[Interpretationandmethods] What do we owe our participants?

[psshea at csbs.utah.edu]

All,

Wednesday I attended a talk on Participatory Action Research, an arena  
in which this issue of "giving back" appears to have been analyzed  
quite a bit.  Interestingly, this researcher just negotiated a move  
out of the social sciences to a department in another college that  
values the variety of "research products" to which she contributes -  
some scholarly but others that are desired by her "co-researchers,"  
e.g., a documentary on undocumented high school students who benefit  
from a current Utah State law (always under threat of being withdrawn)  
that grants them in-state tuition.

Peri Schwartz-Shea

Quoting Ed Schatz <ed.schatz at utoronto.ca>:

> Dvora,
>
> Interesting interview that touches on a variety of issues. I would take up
> two things.
>
>
>
> First, on epistemology: isn't a researcher who operates at close range with
> people being studied and who simultaneously acknowledges (not just
> perfunctorily, but really acknowledges) her/his impact on these people also
> much more likely to have his/her truth claims be influenced by them? That
> is, if you are embedded in human relationships with the people you study,
> doesn't it become difficult NOT to imbibe, at least to some degree, their
> perspectives?
>
>
>
> Second, "giving back" is obviously a crucial and largely ignored aspect of
> research. But my own sense (others probably disagree) is that we need to
> remember that this is not the normal giving back that one would find in
> ordinary human relationships. The researcher, in addition to being embedded
> in human relationships with people being studied and subject to the norms
> that govern those interactions, is also embedded in a research community
> which has different norms and imperatives. So, if I choose, for example, to
> pay someone for her participation in a research project, this needs to be
> balanced against norms in the scholarly community (e.g., is paying for
> information appropriate? Is the quality of the information provided affected
> by payment?) and the norms in other, overlapping communities (e.g., if I pay
> for someone to participate, what does this do to scholars-perhaps local
> scholars, if we are talking about developing countries-who don't have access
> to funds to pay for participation? Would "driving up the price" for
> participation be justified?). In the end, therefore, I think that the
> "giving back" might look pretty watered down.
>
>
>
> Monetary payments, I think, are rare (and for good reason). Giving back can
> thus take on a variety of forms, but again, I sense that it would be
> difficult to imagine giving back in ways that would equal what our
> interlocutors have given us in the first place.
>
>
>
> Just a few hurried thought. Now back to grading...
>
> Ed
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   _____
>
> From: interpretationandmethods-bounces at malagigi.cddc.vt.edu
> [mailto:interpretationandmethods-bounces at malagigi.cddc.vt.edu] On Behalf Of
> Dvora Yanow
> Sent: April 19, 2008 11:54 AM
> To: interpretationandmethods at malagigi.cddc.vt.edu
> Subject: [Interpretationandmethods] What do we owe our participants?
>
>
>
> Colleagues, and especially those doing ethnographic, participant-observer,
> interview or other interactive research or who are interested in research
> regulation such as that conducted by 'institutional review boards' in the
> US:
>
> Here's a link to a series of 4 exchanges between a journalist and a social
> scientist that begin exploring the question, What do we owe our [to put it
> crudely; not their terms] data sources?
>
> http://www.slate.com/id/2183149/entry/2183160/
>
> Venkatesh's comments about the presence of the researcher, for me, stop
> short:  he frames his response entirely in terms of having an impact on
> others, not in terms of positionality and 'truth claims' -- tho he may be
> responding within the frame of Kotlowitz's questions and comments.
>
> Ed Schatz, Tim Pachirat, Dorian Warren, others -- any comments?
>
> Dvora Yanow
>
>
>
>
>
> !DSPAM:4810b48e17123612316194!
>



-- 
Peregrine Schwartz-Shea
Associate Professor

University of Utah
Political Science Department
260 South Central Campus Drive Rm 252
Salt Lake City, UT  84112-9152

(801) 581-6300 phone mail
psshea at poli-sci.utah.edu