Tom Denison & Larry Stillman
The purpose of this paper was to identify and explore academic and ethical challenges with Participatory Community Research (PCR) in the context where many universities and researchers are moving to embrace new e-Research infrastructure. A case study of a project focussing on developing electronic capacity in a deprived community in Africa is used to problematise issues. E-Research also brings its own challenges for PCR, such as: a need to clearly understand the dynamics of community based research and ethics and ethical frameworks that are responsive to this; the development of new legal ownership and access rights; the need for appropriately sensitive institutional commitment to the long-term maintenance of repositories to support continued data storage and curation; and the formation of adaptive, inter-organisational research teams which are comfortable with community and electronic interactions.
This paper appears in an issue of Information, Communication and Society of 2012 (DOI 10.1080/1369118X.2012.656138), but the Journal is copyright restricted and all that, so here is the pre-publication ms. PDF
Larry Stillman's website
