‘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.

Keywords

qualitative methods researcher positioning reflexivity ethnicity feminism insider-outsider halfie

Introduction

The practice of qualitative research demands reflexivity throughout the entire research process, with special attention directed towards researcher positioning (Adamson & Donovan, 2002; Finlay, 2002; Kristiansen et al., 2016; Ochieng, 2010; Serrant-Green, 2002). Researcher positioning, applied in this article, centres on the relationship between the researcher and the participants by exploring intersections and impacts of social categories related to age, gender, country of origin, native language, religious background and socioeconomic position (Berger, 2015; Finlay, 2002; Khawaja & Mørck, 2009; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012). Regarding social categories such as country of origin, native language or religious background, published accounts on researcher positioning in qualitative health research tend to focus on the following implications: Those of an outsider researcher belonging to the majority population – such as, in Denmark and Western society generally, the dominant Caucasian ethnic group – studying minority ethnic population groups; or of an insider researcher belonging to a minority ethnic community studying their own or similar population groups (Adamson & Donovan, 2002; Ahmed et al., 2019; Finlay, 2002; Fryer et al., 2016; Kristiansen et al., 2016; Ochieng, 2010; Serrant-Green, 2002; Sixsmith et al., 2003). Consequently, little is known about the research experiences of a researcher belonging to both groups, and who engages with individuals from the majority population as well as with minority ethnic population groups.

An ‘insider’ has been defined as a member of a particular group or collective with similar social, cultural and linguistic characteristics, whereas an ‘outsider’ is the equivalent non-member (Serrant-Green, 2002; Von Gaudecker, 2018; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012). Yet, the formal status as an insider or an outsider is fluid and situational rather than fixed and binary, meaning the researcher can alternate between both statuses (Abu-Lughod, 1988; 1991; Narayan, 1993; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012; Zubair et al., 2012; Zulfikar, 2014). In some situations, this alternation might entail the researcher becoming a halfie (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993; Von Gaudecker, 2018; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012; Zulfikar, 2014).

The term ‘halfie’ was coined by Lila Abu-Lughod in 1991 to describe the concept of in-between identities and experiences of researchers ‘whose national or cultural identity is mixed by virtue of migration, overseas education or parentage’ (p.137) (Abu-Lughod, 1991). Abu-Lughod developed the concept of the halfie based on her own experiences of studying the Bedouins in the Egyptian Western Desert: as a Palestinian American she was neither completely a cultural insider, nor a total outsider (Abu-Lughod, 1988). Then, in 1993, Kirin Narayan employed halfie as a concept to describe her Indian American mixed ancestry and shifting positioning in researching daily lives among women in Nasik, India (Narayan, 1993). Abu-Lughod (1991) and Narayan (1993) argue that halfies encounter several ethical dilemmas related to their ‘halfness’. Their in-between status demands an advanced layer of accountability and consideration in how they have researched and written about the lived experiences of people with whom they affiliate, since they write for, and have to answer to, multiple communities (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993).

The matter of insider-outsider positioning and its implications for qualitative health research has received much attention in recent decades (Adamson & Donovan, 2002; Ahmed et al., 2019; Finlay, 2002; Fryer et al., 2016; Kristiansen et al., 2016; Ochieng, 2010; Serrant-Green, 2002; Sixsmith et al., 2003). Nevertheless, only one first-hand halfie experience has been published in qualitative health research: Von Gaudecker (2018) describes the challenges she experienced, as a United States-based woman researcher with native Indian ethnicity, when conducting a focused ethnography among women with epilepsy in rural South India. Von Gaudecker (2018) stresses the need for further exploration of halfie positioning in order to demonstrate its promises and perils within qualitative health research.

In this article, I provide an ethnographic account of my own research experiences of engaging with middle-aged and older residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin in a deprived social housing area in Denmark (Srivarathan et al., 2019; Srivarathan et al., 2020). I explore how aspects and characteristics of my social own situation positioned me, and how this led me to understand that my positioning as a researcher was sometimes viewed as contrary to what I expected against the background of insider-outsider positioning. I draw on individual interviews, focus group discussions and field notes about community-based health promotion interventions (Srivarathan et al., 2019, 2020). To nuance current understanding of researcher positioning, I have provided an in-depth exploration of what it means to be a halfie, with its promises and perils in the context of qualitative health research (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993). Drawing on a feminist research methodology, I invite scholars in qualitative health research to expand their understanding of researcher positioning from insider-outsider dichotomies to include halfie complexities.

