Method at the Margins: Innovating in race-conscious research in Britain

Over the past decades, researchers and research institutions have reflected on the public value of their work (Nurse, 2015). Race-conscious scholars across the social sciences have shed light on how race/ism and the legacies of empire have shaped how research is produced and used (Arday & Mizra, 2018; Saini, 2019). Despite the impact of this scholarship - and growing support for a more equitable agenda - little space exists to support learning from this work (Palmer, 2016).

This PhD will take up a focus on how research is made, with and for whom, as central to the social benefits of knowledge production (Flinders, 2020). It aims to build on work by Tuhiwai Smith (2012) and others who address methodology as a site from which to examine research practice, the contexts in which research problems are conceptualised, and the implications of research for participants and communities. It proposes an examination of the marginal intellectual traditions that inform 'race-conscious' scholarship in Britain and will investigate in three case studies how race-conscious scholars are positing new possibilities for the social impacts of research.

The project will be guided by two overarching research questions.

RQ 1. What approaches to methodology and method appear in the work of race-conscious scholars and intellectuals in Britain, 1960-present?
RQ 2. What approaches to methodology and method are being used by race-conscious scholars today, in three case study research centres?

A systematically conducted literature review of race-conscious writing from 1960 to present will establish a theoretical and analytic framework for the study. This will build on existing work and include relevant non-academic archival sources (such as the Birmingham CCCS archives; publications of the Institute of Race Relations), journal and database searches. Three research centres with a substantial focus on race/ism will be selected for case study. Documentary analysis and interviews will explore research projects. An approach to case comparison will be developed from iterative analysis of emergent themes (May, 2011).

The project aims to generate a theoretically and historically grounded understanding of key developments in race-conscious research in Britain in relation to research method, practice, participation and ethics.

References

Arday. J & Mizra, H. S. (2018) Dismantling Race in Higher Education. Eds Arday. J & Mizra, H. S. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Flinders, M. (2020) Fit for the Future: Research Leadership Matters. Swindon: ESRC.
Gough, D. & Thomas, J. (2016) 'Systematic reviews of research in education: aims, myths and multiple methods' Review of Education. Vol. 4, No. 1. pp 84-102.
May, T. (2011) Social research: Issues, Methods and Research. Fourth Edition. New York: Open University Press.
Nurse, P. (2015) Ensuring a successful research endeavour: review of the UK research councils by Paul Nurse, London: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.
Palmer, L. A. (2016) 'The absence of black studies in Britain' in Blackness in Britain. London: Routledge.
Saini, A. (2019) Superior: The Return of Race Science. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Second Edition. London: Zed Books.
Warmington, P. (2009) Taking race out of scare quotes: race-conscious social analysis in an ostensibly post-racial world, Race Ethnicity and Education, 12:3, 281-296, DOI: 10.1080/13613320903178253