Paper short abstract:

This paper explores situations of productive friction by juxtaposing two different research projects taking shape around one common theme: The vocation of Genesungsbegleitung, a kind of care based on experiential expertise, which is currently professionalizing in psychiatric clinics in Germany.

Paper long abstract:

Within the last ten years, the role of what some would call experiential expertise has increasingly gained attention within inpatient psychiatric care in Germany. Peer support, a kind of care based on experiential expertise, is professionalizing in clinics and on wards as part of a specific kind of training: Experienced-Involvement (EX-IN). The resulting of this is a professional vocation called, "Genesungsbegleitung", that resonates with the goals of "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities" and other contextual global health developments. The production and incorporation of new/other forms of expert knowledge is currently object to heated discussion in this field. This paper draws on two different ethnographic research projects to tackle emergent questions about shared epistemic work. The first research project examines the everyday enactment and negotiation of experiential expertise - between having lived through an experience and being experienced (Pols and Hoogsteyns 2016) - in the role of the GenesungsbegleiterInnen within psychiatric clinics. The second project is an interdisciplinary evaluation project in which researchers, peer workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists are working towards recommendations for political action regarding future psychiatric care in Germany. Both projects come together around the "Genesungsbegleitungs" profession, but they each demonstrate fundamentally different contexts, circumstances, aims, and research methodologies. How do instances of productive frictions differ in these two projects? Who identifies frictions, and what do they look like? By juxtaposing these two different research projects taking shape around a common theme, this paper tries to shed light on new situations of productive friction.