Methodology

The use of an ethnographic research methodology allowed me to explore the phenomenon of community-based health promotion interventions from the subjective view of the residents (Lavis, 2010; Martin, 2012; Zulfikar, 2014). By taking such an approach, a qualitative health exploration of other realities – as defined subjectively by the residents – was possible (Lavis, 2010; Martin, 2012; Zulfikar, 2014). The view of reality was both guided by predefined questions in my semi-structured interview guides and shaped by the lived experiences and meaning-making processes of the residents in their everyday life (Kristiansen et al., 2016; Lavis, 2010). Hence, I acknowledge that I as a researcher was part of the research process and outcomes, and that knowledge was produced in reciprocity with the residents (Berger, 2015; Finlay, 2002; Kristiansen et al., 2016).

Research Context: Feminist Research Methodology

The point of departure for my world view as researcher was informed by a feminist research methodology with the aim of challenging the marginalization, passivity and silencing of residents of deprived social housing areas in Denmark (Bhopal, 2009, 2010; Gunaratnam, 2003; Ochieng, 2010). I was inspired by the feminist research methodology applied by Bhopal in her own reflections, as a Briton of Indian descent, on researcher positioning in her encounters with Asian women and Romani people in England (Bhopal, 2009, 2010). The feminist standpoint in particular allowed me to develop a perspective, an epistemology and an ontology – the certain ways of seeing, knowing and being in the world – and to capture the lived experiences of residents in a respectful manner that legitimated their voices as sources of knowledge (Bhopal, 2009, 2010).

Residents in deprived social housing areas are positioned by the Danish Government within a specific set of circumstances that sit outside dominant society (Høghøj, 2019; Larsen, 2014; Srivarathan et al., 2020). As a scholar of Sri Lankan Tamil descent and of working-class background, I often find myself and my perspectives outside the normativity of the privileged, white, upper middle-class academy, yet which I believe puts me in a better informed position from which to understand the experiences of the residents in deprived social housing areas, who continue to be othered – as is similarly exemplified, for instance, by the widespread social exclusion of Romani people in England, or the discourses and political debates about Asian people, also in England, described by Bhopal (2010). By the use of this feminist standpoint, I found my own ways of engaging with the residents in a positive and empathic way in which shared experiences and understanding, together with reciprocity, encouraged and enabled the residents to speak of experiences without fear of being misunderstood or further othered (Bhopal, 2009, 2010).

It has been pointed out that scholars in qualitative health research have failed to acknowledge research participation among marginalized population groups (Ahmed et al., 2019; Fryer et al., 2016). During several interview situations, I helped participants of Turkish and Pakistani origin navigate social and healthcare services where unmet needs were identified. Reciprocity, for instance the researcher’s helping participants access information about diseases, increases the perception of personal gain from participation (Ahmed et al., 2019). My need to support the residents is in accordance with feminist research methodology and its commitment to ethics and value-based ideology (Lavis, 2010). I agree with Lavis (2010) that the way in which ethics is approached and understood within my feminist standpoint cannot be separated from the wider values of feminism itself. Feminist ethics as such are constructed by an ethic around care, and this ethic is based on relations to others (Lavis, 2010).

Fieldwork

I conducted the first piece of ethnographic research drawn upon in this article as part of my postgraduate research training between September 2016 and April 2017 (Srivarathan et al., 2019). The study explored encounters between older adults of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin and healthcare professionals in the context of community-based health promotion related to the implementation of multidimensional preventive home visits in deprived social housing areas. I conducted nine individual interviews and four focus group discussions with 22 older adults, and approximately 128 hours of participant observation. The second piece of ethnographic research I draw upon in this article was collected as part of my PhD fellowship between February and July 2019 (Srivarathan et al., 2020). This research addressed perspectives on residential engagement in a community-based health promotion intervention focussing on enhancing social relations through social outings among middle-aged and older adults of Danish and Turkish origin. I conducted 18 individual interviews among nine residents as part of a longitudinal research design, and about 46 hours of participant observation. Interviews were carried out in Danish and the quotations accentuated in this article are based on my own translation. Full descriptions of the study findings are presented elsewhere (Srivarathan et al., 2019, 2020).

All participants were informed in their native language, both orally and in writing, about the aim of the study, research ethics, and the right to withdraw at any time during the study period. Based on this, informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to participation (Srivarathan et al., 2019, 2020). This study is approved according to the research guidelines presented by University of Copenhagen (Journal number: 514-0183/18-3000), and no further approval than this is required for qualitative studies.

