SPUR travels to Trento

A report on participation in the 10th Ethnography and Qualitative Research International Conference.

In July 2025, Elisabeth Huber from the University for Continuing Education Krems travelled to Trento, Italy, to present findings from the SPUR research project in Panel 33, “Ethnographies of expert knowledge in mental health, neurodivergence, and disability.”

The biennial conference provides a forum for discussing ethnographic and qualitative social science methods using examples from research practice. In Panel 33, which was dedicated to the topic of experiential knowledge on mental health, neurodiversity, and disability, a total of 26 presentations were held in four sessions.

The focus of Elisabeth Huber’s contribution was to show how (theoretical) assumptions about mental health, communal living, responsive residential environments, and inclusion emerged and changed over the course of the project, and what role the three citizen scientists in the project—Henriette Gschwendtner at Bertha von Suttner Private University St. Pölten, David Neugschwentner at the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, and Christopher Tupy at the University for Continuing Education Krems—played in this process. The inclusion of experts by experience as co-researchers – as claimed in position papers such as "Partizipation als Zu-Mutung: Problemdiagnosen und Handlungsempfehlungen zur Förderung partizipativer Forschung" – was evaluated using the case study of the project SPUR. For the presentation, Elisabeth Huber used materials from the minutes of SPUR project meetings, field notes, written contributions by the three citizen scientists, transcripts of joint data analysis sessions, and excerpts from individual interviews with the citizen scientists.

The presentation on SPUR highlighted how the concept of recovery found its way into the research project and shaped the understanding of coping mechanisms with mental health crises. The experiences of citizen scientists with supported housing were important to better understand the meaning of autonomy, privacy, participation, and community in this type of housing. Co-research implies dealing with diverse approaches, perspectives, and explanatory models. The involvement of experts by experience adds value, as it engages not only their own knowledge, but also the knowledge gained from their peer support work and the collective knowledge of interest groups and self-help organizations. Issues like transparency and freedom of choice in psychosocial care can thus be analysed from various angles. Co-research with experts by experience can significantly improve the relevance, validity, and reflexivity in a research project.

However, the conditions for citizen scientists must also be clear and attractive: adequate compensation from the very beginning, including the research proposal phase, is necessary to jointly develop the project's objectives and research design. Moreover, flexible timing and different forms of collaboration are required in the research process.

The discussion among speakers and participants further deepened some issues. Three speakers—two from Italy and one from the Netherlands—addressed the role and self-image of experts by experience: To what extent can they act as mediators between the users of psychosocial services and the structures and regulations of the healthcare system? How can narratives from experts by experience retain their critical potential? And what are the career prospects for experts by experience?

Without having found definitive answers to these questions, the project SPUR appears to be one of the few research projects that actively involves experts by experience in mental health as co-researchers. How this collaboration will play out in the upcoming scenario planning workshops, further dissemination as well as the conclusions for researchers and policymakers, remains to be seen in the remaining six months of the project.