Participatory Research as Knowledge Translation Strategy. An ethnographic study of knowledge co-creation

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with knowledge translation in participatory research. The background for the thesis is the concerted efforts within medicine and health care to promote uptake of research-based knowledge in practice, under the heading of knowledge translation (KT). A part of this effort is a proliferating use of participatory research strategies, research in which knowledge users are involved in the research process. This study aims to provide insights into the actual processes of knowledge translation in participatory settings. The study is an ethnographic investigation of a participatory research programme within primary healthcare physiotherapy; clinically-based physiotherapists were involved in the entire research process. Data was collected through observation of 12 collaboration meetings, interviews with participants, and documents that were disseminated before, in and after meetings. The thesis includes three papers and a synopsis. The first paper presents the study’s methodology and the development of a novel conceptual framework for the study of knowledge translation in verbal communication inspired by Science and Technology Studies (STS). The second paper identifies a rhetorical strategy by which participants translate knowledge across clinical and research contexts by identifying possible ways of using the knowledge in academic research and clinical practice. However, the translational work is never explicitly addressed by the participants, and the paper suggests that a conceptual framework could address and further develop this translational strategy. The third paper is concerned with epistemic premises of co-creation of knowledge, and especially the challenge of integrating the researchers’ and the clinicians’ different knowledge interests and epistemic requirements into relevant and legitimate knowledge. The thesis offers novel insights into knowledge, translation and participation with focus on the micro-level of knowledge processes and sees these as entangled in certain ontological and epistemological contexts.