The role of the researcher in participatory processes: A study of learning about place and place attachment in communities

Abstract

This article explores what the present researchers have learned about place and place attachment in connection with an ongoing study of homemaking, belonging, and the significance of place for older people. The article is a contribution to research on the role of the researcher in the field, with a particular focus on the researcher’s own place attachment in the research process. The data comprises interviews, observations and diaries, and the writing of it was an iterative process that took place within a place attachment process. We are interested in the impact of place on what researchers learn about place and their own place attachment process - in relation to the idea of a place and its inhabitants as co-producers of each other. To be place attached means having an identity that is connected to a place, and it has been suggested that this has an impact on community development and social community capacity. The article provides insights into the place attachment of the researchers, and how the value of time spent at a place is central to embracing place and becoming fully part of the participatory process, bringing truthfulness to participatory community-based research.