Good research should never be one-sided, the researcher shouldn’t just be scrawling notes on the little ‘other’ people they observe below them. This discussion made me realise good social research is about bridging the gap between the researcher and the researched.
To do so, a researcher needs to open themselves up through sharing parts of their world, offering relatable experiences and ideas to establish trust so participants are comfortable to share their own story.
I found it’s the same idea as Patrick discussed in week 3. Rather than a formal interview, he spent months building friendships, sharing information about his own history, in particular his sexuality. This enabled his interviewees to identify with him and be comfortable enough to share stressing stories from their lives.
But to be honest, this idea of becoming vulnerable kind of scares me.
Defining research relationships is inherently difficult, but for me, the challenge is to pinpoint where to draw the line between sharing enough to build trust, and oversharing, potentially harming not only participants, but yourself as the researcher.
I think keeping yourself safe, thereby emphasising the safety of your participants, should be paramount. To me, informed consent is a vital aspect of ethical research. You need to tell people what you’re doing and why, especially in research into spaces that could be triggering or harmful, otherwise, you’re at risk of inadvertently sharing information that could harm participants, without them understanding that they are free to stop at any time. Researchers have an obligation to ensure participants are not put in an uncomfortable position.
However, there’s a fine line between friendliness and oversharing. If you get too close, you can lead participants into sharing ideas they’re not ready to give, or call into question the impartiality of your research with increased potential for bias. You want to ensure your integrity as a researcher isn’t compromised, but you can’t just enter a space and be robotic.
I think your positionality as a researcher will inevitably affect how participants respond to you. I realise that without sharing your own positionality and building solid relationships with participants, you often can’t reach the depth of knowledge and experiences you need. Navigating this space can be dangerous, but I think finding that border is something that comes from awareness and experience – trial and error. At the end of the day, you need to be empathetic, mindful, show humility and be willing to learn – all while not compromising yourself.
