Research democratization: Utopia and reality
On Wednesday I attended the first half of the People Who Do Research 2023 conference (the European-time-zone-friendly half!).
I heard some excellent talks and passionate discussions about the democratization of research (which was decidedly focused on “how” and “when” we democratize and not “if.”) Fierce researchers gave their tips and tricks for preserving our profession and how to involve stakeholders so we can all succeed: researchers, our stakeholders, our products, and our companies.
It was inspiring. But, for me anyway, a number of concerns remain.
This was a conference for researchers, and for those who are research aware and research empathetic. As a community, we can come up with excellent rules and guidelines for how things will develop. That’s an incredibly important step. A great example was a kick ass talk by Zoë Glas, who argued that democratization shouldn’t take place until a research practice is robust and supported by the wider organization, and provided guidelines on how to determine this.
In other words, if democratization happened the way conference participants want it to happen, we’d be in great shape.
But: that’s not always the reality. What about companies that hire one researcher, and expect them to “democratize” — which means passing…
