Still methodologically becoming: collaboration, feminist politics and ‘Team Ismaili’

Abstract

This article mobilizes a feminist analytic to examine team research and collaborative knowledge production. We center our encounter with team research – a collectivity we named ‘Team Ismaili’ – and our study with first- and second-generation East African Shia Ismaili Muslim immigrants in Greater Vancouver, Canada. We draw upon feminist politics to highlight the ways in which ‘Team Ismaili’ at once destabilized and unwittingly reproduced normative academic power relations and lines of authority. A ‘backstage tour’, of ‘Team Ismaili’ shows the messiness and momentum of team research and sheds light on how collaborative knowledge production can challenge and reconfirm assumed hierarchies. Even as we are still methodologically becoming, through this discussion we strive to interrupt the prevailing silence on team research in human geography, to prompt more dialogue on collaboration and to foreground the insight garnered through feminist politics.

Este artículo utiliza una óptica feminista para estudiar la producción colaborativa de conocimiento e investigación en equipo. Inspirados por Mountz et al. (2003), centramos nuestro propio encuentro con la investigación en equipo – una colectividad que llamamos ‘Equipo Ismaili’ – y nuestro estudio con inmigrantes musulmanes de primera y segunda generación del Shia Ismaili del Este africano en el Gran Vancouver, Canadá. Nos basamos en la política feminista para remarcar las formas en las que el ‘Equipo Ismaili’ a la vez desestabilizó e involuntariamente reprodujo las relaciones de poder y las líneas de autoridad de la normativa académica. Un ‘recorrido detrás de la escena’ (Stewart and Zusker 1999, 141) del ‘Equipo de Ismaili’ muestra el desorden y el momentum de la investigación en equipo y da luz a cómo la producción colaborativa del conocimiento puede desafiar y reconfirmar jerarquías ya asumidas. Aún mientras estamos todavía formándonos metodológicamente, a través de esta discusión nos afanamos por interrumpir el silencio prevalente sobre la investigación en equipo en geografía humana, para generar más diálogo sobre la colaboración y remarcar la comprensión obtenida a través de la política feminista.

Keywords:

• team research
• power relations
• knowledge production
• feminist politics
• Ismailis

Keywords:

• investigación en equipo
• relaciones de poder
• producción de conocimiento
• política feminista
• Ismailis

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Ismaili community for welcoming us into their lives and sharing their perspectives and experiences. We also thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions. This manuscript is based on research supported, in part, by a SSHRC Social Cohesion Grant and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Notes

1. Ismailis are a sect of Shia Muslims spiritually led by the Aga Khan, a living Imam. We worked with Ismaili immigrants whose ancestors came from India, but who personally experienced dislocation from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. In August 1972, Idi Amin, then president of Uganda, ordered the expulsion of all non-citizen Asians living in the country. Even though most Ismailis were citizens, Amin soon extended the decree to include all Asian Africans regardless of citizenship. Within a matter of months, at least 60,000 Asians were forced to leave Uganda (Adams and Bristow 1978, 1979). The majority of the refugees sought amnesty in India or Britain. As the social, economic and political climate became increasingly unsafe throughout the region, Asians in Kenya and Tanzania elected to leave East Africa.

Canada accepted approximately 6500 of the first Ugandan Asian refugees – this marked the first time that Canada offered amnesty to non-European refugees (Adams and Jesudason 1984) – and subsequently became an important destination point for the growing East African Asian diaspora. The majority of immigrants and refugees settled in Toronto and Vancouver, although now there are East African Asian communities scattered throughout the country. Despite the relatively small size of the initial group of refugees (not all of whom were Ismailis), roughly 75,000 Ismailis currently live in Canada. About 15,000 Ismailis reside in British Columbia, with the largest concentration in the Lower Mainland (for a more in-depth history of the Ismailis in East Africa and Canada, see Jamal 2006).

2. This title takes inspiration from the Mountz et al. (2003) piece, ‘Methodologically becoming: Power, knowledge and team research’.

3. 22 first-generation men and women, and 16 second-generation men and women participated in the focus groups. Subsequently, ‘Team Ismaili’ conducted individual interviews with 24 first-generation men and women and 23 second-generation men and women. Within this group, we interviewed 13 households (interviews with two or more people of the same household, but different generations).

4. In a separate article we address the methodological innovations that emerged from our collaboration (see Houston et al. 2009).

5. When Serin began writing this manuscript she sought to incorporate individual perspectives into this collective commentary. Thus, she asked team members to respond to the following: ‘Please reflect on how team research furthered our engagement with the Ismaili community, the literature on immigration and identity, and each other. Please comment on any joys, inspirations, bumps, mishaps, limitations, or shortcomings of our team research as well. In other words, what really worked and what didn't work as well with this team and this research project? Feel free to use specific examples rather than just generalized statements about the process.’ As is the case with Mountz et al. (2003), the resultant narratives are interwoven throughout the manuscript. Jennifer's reflection here marks the first of the four team member responses.