Find in Library

The commitment of social scientists has been criticized. The most common criticism concerns their lack of objectivity which may question the validity of their research. However, in qualitative research, some researchers have supported this commitment as a means to access data more easily and to have a deeper understanding of the actors’ experiences. The survey carried out at a University Hospital dialysis center has led me to question my twofold status as a patient with kidney failure and as a researcher, its significance and the way it may impact the research. In this paper, I show that the commitment of the patient-researcher facing a “familiar" fieldwork is beneficial both to access the respondents and the data. In addition, even if the researcher’s feelings may negatively impact the conduct of his research, shared identity with the surveyed patients that allow access to the data seems to benefit the research more than would a neutral position.