What is relevant now? Thinking about emerging methods.
by Janet Salmons
Dr. Salmons is the Research Community Manager for Methodspace, and will serve as Mentor in Residence for June. Her most recent book from SAGE Publishing is Doing Qualitative Research Online.
In my part of the world spring has been uncertain. One day we feel promising warmth under shiny blue Colorado skies, and on the next green trees and flowers are covered with heavy snow. Meanwhile lettuce has that has refused to grow in the garden bed is sprouting up through the flagstones on the patio. It seems like nature is illustrating the back and forth we are experiencing as we bounce from post-pandemic to post-pandemic uncertainty. Researchers, whose work involves stages of planning, surely feel there are days when making progress is like trying to find a glimmer of light from under a pile of rocks!
Clearly, we will not return to the ways we conducted research, guided and taught students in 2019. While life is full of change in any era, the current time seems particularly fluid. How should we revisit methods in order to emerge with findings that will help us understand the lived experience of this time? This month on Methodspace we will do just that. We will take a new look at ways to use traditional methods for collecting and analyzing data and consider innovative methods now emerging in the field.
“Relevance: A close connection with the subject you are discussing or the situation you are in. The fact of being valuable and useful to people in their lives and work.”
Research relevance is the overarching focus on Methodspace in 2022. We started the year by reflecting on the definition of relevance and asked how research can be more valuable and useful. As noted in the initial January post, “rigorous empirical research and thoughtful interpretation are essential as we try to understand contemporary issues, find solutions to real problems, and communicate what we have learned.”
To continue the exploration launched in January we will:
Listen to journal editors. Journal editors work in the liminal space between researchers and readers, so are in a position to share insights about developments and needs. In January we posted video interviews with four journal editors. What can we learn from these editors’ observations and recommendations that will help us rethink, update, and apply methods in ways that make our studies more relevant?
Learn about managing change. Researchers do not operate in isolation. Proposals must be reviewed, ethical protections approved. Institutional expectations and disciplinary standards must be respected. If researchers change approaches, then institutional protocols will need to change as well. Taken broadly, this could entail curricular changes as well, because there is little value in training the next generation of researchers in practices that are no longer relevant. What can we learn about organizational change that will help us through these transitory times?
Look at innovative ideas emerging from the field. SAGE authors and guest contributors from across disciplines will discuss opportunities and obstacles they are encountering.
Join us on Methodspace this month for thought-provoking posts, interviews, and curated resources on emerging methods.
More Methodspace Posts about Emerging Methods
How can you study digital culture and activism? Watch this interview with Dr. Lyndon Wray.