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Short abstract:

In the course of my research on Tunisians’ experiences of spatio- temporal confinement since 1956, I decided to undertake the challenge of researching and writing collaboratively. This research experiments with different styles of writing, and coming together, within a strategy of “comparing notes”.

Long abstract:

In the course of my doctoral research on Tunisians’ experiences of social, political, and economic confinement since 1956, I decided to undertake the challenge of researching and writing collaboratively, to address a gap in the existing literature. Consequently, I chose stories and life trajectories as the main focus for this research. The research experiments with different styles of writing, and coming together, within a strategy of “comparing notes”. These methodologies are reflected in “encounters”, as opposed to formal interviews, whereby my research participants and I partook in communal activities (cooking, cleaning, eating, walking…) and I consciously shared my own experiences and opened the discussion for comparison as well as empathy. Together we undertook the experiment of co-writing, which involved sending the participants texts (or “scenes”) revealing my own experiences of socio-political and economic confinement and prompting a response. Consequently, we initiated a flow of writing, sharing and “comparing notes” that continues even now that I am out of the “field.” The paper thus tackles the following question: How can “comparing notes” and collaborative research articulate possibilities of writing otherwise or counter-writing?