Fourteen Service users as peer research interviewers: why bother?
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Rachel Harding
Abstract
This chapter focuses specifically on service users’ involvement as peer research interviewers. It points out that this approach, while part of a wider methodological commitment to challenging the objectification of service users within research, represents just one method of doing so, and is notably distinct from ‘user-led’ research. It draws on two studies undertaken within the social housing sector to outline the rationale, methods and ethics of peer interviewing, and to assess its strengths, as well as its risks. It argues that through this research approach, benefits can accrue to the peer interviewer, the service user being interviewed, and the ‘quality’ of the research process and data gathered. It suggests that the benefits associated with peer interviewing are contingent on the effective management of the risks involved. It provides useful guidance on how best to minimise risk and maximise the benefits of peer interviewing, while also advocating further evaluation of the research approach.
Abstract
This chapter focuses specifically on service users’ involvement as peer research interviewers. It points out that this approach, while part of a wider methodological commitment to challenging the objectification of service users within research, represents just one method of doing so, and is notably distinct from ‘user-led’ research. It draws on two studies undertaken within the social housing sector to outline the rationale, methods and ethics of peer interviewing, and to assess its strengths, as well as its risks. It argues that through this research approach, benefits can accrue to the peer interviewer, the service user being interviewed, and the ‘quality’ of the research process and data gathered. It suggests that the benefits associated with peer interviewing are contingent on the effective management of the risks involved. It provides useful guidance on how best to minimise risk and maximise the benefits of peer interviewing, while also advocating further evaluation of the research approach.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures v
- List on contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Current developments
- Education policy and policy making, 1997–2009 13
- Children’s social care under New Labour 31
- Health policy under New Labour: not what it seems? 51
- Towards a social democratic pension system? Assessing the significance of the 2007 and 2008 Pensions Acts1 71
- Minimum income standards and household budgets 97
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Current issues and debates
- Re-connecting with ‘what unemployment means’: employability, the experience of unemployment and priorities for policy in an era of crisis 121
- Facing the ‘dark side’ of deregulation? The politics of two-tier labour markets in Germany and Japan after the global financial crisis 149
- ‘Flexibility’, xenophobia and exploitation: modern slavery in the UK 173
- Mi Familia Progresa: change and continuity in Guatemala’s social policy 199
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Service user involvement
- Service users and social policy: developing different discussions, challenging dominant discourses 227
- Participation and social justice 253
- Involving disabled children and young people in research and consultations: issues, challenges and opportunities 275
- Responding to unhappy childhoods in the UK: enhancing young people’s ‘well-being’ through participatory action research 291
- Service users as peer research interviewers: why bother? 317
- Index 337
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures v
- List on contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Current developments
- Education policy and policy making, 1997–2009 13
- Children’s social care under New Labour 31
- Health policy under New Labour: not what it seems? 51
- Towards a social democratic pension system? Assessing the significance of the 2007 and 2008 Pensions Acts1 71
- Minimum income standards and household budgets 97
-
Current issues and debates
- Re-connecting with ‘what unemployment means’: employability, the experience of unemployment and priorities for policy in an era of crisis 121
- Facing the ‘dark side’ of deregulation? The politics of two-tier labour markets in Germany and Japan after the global financial crisis 149
- ‘Flexibility’, xenophobia and exploitation: modern slavery in the UK 173
- Mi Familia Progresa: change and continuity in Guatemala’s social policy 199
-
Service user involvement
- Service users and social policy: developing different discussions, challenging dominant discourses 227
- Participation and social justice 253
- Involving disabled children and young people in research and consultations: issues, challenges and opportunities 275
- Responding to unhappy childhoods in the UK: enhancing young people’s ‘well-being’ through participatory action research 291
- Service users as peer research interviewers: why bother? 317
- Index 337
