Immersive research

Immersive research is a qualitative approach where researchers live with people in their own homes for 3-5 days and gain insights through informal conversations, first-hand observations and experiences. It draws on participatory ethnographic methods to understand complex everyday experiences and capture and explore different realities within villages.

Immersive approaches may be useful for practitioners and researchers who want to:

• Uncover nuances and problems which may be difficult to capture through large scale surveys and other conventional research methods. 
• Work specifically with groups that may be missed out in conventional research methods including elderly people, young children, people with disabilities, women, migrants and others.
• Listen to community voices and find contextually-rooted solutions.

Things to consider

Immersive research provides deep, insightful, and contextual findings.

It’s an intense, personal and enriching experience for field teams and enables them to seek out different castes, genders, age groups, etc. When undertaken ethically and sensitively, it:

• Goes further than extracting data and obtains analysis from the participants and respondents.
• Triangulates findings through conversations, group discussions, and observations.
• Provides an opportunity for rapid analysis and feedback to both communities and wider stakeholders.
• Allows for informal conversations at participants’ convenience.

However there are some limitations. Immersive research::

• Can be intensive, time-consuming, and sometimes an uncomfortable effort needed to collect data.
• Can be intensive for researchers, host families, and communities.
• Can lead to difficulty extrapolating findings for a wider application.
• Needs ample time for  training around doing no harm  and ensuring that Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) considerations remain at the forefront.
• Poses a potential risk if undertaken by researchers without an in-depth understanding of equity and inclusion and the local context they immerse themselves in.

Take time to explore and ensure that the context you are choosing to immerse yourself within is suitable to such an intensive research process. For instance, this method may not be suitable for areas with high insecurity, that are conflict affected and fragile or have humanitarian support. As this is an intensive method, great care needs to be taken that researchers are comfortable, prepared and trained to undertake an immersion. If answers to research questions can potentially be sought through alternative participatory, qualitative, or grounded research methods, this should be explored.

Practical steps

Researchers live with families in communities and learn open-endedly from lived experience, observation and conversations with people as they go about their daily lives. There are no questionnaires or interview schedules. They participate in household tasks, wander around and observe, have unplanned conversations, are open to surprises and follow up flexibly on whatever is new and relevant.

The approach may require combining with other tools and processes to triangulate and validate on a larger scale.

Efforts are made to learn both from the host family and the community more broadly. Along with interactions with host families, researchers have conversations with other households – including in marginalised communities – opinion leaders, and front-line workers, and visit local institutions. Before leaving villages, feedback sessions are held where results are presented back to participants for further discussion and analysis. 

Before the process, researchers and practitioners should undertake extensive immersive training, including a module on research ethics, sessions on behaviours and attitudes, and agree upon code of conduct that includes concerns around safeguarding (for both participants and researchers), appropriate behaviour, transparency, informed consent, and anonymity. They also need to have in-depth understanding of the context and reality of their immersion location. Ensure that your immersive research process is supported by partners who are based and operate in the location of the immersion to validate decisions and address emerging concerns.

The following list describes some behavioural and ethical guidelines for the immersion process:

• Prior to the immersion, meet with key officials and host families to gain consent.
• Establish a robust and considered safeguarding protocol for both researchers and participants such as host families and village residents. Ensure it is validated by local partners.
• Compile necessary food provisions to take with you to ensure that there is no undue burden on hosting households. These must always be sensitive of context and within the scope of local practices.
• Introduce yourself, build rapport with the families and communities.
• Always be polite to the community and listen actively.
• Consider how you may need to adapt your plans if there are people with disabilities, or other special needs during your interactions with them. For more information and practical advice, see our introduction to disability-inclusive research.
• Be conscious of the limited means and resources of the host family and that you are not overburdening them with requiring support
• Help with the daily household chores and participate in their daily activities.
• Respect the local culture and customs, considerDo No Harm principles at all times.
• Conduct activities that are suitable to the community members/participants.
• Be open and talk to anyone who wants to speak.
• Do not engage in conflicts, or political or other arguments.
• Make extra efforts to reach out to minorities and excluded community members.
• Gain consent for each interaction; begin by explaining to individuals the purpose of the research and that they do not have to engage if they do not want to.
• Do not take notes during the conversation.
• Ensure you are not overburdening your host family with needing frequent support
• Photographs should be taken only after recording the subject’s consent.
• Do not focus on just asking about the research topic; be open of other issues faced by the villagers.
• Do not engage with children in the absence of their parents or guardians.
• Balance between outdoor activities and spending time with the host families.
• Present findings back to the community before leaving.

Following up

It’s important to manage expectations at the start of the process. This should mean that participants can contribute, feel happy about their contribution, and leave the conversation or activity without guilt whenever it suits them.  Do not make any promises of potential change or offer to provide solutions. As part of an immersive process, follow-up activities such as feedback and validation sessions with different local stakeholders and social groups towards the end of the process are included. . However be aware that not everyone wants to participate in everything. Ensure that final reports are shared and presented to village stakeholders when they are finalised.  

Mini case study

FINISH Mondial have work in six countries from Africa and Asia, including India, to scale up the access and use of safely-managed sanitation systems. In 2022, the programme conducted immersive research in collaboration with the Sanitation Learning Hub to understand ground realities and lived experiences in the districts of Nandurbar, Maharashtra and Darbhanga, Bihar.

The main objectives for the immersion were to:

• Identify challenges and barriers towards access to and use of sanitation and hygiene services within challenging contexts.
• Capture diverse village voices and find contextually rooted ways to identify enablers towards safe and equitable access to and use of sanitation and hygiene services in these areas.
• Inform FINISH programme design and support the development of human-centric strategies for improving access to sanitation hygiene services for marginalised and left-out communities, while strengthening gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). 

The village research team comprised 11 female and 13 male participants, from FINISH Society and the SLH, with mixed gender teams in each village. The participants formed a mixed group of field workers, researchers, and programme teams. Interpreters accompanied the researchers wherever required. Researchers were immersed for three to four days.

The immersion also included and drew on several participatory tools. The following key activities were undertaken during the immersion process:

• Meeting and introduction with the host families, village sarpanch, gram sevak etc.
• Rapport building and open conversation with the host families.
• Conversations and discussions with anyone who wanted to talk.
• Transect walks by researchers to familiarise with the village location, areas, habitats, and the process of interacting with locals.
• Timeline charts allowing locals to identify various socio-economic changes in the village over last few years, including changes in toilet access and use.
• Seasonality charts to identify the changes and effects of various seasons on the lives of the villagers.
• Participatory mapping of the villages to identify key resources, communities, and overall profile.
• Group discussions with major stake holders to identify and gather information on common local issues.
• Conversation with Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, MFI members, school staff, and others to understand the status of children- and women-related developmental issues in the area.
• Direct observations by the researchers during transect walks, focus group discussions, and household visits.
• Maintaining a daily diary and debrief with other researchers in the village.

Key findings from the immersive research included:

• Universal access to and use of toilets has not yet been achieved, and people affected by poverty and different kinds of social and geographical marginalisation remain excluded.
• Existing toilets need retrofitting and maintenance to become usable, considering adaptations for tough physical conditions such as flooding and drought.
• Floods cause water contamination because of open defecation and collapsed pits.
• Caste-based inequality is prevalent and has implications for ensuring safe sanitation service provision.
• Some groups were practising open defecation because having a toilet indoors was considered ‘impure’.