Helen Kara
Biographic Data
| ID | 4250170 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen Kara |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen |
| FAMILY NAME | Kara |
| SIGNATURE | KARA H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Director, We Research It Ltd. |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7348-0963 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 53 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 17 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 7 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
How can we reform research ethics management to make it fit for purpose
Dissatisfaction with the prevailing systems of research ethics governance has been voiced for decades, so changing research ethics management practice is not a new idea. In fact, in some quarters, often far from Euro-Western universities and health authorities, positive change has already taken place. We discuss eight systematically selected case studies, and Indigenous research ethics, as examples of alternative frameworks. These are all value-b…
From the Mosaic approach to cultural probes
In this article, we argue for increased participant choice in early years research and beyond. Drawing on relevant literature and our own empirical work, we demonstrate that giving participants more choice leads to richer data and more robust findings. We also show that more choice for participants is closely aligned with co-creation and participatory action research (PAR) techniques. We discuss the ethical reasons for moving away from the patern…
The Handbook of Creative Data Analysis
Handbook of Creative Data Analysis
Scholarship in action
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
Including contributions on qualitative and digital research from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, this volume explores the creative and thoughtful ways in which researchers have adapted methods and rethought relationships in response to challenges arising from crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters or violent conflict.
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities to engage in collective reflection about doing research in a continuing and unfolding global public health crisis. Focusing on qualitative and digital methods and taking “crisis” as a turning point for reflection, reflexivity and positionality in research methods and ethics, this volume particularly explores qualitative, arts-based and digital methods, while reflecting on researching in “fast” an…
Considering the Autistic advantage in qualitative research
Autism is often viewed as an impairment, preventing Autistic individuals from achieving success in the world. We argue that, Autism can be an enhancement, particularly in some professional contexts, including qualitative research. However, Autistic people experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment (lower skills/part-time). The social model of neurodiversity highlights the role of inaccessible workplaces and practices. Alongside t…
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
Researching in the Age of Covid-19 Vol 2
As researchers have begun to adapt to the continuing presence of COVID-19, they have also begun to reflect more deeply on fundamental research issues and assumptions. Researchers around the world have responded in diverse, thoughtful and creative ways - from adapting data collection methods to fostering researcher and community resilience, while also attending to often urgent needs for care. This book, part of a series of three Rapid Responses, c…
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
The Potential Role of Comics in Teaching Qualitative Research Methods
This article argues that comics have a potentially positive role to play in supporting the teaching of qualitative research methods in higher education. It tells the story of the creation and use of a short pedagogical comic. We begin with a brief review of the literature around the use of comics in teaching. Then we offer two first-person accounts. Independent researcher Helen Kara narrates her creation of Conversation with a Purpose, designed a…
Euro-Western research and ethics
Euro-Western societies value some different principles and ideas from Indigenous societies (although of course there are also areas of overlap). For example, the principle of autonomy is highly valued in most Euro-Western societies, while the principle of collectivity is highly valued in many African societies (de Vries and Henley, 2014: 80). Also, there are a range of Euro-Western epistemologies and ontologies. Nevertheless, most Euro-Western on…
Is It Time to Re-Evaluate the Ethics Governance of Social Media Research
This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-l…
Research Ethics in the Real World
Research ethics and integrity are growing in importance as academics face increasing pressure to win grants and publish, and universities promote themselves in the competitive HE market. Research Ethics in the Real World is the first book to highlight the links between research ethics and individual, social, professional, institutional, and political ethics. Drawing on Indigenous and Euro-Western research traditions, Helen Kara considers all stag…
Presenting and representing others
The ethics of research representation are rarely discussed. Yet representation can have a significant impact on research participants and audiences. This paper draws on some of the limited body of accounts of ethical challenges experienced in representing others in qualitative research. These accounts make clear that researchers often have to choose between ‘competing goods’ when representing others, such as participant control over what is prese…