Researcher Positioning: Insider-Outsider

Researcher positioning in qualitative research reflects both the world view of the researcher and the position the researcher adopts in the given study (Bhopal, 2010; Khawaja & Mørck, 2009; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012). In this article, I take a feminist research methodology as my world view to understand and explore the relationships that I developed with the different groups of residents in the social housing area. These ontological and epistemological assumptions about knowledge and reality are shaped by my own values and beliefs as a young woman born and raised in Denmark, of Sri Lankan Tamil descent and of working-class background, undertaking a PhD fellowship in Health and Medical Sciences. In the following paragraphs, I will elaborate on my researcher positioning: I focus on the relationship between myself and the participants by exploring how social categories related to gender, country of origin and socioeconomic position affected this relationship against the background of insider-outsider positioning.

Gaining Access as an Insider

Gaining access to conduct qualitative health research among marginalized population groups, including residents in deprived social housing areas, has been identified as challenging and resource-demanding (Ahmed et al., 2019; Bonevski et al., 2014; Fryer et al., 2016; Sixsmith et al., 2003; Zubair et al., 2012). Such areas, with high proportions of minority ethnic residents, have been described as closed communities rarely letting outsiders in (Ahmed et al., 2019; Bonevski et al., 2014; Fryer et al., 2016; Zubair et al., 2012). Reasons for this unapproachability could be fears of research participation giving the housing area a bad reputation, distrust towards authorities or negative former research experiences (Ahmed et al., 2019; Bonevski et al., 2014; Fryer et al., 2016).

Based on this knowledge, for the second piece of ethnographic research I draw upon in this article, I positioned myself as an insider, a doctoral student undertaking research training, to overcome the hostility qualitative health researchers usually face in accessing marginalized population groups. During the process of gaining access, I had the advantage of knowledge and familiarity with everyday life among residents to both quickly and easily share in, and understand, the reality of their lived experiences. When the residents told me their stories, I could understand the meanings and import of events, persons and places, because I had previously encountered similar stories during earlier fieldwork. I gained access to women of Turkish and Pakistani origin by participating in resident-driven association activities such as physical training classes and needlework sessions. I could tap into their conversations about the training instructor or the exhausting exercises, as I myself had participated in at the same classes two years previously during my graduate research training. Berger (2015) describes similar experiences of positioning herself as an insider, being an Israeli woman, in gaining access to immigrant women in the United States.

Conducting Interviews as an Insider

During interviews with residents of Danish origin, I positioned myself as an insider by sharing my memories of being born and raised in a social housing area by working-class parents. The sharing of experiences and disclosure builds trust and rapport with participants, helping them to be less rigid in their responses (Berger, 2015; Bhopal, 2009; 2010; Crean, 2018; Ochieng, 2010). Furthermore, the sharing of personal accounts and lived experiences of vulnerability was part of my research reflexivity, which in turn I used as means to connect with and come closer to the residents (Ahmed et al., 2019; Berger, 2015; Fryer et al., 2016). When residents described their experiences of the stigma they faced as residents of deprived housing areas in Denmark, I could relate to their perspectives based on my own experiences. I also positioned myself as an insider to provide commonality around a shared understanding of challenges related to manual labour and economic hardship.

I positioned myself differently to the residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin compared to the residents of Danish origin by either exposing aspects of my social situation, or by not disclosing them (Narayan, 1993). From my Sri Lankan Tamil upbringing, deeply rooted in a patriarchal family structure, I was concerned about the positioning of myself as an unmarried daughter in her mid-twenties: how would I be perceived by the older women of Turkish origin in the social housing area? As described by Narayan (1993) and Abu-Loghod (1988), having insider knowledge and recalling previous encounters as a graduate student, I was well aware of the dominant expectations regarding marital status among these older women. However, during interviews, I positioned myself as a young woman with high ambitions for potential suitors rather than talking about my recent non-marital relationship. Thus, whenever I was questioned about my marital status during my second piece of ethnographic fieldwork, I answered:

It’s difficult to find a good man of my own kind with proper manners these days!

This answer would receive a warm welcome, often followed by narratives from the women about their numerous futile efforts to find a suitable match for their own unmarried daughters.

When encountering residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin, I repressed aspects of my autonomous and critical persona in order to adhere to the dominant social etiquette in the social housing area (Abu-Lughod, 1988; Narayan, 1993). During interviews with middle-aged and older women of Turkish and Pakistani origin, they would often cite onerous domestic duties to explain their lack of participation in community-based health promotion interventions offered in the social housing area. A woman of Turkish origin aged 60–69 years clarified:

I do not have the time to participate in these health interventions, because I have several duties at home. I have to take care of my family and spend time with my husband and children. I do not want to be an irresponsible woman. That is how I am. I do not have the time to run around and participate in all sorts of things.

In such situations, I did not contradict the answer given for non-participation in community-based health promotion interventions. I sensed that a certain understanding of a ‘responsible’ woman was at stake that differentiated from my own liberal understanding, and from a feminist standpoint I sought not to undermine opinions that clashed with my own world view (Abu-Lughod, 1988; Bhopal, 2009; Narayan, 1993; Zubair et al., 2012).

