Posts Tagged ‘research methods’

 

Research methods festival 2010

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Last week Eddie and I spent some time at the Economic and Social Research Council’s Research Methods Festival. Before the event, I was curious to know what made it a ‘festival’ rather than a (admittedly more mundane-sounding) ’conference.’ The bunch of balloons in the registration area and some quite festive-looking sashes worn by the conference helpers were the only signs I could find. However, this was certainly an exciting celebration of ideas, with almost 70 sessions concerning theories and practices of social science research.

There were two highlights for me. The first was a session on researching lives and relationships, which generated some really interesting conversations around researching intimate aspects of people’s lives. The second was a session on participatory research methods, which explored some of the very real challenges and dilemmas, as well as the benefits and, in some cases,  necessity of participatory research.

Details on session content and presenters, as well as links to many of the presentations themselves, are available on the National Centre for Research Methods website.

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Using participatory mapping to explore participation

Monday, June 28th, 2010

The project team’s latest report is now available for download. ‘Using participatory mapping to explore participation in three communities’ illustrates the history of participatory mapping as a versatile research tool, demonstrating its potential use in a variety of scenarios. The report then explains our approach to mapping within the Pathways through Participation project, and discusses the emergent findings and our reflections on the method.

Click here to download the report.

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Researching the voluntary sector – 2010 conference

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

The joint NCVO and Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) research conference takes place every September – this year is its 16th year and will take place on 6th-7th September 2010 at the University of Leeds, UK. It’s a great opportunity to meet other people who are interested in researching the voluntary sector and voluntary action. The conference is an open space to share new and existing research, and submissions from new researchers and community researchers are really encouraged. The Pathways team hope to be there in force – we’ve submitted a single paper and a paper as part of a wider panel – fingers crossed we’ll be accepted!

The deadline for abstracts for the conference has been extended by 2 weeks to the 7th May so if you’re interested in sharing your research and ideas, please get in touch with the organisers – details can be found here on the VSSN website or you can contact Olivia.Hirst@ncvo-vol.gov.uk for more information.

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Participatory mapping in Leeds

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Last month saw local mapping workshops being carried out in all three case-study areas. Two workshops took place in each case-study area, and you can find out more about the session in Suffolk here, and the Enfield workshop here. All the workshops intended to not only begin to explore local understandings and perspectives of participation, but also explore where participation happens in the local area and beyond; the sites, spaces, places and opportunities to participate.

The sessions held in inner-city Leeds were fascinating. We had some real stimulating discussions about what participation means to different people and why it is important. People’s perceptions were really varied, for example ‘having a voice’, ‘making a difference’, ‘inclusion’, ‘learning new skills’ and ‘companionship’. It all made for some very thought provoking conversations. The mapping element entailed groups working together to build a map of their local area, which they then populated with sites and opportunities for participation. Not only did this make for some very colourful depictions of the local area, but provided the project team with useful information about the areas people participate. The participants seemed to really enjoy discussing their local area and relished being asked about things that are important to them.

The workshops have helped us to prepare for the next stage of the research. In drawing on local knowledge and identifying the assorted sites of participation in the local area, we have a better idea of where we can find a diverse sample of people for the interviews that we will soon be carrying out. In the near future we will be writing a report of the mapping sessions and the use of community mapping as a research method, so watch this space!

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Participatory mapping in Enfield

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

I recently facilitated two participatory mapping workshops in Enfield in outer London, the ‘suburban’ fieldwork area. These workshops aimed to get a feel for the ‘where’ bit of the Pathways research: where do people go to take part? What are the main ‘sites’ of participation in the local area? What are the key places that residents identify as important? And, what happens in these places?

The richness and diversity of places and the different ways in which people get involved in the area was striking - from the very local (e.g. Friends of Parks groups) to the global (e.g. fundraising for international causes through local churches or the activist network of the local fair trade group).

Mapping was a really effective way of gathering local people’s knowledge: I learnt a lot about the area that I hadn’t from talking to individuals, walking around observing the area and reading newspapers and reports. Participants were also positive about the experience of taking part: some fed back that they had enjoyed creating the maps, and others commented that they were surprised (and pleased) that they lived in a place where so much is happening.  

You can find out more about the Leeds workshops here, and the sessions in Suffolk here. And look out for our forthcoming report on all three mapping sessions, including our thoughts on the pros and cons of using this research method.

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Training in narrative and mixed methods research

Monday, March 8th, 2010

 At the end of February, the project researchers attended a workshop on Narrative and Mixed Methods research at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies. The Centre oversees three British birth cohort studies. Data from the 1958 cohort, which includes more than 10,000 people born in Britain during one week in 1958, was used to illustrate the potential for combining qualitative and quantitative research methods, and use a narrative-based approach across methods.

Using a narrative approach allows researchers to explore how people make meaning of experience, how experience and meaning are shaped by context, and how people’s identities may be constructed by the stories they tell about themselves and their world. In the Pathways project, our interest in people’s stories about their experience of participation over their life times makes a narrative approach to data collection and analysis very appropriate. Traditionally, narrative has been associated with qualitative research, but the workshop leader, Professor Jane Elliot, explained that narrative is equally relevant in quantitative research – numbers ‘tell a story.’

Interestingly, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies is currently engaged in a piece of research focusing on social participation amongst a sub-sample of 1958 cohort members.  One of its aims is to try to understand why some members are more socially engaged than others. The Pathways team will certainly be following this research as it progresses.

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Participatory research methods: opportunities and challenges

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

The panel session that we organised at the NCVO/VSSN conference on participatory research methods was one of the biggest panel sessions of the conference demonstrating the level of current interest in participatory research. The three speakers (Danny Burns, Sarah Johnsen and Thilo Boeck) presented, briefly but very effectively, how they had used participatory research methods in some of their research projects and reflected on their experience. What was particularly interesting was to see how different levels of participation in a project had different implications. However, all use of participatory research methods seems to question the traditional role of the researcher, and the boundaries between research and community development can become quite blurred at times.

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Using participatory mapping to explore participation

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

“Maps are more than pieces of paper. They are stories, conversations, lives and songs lived out in a place and are inseparable from the political and cultural contexts in which they are used” (IFAD 2009: 4).
Participatory mapping as a research tool is growing in use. My presentation at the NCVO/VSSN research conference looked at how the project might use mapping to identify the range of opportunities and activities for engagement in the three case study areas of the study. I introduced the concept of community mapping in both developing nations and the developed world and gave the audience a flavour of how the Pathways project may use the approach. The session raised some thought provoking questions about the spaces and locations of the activity mapping sessions, how to engage ‘non-participants’, the formats of the maps and the labour and time intensity of conducting such a participatory approach.

Download the presentation here

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