Abstract

Over the past decade, the EU has become a leading funder of cross-national social science research. This is particularly due to the Framework Research Programmes (FPs), which supported 169 projects ( 266m) in 2004-07. These projects required the participation of research teams from a range of countries, and became more multi-national due to the enlargement of the EU from 15 member states in 1995 to 27 today.

The scale and scope of FP research projects grew between the Fifth Framework Programme (1999-2003) and the Sixth (2003-2007). Whereas projects under FP5 were typically funded to a maximum of approximately 1-2m over 2-3 years, involving research teams in 5-8 countries, FP6 encouraged the development of large-scale 'Integrated Projects', funded to approx 3-5m over five years, and encompassing collaboration between 12-15 national research teams. (European Commission 2007, p. ii).

This paper reflects on and evaluates the process of qualitative research undertaken within a major EU FP6 project. It draws on team members' reflections on the challenges involved in and implications of undertaking qualitative research in a large-scale, multi-national context. It looks specifically at issues related to the process and management of a large-scale project, cultural factors (including institutional and historical diversity) and linguistic diversity. Key questions of this paper include: How are key terminology conceptualised and translated? What is the impact of cultural and linguistic diversity on the nature of process and management of research? How are discourses of power generated and conveyed? What is the impact of (power) relationships within the research team, and on what are these based?

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John Holford, Laura Engel, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom - ECER 2008 SymposiumContribution #1735 - "Exploring large-scale, multi-national qualitative research within the EU" in Symposium "Social Justice and Lifelong Learning in Europe: mid-way findings from the EU Sixth Framework funded project LLL2010"