Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown

Article Article scientifique Article Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown eng 2022-05-17 author Fritz Livia Bianca 0000-0001-7710-2193 448229 Service enseignement, recherche, administratif et technique (SdS) (SCSPS) author Vilsmaier Ulli author Clement Garance 973181 author Daffe Laurie author Pagani Anna 0000-0002-5370-5595 author Pang Melissa 0000-0003-1483-1588 author Gatica-Perez Daniel 0000-0001-5488-2182 author Kaufmann Vincent author Santiago Delefosse Marie 862127 author Binder Claudia R. 0000-0002-2921-9896 10.1057/s41599-022-01197-2 2662-9992 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-022-01197-2 <p>Action-oriented, transformative, and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly heralded as promising tools that enable researchers not only to produce new knowledge about a situation, but also to actively engage in tackling it; however, such approaches raise critical questions about the methodological implications and conflicts involved in pursuing multiple objectives concurrently. This article seeks to advance this debate by examining the methodological implications of pursuing both knowledge production-oriented (epistemic) and action-oriented (transformative) objectives in urgent and uncertain situations. It asks how far a transformative mixed methods research design can leverage the potential of research to achieve multiple objectives in times of crisis. This methodological inquiry is based on a transformative mixed methods study on housing conditions and well-being which was initiated during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. The study was composed of a country-wide survey, mobile crowdsourcing, interviews and Citizen Think Tanks. The results of this methodological reflection illustrate how this research design made it possible to (i) explore the effects of the crisis on domestic living spaces, (ii) engage with the crisis in a joint research space, and (iii) stimulate empowerment through reflection and mutual learning. These insights suggest the multidimensional orientation of the transformative mixed methods approach is appropriate for acting upon urgent crises. However, it challenges core methodological values and research constellations including (i) tackling unequal engagement opportunities, (ii) navigating social and epistemic control, and (iii) paying attention to situatedness and positionality. The article concludes that, in anticipation of future crises, favorable conditions for multi-targeted, collaborative research need to be fostered, both on the institutional and on personal levels. These conditions should enable fast and adequate team formation, as well as reflection and negotiation of positionalities, and divergent interests and objectives, of both scientists and citizens.</p> true Humanities & social sciences communications 9 1 d8ee4d7a-f7dc-4cfe-ad58-548708ac70ab Article (Published version) Public Fritz_et_al_2022.pdf 1670518 application/pdf CC BY-4.0 40f8979fa76c67e8283b276e65ebe16461ff09c3e40ab779f71d09db25771612 openAccess

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Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown	Humanities & social sciences communications			2022	4	72

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