Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses the process of involving 36 Syrian refugee youths as co-researchers in a project investigating the ways young Syrians work towards better futures. It reflects on how such involvement shifts the stakes of the ongoing ethnographic pursuit of coevalness (Fabian 1983) in research.

Paper long abstract:

This paper discusses a methodological experiment of involving members of the target group as co-researchers in ethnographically inspired research.

In 2021, the project Viable Futures: Near and long term prospects among Syrian youth in Jordan set out to investigate how young Syrian refugees work towards worthwhile futures while facing legal voids and profound material lack. It hypothesized that engaging young Syrians as co-researchers would yield novel analytical insights in a context where most programs for future-making are designed by NGO’s and policy makers without much input from the target group itself. Simultaneously, involving young Syrians as co-researchers would allow them an income and skills that could aid them in their pursuit of better futures in an exceedingly uncertain situation.

Practically, we trained 36 young Syrians who conducted qualitative interviews with other young Syrians on behalf of the project. Along the way, they took part in developing questions, refining the approach to interviewing and discussing the collected interviews. These discussions unfolded at several workshops, which took place in large meeting rooms at local NGO offices. Such workshops were spaces for reflection that allowed for mutual knowledge production on future-making among young Syrians. They also called for meta-reflections on the workshop situation itself as the Syrian co-researchers were there as a way to forge better futures for themselves.

Against this background, the paper reflects on the analytical, methodological and ethical affordances and challenges of such co-researching. What kinds of coevalness (Fabian 1983) might this create and for what/whose benefit?