Evaluation practices

Diane Wolf (1996) argues that feminist researchers have not engaged in much research with women because challenging power inequalities in research is hard to do without changing the research methods. For university-based researchers, to engage in research with women would imply a confrontation with and challenge of the structures of academia, "how products are judged acceptable and by whom, how progress is viewed, how 'theory' is understood, how Ph.D.s are awarded, how tenure is granted, and how women's studies is regarded" (p.3). Wolf recognizes that this is one of the dilemmas feminist researchers encounter when they do fieldwork (1996). She acknowledges the "cost" and the penalty of doing research that includes participatory components, since it does not translate easily into the degrees or promotions researchers seek within the academy. Francesca Cancian (1993) also refers to the challenges that academics face when doing research with community groups while trying to advance their academic careers. She points at aspects of community work that are not valued in the university, such as multiple authorship and negotiating research agendas.

Many authors refer to the tenure competition as an example of the obstacles academically located researchers confront when trying to do research with community groups. Amy Hubbard (1996), for example, presents her own experience as a junior university researcher trying to understand the reward system. While she was working with members of her department on formulating faculty workload and leave policies, the group decided they should reward teaching and research as well as those faculty who reach a wider audience among the general public.

However, even as we were writing these new standards, my senior colleagues warned me that as a junior faculty member I should concentrate on research above all. No matter what my department put on paper as appropriate standards, I would have to be acceptable to the university rank and tenure committee and they were likely to be most concerned about the depth and breadth and scholarliness of my research (p. 9).

Focus on funding

The "partnership trend" (Barnsley, 1995; Cottrell et al, 1996) has been characterized by a call from funding agencies for university researchers to find community groups that would engage in joint research. Katherine Scott (2003) describes these changes in funding policies, arguing that "recent trends in funding appear to have threatened the continued viability of the [social development] sector"(p.2). In particular, Scott describes a shift from a core-funding model to a project based one, a reluctance to fund infrastructure such as administrative costs, an increase in report requirements and the requirement to form partnerships before submitting funding applications. Furthermore, Scott argues, funders are gaining more control over what non-profit organizations do and do not do. These new funding strategies leave non-profit organizations devoting valuable resources to accessing short-term funding, sometimes at the expense of the organization core activities.