A collective biography on working relationships in inclusive research teams

Abstract

In this article we explore our own experiences on working relationships in inclusive research through a collective biography. We aim to contribute to the understanding of how collaboration in inclusive research teams works, and how to realise transformation in ways of working together. In the collective biography we reflected on challenges in inclusive research, and how working together has impacted each one of us. In doing so we draw on Fine’s concept of ‘working the hyphens’: the conscious exploration of what happens where formal and informal roles or contexts overlap. We found that for us, ‘working the hyphen’ means: allowing time for togetherness, which is crucial for the construal of an ‘us’. We experienced the necessity of a permanent meta-conversation on accessibility, growth, and thresholds in our working relationships. By consistently being alert to and transparent about the moveability in the hyphen-space, the relational work between researchers can be deepened and made productive. Finally, we elaborated on several dilemmas in sharing responsibility between researchers.

Points of interest

• Six researchers, in three inclusive research pairs, reflect on the working relationships in inclusive research. We want to understand the challenges and joys of researchers with and without disabilities working together.

• We work in a ‘collective biography’ workshop: this methodology is based on memory-work, telling, and sharing lived experiences. We talk about our working together and how we experienced doing inclusive research.

• We learnt that we need to spend time together as people as well as working together before we each see the team as ‘us’.

• We also learnt that we all need to talk about our relationships within our teams, and we need to plan and make extra time for this.

• We discussed the challenges in sharing responsibility between researchers in inclusive teams.

Keywords:

• Inclusive research
• disability studies
• collective biography
• collaboration
• hyphen space

Acknowledgements

We want to thank ZonMW, The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, for supporting the research project ‘Working Together, Learning Together,’ and Middin for providing venues for the CB gatherings. Credit is also due to Geert Van Hove and Alice Schippers for helping us develop these ideas.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.