Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- one Constraint and compromise: university researchers, their relation to funders and to policymaking for a multiethnic Britain
- two ‘Hating to know’: government and social policy research in multicultural Australia
- three In-group identity and the challenges of ethnographic research
- four Anthros and pimps doing the God trick: researching Muslim young people
- five Reflections of a research funder
- six The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: linking research, policy and practice
- seven The value of research for local authorities: a practitioner perspective
- Bibliography
- Index
five - Reflections of a research funder
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2022
- Frontmatter
- Content
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- one Constraint and compromise: university researchers, their relation to funders and to policymaking for a multiethnic Britain
- two ‘Hating to know’: government and social policy research in multicultural Australia
- three In-group identity and the challenges of ethnographic research
- four Anthros and pimps doing the God trick: researching Muslim young people
- five Reflections of a research funder
- six The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: linking research, policy and practice
- seven The value of research for local authorities: a practitioner perspective
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
On this occasion, it feels helpful to start with a personal introduction.
I joined the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as a senior research manager in 1998, working on social care and disability. Before then, my focus had been China, not the UK. My early beliefs (I use the word deliberately) about research had been shaped by participatory methodologies, drawing from international development studies, UK disability studies and sociology. My preferences have been for words over numbers, the collective over the individual, and the embedded over the detached, combined with healthy unease about the relations between the researcher and the researched. My beliefs on what makes research good – and what makes research influential – have evolved, and I now value a wider range of methodologies and disciplines, although some preferences run deep.
Since December 2010, I’ve been the department's Director of Policy and Research. As I pull together my thoughts for this chapter, I’m struck that its content is different from the chapter I’d have written ten, five or even two years ago. In part that is about my personal journey, but it also reflects conscious shifts in our approach at JRF. These reflect changes in the external environment, as well as some important changes in what might be termed the relations of research production and use. I want to expose these as I address the questions that have been given to me to consider. Throughout this chapter, I’ve challenged myself to be open and frank. The occasional footnotes are reminders about JRF work that illustrate the point I am making.
About JRF: heritage, identity and values
JRF is an independent endowed foundation, established in 1904 and based in York. Together with the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT), our purpose is:
To achieve lasting change for people and places in poverty; build communities where everyone is able to thrive; and contribute to a more equal society. Now and for future generations.
JRF aims to influence, inform and inspire social change – and one of the main ways we do this is through funding programmes of social research and development. As an endowed foundation, we are politically and financially independent. Importantly, we neither fund research for its own sake, nor seek impact for its own sake. We are values-led – and one of our values is that we value evidence, including the evidence that comes from rigorous social research.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Research and Policy in Ethnic RelationsCompromised Dynamics in a Neoliberal Era, pp. 123 - 144Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2015