On Conversation and Authorship: Legal Frameworks for Collaborative Methodologies

Abstract

Collaborative methodologies are at the forefront of an academic movement seeking to recognize the way social research emerges out of interaction with social actors involved in the processes studied. However, the question of how this recognition can be expressed through authorship is rarely explored. Even though co-authorship is common in different academic fields, including social sciences, the inclusion of actors involved in the social processes studied as co-authors of academic reports is still quite rare. Thus, I here analyze the methodological and epistemological assumptions underlying traditional expressions of authorship embedded in intellectual property models, and how these can be challenged through collaborative methodologies and co-authorship dynamics. I then present a methodological approach that focuses on the co-authored construction of academic texts through conversations, which was developed through four different experiences with scholars and persons involved in different social and political initiatives.