TY - JOUR
T1 - Scaled, citizen-led, and public qualitative research
T2 - a framework for citizen social science
AU - Amirrudin, Amirah
AU - Harrigan, Nicholas
AU - Naqvi, Ijlal
PY - 2021/11/15
Y1 - 2021/11/15
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Citizen social science
KW - participatory research
KW - problem-solving sociology
KW - public sociology
KW - qualitative methods
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119124915&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00113921211056057
DO - 10.1177/00113921211056057
M3 - Article
JO - Current Sociology
JF - Current Sociology
SN - 0011-3921
ER -