(In)visible Realities and Ambivalent Vulnerabilities: Autoethnographic Dialogue around a Field of Research with Women Refugees in Lebanon
This article presents a reflection inspired by the autoethnographic method which is based on a dialogue between its two authors around fieldwork they conducted with Syrian refugee women in Lebanon. It aims at answering the following question: what is the relevance of doing research with refugees if it doesn’t come with a commitment to transform the situations of vulnerability and violence they face? In order to do so, the authors each share a personal story revealing some of their intrinsic motivations for engaging in the practice of field research in Lebanon. They then explore three topics that came out of their discussion – namely a reflection on: 1) the challenges of doing fieldwork with refugees who are still vividly experiencing displacement and state of emergency on a daily basis; b) the necessity of reconsidering the notion of vulnerability in social work; c) the importance of doing research located at the intersection of knowledge production, intervention and advocacy. The article finally calls for a renewed commitment to research practices that aim at producing robust knowledge as well as bringing forward social change around the issues faced by refugees.