Uncharted Terrains: New Directions in Border Research Methodology, Ethics, and Practice

Chapter Two. The Good, the Bad, and the ugly: Border Research Collaboration

53 chapter two The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Border Research Collaboration Kathleen Staudt “The ethical mind ponders the nature of one’s work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives. This mind conceptualizes how workers can serve purposes beyond self-interest and how citizens can work unselfishly to improve the lot of all. The ethical mind then acts on the basis of these analyses” (Gardiner 2006: 3). With these words, Harvard psychologist and inventor of multiple intelligences approaches Howard Gardiner provides a guidepost to cultivate broad uses of the mind. Grounded in and for borderland societies and their binational citizens and residents, his remarks can inspire scholars, students, and activists in meaningful work to generate knowledge and social justice. Heretofore, an unexplored vacuum has existed in the writing about border research ethics, methods, and collaboration—a vacuum this volume is intended to fill. In this chapter, I analyze border research collaboration in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands and the multiple borderlines of identity, nationality, organizational affiliation, and class in which partnerships can and should occur. This chapter is divided into six parts. I begin with brief discussion of the terms collaboration, research, and borders in their rich and multiple forms. Then I provide some background on my own specialized training, after which I engaged in research and activism at the border that involved crossing multiple borders. After that, I outline the cross-border organizing framework put forth in my collaborative research with Irasema Coronado (2002), followed with an update and expansion that focuses on border research collaboration and its special challenges and opportunities. Among 54 • The Big Picture some of the challenges, I would include university bureaucracies and their complex procedures and agendas. Finally, after setting forth the mythical ideal for border research collaboration, I lay out the inspiration for the title of this chapter, brief vignettes of the good, the bad, and the ugly in border research collaboration. My closing remarks address the lessons that can be drawn to advance border research collaboration. “Good” collaboration, I argue in this chapter, occurs across the borderlines of nation-state, identity, and institutions—among campus and community-based organizations (CBOs). People with shared interests meet face to face to develop relationships of trust and interact with respect and directness; labor and funding for such work should be distributed fairly and equitably. The collaboration can be time consuming and labor intensive, but such commitments are well worth it for the knowledge, value, and action gained to advance mutual self-interests and community and/or public interests. “Bad” collaboration is characterized by tension, mistrust, and unarticulated concerns regarding research instruments and interpretation. “Ugly” collaboration breaks down into tension over power and control; it can become politicized and polarized, and result in lower quality or less credible findings (if results are even written and published at all). Alas, too often the real tragedy involves non-collaboration: missed opportunities to collaborate, given people’s anxieties about possible risks and/or reluctance to invest the time and labor to collaborate. Conceptualizing Collaboration, Research, and Multiple Borders Let me start with the meanings of terms I use. Although collaboration is a word with both positive and negative connotations, here I view research collaboration as the sharing of ideas, methods, talents, and work in order to analyze and publish research findings that connect with action and change, including policy change. Collaborative research enriches both process and outcome, given the multiple eyes, brains, hearts, and experiences that can be dedicated to research problems and questions. By research, I mean the methodical application of study, data collection , analysis, and interpretation of particular problems and questions. The reference to data is inclusive, ranging from observation to surveys, interviews , and statistical analyses of databases to embrace mixed methods, triangulation, and both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly • 55 The term border requires multiple paragraphs. Typically, we view borders as lines that separate sovereign nations and their people in geographic space, such as the Mexico–U.S. border, the Guatemala–Mexico border, and so on. Oscar Martínez offers a four-fold typology in which to explain the hundreds of international borders worldwide: alienated, coexistent, interdependent, and integrated (1994). Martínez views the U.S.–Mexico border as interdependent, given the extensive crossing of family, friends, workers, and shoppers in a context of hierarchy and hegemony between two countries of...