Access

ACCESS TO WHAT, AND VIA WHOM?

Access is often considered in relation to what have been termed closed and open/public settings (Bell, 1969). Closed settings are formally constituted settings, such as firms, hospitals, and churches, and their archives. Open/public settings are informal in nature. Research into street corner life or local music scenes is an example of research in open/public settings. A key step in securing access into both closed and open settings involves negotiation with gatekeepers. Gatekeepers are the people who, metaphorically, have the ability to open or close the gate to the researcher seeking access into the setting. A preliminary step in seeking access lies in identifying the gatekeepers. In formal, closed settings, the gatekeeper will tend to be a person in a senior position, such as a senior executive. Gatekeepers in informal, open settings are less easy to clearly identify but tend to have status and respect within the setting. Some researchers go directly to the gatekeeper in their attempts to secure access. Others approach the gatekeeper indirectly by first obtaining a “champion” or “sponsor” in the setting who can help persuade the gatekeeper to look favorably on the researcher's request for access.

Obtaining Access as Trust Formation and Negotiation

The ability of researchers to inspire sponsors, central gatekeepers, or dispersed individuals to trust them is central to the process of securing access. Obtaining access can be seen as a specific example of the wider social problem of trust creation. We can, therefore, usefully turn to the literature on trust creation to allow us a better and more systematic understanding of the process of securing access. Korczynski (2000) delineates four main bases of trust that may underlie an exchange. The most common tactics adopted by researchers in negotiating access can be mapped against these categories:

• Trust based on personal relations. It is common for researchers to use friends and contacts who know them as trustworthy as a way to obtain access. These friends and contacts may act as a conduit to sponsors, may be sponsors, or may actually be gatekeepers in the research settings.
• Trust based on knowledge of the other party's internal norms. Researchers may try to generate trust by giving signals to the gatekeeper or individual that they are “decent” people. For instance, seeking access to respondents by putting a notice in a newspaper or magazine associated with a particular moral, social, or political outlook implicitly invites the reader to associate the researcher with that newspaper's or magazine's norms and values.
• Trust based on an incentive or governance structure surrounding the exchange. Researchers can help generate trust by highlighting that it is in the interests of the researchers not to betray such trust. For instance, researchers may give gatekeepers the right to veto the publication of research findings (although such an approach leaves the researcher in a potentially precarious position).
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• Trust based on systems or institutions. Researchers can seek to generate trust by invoking trust that gatekeepers or other individuals might have in institutions to which the researchers are affiliated. For instance, researchers may stress the quality of a university at which they are employed and highlight relevant research that has been produced by that university in the recent past.

The process of obtaining access should also be seen as a process of negotiation (Horn, 1996). Researchers typically want wide and deep access into a setting, whereas gatekeepers and other concerned individuals may be concerned about potential costs of granting such access. These potential conflicts of interest are typically informally aired in face-to-face meetings. In these implicit negotiations, researchers often offer the gatekeepers or individuals a benefit that would accrue from access being granted. In formal settings, this might take the form of a written report of the findings.

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