Abstract
There is a shift in university-based social research towards interdisciplinary working and collaboration with non-academic partners, which requires a reconsideration of methodological concepts and research practices. In this article, we draw on intensive collaborative action research (CAR) into public service reform to demonstrate how this ‘collaborative shift’ both challenges and creates new considerations for mainstream research approaches. We contend that the contemporary emphasis on research collaborations creates challenges for both social science researchers and non-academic partners, which require greater conceptual consideration. Researchers need to engage in distinctive, significant and ongoing relational, pragmatic and political work in multi-agency contexts. We present the concept of a ‘buffer zone’: a dynamic, contextual space and set of practices necessary to undertake participatory research within complex and changeable settings. This has implications for research management, design, funding and training.
Highlights
Undertaking research in collaboration with others is a well-established approach in social research; the expectation that it should be standard practice for university-based researchers to collaborate with non-academic partners has recently taken centre stage in Qualitative Research 00(0)the UK (Flinders et al, 2016)
Collaborating to produce social research has increased in salience; favoured by funding bodies, research assessment processes and by some non-academic partners seeking additional or specialist resources
Reflecting on undertaking collaborative or participatory research in the current context is essential in order to better understand the nature and activities involved
Summary
Undertaking research in collaboration with others is a well-established approach in social research; the expectation that it should be standard practice for university-based researchers to collaborate with non-academic partners has recently taken centre stage in Qualitative Research 00(0). The UK (Flinders et al, 2016) This ‘collaborative shift’ reflects a number of pressures, including funding bodies’ preference for non-academic partners, as well as the UK Government’s objective to ‘hold universities to account for performance and value for money’ (Johnson, 2017). A critical examination of research methods and approaches that prioritise collaboration is both necessary and timely as non-academic partners are undergoing policy reforms, which promote collaboration and partnership working. Potential non-academic partners operate in a dynamic environment and engage in a variety of complex collaborative and participatory arrangements subject to numerous organisational agendas. Combining the collaborative governance context and the aforementioned collaborative shift in academia generates a ‘contemporary pincer’ that reshapes academic researchers’ working context, practices, and research expectations
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