Managing and Compromising in Cross-National Research: Is it worth the effort?

Louise and Bryony have been involved in a range of comparative socio-legal projects mainly concerned with highly skilled migration within and into the European Union. Our objective in this workshop is to present some of the challenges and opportunities associated with comparative work and in particular managing cross-national teams. We plan to do this via a series of case studies illustrating the kinds of issues that arise and the implications of these for the production of reliable 'knowledge'. In particular we consider the relative merits of the 'safari' approach fostered by the ESRC and the 'partner' approach required by the European Commission.