‘Alongside but not in front’ :  Reflections on engagement, disengagement and ethics in action research with workers

Wolfson, Todd; Huws, Ursula; Farrar, James M; Aslam, Yaseen

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.1.0104

ScienceOpen: research and publishing network

For Publishers

For Researchers

Blog
About

Search
Advanced search

983

views

recommends

Call for Papers: Hierarchies of domesticity – spatial and social boundaries. Deadline for submissions is 30^th September, 2024. Full details can be read here.

Articles to be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography) and submitted in two forms: an anonymised version in which all references to the authors’ institution and publications are omitted; and a full version including the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations. For complete instructions on style, formatting, etc., please consult: https://www.plutojournals.com/wp-content/uploads/WOLG-Instructions-for-Authors2023.pdf

scite_

Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Volume 16, Issue 1

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: found

Is Open Access

‘Alongside but not in front’ : Reflections on engagement, disengagement and ethics in action research with workers

Published

research-article

Author(s): Todd Wolfson , Ursula Huws , James Farrar , Yaseen Aslam

Publication date Pub: 14 May 2022

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: Action research, ethics, workers’ inquiries, history of social research

Bookmark

Abstract

This article starts by summarising the history of socially-engaged research on disadvantaged groups, pointing out that many of the social research methods currently in use in the field originated outside the academy, carried out by protagonists with a mission to draw attention to injustices and bring about social change. It then discusses the often-problematic relationship between researchers and the people whose working lives they research, especially in situations where the researchers are actively engaged in the struggles of their research subjects, for example when using methods such as workers’ inquiries or forms of action research. Two experienced researchers who have also themselves been active in workers’ organisations reflect on these issues in the form of a dialogue, a dialogue to which some workers who have been on the receiving end of such research respond. The article concludes by raising some further questions for future debate.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Todd Wolfson:

Bio :

Todd Wolfson is Co-director of the Media, Inequality and Change Center (MIC) at Rutgers University and University of Pennsylvania, USA

Ursula Huws:

Bio :

Ursula Huws is Director of Analytica Social and Economic Research in London, UK

James Farrar:

Bio :

James Farrar is General Secretary of the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) in London, UK.

Yaseen Aslam:

Bio :

Yaseen Aslam is President of the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) in London, UK

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169/workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation

Abbreviated Title: WOLG

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Electronic): 1745-6428

ISSN (Print): 1745-641X

Publication date Pub: 14 May 2022

Publication date Collection: 2022

Volume: 16

Issue: 1

Pages: 104-120

Article

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.16.1.0104

SO-VID: fa1a54ae-dfcb-44d0-b674-5c6520223ef0

License:

All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Page count

Pages: 17

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

Keywords: Action research,ethics,workers’ inquiries,history of social research

References

S. Benavides (2021) Morning Star Online, 20 September. Accessed 1 February 2022 from: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/uvw-march-alongside-us-not-front-us
T. BergerC. B. FreyG. LevinS. R. Danda (2018) ‘Uber happy? Work and wellbeing in the “gig economy”’, 68th Panel Meeting of Economic Policy. Accessed on 5 March 2022 from: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/201809_Frey_Berger_UBER.pdf
C. Booth (1886–1901) Poverty Maps of London. Retrieved 29 August 2021 from: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/download-maps
P. Bourdieu (1968) ‘Intellectual field and creative project’, Social Science Information, 8:89–119.
P. Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
P. Gaskell (1833) The Manufacturing Population of England, London: Baldwin & Cradock and Houses of Parliament.
A. GramsciJ. A. Buttigieg (1992) Prison Notebooks: European Perspectives, New York: Columbia University Press.
J. V. HallA. B. Krueger (2015) ‘An analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners in the United States’, Cambridge MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Accessed 5 March 2022 from: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w22843/w22843.pdf
M. Hoffman (2018) Militant Acts: The Role of Investigations in Radical Political Struggle, New York: SUNY Press.
R. H. Horne (1842) Condition and Treatment of the Children Exploited in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom, London: Houses of Parliament.
U. Huws (2015) ‘Saints and sinners: Lessons about work from daytime TV’, International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 11 (2):143–163.
T. Jensen (2014) ‘Welfare commonsense, poverty porn and doxosophy’, Sociological Research Online, 4 November. Accessed on 30 August 2021 from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3441
S. Kemmis (2011) ‘A self-reflective practitioner and a new definition of critical participatory action research’ in N. MocklerJ. Sachs (eds) Rethinking Educational Practice through Reflexive Inquiry, Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, 7, Dordrecht: Springer. Accessed 30 August 2021 from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-0805-1_2
H. Mayhew (1851) London Labour and the London Poor, London: Charles Griffin & Co.
O. Münch (2018) ‘Henry Mayhew and the street traders of Victorian London – a cultural exchange with material consequences’, The London Journal, 43 (1):53–71.
J. Nichols (2014) ‘Tony Benn and the five essential questions of democracy’, The Nation. Accessed 1 February 2022 from: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tony-benn-and-five-essential-questions-democracy/
R. Ovetz (2020) Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle Strategies, Tactics, Objectives, London: Pluto Press.
R. N. Rapoport (1970) ‘Three dilemmas in action research: With special reference to the Tavistock experience’, Human Relations, 23 (6):499–513.
J. Riis (1890) How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York: Charlies Scribner’s Sons.
J. S. Rowntree (1901) Poverty: A Study of Town Life, London: Macmillan.
B. Somekh (2005) Action Research: A Methodology for Change and Development, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
G. W. Stocking Jr. (1992) The Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology, Chicago: University of Wisconsin Press.
E. Stringer (2004) Action Research in Education, Harlow: Pearson.
I. B. Wells-Barnett (1899) Lynch Law in Georgia, Chicago: Anti-Lynching Bureau.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] S. Benavides (2021) Morning Star Online, 20 September. Accessed 1 February 2022 from: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/uvw-march-alongside-us-not-front-us

