ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of the researcher in the process of constructing knowledge. We discuss how research can contribute to practice, other than by providing knowledge within already framed conceptions of the problem at hand. The case we will refer to is a PhD project focusing on women, income and social change in Zanzibar. The chapter argues that, by redening the hegemonic understanding of the relation between knowledge production and power, researchers can regard themselves as change agents, even if they do not provide “relevant” research to policy-makers. There are different ways to dene your role as an academic than either being relevant or critical, and being aware of this may contribute to making social science matter more than it does at present. We propose two alternative role-denitions: the researcher as (1) an actor who constructs another meaning during the research process, and (2) the researcher who strategically addresses the way the problem at hand is framed by powerful actors. The rst role resembles the phenomenological approach where the purpose of research is enriching the evolvement of opportunities. The latter enables an opening up of the debate that again allows marginalised interest more inuence. We present the two alternatives under the headings “constructing another meaning” and
“altering the structuring logic” towards the end of this chapter. Table 9.1 places these two approaches into an illustration of how we in this chapter understand the interplay between funder and researcher.
