Just Research in Contentious Times: Widening the Methodological Imagination

by Michelle Fine

In this intensely powerful and personal new text, Michelle Fine widens the methodological imagination for students, educators, scholars, and researchers interested in crafting research with communities. Fine shares her struggles over the course of 30 years to translate research into policy and practice that can enhance the human condition and create a more just world. Animated by the presence of  W.E.B. DuBois, Gloria Anzaldúa, Maxine Greene, and Audre Lorde, the book examines a wide array of critical participatory action research (PAR) projects involving school pushouts, Muslim American youth, queer youth of color, women in prison, and children navigating under-resourced schools. Throughout, Fine assists readers as they consider sensitive decisions about epistemology, ethics, politics, and methods; critical approaches to analysis and interpretation; and participatory strategies for policy development and organizing. Just Research in Contentious Times  is an invaluable guide for creating successful participatory action research projects in times of inequity and uncertainty. “It is nearly impossible to capture the stunning effect of Just Research in Contentious Times. The chapters create a gut punch for research and its impact on participants and on the researchers themselves. It reveals that we are all guilty and also all vulnerable.”
—Yvonna Lincoln, Texas A&M University “Just Research in Contentious Times is beyond inspiring. This book is teeming with heartfelt practical examples of what knowledge production for human freedom and justice requires of us.”
—Joyce E. King, Georgia State University “This book offers the reader insight on how to capture a dynamic, balanced, and realistic portrait of people who face impossible odds.”
—William E. Cross, professor emeritus, Graduate Center, CUNY

Genres: Education

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2017

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a masterful book. It should be compulsory reading for every doctoral student coming into a programme. It starts with the question - why are some research questions valued over others? Further, what do those research questions tell us about the audience for the answer?

This book - inspired by Gramsci (who is making a serious resurgence in critical theory in the 2010s) - is inspirational and instructional. If scholars wish to make a difference - from the conceptualization of a project through to its dissemination - then this book enables this project.

[thalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this in our Feminist Methods class. It was incredibly powerful, and really challenged so many “normalized” notions, methods, and epistemologies. Fine is brilliant, and her work is so well done and ethically sound. Definitely recommend for any people interested in research methods, knowledge production, and archival work.

[Hannah Silver · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning about critical participatory action research, and being privy to this researcher's thoughtful self-reflection on "how privilege shapes what we know and more so what we don't." Great examples of what critical PAR can look like.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually fantastic and readable for lots of people not just researchers.