Anchoring into space: A reflexive approach for attending to trauma when engaging in research with older persons with experiences of homelessness

Serrano, D., Cormier, É., Sussman, T., Bourgeois-Guérin, V., Provost, D., Walsh, C. A., Mahmood, A., & Canham, S. (2023). Anchoring into space: A reflexive approach for attending to trauma in engaging in research with older persons with experiences of homelessness. Public Integrity. E-pub. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2023.2240623

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Abstract

Reflexivity, which requires the conscious appraisal of how researchers’ social positions and subjectivities interact with the research process, has become increasingly popular in qualitative research with participants at heightened risk of marginalization and trauma histories. Despite the documented traumas associated with marginalization, little has been written about the process of integrating a reflexive approach into research with marginalized communities. This methodological paper seeks to redress this gap by illuminating how our research team used the lens of space as a reflexive framework to attend to positionality, transformation, and power in a qualitative study with older persons with experiences of homelessness. These reflections emerged from our work conducting research in one of three sites associated with a pan-Canadian study, on housing, aging, place/space, and homelessness. More specifically, they emerged from our team’s observations and de-briefings during and following data collection with 11 participants (aged 50+ years) of a long-term transitional housing site in Montreal, Canada. These reflections illuminate how integrating concepts of space may provide an avenue for attending to reflexivity when conducting research that informs policy and public service initiatives for marginalized communities, and support research processes that disrupt tendencies to overlook trauma.

Keywords:

Reflexivity, homelessness, aging, space, marginalization.