B1.1 Optional Reflective Activity - Your research context

This exercise is about recognising the extent of elements surrounding every research project. It is most effective when related to your own research as the first step and then expanded to consider research activities more generally. The lists created in this activity can be used later in other reflective activities or independently as a way of mapping your research context.

A useful tool to understand context is to consider stakeholders. Stakeholders are individuals, groups, and collectives either influencing the research project or are influenced by the research project. Stakeholders typically have their own interests and motivations. Therefore the research project and stakeholders often interact and influence each other.

It will be helpful to consider the potential stakeholders of your research from the following list:

Within your research area -

• your colleagues, supervisors, other research groups
  
• sources of data - research subjects, environment, animals, documents
  

Immediate context of your research

• institutions (department/faculty),
  
• funding bodies,
  
• graduate school
  
• Users of research results - who will use it, who will benefit (or not), who delivers results to users
  

External context of your research

• society,
  
• research legislation and
  
• funding structure
  

The stakeholder list you have created has many different types of stakeholders. They may all have interests, but these interests are not all similar or equal. Many ethical challenges in research work come down to competing interests between stakeholders. These competing interests can relate to rights and responsibilities each stakeholder may have or there may be conflicts between different values attached to goals or reasons for doing research.

The stakeholder list is an important tool for managing ethical aspects of your research. it becomes even more useful, if you are able to identify for each stakeholder their

• rights,
  
• responsibilities and
  
• intentions
  

Identifying these is often helped by asking:

• How can these stakeholders influence how the research is carried out?
  
• How are these stakeholders influenced by the research results or the chosen methodology?
  
• Do the stakeholders have expectations on the results or methodology of the research? and why would they have these expectations?