Thinking with autoethnography in collaborative research: A critical, reflexive approach to relational ethics. (October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Phillips, Louise; Christensen-Strynø, Maria Bee; Frølunde, Lisbeth
• Other Names: Frers Lars guest-editor.; Meier Lars guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Qualitative research. Volume 22:Number 5(2022)
• Page Start: 761
• Page End: 776
• Publication Date: 2022-10
• Subjects: autoethnography -- collaborative research -- co-creation -- co-production -- participatory research -- poststructuralist strategy of reflexivity -- power -- relational ethics; Qualitative research -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; 300.72
• DOI: 10.1177/14687941211033446
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-7941

Abstract

In this article, we propose a distinctive critical, reflexive approach to relational ethics in 'collaborative, democratic and transformative' research. Underpinning the approach is the view that the buzzwords of 'collaboration' and 'co-creation/co-production' may signify equitable, symmetrical power relations and, as a result, romanticise collaborative research as straightforward processes of inclusion. The approach integrates critical, reflexive analysis of the play of power in the 'with' in 'research with, not on, people' and the 'co' in 'co-creating knowledge' into the ongoing collaborative research process. As a main method for critical, reflexive analysis, the approach uses 'thinking with' autoethnography. In the article, we illustrate the approach by showing how we 'think with' autoethnographic texts to respond to discomfort and analyse the tensions in the co-constitution of knowledge and subjectivities in the preliminary phase of a collaborative, participatory research project on dance for people with Parkinson's disease and their spouses.