The Politics of Access in Fieldwork

Abstract

Gaining access in fieldwork is crucial to the success of research, and may often be problematic because it involves working in complex social situations. This paper examines the intricacies of access, conceptualizing it as a fluid, temporal and political process that requires sensitivity to social issues and to potential ethical choices faced by both researchers and organization members. Our contribution lies in offering ways in which researchers can reflexively negotiate the challenges of access by: 1. Underscoring the complex and relational nature of access by conceptualizing three relational perspectives -instrumental, transactional and relational -proposing the latter as a strategy for developing a diplomatic sensitivity to the politics of access; 2. Explicating the political, ethical and emergent nature of access by framing it as an ongoing process of immersion, backstage dramas, and deception; and 3. Offering a number of relational micropractices to help researchers negotiate the complexities of access. We illustrate the challenges of gaining and maintaining access through examples from the literature and from Rafael's attempts to gain access to carry out fieldwork in a Police Force.

Recommended Practices for Academics to Initiate and Manage Research Partnerships With Organizations

“…To date, very little has been written on how academics can develop productive research partnerships with organizations. Some work has provided guidance on how qualitative researchers can develop relationships with interviewees (Cunliffe & Alcadipani, 2016;Cunliffe & Karunanayake, 2013;Feldman, Bell, & Berger, 2003;Peticca-Harris, deGama, & Elias, 2016).…”

Voicing researched activists with responsive action research

“…The following account will use vignettes (Barter and Renold, 2000;Humphreys, 2005;Learmonth and Humphreys, 2012), to capture the experiences of being a subject Gaining access to research sites is a major challenge for many researchers (Cunliffe and Alcadipani, 2016). Most of the literature examines the issue from the viewpoint of the researcher, however, as a member of Pagkaki, I have regularly experienced the issues around access, i.e.…”

Negotiations and Research Bargains

“…As stated by Feldman, Bell, and Berger (2003) and Grant (2017), access processes from this perspective can be seen as stretched out in time, unfolding through phases and as such are continuous, dynamic, unstable, and dependent on social relations between the researchers and the researched. Cunliffe and Alcadipani (2016) expand on this matter in their discussion of the micropolitical aspects of access negotiation, as they demarcate instrumental, transactional, and relational access as three types of relationship that range from the formal and the contractual to the personal and which commonly characterize both processes and relations between the subjects involved in a research project.…”

“…Central to how such bargains take form is local micro-politics and more specifically, power symmetries between researchers and representatives or local gatekeepers associated with research sites (Crowhurst, 2013;Crowhurst & Kennedy-Macfoy, 2013;Emmel, Hughes, Greenhalgh, & Sales, 2007). Bell and Bryman (2007) contest that researchers in organizational and management fields are often in a relatively weak position in relation to gatekeepers such as managers and that access to organizations therefore often involves offering deliverables such as the provision of training or feedback in return (see also Cunliffe & Alcadipani, 2016). Other ways that gatekeepers impact research bargains are requirements on research design, control of publication, and limitations to research dissemination (Clark, 2010;Punch, 1986).…”

“…Deception on the part of the researcher has also been discussed in relation to how consent and information are dealt with in research bargains (Punch, 1986). Researchers might consciously practice deception by withholding at least part of their research purposes in order to secure access (Cunliffe & Alcadipani, 2016).…”