ABSTRACT
An understanding of knowledge contestations about a particular social problem can be strengthened through the development of a research design that draws on multiple sources of data and incorporates methodological tools to allow the researcher to delve beneath formal texts. This chapter discusses the usefulness of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests as a research tool that could potentially provide opportunity to gain more depth in the research process, especially if combined with other methods in a multi-method qualitative research design. Reflecting on the use of FOI requests in a research project on knowledge contestations and occupational disease recognition in Ontario, this chapter specifically focuses on: (1) the identification of FOI requests as a suitable research method; (2) incorporation of FOI requests into the research design; (3) how documents accessed through FOI requests provide more in-depth understanding of the research topic; and (4) limitations experienced in using FOI requests in the research process. It is argued that research on competing knowledge claims could benefit from the inclusion of FOI requests as a method because using these requests may provide researchers access to publicly unavailable data that could offer revealing and detailed insights into the complexities of knowledge contestations.
