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Prof. Dr. Stefan ThomasProfessor for Empirical Social Researchand Social WorkUniversity of Applied Science, PotsdamSocial Work FacultyFriedrich-Ebert-Str. 414467 Potsdam, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]
Participatory Research Methods –
Communicative Research Forums and Social Self-
Clarification
Stefan Thomas
Participation – Beyond Research?
Participation as an epistemological means of and a methodological tool for fulfilling central claims of qualitative inquiry
Stefan Thomas
1. A Participatory Research Project
Stefan Thomas
St. Ursulaheim - Social Services for Homeless People
Key-features of St.Ursula-Services
Rules of the house
democratically set up by clients
Residential Housing offering "wrap around" services
Drop-in Centre (Wärmestube)
6 1/2 of 18 positions staffed
with ex-clients/inhabit
ants
Ambulant Medical Treatment (Pflasterstube)
Open access to all institutional
committees
Institutional platform for a
grassroots organization of
homeless peopleA culture of institutional
participation and political
engagement
Stefan Thomas
The Research Project
We established a participatory research approach over the last 3 years
Everyone who works and lives in the St. Ursula Shelter can participate
1. Workshop
Formation of the research team consisting ofclients - professionals - researchers
Joined construction of the research question
Stefan Thomas
Results of the first workshop:Research Question
2. Workshop: Collecting narratives about “the road to St. Ursula”
Invitation to an open discussion to all inhabitants of the residential home
First interviews about the “road to St. Ursula”
Stefan Thomas
3. to 6. Workshop
Training in scientific methodsUnderstanding scientific methods
Introduction in interview construction Interview training Joint interviews Developing an digital archive about the
history of the institution Training in methods of data analysis Collaborative interpretation workshops
Stefan Thomas
2. Theses for Participatory Research Methods
Stefan Thomas
PRM and Qualitative Research
openness towards the research topic communication as a central means of the
research process importance of socio-cultural meaning and
subjective interpretations Theorization based on the everyday
understanding/notions of everyday life
Stefan Thomas
Communicative research forums
from belief to intersubjectivity to discursive truth
communicative research forums as a tool to build up spheres of (counter) public
The research participants do research on the contradictions and restrictions of their daily practices. The research forum starts with the articulation of the individual’s perspective on a subject/problem but it may become a deliberation of general interests prevalent among the participants trough the public discourse
Stefan Thomas
Social Self-Clarification
The project on social self-clarification aims on initiating a self-reflexive discourse on the psychosocial conditions of good living, satisfaction and prosperity. This includes the question on the societal restrictions of individual and social wellbeing and development caused by unjust, unequal, irrational living conditions
Stefan Thomas
Science and social self-clarification
The task of science: Initiating public spheres of social self-clarification: Scientific theory stays in touch with the definitions,
notions and problems of everyday practices Theory and method becomes scientific tools to get
in a reflexive distance to everyday practices Science makes explicit what everyday practices
already knows implicitly Science fosters the claims of an open discourse by
its self-reflexive and rational standards in the course of deliberate reasoning
(Critical) Science refuses personalization of social problems by focusing on social structures and the societal intermediation of individual existence
Prof. Dr. Stefan ThomasProfessor for Empirical Social Researchand Social WorkUniversity of Applied Science, PotsdamSocial Work FacultyFriedrich-Ebert-Str. 414467 Potsdam, GermanyE-Mail: [email protected]
Thanks for your
attention!