New directions in qualitative research ethics
No abstract available
Reflective commentaries
Identity and power in co-produced activist research
Methodologies such as participatory, feminist, or co-produced research aim to democratise research practice. These kinds of methodologies are devised and embraced by activists as they work to shift the balance of power. Activists and researchers can be uneasy bedfellows, and trying to be both activist and researcher can lead to identity confusion and communication problems. Yet within democratic research practice, researchers and others are often…
Participants’ productive disruption of a community photo-elicitation project
This article reports on an attempt to use photo-elicitation to explore contested intergenerational perceptions and experiences of ‘place’ in one English village. Participants actively disrupted the photo-elicitation project and ended up co-creating an enriched research design that allowed them to represent how they experienced ‘place’. The spontaneous, mixed media-elicitation that resulted overturns some of the more straightforward notions that a…
Creative research methods in the social sciences
It's hard to tell how research feels
Purpose This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion. Design/methodology/approach The author reflects on her “lived experience” of conducting doctoral research, five years earlier and re‐searched for the paper, by composing a fictional narrative that aims to capture some of the emotional and other complexities of the process. Findings The author…
Presenting and representing others
The ethics of research representation are rarely discussed. Yet representation can have a significant impact on research participants and audiences. This paper draws on some of the limited body of accounts of ethical challenges experienced in representing others in qualitative research. These accounts make clear that researchers often have to choose between ‘competing goods’ when representing others, such as participant control over what is prese…
Identity and power in co-produced activist research
Methodologies such as participatory, feminist, or co-produced research aim to democratise research practice. These kinds of methodologies are devised and embraced by activists as they work to shift the balance of power. Activists and researchers can be uneasy bedfellows, and trying to be both activist and researcher can lead to identity confusion and communication problems. Yet within democratic research practice, researchers and others are often…
Participants’ productive disruption of a community photo-elicitation project
This article reports on an attempt to use photo-elicitation to explore contested intergenerational perceptions and experiences of ‘place’ in one English village. Participants actively disrupted the photo-elicitation project and ended up co-creating an enriched research design that allowed them to represent how they experienced ‘place’. The spontaneous, mixed media-elicitation that resulted overturns some of the more straightforward notions that a…
Is It Time to Re-Evaluate the Ethics Governance of Social Media Research
This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-l…
New directions in qualitative research ethics
No abstract available
Considering the Autistic advantage in qualitative research
Autism is often viewed as an impairment, preventing Autistic individuals from achieving success in the world. We argue that, Autism can be an enhancement, particularly in some professional contexts, including qualitative research. However, Autistic people experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment (lower skills/part-time). The social model of neurodiversity highlights the role of inaccessible workplaces and practices. Alongside t…
Reflective commentaries
It's hard to tell how research feels
Purpose This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion. Design/methodology/approach The author reflects on her “lived experience” of conducting doctoral research, five years earlier and re‐searched for the paper, by composing a fictional narrative that aims to capture some of the emotional and other complexities of the process. Findings The author…
Creative research methods in the social sciences
Participants’ productive disruption of a community photo-elicitation project
This article reports on an attempt to use photo-elicitation to explore contested intergenerational perceptions and experiences of ‘place’ in one English village. Participants actively disrupted the photo-elicitation project and ended up co-creating an enriched research design that allowed them to represent how they experienced ‘place’. The spontaneous, mixed media-elicitation that resulted overturns some of the more straightforward notions that a…
Presenting and representing others
The ethics of research representation are rarely discussed. Yet representation can have a significant impact on research participants and audiences. This paper draws on some of the limited body of accounts of ethical challenges experienced in representing others in qualitative research. These accounts make clear that researchers often have to choose between ‘competing goods’ when representing others, such as participant control over what is prese…
New directions in qualitative research ethics
No abstract available
Reflective commentaries
Identity and power in co-produced activist research
Methodologies such as participatory, feminist, or co-produced research aim to democratise research practice. These kinds of methodologies are devised and embraced by activists as they work to shift the balance of power. Activists and researchers can be uneasy bedfellows, and trying to be both activist and researcher can lead to identity confusion and communication problems. Yet within democratic research practice, researchers and others are often…
