'You Are Kind of Like One of Us': Exploring Researcher Positioning in Studying Community-Based Health Promotion Interventions Among Social Housing Residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani Origin.

Abstract

The practice of qualitative research demands reflexivity throughout the entire research process, with special attention directed towards researcher positioning. In this article, I explore how aspects and characteristics of my social situation positioned me contrary to my expectations regarding researcher positioning. I draw on individual interviews, focus group discussions and field notes about community-based health promotion interventions among residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin in a deprived social housing area in Denmark. Rather than insider-outsider positioning, the concept represented by the term 'halfie' unfolds the complexity of my researcher positioning: less minority ethnic than the residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin and less Danish than the residents of Danish origin, but similar to both, being a descendant of Sri Lankan Tamil origin brought up in a Danish social housing area. Finally, I present methodological and ethical implications of being a halfie in the context of qualitative health research.