During an interview conducted in the needlework association, the woman referred to above explained that her low spirits were caused by the recent divorce of her son. Furthermore, she revealed that she had not informed the other members of the needlework association about the sad news. Here, I positioned myself as an insider with knowledge on the taboo associated with divorce in my own Sri Lankan Tamil community, and since none of the other members were aware of the divorce, I consoled her by saying it might have been fate. She confirmed my consolation, because she perceived the divorce to be the will of God. In contrast, when a woman of Danish origin aged 60–69 years told me about her failed marriage, I took a different approach. I claimed that men could only cause trouble, while both of us burst out laughing. Towards the woman of Danish origin, I positioned myself as having more liberality, knowing that divorce is not usually associated with guilt and shame in the mainstream society in Denmark.

Assumed Commonalties as an Insider

When residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin met me in person, my physical appearance led them to assume we had a common identity. I attended an Eid ul-Fitr celebration hosted by residents of Pakistani origin in the social housing area, and several residents welcomed me in Urdu assuming that I was of Pakistani origin. As soon as they saw me looking confused, they understood that I was not able to speak Urdu, but they still believed that we shared the same country of origin and religious background. When I introduced myself, several residents remarked that I looked Pakistani and joked about my eyes being very similar to their own. Similar claims of commonality by participants – based upon physical appearance – are described by Song and Parker (1995), mixed-descent Chinese-English and Korean-American researchers, in their interview experiences with Chinese young people in Britain.

In my encounters with middle-aged and older women of Turkish origin, their positioning of me as an insider became apparent in a number of ways. It was seen in the unburdened negotiation of access to a needlework association, how they included me in their tea sessions and informal talks, how they referred to Turkey as an almost neighbouring country to Sri Lanka and how they repeatedly created a mutually inclusive we based on an assumption of commonality (Berger, 2015; Bhopal, 2009; 2010; Ochieng, 2010; Song & Parker, 1995).

As interviews with residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin unfolded, they often shared frustration towards healthcare professionals of Danish origin, based on their own experiences of discrimination. During a focus group discussion with men of Turkish origin aged 60–69 years, a participant explained:

In my opinion, we are used as guinea pigs in the healthcare system. After animals, the immigrants are used as guinea pigs. This is a problem within the healthcare system.

Trust and openness were mutually constructed by my sharing my own parents’ many experiences of being alienated in the Danish healthcare system. As a person of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, I could relate to the feeling of being treated as a second-class citizen. These shared experiences of discrimination further created a mutually inclusive we: residents were, without hesitancy, able to tell me – an insider – about their own experiences of discrimination. This mirrors the experience of Ochieng (2010), viewed as an insider in her interviews with families and adolescents of African descent about healthy lifestyle; and also of Berger (2015) who reflects on being better able – as an immigrant – to understand the experiences and struggles of immigrant women in the United States than a non-immigrant researcher. From discussions with my colleagues of Danish origin, I discovered that such complaints and experiences of discrimination were not disclosed to them. I sensed such disclosure indicated that residents positioned me as an insider, perceiving me as someone who was well positioned to understand and relate to their experiences of discrimination and to acknowledge the significance of these experiences.

Conflicting Positioning: The Outsider

As described above, I adopted several strategies to differentiate my own positioning as an insider among residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin from how I positioned myself among residents of Danish origin. However, in some interview situations the residents clearly did position me differently to how I positioned myself. Despite shared experiences related to discrimination in healthcare settings, residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin positioned me ‘on a pedestal’ as a doctoral student, which challenged my production of shared cultural commonality (Gunaratnam, 2003; Kanuha, 2000). A woman of Turkish origin aged 60–69 years described me in the following words:

Resident: You are such a clever girl, and you are very talented. I have learned so many Danish words during this interview. If I had gone to school [in Denmark], I could have learned so much.

Researcher: My mother doesn’t have any formal education in Denmark either. And she’s sad [about it]. I understand you.

Resident: At least your mother has a clever daughter like you, and she speaks Danish to you at home. My sons do not communicate in Danish with me; otherwise I could have learned a lot of Danish.

