Identity Politics: Participatory Research and Its Challenges Related to Social and Epistemic Control

ABSTRACT

Over the past 20 years, the participation of laypersons or representatives of civil society has become a guiding principle in processes of research and innovation. There is now a significant literature discussing collaboration between civil society organisations (CSOs) and researchers, with two interesting gaps. Firstly, the fact that research is mainly conducted within projects is often underestimated, although the format significantly frames knowledge production. Secondly, researchers and civil society organisations are closely related to their respective communities. We argue that this constellation – of project-related format, in combination with a strong relationship to communities – results in conflicts that express and lead to identity politics. The analysis is based on conceptual considerations as well as empirical findings, which were developed within the EC-funded CONSIDER project (2012–2015). It can be shown that identity politics is performed by socio-epistemic tactics, which are used to order the socially as well as epistemically hybrid space within projects. To explain differences in conflict intensity, we suggest the distinction between weakly tied and strongly tied identity politics. In sum, identity politics can be seen as one key element for social as well as epistemic control in transdisciplinary research projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity politics
• epistemic tactics
• participatory research
• research projects
• transdisciplinarity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The cases are named first after the institution responsible for conducting the empirical research, and then a letter indicating the internal number of the case.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the European Commission for funding. CONSIDER was funded as part of the EU Framework Programme FP7-Science-in-Society-2011-1 under the grant agreement number: [288928].

Notes on contributors

Stefan Böschen

Stefan Böschen is Professor for Technology and Society at HumTec, RWTH Aachen, Germany. He studied chemical engineering, philosophy and sociology, and holds a diploma in chemical engineering, and a doctoral degree and habilitation in sociology. His current research focuses on the sociology of science, sociology of modernity, risk sociology, environmental research—with special emphasis on transdisciplinary and problem-oriented research—technology assessment, the analysis of risk politics, and risk communication.

Martine Legris

Martine Legris is a researcher at Lille University, France (Centre for European Research on Administration, Politics and Society (CERAPS)). She studied sociology and contemporary history. She holds a PhD in sociology and a master’s degree in history. She is an internationally recognised scholar in sociology, is published in SHS and active across the fields of participatory sciences and participatory democracy, and critical research.

Simon Pfersdorf

Simon Pfersdorf studied political sciences, law and economics. He has a PhD in sociology. His research interests are on the one hand the participation of public actors in research and development, and on the other hand the implications of postmodern societal evolution on management practices. He currently works as a consultant and facilitator for leadership development and organisational change.

Bernd Carsten Stahl

Bernd Carsten Stahl is Professor of Critical Research in Technology, and Director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. His interests cover philosophical issues arising from the intersections of business, technology and information. These include ethical questions of current and emerging information and computer technologies (ICTs), critical approaches to information systems, and issues related to responsible research and innovation.