Methodology literature and tutors often encourage students and researchers to reflect on professional ideals and the researcher's ethical responsibility, but rarely give concrete advice on what can be done in practice. The researcher brings his own experiences into interviews and data collection, and a lack of reflection on his own point of view and his own behavior can change and degrade data.
In this seminar PhD candidates will be trained in how the choice of theories, research questions and the writing work is governed by, among other things, the researcher's gender, class and experiences. The goal is to clarify how the researcher situates himself or herself in practice.
Questions to be addressed are: How can the researcher position himself in practice? What are the informants really talking about? Can power be removed in research relationships? What is the researcher's situation, role and dilemmas in the research process? What is the significance of the situation when the researcher prints out the data?
Cecilie Basberg Neumann is Professor in sociology at Oslo Metropolitan University. She holds a PhD in Criminology from University of Oslo. Neumann’s research centres on professionals, institutions, power, gender, and care. The past ten years , her research has focused on the child protection services and their work with children and children’s integrity in out-of-home placement in residential institutions. She has also studied diplomats handling of the international criticism against Norwegian child protection practices. Accordingly, she is interested in the gendered working conditions of social workers and their personal, professional, and institutional possibilities to fulfilling their obligations towards children and their families.
Her most recent book is Power, Culture and Situated Research Methodology (Palagrave, 2018, co-authored with Iver B. Neumann). She has also published in journals like European Journal of Social Work, Millennium: Journal International Studies, Hypatia, Gender, Work and Organization, European Journal of International Relations and recently, Journal of Social Policy.
How do I sign up for the course:
Applications to join the course should contain a 1-page sketch of the dissertation project and a CV.
Application deadline: 16 October 2023.
You sign up by sending an e-mail to Kari Andersen
Notice of acceptance will be given shortly after.
About the paper:
Participants will be asked to hand in paper of maximum 3000 words, where they reflect on their own material in light of some of the readings assigned. The papers will be pre-circulated among the participants ahead of the seminar.
All participants will also be asked to comment on the papers of others. There will be a course curriculum that participants should have read before they write their paper. The working language will be English.
Deadline for paper: 31 October 2023.
Please send your paper to: Kari Andersen
3 ECTS points
Program
Monday 6 November
1015-1200 Lecture
1200-1230 Lunch
1300-1500 Lecture
1515-1600 Papers
Tuesday 7 November
1015-1200 Papers
1200-1230 Lunch
1230-1400 Papers
1415-1600 Papers
Readings
Key text
Neumann and Neumann, 2018: Power, Culture and Situated research methodology, Palgrave
Cases
Neumann, Cecilie Basberg, 2017: “A Dangerous Subject: The Fashion Model and the Beauty/Narcissism Double Bind”, Hypatia, 32(2).
Neumann, Iver B., 2007, ‘,“A Speech That the Entire Ministry May Stand for,” or: Why Diplomats Never Produce Anything New’ International Political Sociology, Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2007, Pages 183–200,
Brigg, Morgan and Bleiker, Roland, 2010: Autoethnographic International Relations: Exploring the Self as a Source of Knowledge, Review of International Studies
Elisabeth Dauphinee, 2013, The Politics of Exile, Routledge ch 1-3 (the rest of the book is recommended reading).
Neumann and Gundersen, 2018 “Care parading as service: Negotiating recognition and equality in user-controlled personal assistance”, Gender, Work and Organization