Be Opened – A Convivial Approach to Research

Some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk. Jesus saw the man and said to him: “Be opened!”

This is a well-known story among Christians from the Gospel of Mark. These words from Jesus are not only said to the deaf Aramaic man. All of us can listen to these words and take them as a challenge to our work and ourselves – Be open! Be open for the other person. Open towards your neighbour. Open towards cultures and customs that are new for us.

A necessity for trust
We can see it as an invitation to a more convivial approach in social and diaconal work. Openness is an important key to understanding, to gaining new knowledge and to involvement in our local community and our society. We need openness to be able to really meet one another and share life-worlds and life-stories. We need openness to find ways to a more safe and trustful life in our communities and cities.

If you want to learn more about multicultural societies and communities, more about good practice in diaconal work and social work – Critical Community Research could be helpful. Addy says, “Research should lead to change, and this means research should increase the agency or capability of the group being researched, in order for them to effect change or to influence their situation for the better.”

Open to one anothers life-stories
In this kind of research, we need to involve the participants in the research. In participatory research, we need to be open for the other person, open towards the person’s biography, life-story and life-world. We need to share our life-stories and life-worlds. A new perspective on Christian social practice and diakonia – Conviviality – can be useful for developing good participatory research.

As a concept, Conviviality has roots in different traditions. It stems from the experience of convivial evenings in 19th- century Paris, France, which involved the sharing of food, wine, and conversation. In these, evening all options could be freely expressed and nothing was ‘off the table´ for discussion. Another root for the concept is from the period known as La Convivencia on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. A period when Christians, Jews and Moslems, people from the three Abrahamic faiths lived relatively peacefully together for about 500 years.

In the mid 20th century, the Roman Catholic priest Ivan Illich used the word in relation to the relations between people, people and the environment and people and technology.

Convivial research should be reciprocal, whereby all participants in the research process become learners. In this way, convivial research becomes a process of empowerment and should have consequences for change by giving voice to the participants.

Be opened! The word of Jesus from the beginning of this text is a word of trust and faith. To be open and convivial towards the other person – the newcomer, our neighbour – is an act of faith and hope, an act of empowerment.

Be opened! We need to break our own barriers to be open towards one another. We cannot stay in our comfort zone if we want to meet diverse life-worlds and life-stories. We need convivial places, places where we together with all our diversities can practice the art of living together and see a horizon for change.

Be opened! We need new ways to evaluate our social – and diaconal work. We need to be open for a new convivial approach to research.