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No Matter How Hard You Try, Your Feet Still Get Wet: Insider and Outsider Perspectives on Bridging Diversity
Author(s) -
Brodsky Anne E.,
Faryal Tahmeena
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/s10464-006-9015-x
Subject(s) - insider , diversity (politics) , bridging (networking) , sociology , thriving , context (archaeology) , honor , health psychology , politics , qualitative research , epistemology , environmental ethics , public relations , social science , political science , geography , public health , law , computer science , anthropology , computer network , philosophy , archaeology , operating system , medicine , nursing
Research in which the researcher and the participants come from different contexts and communities always presents challenges. This paper is based on qualitative, community‐based research carried out by a U.S. researcher in Pakistan and Afghanistan with an underground Afghan women's humanitarian and political organization. Written from the perspectives of two authors, one an organization insider and the other the outside researcher, it presents some unique examples of diversity challenges, while also illuminating issues that exist in subtle ways even in more common research experiences. Within the context of multiple diversities, two challenges to bridging diversity are discussed: (1) Can or should all diversities be bridged? and (2) Can narrow attention to diversity lead to ignoring similarities? We argue that the definitions of success and failure in bridging diversity are themselves relative terms, grounded in this very diversity. Further, even when research fails to bridge diversity it may, in fact, not only honor and respect that diversity, but ultimately lead to a better understanding of it.