La méthode d’analyse en groupe : coproduction, restitution et répercussion des savoirs

Research implementing the group analysis method (GAM) is a good way to analyse knowledge’s circulation between researchers and social actors. At first glance the group analysis method is extremely well suited for not only obtaining, but also cogenerating, knowledge between social actors and researchers. In relying upon the participation of the actors concerned and being founded upon reflexive, cross-analysis of experiential knowledge, the group analysis method rejects the opposition between lay and expert knowledge. Rather, it belongs to the vein of investigation that strives to democratise sociological knowledge so that researchers are led to introduce themselves – naively or pretentiously? – as mediators in the public arena. This article is based on an analysis of a few action research experiences that took place in various institutional contexts and in which the primary goal of sociological analysis was sometimes connected to political, institutional, or occupational aims and practices. In giving a detailed account of how this research was conducted and received, we shall try to problematize the methodological, epistemological, and institutional conditions, limitations, and merits of this collective knowledge generating approach.