Overview

Starting from a reflection on the epistemological and biopolitical value of collaborative research practices, this Workshop proposes to collectively discuss the place of experience in the production of knowledge in the social sciences and in psychology. Through a dialogue between two collaborative methodological approaches in which experience occupies a privileged place - biographical research and cartography - participants are invited to reflect on how the theme of experience is tied to theoretical and practical tools used by them during research.

Therefore, in its online format, the Workshop proposes as a starting point an exercise inspired in the collaborative working tool of the biographical workshops; we ask the Workshop’s participants to send us, by May 27^th, short autobiographical text driven by the following questions: what is the place of experience in your strategies of knowledge production? What are the theoretical assumptions underlying your work with/about experience? What ethical and/or epistemological effects can stem from considering experience in your work? What theoretical and practical challenges do you face in your concrete practices that are related to the role played by experience (yours and/or the research participants') in your academic work?

The Workshop will be divided in two parts. In the first half, to be held from 2pm to 5pm, we will take as a starting point the narratives previously sent by the participants. The collective discussion prompted by the autobiographical texts will serve as a way to welcome the questions, interests and difficulties of the Workshop participants and a way to present the theoretical and practical assumptions of the biographical workshops and the cartography approach. We will also present concrete examples of research conducted by the facilitators - in the case of the biographical workshops, from researches with migrant participants, and, in the case of cartography, in a participatory research-intervention in the area of mental health. This collective discussion will seek to put into practice the guidelines of both methodologies, based on the reception of concrete experiences and the sharing of knowledge production.

In the second part of the Workshop, to be held from 5.30pm to 7pm, we will explore the resonances of the discussion held in the first part of the Workshop, proposing a joint evaluation of the relations between the experience of the facilitators and the participants in different methodological approaches; we will also seek to consolidate an evaluation regarding the possibilities of use and the limits of the methodological tools of biographical research and cartography.

NOTE: This workshop is limited to 10 participants, accepted on a first-come, first-served basis

Workshop organised under the Methodologies Series “Roundtable of Knowledges”

This session will be facilitated by Elsa Lechner (CES) and Letícia Renault (Post-Doctoral Researcher, CES)

Contact us: rodadesaberes@ces.uc.pt