Reflecting on the changing practice of qualitative health research: Enduring learning on care-full practice beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant change in global research landscapes, leading to a surge of published studies, commentaries and special issues addressing its complex effects. These effects included major disruptions to health and healthcare, exacerbation of inequalities and increased marginalisation of many groups and populations, as well as changes in organisational and institutional dynamics and social practices. Furthermore, the restrictions put in place to mitigate transmission of the virus significantly influenced and complicated research methods and practices. Reflecting on these practices over time has allowed researchers to examine what has worked well (and what has not), as well as shifts in practice to ensure research that considers the well-being of both research participants and researchers. In this special issue, we have brought together examples of good practice that have been sustained, and discuss novel approaches that can become embedded in future qualitative methodology. In so doing, our thinking has been informed by feminist ethics of care theories (Tronto, 1998, 2015) and a situational and relational approach that sensitises us, as researchers, to the layered moral responsibilities within asymmetrical caring relationships. This perspective highlights the role of power and care in research interactions, prompting us to foreground an ‘ethic of care’ (Tronto, 1998) that considers the relational dimensions of care within these contexts throughout this editorial.

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100500

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https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/c59ea0ae-7b34-4abe-9735-03a7445a4442