Shifting power relations in disability sport and social activism research: an emancipatory approach

In answer to appeals for more participatory frameworks to advance qualitative methodologies, this article shows how a novel emancipatory approach to disability research produced significant impact and learnings. We (academics and non-academics) explain how ethical problems experienced in traditional qualitative research designed to understand how grassroots disabled activists in the UK were reacting to the International Paralympic Committee’s WeThe15 campaign, led to the emergence of an ‘emancipatory approach to research’. We discuss how a small group of creative non-academic disabled activists, artists and athletes formed a foundational project called Project Group Spirit to unpick concerns about the WeThe15 campaign and formulate activist interventions in the context of Paralympic sport. Three sets of action-orientated activist findings that arose from the project are described: ‘Disabled Athletes and Artists, and their Activism’, ‘Engaging with WeThe15’ and ‘The Moral High Ground’. These themes, we show, provided the groundwork for the group to organise themselves into a wider principled project called the Disability Knowledge Exchange and Impact Group (KEI Group). The article ends by discussing a) the potential impact of the KEI Group b) academic barriers to emancipatory approaches and c) ways to evaluate emancipatory disability research. This article is an example of emancipatory research in action to help foster high-quality participatory frameworks going forward.