ABSTRACT
How can researchers use institutional ethnography (IE) (Smith 2005) to produce knowledge that is useful for social change “from below”? In this chapter we discuss this question, using the case of an ongoing pilot study exploring refugee women’s process of getting a job in a small municipality in the Agder region in Norway. We argue that the broad and long-term relevance of applied social science research relies on researchers critically investigating the knowledge that applied research projects starts out in, and is based upon. We further argue that the importance of this research also depends on researchers knowing ways of bringing new knowledge into the research process. The applied social science researcher should, at the same time as exploring research questions that different actors nd relevant and important, contribute to opening other relevant research questions and bring knowledge that is not represented nor necessarily considered relevant into the process. It may even be considered unwanted. Even if this may complicate rather than simplify the understanding of social reality, we think that this way of doing research increases the potential for bringing social change. If we as applied researchers do not bring critical perspectives on knowledge production and power into the research that we do, what makes us different from consultants highly skilled in research methods? How can we become more than allies for people representing organisations and institutions that already have a lot of power when it comes to dening social reality?
