Seminar Five

  Cultural competence in health and social research

Conducting health and social research in a multi-cultural society makes it necessary to challenge a number of assumptions. This process may reveal weaknesses in existing 'generic' research. The seminar will seek to explore what is 'peculiar' to trans-cultural practice, and what is simply 'better practice' generally. Important methodological questions arise such as how to locate adequate sampling frames and ensure the cross-cultural validity of measures of disease and exposure. However, more challenging is the dynamic nature of the construct 'ethnicity' itself, raising difficult conceptual issues around the meaning and usefulness of 'ethnic group' as an axis of analysis. How can research pay adequate attention to cultural diversity without risking the reification of 'ethnic groups' and thereby contributing to the perpetuation of axes of social inequality? Issues of power imbalance between the researcher and the researched are heightened where research subjects may be marginalised and culturally and linguistically distant from the researcher. Ethno-methodological and participatory approaches offer ways of gaining insider accounts. However, the 'myth of community' and the need for long-term collaborative arrangements between researchers and local-level organisations make such approaches difficult to achieve in practice. The seminar will engage with these methodological, theoretical and practical issues through an exploration of: translation and interpretation of instruments, 'matching' interviewers and respondents, using new approaches to maximise the usefulness of existing databases, and involving 'user' representatives.

Date : Monday 24 th April, 10am-5pm

Venue : Mary Seacole Research Centre, Charles Frears Campus , Leicester.

Convenors : Mark Johnson and Raj Bhopal

Programme details .

Directions:

Attendance at the seminar will be limited to 50 participants. Places will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis within three categories (academic or researcher / community-based or voluntary organisation staff / statutory practitioner or policy-maker). Please complete and send a request for registration if you would like to attend.