Her positioning of me as someone smart and talented, indigenously part of the Danish world, challenged my production of cultural communalities based on the shared experiences of challenges related my mother’s insufficient educational skills in Denmark (Gunaratnam, 2003). And although I myself had experienced struggles related to integration into the Danish educational system, she did not position me as an othered person like herself. She positioned me as an outsider; someone less ‘minority ethnic’ than her; someone with capital and skills that differentiated me from her. This forced me to question previous assumptions about shared meanings and experiences, and made me attentive to the detail of differential and biographical constructions of privileges (Gunaratnam, 2003). In my eagerness to establish shared cultural commonality and to position myself as an insider, I might have neglected my own privilege as a highly educated woman. This privilege blindness carries the risk of blocking out the voice of the participants and harming them as their struggles are left uncomprehended (Berger, 2015; Finlay, 2002).

When I engaged with residents of Danish origin, they also challenged my assumed positioning as an insider. There were several incidents where this occurred; they perceived me as someone less ‘Danish’ than them, someone with other physical features and origin which differentiated me from them. Towards the end of an interview, I asked an older woman of Danish origin, aged 80–89 years, if she had any final questions or clarifications. She answered my question by telling me switch off the recorder, and then she asked how I experienced my life as an immigrant in Denmark. I was confused by her question and reminded her that I was born and raised in Denmark, as I had already told all participants – yet what is more, several older residents of Danish origin complimented me on my Danish language skills and educational attainment as they told me that it was impressive that ‘someone like me’ could accomplish such high educational levels, clearly positioning me as an outsider. During such episodes, I was caught in an ambiguous and conflicting situation causing me tension and contradiction in terms of my own positioning when this did not match the residents’ positioning of me (Kanuha, 2000).

Neither an Insider nor an Outsider: Becoming a Halfie

After conducting and analysing the data and drafting the manuscript for the second piece of ethnographic fieldwork referred to in this article (Srivarathan et al., 2020), I reconsidered my researcher positioning in terms of insider-outsider dichotomy. In the abovementioned section, I described how some of my strategies to position myself as an insider among residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin were not always a success, in that the residents sometimes positioned me as an outsider. In preference to considering these as failures, I explore how such situations offered analytical insight when applying ‘halfie’ as a concept to unfold the complexities of my researcher positioning.

The contact I had with the different groups of residents affected the conceptualization of my researcher positioning (Narayan, 1993; Ochieng, 2010; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012). Engaging with residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin, whose various perceptions of me emphasized the paradox between the ways different groups of residents perceived me and the way(s) I perceived myself. This opened up new insights into, and aspects of, my researcher positioning formation, and I became aware of my status as a halfie within the different balances (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993; Von Gaudecker, 2018; Weiner-Levy & Abu Rabia Queder, 2012; Zulfikar, 2014). Especially considering my Sri Lankan Tamil origin and working-class upbringing, I was constantly engaged in a complexity of balances related to my halfness. For instance, I was a scholar of Sri Lankan Tamil descent in a white research institution; and a professional academic perceived as not very ‘minority ethnic’ by the residents of Turkish origin, and as not very ‘Danish’ by the residents of Danish origin (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Ahmad, 2003; Kanuha, 2000; Narayan, 1993; Von Gaudecker, 2018). These experiences demonstrated the complexities of my researcher positioning, since many dimensions of similarity and difference were performed simultaneously during encounters with the residents.

Promises of a Halfie

As Song and Parker (1995) and Berger (2015) describe in their research experiences, I encountered several situations in which the residents assumed that I would understand and present them in a responsible way and not misuse information given in confidence. During an interview with a woman of Turkish origin aged 60–69 years, a conversation on strategies to promote mental health led her to disclose information about unregistered travels to and from unauthorized property in her homeland. She interrupted herself, when she realized that she was revealing confidential information, but she carried on with a smile saying:

You are kind of like one of us, so I am not worried about your loyalty.

The wording ‘kind of like’ (lidt ligesom in the original Danish) demonstrates the halfness of her positioning of me (a descendant of minority ethnic origin) as someone close to herself, but not completely the same, as I am not of Turkish origin. Another woman of Turkish origin described her perspectives on a conflict between the Kurdish and Turkish resident groups in the social housing area. She did not worry about revealing her point of view, because I was not of Turkish origin, and she knew that I was not related to any residents of Turkish origin in the social housing area.

Like Song and Parker (1995), I engaged with a similar – but not my own – community, and I wonder if these women perceived me as a ‘safe’ person to disclose their perspectives to, since I was neither the same (Turkish) as an insider, nor completely different (Danish) as an outsider: I was a being in-between – a halfie. Others have described such situations as being ‘insider enough’ through some shared characteristics such as gender or region of origin, but still having a distance through other characteristics such as professional background (Ahmed et al., 2019; Bhopal, 2009; Fryer et al., 2016). Ahmed et al. (2019) argued that the combination of connection and professionalism creates less fear of the judgement, gossip and concerns associated with completely engaged insiders within the community; accordingly, my halfie positioning emerged to be a particular advantage among the women of Turkish origin.

