Abstract

In the course of everyday engaged research work in the Community O.R. Unit we have
frequently been asked to explore issues of performance in social and community contexts.
In many cases community groups or collective actors are engaging with government or
other statutory bodies and the interest (from both sides) is in accounting for allocation of
public resources. Institutional bodies typically embody deeply-held beliefs about performance
measurement and target-setting which do not always sit well with cultures and
beliefs in community contexts. This difference may frequently cause tension and even
conflict; it also creates challenges for a researcher engaging him/herself between these
different perspectives. The situation is itself further complicated when it comes to writing
up research and making sense of it within the academic community, by the distinctions
frequently used by this audience. In particular, performance analysis of any kind is frequently
assumed to be an uncritical, naively-objective activity, incapable of the subtleties
of thought associated with interpretation and socially-constructed norms and ‘realities’.
We tentatively argue here that far from representing an externally imposed view of reality,
data analysis may be used as an arena (language) for describing views of collective activity
that are constructed in the interaction between the actors involved (the researcher being
an actor him/herself).We posit this might be used to create a powerful (sustainable) story
with the full participation of community members.