Work in Progress: Being a researcher in stigmatized communities - insider and outsider reflections

Fatima Hashmi writes about her Work in Progress seminar on Thursday: The presentation aims to provide some reflections of my doctoral research in stigmatised communities and highlight my positionality as an insider and outsider. These elements fit into this study, the fact that I conducted two fieldworks, where I was an insider in Pakistan and an outsider in Colombia. Belonging from the Hazara community, I had first-hand knowledge of the language, habits and customs, explicit and implicit routines and rules of functioning. Whereas, I had the lack of knowledge of the multiple types of Afro-descendant populations in Cartagena as well as language barrier. I show how these positionalities played a role in the research process; from the preparation by contacting the experts on Afro-descendants and Palenqueros prior to conducting fieldwork, which was not replicated to the same extent in the case of the Hazaras; to the process of gatekeepers’ recruitment in both sites, which were also different but what remained the same were the research methods that were employed in both sites. I reflect on my outsider positionality in Cartagena with shared experiences, such as forced migration and belonging to ethnic group and my insider position as a mix of Hazara (Shia) and Punjabi (Sunni), where my positionalities started to become somewhat blurred.

I also highlight the methodological and ethical considerations in both communities, where more familiarity as an insider and the risk of ‘repercussion’ on my family and its reputation, I was more aware so as not to disrespect the elders with my questions as well as why some were chosen for life-history interviews and others were not. Born and raised in the Hazara community, the participants assumed I knew exactly what they were talking about. Whereas, as an outsider, although I had the general knowledge of the context and the history of armed conflict in Colombia, the Afro-descendant community in Nelson Mandela neighbourhood felt it was necessary to educate me about their specific regions of displacement and their own experiences of forced migration through the process of truth and dialogue. Whereas, for the Palenquero community (originating from San Basilio de Palenque, the first free town of the Americas) in San Fernando, the community leader did something similar by taking me to visit San Basilio de Palenque to witness first-hand where they come from, their rituals and traditions. I was reminded throughout my fieldwork to be mindful how I narrate their history, rituals and traditions. In both cases, reflective thinking throughout the process of data collection and analysis helped to keep enough distance so as (1) not to miss the object by being too far or (2) ignoring it by being too close.

However, I question whether my positionality is risking to bring bias in my research? I conclude with reflecting on whether the positionalities of the researcher have to be within the set boundaries of an insider and an outsider or is there a space between that is blurred?  Or maybe were they evolving during the research process? Is it influencing the way I am looking at the data today? Or because of the blurred boundaries, now I look at both data the same way, simply as a researcher and not as an insider or an outsider. The seminar is at 16.30-18.00 on Thursday 20 February in room JHB303 in the John Henry Brookes building, Headington Campus. (The full list of seminars for this semester is here.)

Refugee resettlement in South America - WiP seminar

This week's Work in Progress seminar will be given by Dr Marcia Vera Espinosa. She is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London. She is also Associate Researcher in the project 'Prospects for International Migration Governance' (MIGPROSP). Her research interests are in refugee and migrant integration, international and regional migration governance, forced migration and immigration policies in Latin America. Marcia has recently published in Global Policy, Forced Migration Review and Development Policy Review. She is currently working in the co-edited book ‘The Dynamics of Regional Migration Governance’ to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing.

Her talk will explore how the negotiations and power relationships between resettled refugees and actors involved in the resettlement programme in Chile and Brazil affected refugees’ experience. Drawing in data collected in two extended fieldwork visits in Chile and Brazil, Marcia will trace the encounters and unfulfilled expectations held by Colombian and Palestinian resettled refugees and the resettlement programmes in each country. She argues that the tensions that emerged between the programme organisers and refugees, shaped the experience as one of ‘unsettlement’ by which refugees’ radical uncertainties created by displacement, extended and normalised into third country resettlement.

The seminar will be held in the student hub on the third floor of the Abercrombie building (Headington campus). Please see here for further details and for a list of the entire seminar series.

Transforming conflict through mitigating climate change: DEP field trip to Colombia

Fatma Ozdogan and Corinna Vulpiani (DEP 2016-17) write:

In January 2017, six students from the Masters programme on Development and Emergency Practice travelled to Colombia with Dr Brigitte Piquard as part of a project started by CENDEP three years ago: the observatory of Symbolic Violence. The research theme was around resilience to conflict in different local communities. This year the focus was also on climate change and resilience. The aim was to analyse the similarities of resilience to conflict and climate change.

Fifteen days of field research in the municipalities of Trujillo, Bajo Calima, and La Rivera allowed the group to analyse the communities’ strategies for adapting to conflict and climate change. In each locality we held discussions with farmers, teachers and community leaders, human rights defenders. We asked about the effects of conflict and physical and especially psychological coping strategies, as well as the impact of climate change.

All the way through this field research, the group observed the relation between a well-organized community and resilience. Even in the rural areas that have been highly affected by climate change and conflict, communities adapt to these challenges by standing together. Despite the conflict causing large scale loss of life for years, the peace process in Colombia creates hope.

At the end of the trip, the group shared their outcomes with FECOOP (Foundation for Cooperative Education, the NGO that is CENDEP’s partner). Following the field research, the studies continue in Oxford.  

After more than 50 years of conflict, peace was long awaited and desired in Colombia. There is still a long way to go before lasting peace can be realized. However, visiting Colombia in the beginning of this peace process was a great opportunity for us. Understanding the dynamics of the peace, the reflections of the community and talking about 'peace' instead of conflict allowed us to contextualize and apply what we spent the semester studying and to understand deeply the complicated and fragile reality of a civil war-torn country such as Colombia.

On the other hand, Colombia is facing not only the effects of years of political disorder and violence but, especially in rural areas, has also been affected by the growing impact of climate change. Indeed, because of the combination of those two factors, the country maintains the second highest record in the world for the number of internally displaced persons. For all these reasons, we aimed to analyse and understand the phenomenon of resilience to climate change and conflict thanks to several interviews with local actors and activists and especially through the collaboration with FECOOP, whose work is focused on education and development. Their main aim is to increase the quality of education, providing alternative activities for future generations and creating awareness in the rural areas.

What emerged the most from interviewing the youngest in the villages is the lack of recreation and activities for young people who are in search of a better future far from the fields where the previous generations built their lives. Eager to keep up with the times and to become economically independent, they end up succumbing to the allure of the crime, and consequently fuelling the conflict.

As a result of climate change, livelihoods are changing, deforestation and urbanization are increasing and more people are left vulnerable because of issues such as food supply, water management, job security and lack of education. After the peace agreement, Colombia is trying to move forward from the violence, stigmatization and stereotyped vision that the world has of the country. The country has huge potential to do so although there are still massive internal problems that need to be addressed. The diversity of Colombia’s cultures and geography, such as the indigenous or urbanized Andean Highlands, the Afro-Colombian Caribbean costs and the Pacific lowlands or the Amazon Rainforest region, presents a variety of traditions, lifestyles, languages, and knowledge, which complicates finding answers to these problems.

The fieldwork of this course opened our eyes to how difficult yet necessary the process is to overcome a dark history and heritage of conflict in such a fragile state.  We will take with us many skills and experiences, learning how to transform a state of conflict through mitigating climate change and adapting to a new environment.