The Politics of Access in Fieldwork

What is it about?

The paper addresses the challenges of gaining and maintaining access in research arguing it is an ongoing relational and political process that requires sensitivity to social issues and to potential ethical choices faced by both researchers and organization members. It offers a number of micro practices to help researchers to deal with these issues.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Gaining access to organisations to carry out research, especially qualitative research, can be a complex and lengthy process and is becoming increasingly difficult. This article explores the issues involved and offers three different forms of relationships that researchers can negotiate.