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Politics of Qualitative Research

Reference :

• The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods

• Social Research Methods - Qualitative & Quantitative Approaches – Neuman

• Management Research -Third Edition, 2008 Prof. M. Easter by-Smith, Prof. R. Thorpe, Prof. Paul R. Jackson-chapter 6

• www.instruction.greenriver.edubahlE127home.html

سامانه مدیریت اطالعات تحقیقات – وزارت علوم ، تحقیقات و •فناوری

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بودجه پژوهشسامانه اطالعاتی مدیریت تحقیقات : بودجه •

پژوهش

1.Politics of research

1. politics :• Consider as having to do with power relations in a

particular context or relationship• For example : the "politics of a classroom," the

"politics of desire," the "politics of the workplace," etc. also phrases like "gender politics," "racial politics," "cultural politics" or "sexual politics," each of which are categories of analysis where we are invited to identify and interpret the relations of power.(Vik Bahl)

1.Politics of research

2.‘Politics’: The power relationships between the individuals and institutions involved in the research, & the strategies adopted by different actors and the consequences of their actions on others.

• i.e., students & supervisors, funders & grant holders, authors & journal editors, companies & research institutes, project leaders & research assistants, researchers & managers, or between managers & their bosses.(Management Research )

1.Politics of research

• Politics of research is closely related to ethics.(Neuman)

• the following questions should help generate some insights about the politics of research:1. Who is researching whom?

2. What is the relationship between the researcher and those being researched?

3. Whose interests are served by the research?  To what uses might the research be put?

1.Politics of research

4. Who is funding the research?  With what objective(s)?

5 .Who is the intended audience for the presentation of the research results?

6. Whose voices, experiences, authority and interpretations get to be represented and/or heard?

7. Who gets to define terms and frame the research question?  Through what process?

8. Would the various parties have competing research agendas, methods and objectives? (Vik Bahl)

1.Politics of research

• Politics can affect social research in several ways :• what researchers can study and • how they conduct research• how research findings are disseminated and• how the findings are used.• The core issue is freedom of expression and the

independence of science from powerful groups or institution(Neuman)

1-1-limits on what researchers can study and how they conduct research :

• Direct Limits on Research• In nondemocratic societies, control over or the

censorship of social research is the rule, not the exception. Thus, in China, eastern Europe, South Africa, Taiwan, and other places, social researchers have been suspect, limited to "safe" topics.

• Limits Due to the Influence of Politicians… funding was cut

• National Security and Limits on Social Research… during World War I and World War 11

1-1-limits on what researchers can study and how they conduct research :

• Indirect Limits through Control over Research Funding – The most common way that politics shapes social

research is through control over funds for doing research.

– There are few restrictions on research in the United States. Most officials recognize that an open and autonomous social scientific community is the best path to unbiased, valid knowledge…. The peer review process promotes autonomous research…. scientific merit

1-1- limits on what researchers can study and how they conduct research :

• Limits on the Dissemination of Knowledge

• Powerful groups or institutions can impinge on social research by limiting the flow of information, restricting publication, or silencing researchers.

1-2-The Dissemination and use of research finding :

• Models of Relevance :• Positivists tend to follow the "direct and positive

effects" or "special constituency, the government" model.

• interpretive researcher follows the "no net effects" or the "uncoopted" model

• Critical social scientists follow the "special constituency, the proletariat" or "special constituency, the uncoopted" models.

1-2-The Dissemination and use of research finding :

• After Findings Are Published – Although the researcher may have chosen a topic based on his or her

values, once the findings are published, others can use them to advance opposing values.

• Findings That Influence Future Behavior• Academic Freedom

• is the existence of an open and largely unrestricted atmosphere for

the free exchange of ideas and information.• Academic freedom is related to the autonomy of research.

2. Politics of qualitative research

• all research is political insomuch as it• comes out of a particular view of the world, • makes claims about reality, and • supports or refutes existing knowledge claims.

• Qualitative research, which generally makes no pretense of disinterested objectivity, has been more likely than quantitative research to be labeled as political.(Sage Encyclopedia)

2. Politics of qualitative research

• Over the past several decades, the discussions of the politics of qualitative research have primarily revolved around three distinct yet interrelated strands: • the qualitative - quantitative debate,• the question of the relationship between

researcher and researched, and• the evidence- based movement.