[2] T. BergerC. B. FreyG. LevinS. R. Danda (2018) ‘Uber happy? Work and wellbeing in the “gig economy”’, 68th Panel Meeting of Economic Policy. Accessed on 5 March 2022 from: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/201809_Frey_Berger_UBER.pdf

[3] C. Booth (1886–1901) Poverty Maps of London. Retrieved 29 August 2021 from: https://booth.lse.ac.uk/learn-more/download-maps

[4] P. Bourdieu (1968) ‘Intellectual field and creative project’, Social Science Information, 8:89–119.

[5] P. Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

[6] P. Gaskell (1833) The Manufacturing Population of England, London: Baldwin & Cradock and Houses of Parliament.

[7] A. GramsciJ. A. Buttigieg (1992) Prison Notebooks: European Perspectives, New York: Columbia University Press.

[8] J. V. HallA. B. Krueger (2015) ‘An analysis of the labor market for Uber’s driver-partners in the United States’, Cambridge MA: National Bureau of Economic Research. Accessed 5 March 2022 from: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w22843/w22843.pdf

[9] M. Hoffman (2018) Militant Acts: The Role of Investigations in Radical Political Struggle, New York: SUNY Press.

[10] R. H. Horne (1842) Condition and Treatment of the Children Exploited in the Mines and Collieries of the United Kingdom, London: Houses of Parliament.

[11] U. Huws (2015) ‘Saints and sinners: Lessons about work from daytime TV’, International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 11 (2):143–163.

[12] T. Jensen (2014) ‘Welfare commonsense, poverty porn and doxosophy’, Sociological Research Online, 4 November. Accessed on 30 August 2021 from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.5153/sro.3441

[13] S. Kemmis (2011) ‘A self-reflective practitioner and a new definition of critical participatory action research’ in N. MocklerJ. Sachs (eds) Rethinking Educational Practice through Reflexive Inquiry, Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, 7, Dordrecht: Springer. Accessed 30 August 2021 from: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-0805-1_2

[14] H. Mayhew (1851) London Labour and the London Poor, London: Charles Griffin & Co.

[15] O. Münch (2018) ‘Henry Mayhew and the street traders of Victorian London – a cultural exchange with material consequences’, The London Journal, 43 (1):53–71.

[16] J. Nichols (2014) ‘Tony Benn and the five essential questions of democracy’, The Nation. Accessed 1 February 2022 from: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/tony-benn-and-five-essential-questions-democracy/

[17] R. Ovetz (2020) Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle Strategies, Tactics, Objectives, London: Pluto Press.

[18] R. N. Rapoport (1970) ‘Three dilemmas in action research: With special reference to the Tavistock experience’, Human Relations, 23 (6):499–513.

[19] J. Riis (1890) How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York: Charlies Scribner’s Sons.

[20] J. S. Rowntree (1901) Poverty: A Study of Town Life, London: Macmillan.

[21] B. Somekh (2005) Action Research: A Methodology for Change and Development, Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

[22] G. W. Stocking Jr. (1992) The Ethnographer’s Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology, Chicago: University of Wisconsin Press.

[23] E. Stringer (2004) Action Research in Education, Harlow: Pearson.

[24] I. B. Wells-Barnett (1899) Lynch Law in Georgia, Chicago: Anti-Lynching Bureau.