Euro-Western research and ethics
Euro-Western societies value some different principles and ideas from Indigenous societies (although of course there are also areas of overlap). For example, the principle of autonomy is highly valued in most Euro-Western societies, while the principle of collectivity is highly valued in many African societies (de Vries and Henley, 2014: 80). Also, there are a range of Euro-Western epistemologies and ontologies. Nevertheless, most Euro-Western on…
Is It Time to Re-Evaluate the Ethics Governance of Social Media Research
This article reports on a U.K. workshop on social media research ethics held in May 2018. There were 10 expert speakers and an audience of researchers, research ethics committee members, and research institution representatives. Participants reviewed the current state of social media ethics, discussing well-rehearsed questions such as what needs consent in social media research, and how the public/private divide differs between virtual and real-l…
Research Ethics in the Real World
Research ethics and integrity are growing in importance as academics face increasing pressure to win grants and publish, and universities promote themselves in the competitive HE market. Research Ethics in the Real World is the first book to highlight the links between research ethics and individual, social, professional, institutional, and political ethics. Drawing on Indigenous and Euro-Western research traditions, Helen Kara considers all stag…
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
Researching in the Age of Covid-19 Vol 2
As researchers have begun to adapt to the continuing presence of COVID-19, they have also begun to reflect more deeply on fundamental research issues and assumptions. Researchers around the world have responded in diverse, thoughtful and creative ways - from adapting data collection methods to fostering researcher and community resilience, while also attending to often urgent needs for care. This book, part of a series of three Rapid Responses, c…
Researching in the Age of Covid-19
The Potential Role of Comics in Teaching Qualitative Research Methods
This article argues that comics have a potentially positive role to play in supporting the teaching of qualitative research methods in higher education. It tells the story of the creation and use of a short pedagogical comic. We begin with a brief review of the literature around the use of comics in teaching. Then we offer two first-person accounts. Independent researcher Helen Kara narrates her creation of Conversation with a Purpose, designed a…
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
Including contributions on qualitative and digital research from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, this volume explores the creative and thoughtful ways in which researchers have adapted methods and rethought relationships in response to challenges arising from crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters or violent conflict.
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
Qualitative and Digital Research in Times of Crisis
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities to engage in collective reflection about doing research in a continuing and unfolding global public health crisis. Focusing on qualitative and digital methods and taking “crisis” as a turning point for reflection, reflexivity and positionality in research methods and ethics, this volume particularly explores qualitative, arts-based and digital methods, while reflecting on researching in “fast” an…
Considering the Autistic advantage in qualitative research
Autism is often viewed as an impairment, preventing Autistic individuals from achieving success in the world. We argue that, Autism can be an enhancement, particularly in some professional contexts, including qualitative research. However, Autistic people experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment (lower skills/part-time). The social model of neurodiversity highlights the role of inaccessible workplaces and practices. Alongside t…
Scholarship in action
The Handbook of Creative Data Analysis
Handbook of Creative Data Analysis
How can we reform research ethics management to make it fit for purpose
Dissatisfaction with the prevailing systems of research ethics governance has been voiced for decades, so changing research ethics management practice is not a new idea. In fact, in some quarters, often far from Euro-Western universities and health authorities, positive change has already taken place. We discuss eight systematically selected case studies, and Indigenous research ethics, as examples of alternative frameworks. These are all value-b…
From the Mosaic approach to cultural probes
In this article, we argue for increased participant choice in early years research and beyond. Drawing on relevant literature and our own empirical work, we demonstrate that giving participants more choice leads to richer data and more robust findings. We also show that more choice for participants is closely aligned with co-creation and participatory action research (PAR) techniques. We discuss the ethical reasons for moving away from the patern…
Sociology (17 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Political science (11 works) · Social science (11 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Qualitative research (8 works) · Engineering (7 works) · Engineering ethics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Participatory Visual Research Methods (5 works)