Perils of a Halfie

Qualitative health research has been characterized by a relational power differential between researchers and participants, predominantly concerning marginalized population groups (Ahmed et al., 2019; Ford & Airhihenbuwa, 2010; Fryer et al., 2016). The inclusion of researchers of the same or similar origin as participants – ethnic matching – has been suggested as a solution to reduce power imbalances in qualitative health research (Ahmed et al., 2019; Fryer et al., 2016). However, several disadvantages have been linked to the use of ethnic matching in the context of qualitative health research (Adamson & Donovan, 2002; Ahmed et al., 2019; Fryer et al., 2016; Ochieng, 2010; Serrant-Green, 2002).

During my interviews with residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin, they would often leave sentences unfinished, assuming that I would know the endings, for instance when describing how healthcare professionals of Danish origin discriminate against patients of minority ethnic origin. Berger (2015) stresses that being both researcher and member of the community being studied (i.e. a halfie) carries the risk of blurring boundaries. When the researcher and participants share experiences, such as discrimination in healthcare settings, the assumption of the researcher’s familiarity with participants’ experiences might cause participants to withhold information, assuming that it is obvious to the researcher (Berger, 2015; Finlay, 2002; Ochieng, 2010). On the other hand, the researcher might be ‘trapped’ by taking for granted similarities, consequently overlooking certain aspects of the participants’ experiences (Berger, 2015; Finlay, 2002). The latter possibility forced me to re-examine some of my encounters with the middle-aged women of Turkish and Pakistani origin. In my efforts to position myself as an insider or at least a halfie, I might have failed to see the need to grieve over the recent divorce of her son. It might have been the case that the woman actually needed me not to position myself as an insider, but rather as a complete outsider, someone she could tell her story to, someone who would listen and not let it pass as ‘fate’.

As Berger (2015) and Finlay (2002) describe, it is a delicate balance between positioning oneself as an insider by using one’s own experiences to build trust and rapport – hopefully to gain deeper understanding of the phenomenon – and not imposing one’s own experiences on the participants. The recognition from older residents of Danish origin regarding my educational accomplishment might have been directed towards my working-class upbringing in a social housing area, rather than my Sri Lankan Tamil origin. However, during fieldwork I had not been aware of my halfie researcher positioning, nor had I realized that residents would balance and nuance the different social categories related to my complex researcher positioning during these interview situations and initial analysis. The phrase ‘someone like me’ could have been an acknowledgement of me having achieved high education despite economic hardship like one of their own people, positioning me as an insider from a social housing area rather than positioning me as an outsider with Sri Lankan Tamil origin.

Despite a certain commonality in ethnicity and social upbringing, I had been aware that I differed from my participants in terms of educational attainment and academic profession. Therefore, I often endeavoured to avoid power imbalances by bringing humility to interview situations, emphasizing my learning experience, and, as a feminist scholar, the desire to amplify their voices (Berger, 2015; Fryer et al., 2016; Lavis, 2010; Zulfikar, 2014):

Participant: I am bit nervous now, and I am answering your questions without thinking about them. If I had the possibility to think deeply about the issues, I could have provided really good answers.

Researcher: Our conversation isn’t an exam. I’m here because I want to learn about community-based health promotion interventions in this housing area. I’m here to learn from you!

Inspired by Lavis (2010) and her research experiences of interviewing National Health Service officials and health professionals, I attempted to play down my own positioning as a researcher. I strived to position myself as a halfie, a student with passion for community-based health promotion interventions: I tried to afford the resident a more equitable position in the interview situation, to develop trust and rapport, minimizing hierarchal relationships (Lavis, 2010). At the follow-up interview, the woman (quoted above) expressed that her apprehensiveness was caused by her positioning of me as all-knowing health expert. Crean (2018), as a researcher from a working-class background, describes similar experiences in exploring inequalities among working-class women, in which participants would position her as the academic expert and be hesitant in providing answers to her research questions. These situations demonstrate the complexity of our halfness balances, since aspects of our positioning as researchers were exposed to the participants more than we desired.

Concluding Remarks

This article focuses on researcher positioning in the context of qualitative health research by exploring the relationship between the researcher and participants and how social categories related to gender, country of origin and socioeconomic position intersect and impact this relationship. Data consisted of individual interviews, focus group discussions and field notes on community-based health promotion interventions among middle-aged and older residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin in a deprived social housing area in Denmark. A feminist research methodology was used as point of departure, in order to understand and explore the relationship between the researcher and participants.

