ABSTRACT
The research project was auto/biographical: it contained several voices, including mine. There is, of course, considerable interest in the qualitative research literature about the interpersonal dynamics of research interviews and other encounters. The Past Times project drew on many of the ideas around in 1990, particularly in relation to participative and feminist research. Much of the concern expressed in the literature was on how to avoid using or exploiting already vulnerable people in the interests of so-called research. Even the consciously non-exploitative approach, which aimed to build trust between the researcher and the participants, was itself suspect. Qualitative research, especially where relationships are nurtured and prolonged, can take on aspects of the psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic process. The feeling of being affirmed and validated in the research process can be further developed through the ‘product’ of the research, especially if the product is a publication which gives people a voice.
