American Journal of Community Psychology: Collaboration and social inquiry: multiple meanings of a construct and its role in creating useful and valid knowledge.

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Collaboration and social inquiry: multiple meanings of a construct and its role in creating useful and valid knowledge.

Edison J. Trickett

Throughout the behavioral and social sciences a wave of enthusiasm about collaboration between scholars, interventionists, and citizens is rising. It is taking many forms and ranges widely across substantive and methodological areas. Epistemological virtues of collaboration are elaborated by feminist scholars (e.g. Harding, 1987; Reinharz, 1992; Riger, 1993), community psychologists (Kingry-Westergaard & Kelly, 1990; Trickett, 1996), and program evaluators (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Guba & Lincoln, 1989; Lincoln, 2001). Collaboration occupies an increasingly prominent place in health education and community health (Minkler & Wallerstein, 2003; Sanstad, Stall, Goldstein, Everett, & Brousseau, 1999), environmental research (Lynn, 2000), organizational development (Torbort, 2001), ...