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ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on ethics in community-based participatory research (CBPR) from inception to post-publication. Central to CBPR is a collaborative, partnership approach that recognises the strengths of partners and engages their distinctive voice and knowledge in the research process. While the ethical complexities that arise in the course of research practice in CBPR can transcend individual projects, they are also grounded in the particularity of the project, community, and research partners. This paper reflects on the experiences of two participatory social policy research projects on housing in Ireland, conducted over the past three years. These projects involved collaborating with older people living in rural areas nationwide and with residents of small communities on offshore islands. The paper explores the ethics of engagement (regarding methods of involvement and access), and the ethics of representation (incorporating the depiction and sharing of research findings) and argues that researchers must pay attention to the specificity of each project and be alive to generating an organic research ethics in how research is set up, conducted, represented, and disseminated. In so doing, we can better foster agency and authenticity in the relationships developed throughout research processes and reflect on and meet shared values and responsibilities.
Acknowledgements
The authors would also like to acknowledge the work of the research advisory groups, participatory research groups, and the survey and focus group participants, who gave so generously of their time, thoughts, and insights at a challenging time. It was a privilege to work with you.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Notes on contributors
Siobhan O’Sullivan
Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan is a lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork (UCC). Her work centres on community-based participatory and mixed-methods research with adults, children and young people. In her research, she aims to work creatively with communities on key social policy issues, including housing, regeneration, education, and social inequality. She is a research associate of the Institute for Social Science in the twenty-first century (ISS21) at UCC.
Elaine Desmond
Dr Elaine Desmond is an award winning creative writer and social researcher at the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork. She has worked on numerous projects around aging, housing, and education using innovative participatory and creative research methods. She recently completed an ethnodrama on ageism (At Your Age?!) and has written a book entitled Legitimation in a World at Risk.
Margaret Buckley
Dr Margaret Buckley is a lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork (UCC). Her research interests include housing and homelessness, education, pension policy, equality, and the history of social policy. Her work uses both quantitative and qualitative data and methods to produce evidence-based conclusions on social issues and evaluations of programmes and initiatives. She is a research associate of the Institute for Social Science in the twenty-first century (ISS21) at UCC.