The Autobiographical Method of Investigating the Psychosocial Wellness of Refugees
Didier Bertrand
This chapter is the result of my research carried out with refugees who were awaiting transit and resettlement from a camp in Thailand. The purpose of the research was to understand the dynamics of social and identity restructuring in the camps as the roles that refugees played were changed and altered. I will examine in this chapter the methodological and ethical issues in controlling and analyzing the interactions that take place during biographical interviews between a researcher and an informant. These interactive elements are an integral part of the research process, which need to be taken into account in order to: 1) express and construct the real setting of the information collected, and 2) analyze how subjectivity may interfere in the research process.
- Exploration in which the main issues and the dilemma of the refugees are drawn out;
- Analysis of content, context, and interactions;
- An expressive overview of what the refugee and researcher are doing in search of meaning.
