Backstage: approach to methodological decisions in a study on immigrant youth and empowerment

Abstract

This article is part of a research in progress that seeks to understand the em­powerment processes of young people aged 20-34 from Latin America’s Southern Cone that after a migratory experience are living in Catalunya for more than a year. The introduction presents the research’s sources and recovers the contributions provided by immigration studies on Latin Americans in Spain. This review reveals the need to update the perspec­tives and methodologies in the area of interest; it is also used to understand the approach of this study: the goal, trimming of the universe, the hypothesis and methodological fram­ing supporting the empowerment concept and the proposals of Pierre Bourdieu. Secondly, the first activities conducted prior to entering the field and that allowed to plan appropriate methodological strategies are described. Then it is detailed the design, validation process and purpose of the tool that was created based on the update of the biogramas’ technique proposed by Theodore Abel (1947). 50 “Biogramas A” were collected, to know the volume and structure of the economic, social and cultural capital that these young immigrants had in their territories of origin and some features on the transformation suffered at their arrival. Accord­ing to a series of predetermined variables, 24 participants are selected to apply a “Biogram B”. The objective of this contribution is to deal with the research method implemented in order to ensure both the success of the data collection process as well as the reliability and quality of the information and to present the first contributions obtained through this process