Paper short abstract:

This article focuses on refugee lifeworlds, encounters and the everyday and combines walking with 360video, methods of participatory theatre and cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), for participatory immersive storytelling with Syrians in Jordan.

Paper long abstract:

Immersive media technologies continue to provide new and challenging opportunities for participatory approaches in social sciences and visual anthropology. In particular, the use of small 360-video cameras for visual ethnographic work provides new and innovative research methods for migration research and participatory research methods. In this study, participatory 360-video is used as a methodology for a multi-sited ethnographic enquiry with Syrians living in urban areas in Sweden, Turkey and Jordan. This article focuses on refugee lifeworlds, encounters and the everyday and combines walking with 360 video, methods of participatory theatre and cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), for participatory immersive storytelling with Syrians. Providing preliminary conclusions and lessons learned from fieldwork in Irbid, Jordan, the author reflects on building rapport with Syrians in the field, empathic ethnographic encounter, embodiment, place-making, sensorial experience, sense of presence and the various levels of agency of research participants in the participatory approach. This ethnographic study is conducted within the framework of a 6-year research programme entitled 'Refugee Migration and Cities: Social Institutions, Political Governance and Integration in Jordan, Turkey and Sweden', led by Gothenburg University in collaboration with Malmö University, Sweden and Bogazici University in Turkey.