On the case? Dilemmas of collaborative research

Abstract

Concerns with 'relevance to the real world' are not new to geography, but have come to the fore recently. Debates examine the seemingly lower status of policy research, what Peck (1999) calls 'grey geography', within the discipline and the place of geographers within the policymaking hierarchy (see also Banks and Mackian 2000; Peck 2000; Pollard et al. 2000; Martin 2001). The UK Government is also interested in this issue. David Blunkett (2000), for example, referred to the increased potential for practical research to have a real impact (p. 3). Additionally, he commented that the dis semination of social scientists' research findings is most effective 'through direct user engagement in research projects' (Blunkett 2000, 7). Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in col laborative research between academic researchers and non-academic organizations (Bell and Read 1998) which involves the end users, policymakers and practi tioners, throughout the process. There are a number of reasons for this, including the need for new sources of funding for higher education institutions, an increasing tendency for non-academic organizations to contract out research and the emphasis, following the 1993 White Paper Realising Our Potential, on relevant research (Bell and Read 1998, 6). In this climate of collaboration, the ESRC have for a number of years provided funding for collaborative ('CASE) research studentships. These are collaborations between a university department and a non-academic organiza tion (hereafter collaborating organization). They are designed to be of benefit to the collaborating organ ization2 and enable a student to complete a PhD. The collaborating organization provides a financial con tribution to both the university department and to the student as a 'top up' to a normal ESRC postgraduate award. There are a number of different types of collaborat ive research, including for example, contract research undertaken by a university for a non-academic body3 and collaborative research projects between academic institutions, with or without user involvement. In this short paper, however, we focus on the particular example of CASE doctoral research projects.4 It is possible that physical geographers involved in collaborative pro jects may have a contrasting perspective to contribute to the debate, but as social scientists our discussion is limited to our first hand experiences of projects in human geography. In raising these issues, we wish to start to address a gap in debates surrounding 'relevant' and policy research, about the experience of doctoral students. The ESRC itself is interested in stimulating discussion on collaborative practice for research students. It encourages networking between CASE students and has produced On the Case (Bell and Read 1998), which pro vides advice, based on a short study, for those involved in such projects. Here we will focus on the practicalities of undertaking this kind of work and discuss some of the issues we have encountered, not all of which were raised in the ESRC's paper. As Lees (1999) argues, col laborative research is not without its difficulties. No doubt some of the issues we will highlight may arise when undertaking any form of collaborative research examples in the literature show this (e.g. Fuller 1 999), and a number of dilemmas are common to qualitative research more generally. However, CASE collaborative