METHODOLOGY

Finding a research strategy

Aull-Davies (1998, p. 6) gives one definition of research as increasing 'one’s understanding of social reality by developing explanations of social forms and events as well as critically examining the conceptualisations used in these explanations.’ How this is achieved however varies greatly. For our group of eight, this research project was, for the vast majority of us, our first experience of carrying out ethnographic fieldwork and thus by extension, a learning curve. At the start of the project we endeavoured to educate ourselves on effective ethnographic fieldwork strategies and ultimately chose to adopt a variety of methods, that we felt best suited the context and setting of our research. This overview of our methodology is not exhaustive and our meetings involved constant reflection on various aspects of our methodology, however the following provides a snapshot as to how we went about our research.

Organisers over Organisations

We have two central actors, Quindo and Burn. However, our research is not so much about the organisations as a whole but about each individual working within them; the organisers. Earlier on in the project, once we had chosen the kind of organisations we wanted to focus on for our research, we quickly came to the realisation that many of them were very small in terms of staff numbers. As we wanted to hear the perspectives of a variety of different organisers we decided to use a pool of informants from two organisations that share a focus on laagdrempeligheid. Fortunately, once we had overcome the difficulty of organisation size, coming up with a strategy for selecting our informants was relatively straightforward as we simply looked to speak to as many ‘organisers’ in the chosen organisations as possible. We were also extremely fortunate to work with a very open and flexible set of people who were willing to engage with our research and really reflect on the work they do and the driving factors behind it. Finally, due to the limitations of our research timeframe, we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to build the kinds of close relationships with the organisers that are essential to successful ethnographic fieldwork, however, by ensure that each organisation had one constant contact person who always attended fieldwork with the other members of the group we were able to ensure continuity and build strong working relationships regardless of the scope of the time frame.

Participant Observation

Due to the nature of our focus being leisure it was natural for us to integrate participation into our research strategy. As a group we took part in breakdancing classes, rap sessions, radio shows, Zumba classes and more, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the work of the organisation, and the relationships between the organisers and the participants. By actively participating we also stood out less and therefore the organisers and the participants seemed more comfortable in talking and acting freely around us. This helped us to build up more trusting relationships with the organisers, which in turn lead to more in depth discussions on a variety of meaningful topics.

Whilst our primary (and preferred) observation strategy was to involve ourselves fully in the activities taking place in our organisations, there were some occasions where we opted for a more directly observational approach. In these instances, we stood back and watched the interactions between staff and participants, which proved to be a valuable way of examining whether some of the points raised in conversations with the organisers were evident in practice.

Semi-Structured interviews

To support our observations, we also carried out multiple semi-structured interviews with organisers working at our central actors as well as with experts from a number of different organisation. These interviews were recorded and transcribed and proved invaluable in understanding the motivations and thinking behind why the organisers do what they do. We tried to ensure that we were allowing the conversations to flow in a direction that was meaningful whilst also adopting a neutral approach so as to avoid influencing the outcomes of the conversation with our own view points.

Language

We carried out our fieldwork in a mix of Dutch and English. We were lucky to have a multilingual group with multiple Dutch speakers, which we found to be invaluable in gaining a more nuanced understanding of the multiple perspectives and ideas at play amongst the organisers. Dutch came to be particularly useful during participant observation, as we were able to better understand the interactions between organisers and youth as they were happening. Having a native Dutch speaker present in our group at every fieldwork visit also helped significantly in avoiding any loss of meaning, which would have been inevitable should we have had to work entirely in a language not native to our organisers or through interpreters (Aull-Davies, 1998).

Reflexivity

Throughout our time in the CADES programme we have come to value the importance of reflexivity. Reflexivity refers to the “ways in which the products of research are affected by the personnel and process of doing research” (Aull-Davies, 1998, p. 4) and is a key aspect of our own research methodology. We are ourselves a mixed group of people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, cultures and viewpoints and it was therefore crucial that we considered our own positionality as researchers in this context both as a group and as individuals. We recognise that interpretations and influences pass in both directions between researcher and interlocutor and therefore we tried to remain aware at all times as to how our own experiences and assumptions could inadvertently influence our research findings. We took action to minimise this eventuality through the use of a diverse and flexible research strategy as outlined above. We also engaged in regular self-reflection as a group, often immediately after an observation, or else during our weekly Tuesday meeting.

Ethics

During the course of our research process, a number of ethical questions were raised, so as to ensure that as a group we felt that the fieldwork we were carrying out was of a high standard. Topics of discussion included positionality (as explored above), the time frame of our research, as well as cultural sensitivity. Another crucial aspect of all of our research was ensuring informed consent. We aimed to ensure that the organisers were aware of what our research project was about, however as is common in this form of research it was at times difficult to explain all aspects of it to the organisers as we were not fully aware of all aspects and consequences of our research in advance (Aull-Davies, 1998, p. 55). Having said that, we were lucky in that all organisers that we spoke to were open and flexible to being involved in our research and we endeavoured to keep them in the loop as much as possible. Some organisers had specific requests in return for their involvement in the project, such as sending a sample of our writing before publishing or inviting them to our final presentation, we were of course happy to do this. Informed consent also applied to all visual material produced for the site and as such we always asked permission.

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