Research
ARUs
ACTION RESEARCH UNITS
ARUs are multidisciplinary groups set up in each partner city and distributed throughout Central-Eastern (Hungary), Southern (Spain and Italy) and Northern (Finland) parts of Europe, Eastern Europe from Asia (Turkey) and Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon). The locally based Units collaborate with local organisations to explore the potential conflict and intrinsic difficulties of addressing both the local demands of society on the issues of FDP inclusion, and the local and global demands to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable society.
ARUs are responsible for gathering information that characterise the migrants and their lives, as well as related institutions and societal actors to define the novel concept of Vulnerability Context. The types of data collected include sensitive ones, such as gender, age, ethnicity, health, sexual lifestyle, political opinion, and religious or philosophical conviction.
Moreover, ARU are also responsible for:
- Co-creation of research activities where all relevant stakeholders play an active role in its definition, execution and evaluation (RRI approach)
- set up, test the TAISs ‘Tailored Attention and Inclusion Practices’ for their specific Vulnerability Contexts and provide the relevant feedback.
- apply the gender perspective and the ethical issues by undertaking advocacy-focused participatory action-research, grounded in human rights and socio-ecological models
ARUs’ details
| Partner | Registered name | Address of ARU | Official Contact |
| UCM | ARU | Av. Séneca, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain | |
| CESIE | Competence Cell | Via Roma 94, 90133 Palermo, Italy | research@cesie.org |
| UH | ARU | PL 54 (Unioninkatu 37) 00014 Finland | antti.kivijarvi@helsinki.fi |
| MENEDEK | ARU | 1081 Budapest, Népszínház street 16. III/3, Hungary | |
| AU | ARU | Yeşiltepe, Yunus Emre Kampüsü, 26470 Tepebaşı/Eskişehir, Turkey | enorhon@anadolu.edu.tr |
| YU | ARU | Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan | refuge@yu.edu.jo |
| LIU | ARU | Mouseitbeh – PO Box: 146404 Mazraa, Beirut, Lebanon | anwar.kawtharani@liu.edu.lb |
MATERIALS FOR UPTAKE
D6.1 Training and evaluation materials [February 2020]
Training materials used in ARUs improving capacity to:
- Identify interested stakeholders.
- Identify VCs, attention and inclusion practices, and evaluation criteria.
- Implement the working methodology.
- Assess practices.
D7.1 Research stories from ARUs: report and analysis [September 2021]
Cross-reports from ARU reports on the use of TAISs, their related problems, barriers and enablers, as well as their dependencies with contextual factors (e.g. cultural, political, normative and legal). Key elements of these stories are those related to the project results, but also reflective dimensions about their context (inclusion, anticipation, transparency and responsiveness). Research stories will include traditional reports from stakeholders using templates, but also multimedia productions of interviews with stakeholders and on site documentations of the co-creation processes among stakeholders.
D6.1 Report on the involvement of local stakeholders [November 2021]
Report for each ARU on:
- Selection of relevant local stakeholders, with a particular focus on civil society, to promote the involvement of the host community.
- Development of specific materials (e.g. summaries of VG situation, activities and results) and activities (e.g. visits and participation) to boost their interest.
- Evaluation of the level of involvement of local stakeholders
Methodology
The main working hypothesis in the project is that effective and appropriate strategies of attention and inclusion to Vulnerable Groups of Forcibly Displaced People (FDP) need to be tailored to their specific Vulnerability Context (VC). Defining that context and what works in it can only be achieved through the actual participation of the involved actors.
The RAISD research strategy is based on methodological triangulation with:
Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
Action research
Socio-ecological models
This allows that FDP take an active first-hand role, not only to record their experiences, but also in the design of the project’s works. Regarding the characterization of their experiences to define the VC, the project will integrate different data, including their socio-demographic profile, their narratives, or observations from cooperating staff.
The collection of data will work in two separate timing and geographic settings:
TRANSIT COUNTRIES
Data collection from groups of FDP that are in transit, including interviews with migrants and volunteers of non-profit organisations in the refugee camps or centres in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
EUROPEAN HOST COUNTRIES
Gathering and managing information provided by the FDP that are in European countries.
The triangular research method, as mentioned above, will employ a combination of methodologies, techniques, sources and researchers to implement the data-production and data-analysis process.
The qualitative methodology will focus on knowing the difficulties of integration of the selected VGs (like women, children, and people with disabilities), and their specific relationship with belonging to those targets. It will include, among others, structured and semi structured interviews and focus groups. This information will subsequently allow making recommendations to policy makers, civil society, organisations and media. Based on these results, the stakeholders involved with the project will also start collaborative social inclusion actions.
The project team will analyse this information with the help of techniques from data mining, automated learning and artificial intelligence. This will include, for instance, text processing for sentiment analysis, clustering to identify VGs, and deep learning to detect discourse inconsistencies. The purpose is that researchers can use for their work on the definition of VC and TAIS (Tailored Attention and Inclusion Strategy) already pre-digested data that point out relevant patterns.
The twofold goal of this application is reducing unintended biases in the interpretation of data, and discovering unforeseen patterns.
D3.1 Ethics Plan [November 2019]
The Ethics Plan includes research procedures for the Action Research Units.
D3.2 RAISD Research-Methodology and Guidelines [December 2019]
The research methodology describes how to perform the analytical and evaluation works, and practical arrangements in the other tasks and activities. It covers:
- Techniques to gather information on refugees, host communities and organisations, and practices.
- Procedures to apply the Ethics plan in refugees’ research.
- Evaluation techniques.
- Analysis of patterns for interaction with stakeholders.
- Valorisation strategies for stakeholders
D6.2 TAIS IMPLEMENTATION Action-research development [September 2021]
Actual implementation of TAIS using the project resources. According to the action research approach of the work methodology, they will perform the specific adaptations, and react to, the local context.
Each ARU will report on the application of the working methodology:
- Selection of TAISs.
- Implementation of TAISs.
- Evaluation of the impact of TAISs, compared with traditional practices, on addressing the needs using the criteria developed.