The Kitchen‐Work of Collaborative Research: Recipes for Transformative Methodologies

Abstract Problems that collective actors struggle with require collaborative and transformative knowledge production to be solved. Despite the long tradition of participatory approaches in social science research, issues concerning collaborative methodologies are often located at the bottom of the knowledge hierarchy. We want to place them at the centre of social movement research, but also direct attention to the processes through which collaborative knowledge is produced. We propose the metaphor of “kitchen‐work” to focus on how “the cooking” of collaborative research with collective actors is done, how “recipes” for a more equitable society are created together. The metaphor illustrates methodological approaches where preparatory, relational, and often invisible work is done in research with collective actors. Using a classification of methodologies within, against, and beyond academia (inspired by David M. Bell and Kate Pahl), we distinguish recipes for research collaboration with collective actors and provide practical suggestions on cooking together collaboratively.