The Heart of the Matter: Navigating the Backstage Processes of Participatory Research

Abstract

In this editorial, we introduce our special collection that conceptualizes, analyses, and reflects on backstage processes in participatory research. Participatory research aspires to democratize the research process and contribute to empowerment, equality, and justice. Meanwhile, a growing body of literature attends to the struggles to achieve these promises. Drawing on Goffman’s metaphor of the backstage, this collection examines the backstage processes where contextual pressures, relational dynamics, and implicit hierarchies shape research practices. We view the backstage as an empirically grounded space to attend to the knotty and murky work that goes into participatory research approaches.We identify three areas of contribution. First, the collection shows how the backstage is approached theoretically and conceptually understood. Four theoretical lenses emerge: system theories, critical theory, relational theory, and knowledge theory. These lenses open up the backstage of participatory research as an analytical site, foregrounding sensitizing concepts that can further develop the field. Second, the collection brings together a wide variety of qualitative methods to reflect on, deepen, and refine how we examine the backstage. These highlight reflexive practices, relational spaces, methodological adaptability, and structured tools for ethical reflection. Third, the articles refine our understanding of how we can foreground the backstage, for instance through relational practices, informal co-spaces, and navigating hierarchies and epistemological tensions. Tools such as backstage cafés, authentic listening, and the navigation of attachments may support his. By slowing down or stepping back, researchers can analyse the process more deeply and adapt methods in response.Together these articles illuminate how backstage dynamics are fundamental to participatory research—and arguably to research more broadly. In line with earlier work, we argue that transparency about the backstage strengthens trustworthiness and credibility. The backstage is, then, at the heart of the matter for realizing the promises of participatory research.