Studying diasporas and diasporization has lately been at the center of interest in sociolinguistic inquiry (Márquez Reiter & Martín Rojo eds. 2015). However, the literature on the inclusion of interested parties and their expertise in the academic knowledge production in connection with diasporas is scarce; even though this would be of crucial importance to achieve "thinking diaspora from below" (Rosa & Trivedi 2017) and researching the "language issues that matter" (Heller et al. 2018) for the diasporic speakers. My paper addresses the possibilities of collaboration with diasporic subjects in separate stages of the research process by drawing on the experiences of an ethnographically informed critical sociolinguistic study of Hungarians in Catalonia. Specifically, in this paper, I will discuss the different modes by which I endeavored to contribute to the democratization of the research process (Lexander & Androutsopoulos 2021). Among them, I will show how conventional research methods (e.g., interviewing, ethnographic observations) can be used to find access to the own lived experiences of diasporic subjects, how the method of diary writing can be implemented as a way to show the own interests of diasporic subjects, and how the key participants took part in the precise definition of the final research questions and in the confirmation of the research findings during the post-fieldwork phase. I argue that the most fruitful way to approach diasporas and diasporization is through the inclusion of the emic perspectives of diasporic subjects and their language expertise in the research process. That requires long-term collaboration and commitment from the research participants; but it also requires commitment for participatory methods from the research-active parties. I also argue that this way of researching is not only legally and ethically correct, but, by paying attention to the needs and interests of the participants, it is also morally proper as research on, for and with the participants (Cameron et al. 1992). And, thus, it is also a way to make linguistic knowledge applied by the people.
Cameron, Deborah, Elizabeth Frazer, Penelope Harvey, M. B. H. Rampton & Kay Richardson. 1992. Researching Language: Issues of Power and Method. London & New York: Routledge.
Heller, Monica, Sari Pietikäinen & Joan Pujolar. 2018. Critical Sociolinguistic Research Methods: Studying Language Issues That Matter. London & New York: Routledge
Lexander, Kristin Vold & Jannis Androutsopoulos. 2021. Working with mediagrams: A methodology for collaborative research on mediational repertoires in multilingual families. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 42(1). 1–18.
Márquez Reiter, Rosina & Luisa Martín Rojo (eds., 2015). A Sociolinguistics of Diaspora: Latino Practices, Identities, and Ideologies. New York & London: Routledge.
Rosa, Jonathan & Sunny Trivedi. 2017. Diaspora and language. In Suresh Canagarajah (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language, 330–346. London & New York: Routledge.
