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Paper Short Abstract:

This paper examines the epistemological challenges of conducting engaged ethnography in a deindustrialised South Wales community. It explores how to critically engage with the ‘left behind’ narrative without dismissing lived experiences and navigates the tension between solidarity and critical inquiry. The research questions how narratives of abandonment and resistance shape class and identity while reflecting on moments where breaking with the field is necessary to avoid reproducing dominant narratives. By addressing this dilemma, the paper contributes to discussions on activism, research, and the role of reflexivity in participatory ethnography.

Paper Abstract:

My research explores the lived experiences of residents in a deindustrialised community in South Wales, where economic decline, political marginalisation, and the normalisation of crisis shape everyday life. Designed as a participatory project, it aims to understand and document struggles and resilience while collaboratively exploring how people navigate structural disempowerment. Through co-producing knowledge, I critically engage with the narrative and feeling of being ‘left behind’.

A central epistemological challenge emerges here: How do I critically engage with this narrative without dismissing the lived experiences of my interlocutors? I must ask myself throughout my research: How does my work reinforce or challenge dominant narratives?

Another challenge lies in the tension between solidarity and critical inquiry. While I share my interlocutors’ frustrations over political neglect, I must also interrogate how narratives of abandonment, nostalgia, and resistance function within hegemonic structures. At what moments must I critically challenge these narratives rather than amplify them? When does my solidarity with the field risk obscuring contradictions within the community? These questions force me to break with my own investment in the field to avoid reproducing the dominant narratives that my research seeks to understand and analyse.

This paper reflects on these epistemological and ethical dilemmas, examining how ethnographic engagement in deindustrialised communities can simultaneously center marginal voices while maintaining the critical distance necessary to challenge dominant narratives. It contributes to the panel’s discussion on activism and research by exploring how solidarity, contradiction, and reflexivity intersect in participatory ethnography.