Your voice matters!—(unintended) exclusion practices in sensitive research and older people

Katja A. Rießenberger, Barbara Barbosa Neves and Florian Fischer

Chapter 8 in Handbook of Sensitive Research in the Social Sciences, 2025, pp 115-130 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter outlines and discusses the need for adequate representation of vulnerable populations in sensitive qualitative research. To address the ethics of representation, we use the example of older people (aged 65+) and how they are represented in research to engage with critical issues such as the heterogeneity of old age, potential vulnerabilities, and intersecting categories such as gender, disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. In this context, we also approach ‘care’ as both a sensitive topic and a practice. We draw on five case studies in the areas of gerontechnology (the study of technology and ageing) and later life care to advance an understanding of practices of representation in sensitive settings and their interplay with processes of inclusion/exclusion. These case studies pertain to participatory research based on co-design or co-creation (that is, a participatory method to design and create, for example, technologies collaboratively with end-users) and focus on gender, race and ethnicity, disability and accessibility, care, and representational issues. We conclude by showing that it takes continuous effort as well as constant researcher reflexivity on stereotypes, situatedness, and research practices to adequately represent the voices of research participants.

Keywords: Participatory design; Older adults; Vulnerability; Intersectionality; Categories of difference; Gender; Race/ethnicity; Disability; Heterogeneity of old age; Care; Ethics of representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315222
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