On the basis of detailed descriptions of field access and encounters with participants during interview situations and observations, I have demonstrated that my researcher positioning was fluid and situational rather than static and fixed. My researcher positioning was challenged by insider-outsider dichotomies, as the participants positioned me in various ways, sometimes contrary to how I positioned myself: in situations where I assumed I had positioned myself as an insider, the participants had positioned me as an outsider, or as someone in-between.

The unfolding of halfie as a concept to describe my researcher positioning among residents of Danish, Turkish and Pakistani origin extends the normative understanding of insider-outsider dichotomy in qualitative health research. Applying the halfie concept, I was able to provide an in-depth exploration of the complexity of my researcher positioning as someone less minority ethnic than the residents of Turkish and Pakistani origin – different because of my educational and professional attainment – however, kind of alike in being a descendant of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. At the same time, I was less Danish than the residents of Danish origin – different because of my physical features and origin – however, kind of alike in being born and raised in a Danish social housing area with parents of working-class background.

The insights gained from this research come with methodological and ethical implications. Firstly, I have considered the risk of my research being labelled as defensive, apologetic or anecdotal and incidental (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Ahmad, 2003; Narayan, 1993). As a halfie, I have carefully considered the impact on the kind of research questions I wanted to focus on and the power to define myself, the research process and participants (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993). My interpretation of data has been influenced both by behaviours and norms that I observed among the residents, and also by behaviours and norms I have observed in my everyday life as a descendant of Sri Lankan Tamil origin in Denmark. My knowledge of ethnic dynamics was not only acquired through reading, talking and thinking about this topic: I also lived and experienced ethnic dynamics myself, several times experiencing them as negative and hurtful.

Secondly, as much as – being a member of an ethnic minority – I am aware of my own position as othered within academia, I also need to take into consideration my responsibilities and the political power I have as a representative of a minority ethnic and working-class community (Abu-Lughod, 1991; Narayan, 1993). Researching sensitive issues such as discrimination within healthcare settings can raise the dilemma of the accusation of seeking to publicize the community that I am within and a part of. Here my own aspiration and motive for looking into sensitive areas of research could also be brought into question. Reflexivity over my positioning as a halfie and its impact on the entire research process has been crucial in this matter.

Finally, I am also aware that once the research is carried out, the residents will still be living the inequalities and discrimination they have shared with me. This implies an ethical issue related to the feminist research methodology applied in this research, in how to transform the knowledge acquired into action that can change the lives of the residents, who shared distressing stories of how discrimination and inequality impact their health and well-being (Crean, 2018). While I took a feminist research methodology as a point of departure for my world view on researcher positioning, the obligation of responding to unmet social and healthcare needs is the actionist practice I seek within the feminist standpoint.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Associate Professor, Maria Kristiansen for encouraging me to write this article, reading earlier drafts and providing useful feedback. I would also like to thank Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen. This research has been made possible because of the residents of the social housing area, and I would like to acknowledge the residents for their genuine interest and participation in the studies and the many local community key persons, who helped with recruitment. Finally, I extend special thanks to the anonymous reviewers, section editor and editor for their comments and suggestions.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was funded by Nordea-fonden (grant number 02-2017-0685) and Helsefonden (grant number 16-A-0241).

ORCID iD

Abirami Srivarathan

References

Abu-Lughod

(1988). Fieldwork of a dutiful daughter. In. Altorki

El-Solh

C. F.

(Eds.). Arab women in the field: Studying your own society (1st ed., pp. 139–158). Syracuse University Press.

Abu-Lughod

(1991). Writing against culture. In. Fox

R. G.

(Ed.). Recapturing anthropology: Working in the present (1st ed., pp. 137–162). https://doi.org/10.29092/uacm.v9i19.399.

Adamson

Donovan

J. L.

(2002). Research in black and white. Qualitative Health Research, 12(6), 816–825. https://doi.org/10.1177/10432302012006008.

Ahmad

(2003). Still ‘in progress?’ – methodological dilemmas, tensions and contradictions in theorizing south asian muslim women. In. Puwar

Raghuram

(Eds.). South Asian women in the Diaspora (1st ed., pp. 43–66). https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474215558.ch-003.

Ahmed

Vandrevala

Hendy

Kelly

Ala

(2019). An examination of how to engage migrants in the research process: Building trust through an ‘insider’ perspective. Ethnicity & Health, 40, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2019.1685651.

Berger

(2015). Now I see it, now I don’t: researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112468475.

Bhopal

(2009). Identity, empathy and “otherness”: Asian women, education and dowries in the UK. Race Ethnicity and Education, 12(1), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320802650923.

Bhopal

(2010). Gender, identity and experience: Researching marginalised groups. Women’s Studies International Forum, 33(3), 188–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2009.12.005.

