Critical friendship and critical orphanship

Abstract

The article engages with the opportunities and constraints raised by embedded research during times of rapid and extensive organisational change. Embedded research is an increasingly common approach for funding PhD studentships. The rapid and extensive reforms of the English public sector pose significant and underexplored challenges for embedded researchers and research. The author was embedded during his PhD and here he explores different metaphors – ‘critical friend’, ‘critical nephew’ and ‘critical orphan’ – to define the relationship between himself and the organisation in which he was embedded. The methodological and theoretical development of the research is then outlined in terms of the autonomy and access of the ‘critical orphan’ embedded research relationship. The article concludes that although ‘orphanship’ can be a positive development for the research, the lack of contribution to the sponsor organisation may prevent the further development of embedded research relationships in public sector organisations.