Collaborative Methodology for Political Science: A Critical Exploration

Session Submission Type: Virtual Roundtable

Session Description

Collaborative methodology is a mode of working with research stakeholders rather than on research subjects. The purpose of this panel is to define some of the practices that can fit within a collaborative methodological framework, and discuss how the notion and practice of collaborative methodologies can augment the study of political science. To some extent, participatory methodologies are already present in some areas of social scientific research – especially in qualitative studies that draw on the participatory action research (PAR) repertoire. Such studies owe a debt to the fields of development, gender and sexuality, and ecology, among others, that have sought to include the researched. In addition, there is the small, but burgeoning field of participatory numbers that advocates for the involvement of everyday people in the decision-making processes behind the generation of numbers and statistics. However, given the proscribed action of empowerment or solidarity usually ascribed to PAR work, it is typically seen as not neutral enough for causality-focused, particularly positivist, political science work.
Noticeably, collaborative approaches are not taught in many political science graduate programs and are not the subject of active methodological debates. Where they do occur, methodological strategies of inclusion have been riddled with ethical and practical challenges. This panel presents papers from a forthcoming July 2021 symposium in PS: Political Science and Politics, which explores how some of the lessons from utilizing collaborative research can be applied to a range of research scenarios, from quantitative to qualitative approaches, as well as what the concerns and challenges are for utilizing these methods for political scientists from different epistemological perspectives.

Sub Unit

• Division 46: Qualitative Methods

Chair

• Mneesha Gellman Emerson College

Presenters

• Susan M. Thomson Colgate University

• Lauren M. MacLean Indiana University, Bloomington

• Jennifer Cyr Universidad Torcuato di Tella

• Thomas E. Flores George Mason University

• Naomi Levy Santa Clara University

• Julie Norman UCL

• Pamina Firchow Brandeis University