Embracing complexity: Co-creation with retired immigrant women

Abstract

This paper discusses a co-creation project carried out between a post-secondary, immigrant-serving agency and retired immigrant women. We posit that, by engaging with immigrant women in co-creation, we not only deepen our understanding of the challenges they face in retirement, but also generate valuable insights into the process of participatory design and collaboration; namely, the importance of recognizing complexity as a productive, rather than challenging, aspect of knowledge co-creation and collaboration. We show that, by intentionally embedding methods which address issues related to reflexivity, power and difference into the co-creative process, the challenges posed by complexity can by mitigated, leading to positive outcomes for all partners. KEYWORDSCo-creation, participatory research, immigrant women, seniors, post-secondary community partnerships, collaboration