Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The STEP trials

A round-up of the STEP phase 3 clinical trials evaluating semaglutide for weight loss in people with overweight or obesity.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Medical Research Methodology
Published in: BMC Medical Research Methodology 1/2012

Open Access 01-12-2012 | Correspondence

Brokered dialogue: A new research method for controversial health and social issues

Authors: Janet A Parsons, James V Lavery

Published in: BMC Medical Research Methodology | Issue 1/2012

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

Dialogue is a foundational feature of social life and an important way in which we come to understand one another. In situations of controversy dialogue is often absent because of a range of social barriers. We have developed a new film-based qualitative research method for studying controversial issues in healthcare and social policy. We call this method Brokered Dialogue. Theoretically informed by the traditions in narrative inquiry and visual anthropology, the method is premised on the idea that dialogue possesses features making it unique as a generator of new knowledge and opportunities for social intervention. Film is not only an extraordinarily rich data source, but an excellent medium for knowledge transfer and dissemination.

Discussion

The paper introduces the Brokered Dialogue method. We outline its critical steps, including the procedures for sampling, data collection and data analysis of both textual and visual data. Participants in a Brokered Dialogue engage in filmed interviews that capture their perspectives on a given topic; they then share their perspectives with, and pose questions of, one another through the medium of film. Using a participatory editing process, only footage that participants feel comfortable showing to others is incorporated. This technique offers participants a ‘safe’ space for respectful interaction. The editing process itself is analytic, and the final assembly of footage approximates a dialogue on the topic at hand. A link to a film produced from a project piloting the method is provided to demonstrate its real world application.

