“On slippery ground” – beyond the innocence of collaborative knowledge production: Beyond the innocense of collaborative knowledge production

Bidragets oversatte titel: På usikker grund: På den anden side af uskyldighed i samarbejdende vidensproduktion

Birgitte Ravn Olesen, Helle Merete Nordentoft

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this article is to discuss the ethical complexity and dilemmas, which arise in the coproduction of knowledge between researchers and other participants.

Design/methodology/approach
The starting-point for the article is a narrative from a conference we attended where we, as researchers, found ourselves on slippery and emotionally charged ground. Using a critical, reflexive approach informed by poststructuralism, our ambition was to deconstruct gaps between rhetoric and practice and critique normative understandings of the nature of ethically sound coproduction processes in collaborative research. More specifically, at the conference, we sought to expose and discuss the gap between our good intentions and our own practice as researchers in a collaborative research project at a major hospital. However, instead of reflexive discussions with the research community, we experienced that our conduct was criticized and categorized as unethical practice.

Findings
Instead of omitting sensitive phenomena from the research process, we argue that it is an ethical imperative to investigate these phenomena in order to gain insight into what is at stake in dialogical, reflexive processes not only between researchers and research participants – but also between researchers in the research community. An awareness of the emergent nature of power relations in all processes of knowledge production may strengthen the practical validity of “coproduced”
knowledge in action research.

Originality/value
A poststructuralist perspective on collaborative research processes reveals normative expectations regarding ethical research practice and provides insight into the tensions in collaborative research that arise irrespective of the individual competence (or not) of the researcher.
Bidragets oversatte titelPå usikker grund: På den anden side af uskyldighed i samarbejdende vidensproduktion
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftQualitative Research in Organizations and Management
Vol/bind13
Udgave nummer4
Sider (fra-til)356-367
Antal sider11
ISSN1746-5648
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 12 okt. 2018
BegivenhedCritical Management Studies - Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, Storbritannien
Varighed: 3 jul. 20175 jul. 2017
Konferencens nummer: 10
https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/business/cms2017/

Konference

KonferenceCritical Management Studies
Nummer10
LokationBritannia Adelphi Hotel
Land/OmrådeStorbritannien
ByLiverpool
Periode03/07/201705/07/2017
Internetadresse

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