Berit Bareksten, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Inger Helen Midtgård, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway
Gaia Del Negro, Independent researcher collaborator, University of Milano Bicocca
Silvia Luraschi, Independent researcher collaborator, University of Milano Bicocca & University of Bergamo
Donata Puntil, King's College London, UK
Hazel Wright, Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Our collaborative autoethnography between six researchers (two from Italy, two from Norway, two from UK) started following a workshop held during ESREA / LHBN, in March 2021:

An Ecology of Life and Learning: Discourses, dialogue, and diversity in biographical research

ESREA/LHBN 2021, University of Lower Silesia Wrocław, Poland 

Title: Memories and dialogues within auto/biographical research. Listen and learn through poetic voices and performing in private and public life – a methodological approach.

Berit Bareksten (sociologist and storyteller) and Inger Helen Midtgård (Assistant Professor and social worker), Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (workshop session)

And it is continuing.

We have come together during the Pandemic to share specific stories about individuals whose life events have resulted in a loss of dignity to see what, as adults, we can learn from each other and how this learning might be transformative for our daily lives.

By sharing our stories – a form of collaborative autoethnography – we are striving to capture the essence of dignity and how it (or its lack) manifests in everyday life, particularly for the elderly and unwell who lack the resources to demand the rights and respect they deserve and have earned.

In this group we want to put our stories together in order to learn from each other small ways to act out of the box and celebrate love and trust through touch.

We work both online and in presence. In 2022 we met all 6 for a writing retreat in Norway:

blog part 1: Gaia Del Negro & Silvia Luraschi, Kollektiv mobilisering https://cupola.no/2022/12/15/walking-an-article-from-kollektiv-mobilisering-part-1/

blog part 2: Berit Bareksten, Walking an article https://cupola.no/2022/12/15/walking-an-article-part-2/

blog part 3: Hazel R. Wright, Walking a lifescape https://cupola.no/2022/12/19/walking-a-lifescape-lifewalk-i/

blog part 4: Inger Helen Midtgård, To present the things I really care about https://cupola.no/2022/12/19/to-present-the-things-i-really-care-about-lifewalk-ii/

We presented our collaborative writing at conferences: 

• Macramé of thoughts about touching, non-touching, to be touched and intimacy, ICAE 2022 'A Right to Roam' conference, University of Bristol, 18-19th July 2022
• Dignity through touch – in times of pandemic. Creating spaces for caring relationships, ESREA/LHBN 2022 'Encountering the Other: Biographies, Spaces and Relationships in Adult Education' conference, University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw, Poland, 3rd-6th March 2022

We have an academic article around Dignity Through Touch, Possibilities Lost and Found During the Pandemic, which we hope to publish one day!