Читать книгу The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 121

We propose co-construction as offering a clear ethical term to describe social constructionist research with social justice politics. Co-constructionist research allows us to co-research from an alongside or within position. It encourages us to acknowledge the inevitability and impact of power relations in making something together. Social construction is not owned by those with any one group of people with specific political leanings or social conscience. It is an ideology which can be used to play significant political or interpersonal games to protect those in power and their resources. It is, in itself, neither ethical nor unethical.

Co-constructionist inquiry encourages situated research where researcher and participants collaborate, are transparent and open, and work towards creating a culture of co-production and transformation. It can be a result of negotiated and collaborative inquiry (Anderson, 1997; Anderson and Gehart, 2007; McNamee and Hosking, 2012) reflecting decolonial practice and epistemic witnessing (Pillow, 2019). Research as a listening and witnessing activity can be seen as an act of resistance (Salter, 2017a, 2018; Wade, 1997; White, 2007), can support transformation through personal and collective story-telling, and can be a form of co-production (Linds and Vettraino, 2008; Salter and Newkirk, 2019; White, 2007).

For example, the question, ‘What are they making with each other?’ is different from ‘How am I constructing what they are doing?’ and ‘What are we making with each other?’ When researchers position themselves as observers external to the observed, they must identify how they are co-constructing meaning from what they (think they) have observed. When researching reflexively from within living moments, they can inquire into their inner dialogue, with co-participants and co-respondents, to check meaning. This is co-construction.