Emancipatory Research as a Tool of Change

Abstract

Research plays an important role not only in academic institutions but throughout society. It defines what counts as a legitimate intellectual or practical problem and it provides the grounds for a wide range of decisions. The questions that are chosen for research and the ways that research is conducted and used can have significant effects on inequality. This chapter is particularly concerned with debates about the role of academic research on issues of equality and inequality. It explores some of the limitations of positivist methodologies and examines the implications of adopting an emancipatory research perspective on equality issues. The chapter is based on the assumption that the purpose of academic discourse is not only to describe and explain the world, but also to change it. It shares its intellectual and epistemological origins with critical theory (as developed by Habermas (1971) in particular), Marxism and other interdisciplinary fields of investigation focused on transformative action including women’s studies and disability studies. The basic questions it asks are therefore not only descriptive or explanatory; they are also visionary and utopian. It attempts to develop an alternative model of research to the model that dominates work in contemporary academic settings.