Qualitative research methods, notably life histories, have been extensively used for doing research on migration and home. They have shown significant potential to unveil both the material and symbolic dimensions of home. With some exceptions, however, the ethical dilemmas and methodological challenges of using those methods for investigating home amongst people who fled conflict are still under researched. This chapter looks at the ethical and methodological challenges of using life histories for investigating the conflict-displacement-home nexus. Drawing on fieldwork with internally displaced people in Colombia, the chapter argues that a narrative approach can contribute to unveil the ways in which conflict and displacement disrupt people’s experiences of home when the analysis differentiates the events that triggered displacement and the ways participants experience and narrate them. The chapter shows that by disentangling the different aspects of people’s narratives we can better capture the symbolic, spiritual and existential dimensions of home and how they are shaped by displacement. The chapter concludes by providing new insights on the broader ethical and methodological debates of researching home in contexts of mobility and migration and by discussing the value of life histories to unpack the multiple dimensions of home.
Luis Eduardo Pérez Murcia (Sun,) studied this question.