Policy Press

Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis

Methods, Reflexivity, and Ethics

Edited by Helen Kara and Su-ming Khoo

Published

Apr 12, 2023

Page count

272 pages

ISBN

978-1447363804

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Nov 29, 2021

Page count

272 pages

ISBN

978-1447363798

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Nov 29, 2021

Page count

272 pages

ISBN

978-1447363811

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Nov 29, 2021

Page count

272 pages

ISBN

978-1447363811

Dimensions

234 x 156 mm

Imprint

Policy Press
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters, or violent conflict present numerous challenges for researchers. Faced with disruption, obstacles, and even danger to their own lives, researchers in times of crisis must adapt or redesign existing research methods in order to continue their work effectively.

Including contributions on qualitative and digital research from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the Americas, this volume explores the creative and thoughtful ways in which researchers have adapted methods and rethought relationships in response to challenges arising from crises. Their collective reflections, strategies, and practices highlight the importance of responsive, ethical, and creative research design and the need to develop methods for fostering mutual, reflexive, and healthy relationships in times of crisis.

Helen Kara has been an independent researcher since 1999 and specialises in creative research methods and ethics.

Su-ming Khoo is Senior Lecturer in Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway. She specialises in critical development studies, human rights, higher education and decolonial and transdisciplinary approaches.

Introduction - Su-ming Khoo and Helen Kara

Part 1: Reflexivity and ethics

1. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should - Ali FitzGibbon

2. Ethnography in crisis: methodology in the cracks - Zania Koppe

3. Phenomenology of lived experience: multilayered approach and positionality - Bibek Dahal

Part 2: Arts-based approaches

4. The arts of making-sense in uncertain times: arts-based research and autoethnography - Deborah Green, Amanda Levey, Bettina Evans,

Wendy Lawson, and Kathrin Marks

5. Practice-based research in times of crisis: weaving community together during lockdown - Gretchen Stolte and Lisa Oliver

6. Communicating crisis research with comics: representation, process, and pedagogy - Gemma Sou and Sarah Marie Hall

Part 3: Digital methods

7. Developing a Collaborative AutoNetnographic approach to researching doctoral students’ online experiences - Richard McGrath, Holly Bowen-Salter, Emma Milanese, and Phoebe Pearce

8. The ethical implications of using digital traces: studying explainability and trust during a pandemic - Natasha Dwyer, Hector Miller-Bakewell, Tessa Darbyshire, Anirban Basu, and Steve Marsh

9. The use of objects to enhance online social research interviews - Maged Zakher and Hoda Wassif

10. Qualitative data re-use and secondary analysis: researching in and about a crisis - Anna Tarrant and Kahryn Hughes

11. Researching older Vietnam- born migrants at a distance: the role of digital kinning - Hien Thi Nguyen, Loretta Baldassar, Raelene Wilding, and Lukasz Krzyzowski

Part 4: Recurring and longer-term crises

12. A timed crisis: Australian education, migrant Asian teachers, and critical autoethnography - Aaron Teo

13. Building relationships and praxis despite persistent obstacles - Maria Grazia Imperiale

14. Managing ethical tensions when conducting research in fragile and conflict-affected contexts - Gbenga Akinlolu Shadare

15. Beyond extraction: co-creating a decolonial and feminist research practice in post-conflict Guatemala - Aisling Walsh

Conclusion - Helen Kara and Su-ming Khoo