I did it my way: the implications of methodological choices in critical work

In 1972, European social psychologist Serge Moscovici (1972/2000) claimed that a discipline could not remain in good health if it prioritised the way questions were investigated over the way in which questions were asked. This chapter addresses issues around the questions that critical psychology has asked and the ways in which these questions have been investigated. In doing so it traces some of the paths that critical research has followed on the road to institutionalisation. More specifically, the chapter asks what are the methods that can be found in a critical researcher�s �toolbox�? Which are absent? What vicissitudes in critical research are reflected by these representations? In conducting research, how much consideration should be given to resonances or dissonances with work that does not carry the critical �brand�? This enquiry into method raises obvious questions around epistemology, but also around politics and the way it is practiced within the academy. How do claims become legitimised? How can my way become the way to do research? To conclude, the chapter touches on the implications that these choices might have for future practice