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Researching Inequality Through Interpretive Collaborations

Shifting Power and the Unspoken Contract

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, lisa.dodson{at}bc.edu

Deborah Piatelli

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Leah Schmalzbauer

Montana State University, Bozeman

Researchers committed to feminist participatory research must grapple with power and vulnerability—both those of other people as well as their own. In this article, the authors argue that in the current context of sharp economic disparity, political polarization, and global conflict, researchers must undertake collaborative and even risk-taking social inquiry in order to learn about alternative lives. The authors highlight the importance of using a feminist participatory methodology with a focus on the interpretive process. Drawing on field research, they explore an innovative approach to analyzing meaning through interpretive focus groups as "safer space." The following questions are raised: Is there an ethical way to inquire into habits of life that are intentionally kept hidden? And even if individual confidentiality is ensured, what about collective confidentiality and the obligations that researchers have in a context of increasing inequality?

Key Words: inequality • power • collaboration • silence • interpretation • marginality

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