Paper short abstract:

In this presentation the conflicting needs of research ethics and giving a voice to those we study is explored by telling and re-telling stories that illuminate otherness and marginalization. The approach is based on autoethnography.

Paper long abstract:

Social change towards more inclusive society requires not only a change in public attitudes but also new ways of doing research. There is a need to overcome the problem caused by categorizations and othering of marginalized persons by showing them as relatable, as a ‘person like me’. The concerns of marginalized persons need to be moved to the center of the research, and futures need to be envisioned in more open-ended ways.

In research of discriminatory barriers that affect the lives of marginalized persons ethnographic writing is a tool to translate studied person’s accounts into a reality the reader can identify with. At the same time, ethnographic descriptions must adhere to ethical guidelines that protect the anonymity of research participants. Thus, anonymization, categorizations and the etic view of the researcher may dehumanize and impersonalize the studied persons.

In this presentation the conflicting needs of research ethics and giving a voice to those we study is explored by re-telling the stories of ‘the other’. By re-writing these stories I have explored the process where research participants’ accounts are transformed to new stories through autoethnographic writing. For translating the experiences of ‘someone else’ I have utilized affectivity as an interpretational tool and thus aimed in creating a mindscape where experiences of that 'other’ become relatable in the level of emotions. During the presentation, I will scrutinize the question, how far you may take someone else’s story? I will also share my writing experiments by reading excerpts of my (auto)ethnographic accounts.