Querying Collaboration in Research Design

Cite as:

Okune, Angela and Adams, James. 2018. "Querying Collaboration in Research Design." In PhD Orals Document: Querying Analyses of Collaboration, created by Angela Okune and James Adams. PhD Orals Document. UC Irvine Anthropology. October.

Essay Metanarrative

This section foregrounds artifacts that have looked at collaborative formations as part of the research design phase.

The following description (drafted prior to reading the works) outlines how we were thinking about this particular research life cycle phase:

AO (July 2018): Collaboration in the research design speaks to a co-construction of the research questions and project plan and research object(s) of inquiry. The most concrete contemporary example of this is usually found in development work, especially at the intersection with design thinking and user experience research who, in theory, come into a community and let them determine what areas are most interesting/relevant for them. This kind of approach harkens back further to the advent of Participatory Action Research, made famous by development scholar Robert Chambers (1984; 1994). While many scholars idealize the co-creation of research, PAR and other participatory research approaches have been critiqued for simply replicating status-quo power relations when not facilitated responsibly (Cooke and Kothari 2001).

This essay is part of a broader orals document querying collaborative formations. Works were categoried under one part of the “research life cycle” as a heuristic. Sub-essays within the orals doc can be accessed directly through the following links: Research Design (Artifacts | Analysis); Data Gathering and Production (Artifacts | Analysis); Data Analysis (Artifacts | Analysis); Artifact Production (Artifacts | Analysis); Dissemination (Artifacts | Analysis); Political Practice (Artifacts | Analysis).

Angela Okune's Orals Documents in Brief

This essay is part of three orals documents submitted by University of California, Irvine Anthropology doctoral student Angela Okune i n partial...Read more

Jentsch, Birgit, and Catherine Pilley. 2003. “Research Relationships between the South and the North: Cinderella and the Ugly Sisters?” Social Science & Medicine (1982) 57 (10): 1957–67.

AO: In this 2003 article by Birgit Jentsch and Catherine Pilley, they analyze two case studies that deal with “global North” and global South” research collaborations. The authors use the cases to conclude that Southern and Northern colleagues often share similar values...Read more

Crane, Johanna T. 2010. “Unequal ‘Partners’. AIDS, Academia, and the Rise of Global Health.” BEHEMOTH - A Journal on Civilisation 3 (3): 78–97.

Abstract: "The last decade has seen the proliferation of “global health” departments, centers, programs, and majors across top research universities in North America and Europe. This trend has been particularly pronounced in the United States, where it is connected to America’s new role as a...Read more

Rees, Tobias, insitigator. “Concept Work and Collaboration in the Anthropology of the Contemporary,” ARC Exchange, No. 1, July, 2007.

From the Introduction: "The relationship between ethnography and anthropological method is at the center of these questions raised in the Exchange presented here. On the one hand, the participants consider various questions concerning the status of ethnographic authority, and its relationship to...Read more

Halabi, Ammar, Basile Zimmermann, and Michele Courant. 2013. “Participate, Collaborate, and Decide: Defining Design Problems in a Syrian Community.” In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on ICTD, 49–52. ICTD ’13. New York, NY, USA: ACM.

Abstract: "This paper discusses an exploratory approach for identifying potential ICT design problems in a local community through collaboration with its members. We are currently participating in the activities of a volunteer community in Syria, where members appropriate Facebook and...Read more

Halpern, Megan K., Ingrid Erickson, Laura Forlano, and Geri K. Gay. “Designing Collaboration: Comparing Cases Exploring Cultural Probes as Boundary-Negotiating Objects,” 1093. ACM Press, 2013.

ABSTRACT: This paper examines the use of cultural probes as a method for fostering collaboration within groups of diverse experts working on creative projects. Using two case examples, we show that probes—short, oblique, and at times whimsical sets of activity prompts—have boundary object...Read more

Heffner, A. G. 1981. “Funded Research, Multiple Authorship, and Subauthorship Collaboration in Four Disciplines.” Scientometrics 3 (1): 5–12.

AO: This paper published in 1981 notes an increase in financial support in the sciences for collaborative research and analyzes the relationship between financial support, multiple authorship, and subauthorship in four disciplines.Read more

Sillitoe, Paul, ed. 2015. Indigenous Studies and Engaged Anthropology: The Collaborative Moment. Farnham, Surrey, UK ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Abstract: "Advancing the rising field of engaged or participatory anthropology that is emerging at the same time as increased opposition from Indigenous peoples to research, this book offers critical reflections on research approaches to-date. The engaged approach seeks to change the...Read more