The first course in Dirt Research is being offered at Mid-Sweden University beginning in Fall 2022. This course is led by Dr. Annika Kjällman-Alm and Dr. Malin Holmström-Rising. This course integrates academic study of research methods, ethical approaches, and practical field research methods.
Rural communities require sensitive research approaches and methodologies due to their small size, unique cultural or socio-demographic compositions, and complexities in organizational or community relationships. Dirt Research puts an emphasis on the lived experience of rural communities and the populations within. Knowledge generated through a dirt research approach facilitates and promotes holism at the micro-level, strengths-based recommendations at the meso-level, and system reform at the macro-level. Dirt research is an inductive approach, one which is best suited for accounting for the dynamism of rural communities.