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Unobtrusive research in the health social sciences
Allan Kellehear
Professor of Palliative Care, School of Public Health, La Trobe University, VIC
Abstract
Unobtrusive research has been with us for a long time. The term "unobtrusive" was coinedto emphasize the fact that not a11 social research need involve "respondents" or "subjects". Within the humanities generally, and also more recently within the field calling itself 'cultural studies', there has been wide recognition that much valuable research has emerged from a study of existing sources - written, audiovisual, material or behavioural.
In the last half century or so, the rise and popularity of the interview and questionnaire in the social sciences have led many to overlook the contribution of unobtrusive research to the general understanding of human experience. Health research has been no exception in committing this oversight.
In that context, the aim of this paper is to identify the nature and role of unobtrusive research in Australian Health Social Sciences. I will demonstrate that unobtrusive research in this area has a significant presence but that its local expression is narrowly positivist. Unobtrusive approaches in health research tend to be wanting in the areas of methodological imagination and theoretical diversity.
The paper is organised in the following manner. First, I will clarify my use of the concept of unobtrusive methods by introducing some of the review literature in this area. I will also identify the range of methods and sources and briefly describe the main styles of data analysis possible within these. Second, I shall review some of the major public health research conducted by Australian social sciences focussing on examples which have appeared in the serials Australian Journal of Public Health and Social Science and Medicine. I conclude by offering some assessment of this material and provide suggestions for future directions which might overcome the present limited role and expression of unobtrusive methods in the health social science field.
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