Bonevski

Randell

Paul

Chapman

Twyman

Bryant

Brozek

Hughes

(2014). Reaching the hard-to-reach: A systematic review of strategies for improving health and medical research with socially disadvantaged groups. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 14(1), 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-14-42.

10.

Crean

(2018). Minority scholars and insider-outsider researcher status: Challenges along a personal, professional and political continuum. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-19.1.2874.

11.

Finlay

(2002). “Outing” the researcher: The provenance, process, and practice of reflexivity. Qualitative Health Research, 12(4), 531–545. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973202129120052.

12.

Ford

C. L.

Airhihenbuwa

C. O.

(2010). The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research. Social Science & Medicine, 71(8), 1390–1398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.07.030.

13.

Fryer

C. S.

Passmore

S. R.

Maietta

R. C.

Petruzzelli

Casper

Brown

N. A.

Butler

III Garza

M. A.

Thomas

S. B.

Quinn

S. C.

(2016). The symbolic value and limitations of racial concordance in minority research engagement. Qualitative Health Research, 26(6), 830–841. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315575708.

14.

Gunaratnam

(2003). Messy work: Qualitative interviewing across difference. Researching race and ethnicity (1st ed., pp. 79–105). https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857024626.d6.

15.

Høghøj

(2019). Between Utopia and Dystopia: A socio-cultural history of modernist mass housing in Denmark, c. 1945-1985. Aarhus University.

16.

Kanuha

V. K.

(2000). “Being” native versus “going native”: Conducting social work research as an insider. Social Work, 45(5), 439–447. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/45.5.439.

17.

Khawaja

Mørck

L. L.

(2009). Researcher Positioning: Muslim “Otherness” and Beyond. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 6(1-2), 28–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780880902900713.

18.

Kristiansen

Younis

Hassani

Sheikh

(2016). Experiencing loss: A muslim widow’s bereavement narrative. Journal of Religion and Health, 55(1), 226–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0058-x.

19.

Larsen

T. S.

(2014). Copenhagen’s west end a “Paradise Lost”: The political production of territorial stigmatization in Denmark. Environment and Planning A, 46(6), 1386–1402. https://doi.org/10.1068/a45640.

20.

Lavis

(2010). Multiple researcher identities: Highlighting tensions and implications for ethical practice in qualitative interviewing. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 7(4), 316–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780880902929506.

21.

Martin

S. S.

(2012). Exploring discrimination in american health care system: Perceptions/experiences of older iranian immigrants. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 27(3), 291–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-012-9168-z.

22.

Narayan

(1993). How native is a "native" anthropologist. American Anthropologist, 95(3), 671–686.

23.

Ochieng

B. M. N.

(2010). “You know what I mean”: The ethical and methodological dilemmas and challenges for black researchers interviewing black families. Qualitative Health Research, 20(12), 1725–1735. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310381085.

24.

Serrant-Green

(2002). Black on black: Methodological issues for black researchers working in minority ethnic communities. Nurse Researcher, 9(4), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.7748/nr2002.07.9.4.30.c6196.

25.

Sixsmith

Boneham

Goldring

J. E.

(2003). Accessing the community: Gaining insider perspectives from the outside. Qualitative Health Research, 13(4), 578–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732302250759.

26.

Song

Parker

(1995). Commonality, difference and the dynamics of disclosure in in-depth interviewing. Sociology, 29(2), 241–256.

27.

Srivarathan

Jensen

A. N.

Kristiansen

(2019). Community-based interventions to enhance healthy aging in disadvantaged areas: Perceptions of older adults and health care professionals. BMC Health Services Research, 19(7), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3855-6.

28.

Srivarathan

Lund

Christensen

Kristiansen

(2020). Social relations, community engagement and potentials: a qualitative study exploring resident engagement in a community-based health promotion intervention in a deprived social housing area. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7), 2341. http://10.3390/ijerph17072341.

29.

Von Gaudecker

J. R.

(2018). Challenges in conducting ethnography among hidden populations in rural South India. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 50(6), 351–355. https://doi.org/10.1097/JNN.0000000000000399.

30.

Weiner-Levy

Abu Rabia Queder

(2012). Researching my people, researching the “other”: Field experiences of two researchers along shifting positionalities. Quality and Quantity, 46(4), 1151–1166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-012-9677-4.

31.

Zubair

Martin

Victor

(2012). Embodying gender, age, ethnicity and power in “the field”: Reflections on dress and the presentation of the self in research with older Pakistani muslims. Sociological Research Online, 17(3), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.2667.

32.

Zulfikar

(2014). Researching my own backyard: Inquiries into an ethnographic study. Ethnography and Education, 9(3), 373–386. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2014.919869.