Projektifierad forskning

- om följeforskning i ett småskaligt arbetsmarknadsprojekt

Abstract

Research “projectified” – an ongoing evaluation of a local labour market project
In this paper the researcher’s role within a small-scale project aiming at social change is problematized in the light of the the organizational specificities of the project.
The text is based on experiences from a labour market project, in a small industrial community, where two colleagues and I at the Department of Social Work at Linnaeus University conducted ongoing research in the years 2018–2020. Over this period, we acted as a sounding board for the project management and assisted with analyses of the activities carried out in the project, from the start-up phase, over a consolidated phase to its completion.
In retrospect, the conditions for conducting ongoing research within the framework of a smallscale project raise several questions of which two will be discussed here. Firstly, the researchers role in an often conflicting relationship between operational development and knowledge creation. Secondly, the researchers role in the knowledge accounting of the change work carried out in the project.
It can be argued that the researcher role is at risk of being “projectified”, i.e., the knowledge creation and the reporting of the change work is adapted to the conflicts and tensions between dayto-day practice and the goals of the change work in negotiation with the project’s stakeholders.