A Contextualized Perspective on Research Participation in Collaborative Refugee Research: A Multi-Site Exploration of Relational Dynamics in Collaborative Research

Public Significance Statement Research participation in collaborative refugee research operates as a relational forum in which refugees navigate within and relate to different relational contexts of the family, the community, and institutional actors. A contextualized understanding of research participation for refugees in collaborative research can enhance insights on the potential strengths and pitfalls of collaborative refugee research to redistribute power and mobilize agency in collaborative research practices. Objective: An increasing body of literature emphasizes the role of refugees' social context, with social conditions both at home and in the host society having an impact on the possibility of power redistribution and the mobilization of agency in collaborative research practices. Our aim is to develop a contextualized understanding of research participation for refugees in collaborative research in order to further enhance insights on the potential strengths and pitfalls of collaborative refugee research. Method: We closely study the various relational contexts that shape refugees' research participation and that may have an influence on power dynamics in collaborative research. In the present study, we explore participants' adaptation of research participation by means of an interpretive cross-case analysis of three psychosocial intervention studies sharing a collaborative approach with refugee participants, refugee families, refugee communities, and professional partners at different stages in the research process. Results: We identify the developed collaborative strategies in our three case studies and provide an outline of the ways refugees mobilize research participation through these identified collaborative strategies, from within the relational contexts of the family, community, and institutional actors. Conclusions: This analysis shows how research participation operates as a relational forum in which refugees continuously navigate and negotiate within and between multiple relational contexts. We argue that performing research participation, as a way of relating to a relational context, is both an interactive and a dynamic process. For research practice, our analysis addresses the importance of an in-depth understanding of participants' relational contexts to foster both a reflective research practice and trustful research relationships between researchers and participants.