a researcher's manifesto

Pragmatic research – an aspiration articulated by Laurie Ann Vasily in her dissertation “Reading One’s Life” and informed by Davydd Greenwood and Morten Levin

·         Moral – a position that would “reject the imposition of research on other human beings…”, and desire to “promote research methods that enable nonprofessional researchers to enhance their own control over their lives and their social situations” (D. J. Greenwood & Levin, 1998:95).

·         Political – whereby I “believe that research results should be useful for … local partners in gaining increased control over their own situation and that the research questions should be influenced by all parties involved in the research” (D. J. Greenwood & Levin, 1998:95).

·         Methodological – whereby I undertook “shared decision making about methods, collaborative case analysis, and teaching analytical techniques to a group of research partners,” which I believe, “produces superior results in the quality and amount of information gathered and in the depth and quality of analyses made” (D. J. Greenwood & Levin, 1998:95).

·         Theoretical – whereby I believe that “those who face social problems have much of the information and analytical capacity needed to solve them” (D. J. Greenwood & Levin, 1998:95-96).