Doing being observed: Experimenting with collaborative focus group analysis in post-Umbrella Movement Hong Kong

Abstract

Democratising social inquiry is particularly relevant in the context of Hong Kong’s recent social movements, where political divisions have created rifts among families and friends. In exploring the Umbrella Movement’s personal impact on activists, bystanders and opponents, we developed a new methodology: collaborative focus group analysis (CFGA). Designed to create a safe space for communicating political differences, the methodology also aims to break down the distinction between researchers and researched and engages the latter as co-researchers. In our first application of CFGA, solidarity was exhibited across political and cultural divides, demonstrating the methodology’s potential to support collaborative knowledge-making among co-researchers with different political stances and educational and cultural backgrounds. By analysing the patterns of interaction that emerged within CFGA, we identify strategies for building ‘situated solidarity’ and maintaining ‘non-hierarchical dialogues’. In so doing, we assess CFGA’s potential and limitations.

Seeking Love and Justice Amid Hong Kong’s Contentious Politics

“…We (the three authors) are academics who have been researching the lives of women activists since the Umbrella movement as part of a series of projects exploring the impact of political involvement on personal life (Jackson, Ho and Kong, 2018;Kong, Ho and Jackson, 2020;Ho and Li, 2021;Kong, Jackson and Ho, 2024). 2 We are two ethnically Chinese female Hongkongers and one white British woman with longstanding ties to Hong Kong and we all have direct experience of the movements we discuss here, with varying degrees of participation in them.…”

“…In addition to well-established methods, such as individual and group interviews and focus groups, we also experimented with some innovative approaches. In our collaborative focus group analysis, a focus group's discussions are observed by an academic 'reflecting team', followed by a reversal of roles, with the reflecting team providing an analysis of the focus group discussion observed by the original group, who are then able to speak back to the researchers and challenge their interpretation (Kong, Ho and Jackson, 2020). Additionally, we have combined this method with a multi-media theatrical performance in which women activists dramatised their experiences, finding new ways to convey their thoughts and feelings (Ho, Chan and Kong, 2017).…”