Doing Research in Complex Interwoven Research Engagements

Abstract

When we conduct empirical work within CSCW research, we engage ourselves with various people, fields, domains, and topics which are part of the contexts which we study and/or are designing for. In many situations, the field, we study comprises interwoven multiplicities of technologies, artefacts, infrastructures, and people, which cannot easily be separated during fieldwork, in the analysis of the data, or in the write-up and presentation of the results. In these situations, we as researchers, produce specific engagements with our context of interests - and these engagements shape and challenge the kind of research we can do, are allowed to do, ethically can do, ethically are allowed to do, as well as what we want to do. In this panel, we will discuss what it means to do research as complex interwoven research engagements, and which methodological and ethical challenges which arises.