We want to be the protagonists of our own stories

Stefania Azzarello, Jennifer Fish, Sylvia Günther, Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, Claire Hobden, Maren Kirchhoff, Helen Schwenken

‘We want to be the protagonists of our own stories!’ A participatory research manual on how domestic workers and researchers can jointly conduct research

This manual is a step-by-step guide through all phases of a research process, from coming up with a research question to celebrating its completion. It contains explanations of concrete research methods and practical group exercises. Authors and participants share their experiences, offer tips and materials to work with. The manual was developed on the basis of the experience from conducting a qualitative study of the social security needs of domestic workers in the Netherlands and South Africa. One of the underlying principles of the project was that domestic workers should be part of the research process as “protagonists of their own story” – as one participant summarized her experience. By training domestic workers to conduct research, they, as experts on their own work, could ultimately contribute and expand their knowledge through the research process. In this way, the project hoped to contribute to social change and the capacity-building of all those involved. This manual should be of direct practical use to researchers, trade unions and domestic workers’ organizations (and others) who would like to conduct participatory research projects.

The authors are all active in the “Research Network for Domestic Worker Rights” (RN-DWR).