The Ubiquity and Invisibility of Research Failures: A Call to Share More

Abstract

Sanitized representations of research seldom convey the difficulties, trade-offs, and downright failures that so often characterize our research. Whether due to the parameters of word number or cultural self-disclosure, our professional discourses grossly misrepresent the inherent messiness and compromises of research in favor of discourses of competency and decisiveness more likely to assure acceptance and prestige. With journals, presentations, and keynotes as our only guide, we might even conclude that research failures are comparatively rare, au contraire. What Are Research Failures?Research failure in this sense does not refer to mistakes or disasters-events of, respectively, small and extensive consequence around which one's actions conceivably had little influence (Syed, 2015). Instead, research failures are defined here as situations or events of consequence in which your choices, presence, or influence contributed conceivably to an adverse or undesirable research process or outcomes. This definition permits us to ask what could and should we do differently in the face of research failure?

Migrant Communities and Participatory Research Partnerships in the Neoliberal University

“…I want to emphasize up-front that this paper should not be read as a critique of how others have approached participatory research -indeed, established and emerging scholars in this field have set a sterling example that I struggle to live up to -but rather as a reflection on the tensions and pressures that influence our work. I write in the spirit of humble reflection on my own struggles and failures (Sousa & Clark, 2019) and the ways those experiences connect to broader concerns.…”

Research Ethics in Decolonizing Research With Inuit Communities in Nunavut: The Challenge of Translating Knowledge Into Action

“…While reflexivity is crucial for our social science research, we do not apply the same thoroughness and deliberations to our research failures, and even less so to sharing the failings (Sousa & Clark, 2019). Having recently been in a phase of intense reflexivity about deficiencies of my fieldwork, I accept Sousa and Clark's (2019) challenge to rectify the curious coupling of ubiquity and invisibility of research failures, that is, to follow their call for papers for this special issue. At the same time I am answering a similar call by Morton Ninomiya and Pollock (2017) to discuss unforeseen challenges for both researchers and Indigenous communities in operationalizing ethical research principles.…”

“…In other words, research failure is a daily certainty. Indeed, conversations among researchers often revolve around personal and professional failings; however, these failures are ignored in researchers' sterilized papers, presentations, and speaker biographies (Sousa & Clark, 2019). While reflexivity is crucial for our social science research, we do not apply the same thoroughness and deliberations to our research failures, and even less so to sharing the failings (Sousa & Clark, 2019).…”

“…Indeed, conversations among researchers often revolve around personal and professional failings; however, these failures are ignored in researchers' sterilized papers, presentations, and speaker biographies (Sousa & Clark, 2019). While reflexivity is crucial for our social science research, we do not apply the same thoroughness and deliberations to our research failures, and even less so to sharing the failings (Sousa & Clark, 2019). Having recently been in a phase of intense reflexivity about deficiencies of my fieldwork, I accept Sousa and Clark's (2019) challenge to rectify the curious coupling of ubiquity and invisibility of research failures, that is, to follow their call for papers for this special issue.…”

The Video Camera Spoiled My Ethnography: A Critical Approach

“…There are several reasons to abandon a research project. Whether a project is wrought with obstacles or abandoned entirely during the research design (Gregory, 2019), data collection (Nairn et al, 2005;Watson, 2006), or coding and analysis phase (Roulston, 2011), insights can be gained from reflecting on one's research challenges and failures (Sousa & Clark, 2019). When utilizing digital media technology-in the form of audio recording, video capture, editing software, or data scraping-as part of a qualitative research technique for data collection, the media tools define what constitutes as data.…”