Methods for Researching Global Challenges An Interdisciplinary Guide

About the Editors

Notes on the Contributors

Section I: Introducing Research Methods for Global Challenges

1. Introduction

2. Research Methods for Global Challenges

Section II: Decolonial, Participatory, and Reflexive Methodologies

3. Decolonial and Participatory Research Approaches, by Ashraf Alam (Alliance University, Bengaluru)

4. Decolonial and Participatory Methods for Researching Global Challenges, by Shikha Vasishta (Bennett University)

5. Methodological Innovation through Indigenous Approaches, by Kurt April (University of Cape Town)

6. Writing as Relational and Political Method, by Rafia Faiz (University Canada West)

7. Robots Do Not Arrive Empty-Handed: Reflexive Approaches to Technology Research, by Selcen Ozturkcan (Linnaeus University)

Section III: Innovative and Creative Methodological Approaches

8. Digital Ethnography of Workers' Inquiry: Methods for Researching Platform Labor in Digital Capitalism, by Arif Novianto (Universitas Tidar)

9. Digital Drift Ethnography: Following Meaning in Motion, by Deniz Tunçalp (Istanbul Technical University)

10. Words Get in the Way: Arts-Based Methodology, by Anita Louise Wheeldon (University of Southern Queensland)

11. Foresight, Value Systems, and Planetarity: Using Futures Methods, by Matt Finch and Sebastian Seidel (University of Oxford; Hertie School)

12. Listening Across Borders: Oral History as a Method, by Parul Srivastava (University of Hyderabad)

13. Tracing Home Together through Oral History and Narrative Methods, by Samar Sabie (University of Toronto)

Section IV: Researching Inequality, Mobility, and Lived Experience

14. A Hybrid Participatory Action Research Methodology, by David Mapuru, Buriata Eti-Tofinga, Jone Lako, Maureen Karan, Anica Mapuru (University of the South Pacific)

15. Refining the Methodological Rhythm in Migration Research, by Gayani Gunasekera and Mario Fernando (University of Sydney; University of Wollongong)

16. Researching Highly Skilled Female Migrants: A Postcolonial Feminist Methodological Approach, by Sreenita Mukherjee (Queen Mary University of London)

17. Conducting Applied Research with Parents of Children, by Üzeyir Emre Kıyak (Uşak University)

18. Multilevel Designs for Addressing Global Challenges, by Rifat Kamasak (Henley Business School, University of Reading)

Section V: Methodologies for Institutional Accountability, Policy, and Evidence

19. Researching Climate Adaptation Equity: Methodological Approaches, by Çiğdem Tuğaç and Cihat Erbil (Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University)

20. Walking the Biodiversity Talk: Content Analysis and Geospatial Technology Approaches, by Iva Mihaylova and Andreas Blumer (University of St. Gallen)

21. Design Science for Community-Driven Industrial Solutions, by Muhammad Rosyihan Hendrawan, Aniesa Samira Bafadhal, Eric Budi Maulana (Universitas Brawijaya)

22. Beyond the Surface: Harnessing Meta-Analytic Synthesis, by Zeynep Kaptan and Bora Yıldız (Istanbul University)

23. Evaluating Gender Equality Plans: A Realist, Multi-Method Approach, by Nur Gundogdu and Mustafa F. Özbilgin (University of Birmingham; Brunel University of London)

Index

Biography

Mustafa F. Özbilgin is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Brunel Business School, London, examining workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion from comparative and relational perspectives.

Cihat Erbil is an Associate Professor at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University, examining power, inclusion, marginalisation, and resistance in organisations through Critical Management Studies.

Dimitria G. Groutsis is Professor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of Sydney Business School. She is a leading scholar in migration, labour mobility, and ethno‑racial diversity, bridging research and practice through impactful publications, major research funding, and partnerships across industry, government, and global organisations.

‘This book offers a powerful and timely rethinking of research methods, demonstrating how scholars can meaningfully engage with the complexity, inequality, and urgency of global challenges through innovative, reflexive, participatory, and ethically grounded approaches. The book’s rich interdisciplinary perspectives and commitment to epistemic plurality and relational ontology make it an indispensable guide for researchers seeking to produce impactful and socially responsible knowledge that addresses the intricate human stakes of our time.’ 

Professor Eddy Ng, Queen’s University

 

‘This edited book on Methods for Researching Global Challenges is a wounderful interdisciplanary guide in which method is viewed as a political and moral instrument. Advocating strongly for a pluralistic epistemology, it proposes an ecology of methods, where organizational methodological choices are situated within configurations of power, scale, space and temporality. It comes at just the right time, at a moment when the world, beyond  its divisions, has to rediscover the importance of its diversity in order to better understand it.’

Professor Jean-François Chanlat, Université Paris-Dauphine PSL

 

‘Methods for Researching Global Challenges is a timely and important contribution that recognizes a central challenge of our era: The polycrisis we face cannot be adequately understood through inherited methodological approaches alone. By rethinking how research is designed, conducted, and shared, this volume offers innovative and reflexive methodological tools for any scholar serious about studying global challenges without reproducing the very injustices they seek to understand.’

Professor Lena Knappert, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business

 

‘Özbilgin, Erbil, and Groutsis have assembled an important collection that treats method as a moral and political instrument, not merely a technical one. Essential reading for researchers who take seriously the relationship between methodology, power, and global responsibility.’

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, University of Oxford