Some more reflections on doing research within the INSigHT Action

Coming towards the end of the Action, I am glad to share some more reflections on my research experience on trafficking with the INSigHT Team.

Compared to my previous research experiences, the INSigHT research activity has been characterized by a strong and continuous collaboration both with anti-trafficking operators, with beneficiaries and with members of the research team.

This created a circular flow of information, feedback and emotions, that made both the ethnographic fieldwork and the interview activities very dense and rich.

The lockdown abruptly interrupted the physical contact with the people we were working with, luckily many months of ethnographic activities had already been done before that.

Even if the digital tools allowed the adaptation of research and coordination activities based on the new situation, the lack of in-presence meeting made, in some cases, our work more challenging and frustrating.

The writing process has been also very challenging and yet interesting, given the density of research information collected in the field and the continuous reflection on how to communicate in a clear friendly not-too-academic way, with an audience at local, nation and international.

Challenges remain as far as our positionality as women and researchers is concerned.

This experience has contributing to enriching my personal reflection on methodological and ethical issues connected to applied social research, as well as the importance of the interdisciplinary dialogue, both inside and outside academia.