title: Accessing the community: gaining insider perspectives from the outside.
abstract: Accessing participants for research projects is often treated as unproblematic. However the experience outlined here of negotiating access to participants within a community setting illustrates the inherent difficulties of recruitment. The authors describe the techniques used and practical challenges faced when accessing participants within a socially deprived community for a qualitative research project on social capital. They used a number of different strategies to generate a diverse sample including advertising, snowballing, accessing gatekeepers, and street surveys. The value of a stakeholder analysis is described alongside issues surrounding the use of gatekeepers. Rather than acting as outsiders seeking participants at every available opportunity, a more fortuitous strategy involved the ethnographic approach of "being there" as active contributors to community life. Here, the cornerstones of credibility and trust were addressed in a process of continually negotiating access from a semi-insider position.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sixsmith
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boneham
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Goldring
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003256:Community Participation; D032984:Ethics, Research; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017008:Negotiating; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D011204:Poverty Areas; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D035502:Trust; D006113:United Kingdom