Summary

Brokered Dialogue is a method for promoting respectful interactions among those with seemingly divergent views on a controversial topic and for discovering critical points of divergence that may represent pathways for improvement. While the end product is a ‘film’, the goal is to have these films used as catalysts for ongoing respectful dialogue and problem-solving concerning the topic at hand informing relevant practice and policy change. In this paper, we consider Brokered Dialogue’s potential future uses and impacts, and how these might be evaluated.
Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Literature
1.
Goffman E: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. 1971, Penguin, Harmondsworth
2.
Smith B, Sparkes AC: Exploring multiple responses to a chaos narrative. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2011, 15 (1): 38-53. 10.1177/1363459309360782.
3.
Sparkes AC, Smith B: Narrative analysis as an embodied engagement with the lives of others. Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Edited by: Holstein JA, Gubrium JF. 2012, Sage, Los Angeles
4.
Frank AW: The Renewal of Generosity: Medicine, Illness and How to Live. 2004, University of Chicago Press, ChicagoCrossRef
5.
Morris DB: Illness and Culture in the Postmodern Age. 1998, University of California Press, BerkeleyCrossRef
6.
Britten N, Stevenson FA, Barry CA, Barber N, Bradley CP: Misunderstandings in prescribing decisions in general practice: Qualitative study. Br Med J. 2000, 320: 484-488. 10.1136/bmj.320.7233.484.CrossRef
7.
Boydell KM, Goering P, Morell-Bellai T-L: Narratives of identity: Re-presentation of self in people who are homeless. Qual Health Res. 2000, 10 (1): 26-38. 10.1177/104973200129118228.CrossRefPubMed
8.
Nelson HL: Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair. 2001, Cornell University Press, Ithaca
9.
Goffman E: Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. 1963, Simon & Schuster, New York
10.
Franzini L, Caughy M, Spears W, Fernandez-Esquer ME: Neighborhood economic conditions, social processes, and self-rated health in low-income neighborhoods in Texas: A multilevel latent variables model. Soc Sci Med. 2005, 61: 1135-1150. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.02.010.CrossRefPubMed
11.
Frank AW: What is dialogical research and why should we do it?. Qual Health Res. 2005, 13 (2): 247-255.CrossRef
12.
Levinas E: Alterity and Transcendence. 1999, The Athlone Press, London
13.
Ricoeur P: Oneself as Another. 1992, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
14.
Bahktin N: The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. 2006, University of Texas Press, Austin
15.
Trede F, Higgs J, Rothwell R: Critical transformative dialogues: A research method beyond the fusion of horizons. Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2009, 10 (1): 1-17.
16.
17.
Drew SE, Duncan RE, Sawyer SM: Visual storytelling: A beneficial but challenging method for health research with young people. Qual Health Res. 2010, 20 (12): 1677-1688. 10.1177/1049732310377455.CrossRefPubMed
18.
Pink S: Doing Visual Ethnography. 2001, Sage Publications, London
19.
Harper D: Reimagining visual methods. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Edited by: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS. 2000, Sage, Thousand Oaks
20.
Harrison B: Seeing health and illness worlds: Using visual methodologies in a sociology of health and illness. Sociol Health Illn. 2002, 24 (6): 856-872. 10.1111/1467-9566.00322.CrossRef
21.
Sumsion J: The transformative potential of preservice teachers' visual inquiry. The Art of Visual Inquiry. Edited by: Knowles JG, Luciani TC, Cole AL, Neilsen L. 2007, Backalong Books, Halifax
22.
23.
Bérubé M: Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child. 1996, Pantheon, New York
24.
25.
Patton MQ: Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 2002, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 3
26.
Chor JSY, Ngai KLK, Goggins WB, Wong MCS, Wong SYS, Lee N, et al: Willingness of Hong Kong healthcare workers to accept pre-pandemic influenza vaccination at different WHO alert level: Two questionnaire surveys. Br Med J. 2009, 339: 339-341.CrossRef
27.
Shuman A: Exploring narrative interaction in multiple contexts. Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Edited by: Holstein JA, Gubrium JF. 2012, Sage, Los Angeles
28.
Kuzel AJ: Sampling in qualitative inquire. Doing Qualitative Research. Edited by: Crabtree BR, Miller WL. 1999, Sage Publications, London, 2
29.
Miles MB, Huberman AM: Qualitative Data Analysis. 1994, Sage, Thousand Oaks
30.
Robson C: Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers. 1993, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford
31.
Parsons JA, Eakin J, Bell RS, Franche R-L, Davis AM: 'So are you back to work yet?' Reconceptualizing 'work'and 'return to work' in the context of primary bone cancer. Soc Sci Med. 2008, 67: 1826-1836. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.011.CrossRefPubMed
32.
Kvale S: InterViews. 1996, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks
33.
Czarniawsha B: Narratives in Social Science Research. 2004, Sage Publications, LondonCrossRef
34.
Riessman CK: Narrative Analysis. 1993, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks
35.
Frank AW: Practicing dialogical narrative analysis. Varieties of Narrative Analysis. Edited by: Holstein JA, Gubrium JF. 2012, Sage, Los Angeles
36.
Smith JK, Deemer DK: The problem of criteria in the age of relativism. Handbook of Qualitative Research. Edited by: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS. 2000, Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks, 877-896. 2
37.
Sparkes AC, Smith B: Judging the quality of qualitative inquiry: Criteriology and relativism in action. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 2009, 10: 491-497. 10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.02.006.CrossRef
38.
Eakin JE, Mykhalovsky E: Reframing the judgment of qualitative health research: Reflections on a reviw of appraisal guidelines in the health sciences. J Eval Clin Pract. 2003, 9 (2): 187-194. 10.1046/j.1365-2753.2003.00392.x.CrossRefPubMed
39.
Clandinin DJ, Connelly FM: Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research. 2000, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
40.
Butler-Kismer L: Qualitative Inquiry: Thematic, Narrative and Arts-Informed Perspectives. 2010, Sage, Los Angeles
41.
Metadata
Title
Brokered dialogue: A new research method for controversial health and social issues
Authors
Janet A Parsons
James V Lavery
Publication date
01-12-2012
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medical Research Methodology / Issue 1/2012
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2288
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-12-92

Other articles of this Issue 1/2012

BMC Medical Research Methodology 1/2012 Go to the issue

Research article

Transformations of summary statistics as input in meta-analysis for linear dose-response models on a logarithmic scale: a methodology developed within EURRECA

Research article

Intraindividual long term stability and response corridors of cytokines in healthy volunteers detected by a standardized whole-blood culture system for bed-side application

Research article

Multiple imputation of missing covariates with non-linear effects and interactions: an evaluation of statistical methods

Research article

Recruitment using mobile telephones in an Irish general population sexual health survey: challenges and practical solutions

Research article

Evaluation of the Propensity score methods for estimating marginal odds ratios in case of small sample size

Correspondence

Methods for the Drug Effectiveness Review Project