Negotiating doorstep access : Door-to-door survey researchers’ strategies to obtain participation

Hazel, N; Clark, AJ

Abstract

This article explores the interactions between researchers and potential respondents when recruiting for a door-to-door survey. Researchers' reflective accounts suggest a range of tactics used to influence potential participation in research that draws upon contrasting identities and roles for researchers and participants. In examining these roles, the paper demonstrates the ways in which, while fleeting, the interactions between researcher and respondents involve impression management strategies and are entangled in negotiations of power and status. In reflecting on some of the practices behind door-step recruiting in survey research, we show how gaining consent to participate is about negotiating researcher and respondent roles. In doing so, we hope to encourage debate about the importance of identity, the ethics of consent and issues of reflexivity in survey-based research.

Citation

Hazel, N., & Clark, A. (2013). Negotiating doorstep access : Door-to-door survey researchers’ strategies to obtain participation. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(4), 307-321. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.687136

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 18, 2012
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jul 8, 2015
• Journal: International Journal of Social Research Methodology
• Print ISSN: 1364-5579
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-5300
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 307-321
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.687136
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2012.687136
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tsrm20#.VYu92qI0XTo