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  • Building Trust: Doing Research to Understand Ethnic Communities
  • Edward Morris
Building Trust: Doing Research to Understand Ethnic Communities By Fumiko Hosokawa Lexington Books. 2010. 190 pages. $65 cloth, $26.95 paper.

Building Trust is an interesting and informative guidebook for conducting research in ethnic communities. Hosokawa analyzes responses from members of five ethnic groups in Southern California (Southeast Asians, African Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans and Samoan Americans) regarding their perceptions of researchers and research in their communities. Groups such as these have long been considered "others" in sociological research—interestingly distinct subjects for analysis, but not recognized participants in a collaborative research process. Hosokawa offers an important corrective to this tendency by asking members of these communities what they think about the act of being studied.

A major theme that emerges from the author's interviews with ethnic group members is that researchers must gain an in-depth awareness of a group's distinctive history and cultural norms. As Hosokawa (4) states, researchers "need some guidance on how to approach people who are different from them culturally and racially because these individuals could easily have different views of their own about research problems and data interpretation." The book offers separate chapters focused on each of the groups mentioned, along with brief historical background and responses of group members to various questions about research. The author reveals some interesting differences in how groups interpret the goals and process of research. For example, based on the responses of Vietnamese Americans, Hosokawa cautions against using a direct questioning style with Vietnamese respondents. Vietnamese might recoil from questioning peppered directly from an interview schedule, considering this rude. This not only results in poor information, but can accentuate social distance between the researcher and the participant. Thus, the same set of questions and approach that work swimmingly with white respondents might fail with Vietnamese respondents unless the fieldworker is aware of such cultural norms.

Similarly, some groups may have distinct perspectives on the role and purpose of research. Hosokawa find that some groups in her study, quite rightly, expressed skepticism of research, fearing that it might stereotype or exploit their community. African Americans in the study, for example, expressed a heightened interest in participating in the research throughout the process, including interpretation of results. Although they viewed researchers with respect, Hosokawa's African-American respondents underscored that the research should not perpetuate stereotypes and should serve the needs of the community, not just the academy. Mexican-American and Samoan respondents expressed similar wishes. Mexican Americans were particularly interested in research that could contribute to the community and stimulate social change. Samoan Americans represent an interesting case. Hosokawa reports that many of her Samoan [End Page 1451] respondents were acutely aware of past research, such as that of Margaret Mead, which they said inaccurately and negatively portrayed Samoans. Of all the groups the author interviews, Samoans appear most sensitive to potential negative characterizations of the community through research. Hosokawa suggests working extensively with Samoan community leaders before even designing a research question to ensure that this question will not unwittingly imply something harmful about this group.

The key insights of the book revolve around such findings of unrecognized or mis-recognized differences across ethnic communities. These insights bring into question the accuracy of data collection in these communities and also seem to suggest how research representing ethnic and marginalized groups be tainted by unseen bias. In the final chapter, Hosokawa suggests a method of overcoming these problems through building trust between the researcher and the participants. This building of trust moves beyond merely establishing amicable, surface-level rapport, where the researcher feels comfortable "hanging out" in the community. Such a view privileges the perspective and feelings of the researcher. Instead, Hosokawa describes building trust as an ongoing process of recognizing an ethnic group's unique customs and views. According to the author, this entails a collaborative process: "what is needed is a type of collaborative research between researcher and community members that enables people to participate in research not only at the very beginning but throughout the project to its completion and dissemination of results."(167) This useful perspective can apply to research...

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