Chapter 12: An Introduction to Partnership in Research: Changing the Researcher–Participant Relationship

Disciplines socialize experts pervasively. Furthermore, the zeitgeist cuts across disciplines so that within a given historical era, they take on what Foucault (1971) termed the same basic “episteme.” Under the broad and sometimes confusing umbrella of “post-modernism,” it is relatively clear that the episteme of the current historical era is in a state of transition. One of the consequences of this epistemological shift within the social sciences has been a basic reconsideration of the nature of the subject matter to be studied—human beings and human society. More concretely, we argue that the fields of study of the authors (developmental, clinical, health, and educational psychology), as well as a host of closely related disciplines (anthropology, sociology, education, and medicine), are presently experiencing currents of dissatisfaction in regards to how people called “subjects” are thought of and treated in empirical research.