A presentation by Hanna Bertilsdottir about her experiences of doing participatory research with students with Aspergers' Syndrome. This presentation was part of a seminar, funded by the ESRC, focusing on participatory data analysis with people with learning disabilities

1. Doing it Together? An Aspie eye on the
neurotypical researcher’s analysis
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist
Associate Professor in Sociology, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Umeå
University (hanna.bertilsdotter@soc.umu.se)
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
1

2. Researcher´s background
• Activist in the Swedish bisexual
movement 1999-2002
• Studies of bisexuality
• Studies of autism
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
2

3. Asperger Syndrome as practice,
identity and politics: Data
-
Fieldwork in a Swedish school
Interviews with Asperger activists
The magazine Empowerment (2002-2009)
Extra data: articles on autism/people with
autism in Swedish news papers, Swedish
blogs, webpages and webcommunities for
people with autism
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
3

4. Research circles
• The first idea: research circles
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
4

5. ”We talk about what we want to”
• Fieldnotes on the electronic learning forum (”I
did not see it in the way you did” versus ”you
got the story about the bird wrong here is the
correct version”)
• Focus group discussion: ”What do you want to
know?” versus ”We talk about what we want
to”
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
5

6. • First versions of paper in Swedish
- How to represent the fieldwork (”we liked
you”)
- The analyses (”why do you use so many
citations from Helena?”)
• Dissemination?
- the book in Swedish versus research papers in
English
- ideas for the future: podcast in Swedish
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
6

7. Reflections/Power
• Analyses: Part of the research process
• Participating, what´s in for us?: for fun, for pay
or while you are supposed to
• To learn a language
• Choice of analyses/researcher´s view of
knowledge – ‘realistic’ versus ‘non-realistic’
• Matter of education and time/energy level
Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Umeå
University
7