Members of the "Mixed methods research group" took part in the methodological seminar "Studying migrants homes: Ethics, Participatory Ethnography and Visual Research"

"Take a souvenir with you from Russia for memory!" - Dr A. Pechurina talked about homes of Russian migrants living in the UK and the challenges of studying them.

The Department of Sociological Research Methods held it’s methodological seminar on October 22 in which Dr Anna Pechurina  from Leeds Beckett University (UK) shared the results of her research into home cultures of Russian migrants living in the UK. Over the last 8 years Anna has been studying UK based Russian -speaking communities through ethnographic home interviews, observations, and visual research. The main topic of Anna’s presentations was on ethical aspects of community-based research and how the positionality of a researcher is affected by the various characteristics of the studied community. In addition, Anna showed some examples of Russian homes she visited and discussed the controversial meanings of Russian souvenirs and items of tourist mass consumption which often find their way into migrants’ homes. Overall, Anna showed the complexity of ethical decision-making within the study of Post-Soviet domesticity in immigration which often depend on such factors as the diversity of Russian-speaking immigrant community in terms of generation, class, gender, and ethnicity.

Anna’s presentation is attached.

 HSE (PDF, 20.90 Мб)