Emancipatory research methodology and disability: A critique

Abstract

This paper questions the prescription of emancipatory participatory research for studying disability espoused by some disability researchers and activists. The paper argues that the advocacy of participatory and emancipatory research can be criticised on several grounds including problems of internal inconsistency and contradiction, an overly selective use of the works of feminist researchers and that research using such an approach could constitute an exercise of power that potentially marginalises some voices and potentially oppresses some disabled people and researchers. Ultimately, it is suggested, the emancipatory paradigm may serve to undermine the generation of knowledge that can be used by disabled people for self-emancipation. The paper concludes that rather than prescribe emancipatory research as the only legitimate methodology for disability research, disability writers should, as feminists have in researching gender, adopt a more pluralist and eclectic approach to theorising and researching disability. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.