2-1- the qualitative–quantitative debate

• the quantitative–quantitative debate has been about different ways of seeing and approaching the social world.• quantitative side : followed the Enlightenment

tradition that • emphasized the supremacy of rational thought and • the ability of people to control both the natural

and social worlds though the acquisition of knowledge.

• Quantitative side :

• Knowledge in this case meant observable facts that led the researcher to uncover general laws that could help to predict human behavior

• Qualitative side:

• Qualitative researchers, believe that • it is neither possible nor desirable for researchers

to stand outside of a social world of which they are necessarily part.

• The quest for objectivity and neutrality that is fundamental to quantitative work is all but unimportant to most qualitative researchers.

• Knowledge is seen as situational and provisional

• Qualitative side:

• Rather than seeking to find cause-and-effect relationships that might be used to predict, most qualitative researchers have sought to understand the complexity of social life

• Although it is certainly possible to do qualitative research from a positivist perspective, for the most part qualitative researchers have built their work on postmodern understandings of the world

Qualitative - Quantitative

• For years , qualitative research has suffered from accusations of being unscientific and unreliable.

• By the end of the 1990s,researchers from a number of social science disciplines were proclaiming an end to the “paradigm wars,” but recent developments indicate that it is probably more accurate to say that an uneasy truce had been declared.

• What was not resolved was the divergence between the epistemological positions that undergird the two research traditions.

2 -2- relationship between researcher and researched

• In the positivist paradigm, the researcher is the expert ,a neutral investigator who stands apart from his or her research subjects. Qualitative researchers, having rejected this position, have needed to come to terms with their relationship to both the research and the researched.

2 -2- relationship between researcher and researched

• The relationship with the people who are part of the research has led to an ongoing conversation among qualitative researchers about • power relations, • insider versus outsider knowledge, and • the purposes of research.

This conversation, sometimes labeled the politics of the gaze.

2 -2- relationship between researcher and researched

• This conversation, sometimes labeled the politics of the gaze, asks researchers to think about

• who is looking at whom and • for what purpose, • who is explicitly or implicitly in the more powerful

position in the situation, and • what consequences this dynamic has for those in the less

powerful positions.• why it is important to do particular kinds ofresearch

2 -2- relationship between researcher and researched

• who will benefit from the research,• who has the right to do different kinds of

research, and• how best to ensure the participants in the

process are respected.

2-3- evidence – based research

Starting in the 1990s, the term evidence-based research began to appear more and more frequently in

the vocabulary of policy developers and research

funding bodies in a number of Northern and Western

countries. The term itself seemed benign enough. It

seemed to suggest that research findings should be

taken seriously only if they were supported by evidence. Quickly it became clear that it was linked to larger political and economic changes of the day.

2-3- evidence – based research

• The late 1980s ushered in an era of neoliberalism and globalization.

• The only evidence that is considered worthy in evidence-based research, therefore, is that which is gathered through positivist-inspired quantitative studies ; in other words, the evidence that counts is evidence that can be counted.

2-3- evidence – based research

• throughout most Northern and Western countries, state agencies that provide contracts and grants to researchers have increasingly turned their back on qualitative researchers.

• In addition, policy developers have relied to a greater extent on the work of quantitative researchers to support their policy decisions.

2-3- evidence – based research

• Consequently, the recent backlash against qualitative work in general is as closely related to the perception that minoritized groups are destabilizing taken-for-granted power structures as it is thedemands of the neoliberal-inspired state.

: حدیث والیت

دانش و پژوهش کلید تعالی کشور است و این •اصل در بیانی از مقام معظم رهبری کامال

:»كشور ما بدون نمایان است که فرموده اند حركت در جاده ى گسترش دانش و گسترش

پژوهش، امكان ندارد بتواند به نقطه ى مطلوب خودش دست پيدا بكند؛ مخصوص كشور ما هم

بيانات در .« نيست.كليد، دانش و پژوهش است(25/4/1386بازديد از پژوهشكده ى رويان)

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