Piggy in the Middle

The Liminality of the Contract Researcher in Funded 'Collaborative' Research

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2642425
AutoresFarida Tilbury (Murdoch University, autor correspondente)
Ano2008
Volume12
Fascículo6
Páginas32-43
Data de publicação2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociological Research Online (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1360-7804 • E-ISSN: 1360-7804
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5153/sro.1644
OpenAlexW2110150951
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas24

This paper considers the challenges faced by contract researchers employed on interdisciplinary, cross institutional research projects. It argues that current funding requirements and a general fashion for 'collaborative' research have produced growing numbers of contract researchers employed to carry out other people's research. These contract researchers are caught, like a 'piggy in the middle', between disciplinary boundaries, geographic sites, institutional cultures, theoretical incommensurabilities and competing grantholders. Their position is made all the more difficult because such collaborations, in practice, often blur the sense of 'ownership' and therefore responsibility for the research, leaving the contract researcher responsible for operationalising and undertaking the work, but with little acknowledgement of their commitment. The paper includes a number of suggestions for dealing with such difficulties

Acknowledgement · Business · Discipline · Engineering ethics · Liminality · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Community Development and Social Impact · Engineering · Management and Organizational Studies · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics