Abstract
We propose a framework for citizen social science that brings together three reinforcing elements of a research project - scale, citizen-leadership, and publicness - to improve qualitative research. Our framework was born out of necessity; a desire to involve ordinary citizens, in researching public issues, with limited funding. We illustrate the application of our framework using insights from research we have led, involving first, a series of qualitative studies of state and civil society organizations working on community engagement by three separate years of public policy students; and second, a qualitative study on the system for processing salary and injury disputes for low-waged migrant workers in Singapore conducted by over 100 volunteers and activists. Drawing on a review of the literature and our own experiences, we speak to the advantages and trade-offs of adopting this approach and suggest practical methods for conducting citizen social science.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1019-1039 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Current Sociology |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 15 Nov 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.Keywords
- citizen social science
- participatory research
- problem-solving sociology
- public sociology
- qualitative methods