Tag: Police

Rantatalo, Lindberg, Kihlberg & Hällgren – Negotiations and Research Bargains: Bending Professional Norms in the Effort to Gain Field Access

This morning Ola received the news that our paper is available to everyone. The paper is published on an “open access” basis and as a consequence open to anyone! It details the methodological struggles that we have had with one of our projects, and the kind of challenges and opportunities that arose from those – and how we navigated the treacherous waters.

You find the paper here

Abstract
The present study provides an autoethnographic account of the efforts to gain field access to a police organization, spanning more than 2 years. The aim is to describe a case of gaining access in relation to the professional norms of science put forward by Robert K. Merton. Aided by an organized record of notes, e-mails, and other written communications regarding access (144 memos of various types), the study describes and discusses the negotiations with Mertonian norms that followed from the dissonance between ideals of research and practical reality. Opening up for further scholarly discussion, this article concludes that Merton’s norms are incongruent with both prevailing guidelines of research ethics and with the practical, short-term problems of access negotiations and research bargains.

Teaching project management to the Swedish police

The other week I had the pleasure and honor of teaching 16 managers within the Swedish police basic project management techniques. Rather than merely focusing on how to do it, we explored the consequences of the organizational form and how that may influence the individual, the project and the organization. Moreover we situated the project within the larger organization discussing and working with the challenges that follow when there is multiple projects at the same time. All in all, three full days of executive teaching and great fun!

Negotiations and research bargains: Bending professional norms in the effort to gain field access accepted for publication in International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Indonesia-Makes-Scientific-Publication-A-Graduation-Requirement-For-All-StudentsToday Ola, Robert, Ola and I had the pleasant news that their article “Negotiations and research bargains: Bending professional norms in the effort to gain field access” was  accepted for publication in International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

Worth mentioning this was Robert´s first. More to come!

Abstract

The present study provides an auto-ethnographic account of the efforts to gain field access to a police organization, spanning more than two years. The aim is to describe a case of gaining access in relation to the professional norms of science put forward by Robert K. Merton. Aided by an organized record of notes, emails and other written communications regarding access (144 memos of various types), the study describes and discusses the negotiations with Mertonian norms that followed from the dissonance between ideals of research and practical reality. Opening up for further scholarly discussion, the article concludes that Merton’s norms are incongruent with both prevailing guidelines of research ethics as well as with the practical, short-term problems of access negotiations and research bargains.

What is already known?

Obtaining field access in organizations is an increasing problem for qualitative researchers. The literature on gaining access is providing strategies that researchers can use, as well as problematizing the ethical issues involved when bargaining with organizations. However, the literature has not hitherto engaged with the problem of how access negotiations affect the types of research questions asked, the way results are presented, and, consequently, what the role of research in society ought to be.

What this paper adds?

Using Merton’s norms of science (universalism, communalism, disinterestedness and organized skepticism) as a reference, the paper shows how the realities of research bargaining are at odds with research ideals such as impartiality, rationality and, in particular, freedom and autonomy from often competing societal interests. It also shows that prevailing ethical guidelines such as ‘informed consent’ might, in the effort to gain access, be problematic in relation to these ideals. With these arguments, the paper seeks to expand the debate on the problems of access to organizations to include the role of research in society.