassroots organizations and activists with researchers.  The project supports progressive organizing on race and poverty issues in MA by: enhancing the capacity of community and advocacy groups to do their own research; enhancing the ability and willingness of researchers to collaborate with the community using PAR techniques; enhancing the availability and utility of existing research for use by community and advocacy groups; and stimulating increased funding and other sources for research that explicitly and fully incorporates community members and organizations in the design, conduct, and dissemination of the research.  Steps in the project include: developing a preliminary database of organizations and activists; developing a preliminary database of researchers willing and potentially available to work with community and advocacy organizations in collaborative ways; convening workshops  on selected issue areas as determined through collaboration, potential topics include but not limited to: funding for PAR projects, collaborative research, planning and development, presentations to community groups, encouragement of graduate student research, etc.

 

Regional Center for Sustainable Development

Craig Waddell

Department of the Humanities

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townsend Drive

Houghton MI  49931-1295

 

A proposal to establish a regional center for sustainable development in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  Includes introduction to the project, cogent discussion of sustainable development, regional and international history and need for center, budgets, staffing needs, good list of question raised while conceptualizing this center.  The centers primary goal is to develop a Lake Superior Watershed basin-wide model for ecologically sustainable economic activity.  Staff are charged with 1) reaching out to the larger community—business, media, environmental groups, schools, Native American Communities, religious leaders, governments, youth groups, labor organizations, public health officials, and the general public— to develop and promote a regional model for and ecologically sustainable economy, and 2) facilitating where possible and invited to do so ongoing efforts in five crucial efforts: a) wilderness preservation, b) environmentally responsible mining and smelting, c) sustainable forestry, d) environmentally responsible recreation and tourism, and e) recycling and waste reduction, including groundwater protection. 

 

Trade Research Consortium

PO Box 80066

Minneapolis MN 55408

tel. 612 379-5980

fax.. 612 379-5982

Email. kdakins@igc.apc.org

 

TRC created to provide community groups and NGO's access to useful research available within academia.  Involves four partners: the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Fair Trade Campaign, Public Citizen, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Urban Economic Development.  TRC receives numerous requests for research and information regarding environment, trade and development issues.  They release this database list of research requests to academic networks via email and to link the work of progressive academics with the needs of grassroots community groups.  Research requests are distributed to 800 academics through email.  Consortium staff research and provide information available in their own file.  They also keep information channeled through them for future use.  When needed the Consortium contracts outside researchers to complete specific studies of particular import.  Notice and availability of such research is made available to other potentially interested groups, academics, media, etc.  Recent projects include: agriculture, the environment, intellectual property, financial services, and dispute resolution.  Also major in-house studies published on impacts of NAFTA on sustainable ag. and on the transportation industry.