Diverse teams researching diversity: Negotiating identity, place and embodiment in qualitative research

Brenda Mathijssen,Yasminah Beebeejaun,Danny McNally,Sufyan Dogra,Katie McClymont,Avril Maddrell

doi:10.1177/14687941211006004

Abstract

Fieldwork encounters are not only contingent to biographical subjectivities, but are mediated by a confluence of identity, place and embodiment. This paper offers reflexive accounts of researchers with various socio-cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, who collaborated as a team to examine the varied funerary experiences and needs of established minorities and recent migrants in England and Wales. Focusing on the researchers’ varied personal experiences with death and bereavement and on their performances of minority and majority ethnic and migrant identities, the paper highlights the mediated and embodied nature of fieldwork. It argues that reflection on the various aspects of intersectional researcher identity is necessary for a rigorous fieldwork practice that takes transparency and politics into account. This facilitates a deeper understanding of the positionality of both researchers and interlocutors, and the situated co-production of knowledge. In doing so, the paper illustrates that conducting research with a diverse team of researchers contributes to better understanding the complexity and multifacetedness of social phenomena.

Highlights

This paper draws on experiences of undertaking participant-centred research on the differing funerary needs and experiences of established minorities and recent migrants in England and Wales, focusing on fieldwork encounters
We explore the crucial role of embodiment, place and identity in our fieldwork experiences, in order to offer insight into the potential advantages, challenges and tensions of conducting qualitative research as a diverse team
It has evidenced that conducting qualitative research as a diverse team of researchers contributes to a better understanding of the complexity and the multifacetedness of the social phenomena under research, granting that the diversity within the team is critically engaged with and employed as a research tool

Summary

Introduction

This paper draws on experiences of undertaking participant-centred research on the differing funerary needs and experiences of established minorities and recent migrants in England and Wales, focusing on fieldwork encounters. The diversity within the team offered multiple lenses to unpack the complexity and multifacetedness of the research and revealed the importance of continuous critical reflection on how the researchers and participants’ identity, place and embodiment shape the planning, practice and outcomes of qualitative research. We illustrate this by discussing two specific aspects of the diversity within the team: the researchers’ varied personal experiences with death and bereavement, and their minority and majority ethnic and recent migrant statuses. We raise important issues for an ethical fieldwork practice in studies of sensitive subjects, and more widely across all qualitative research encounters

Objectives

Conclusion