Narratives of Symbolic Objects: Exploring Relational Wellbeing of Young Refugees Living in Scotland, Finland, and Norway

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

General observations:

This is a well-written paper exploring a current and highly relevant topic of interest to the readership of the journal. The research explores the relational wellbeing of young refugees using personally selected special objects as the basis of artworks to facilitate narratives. The objects operated as a conversational tool, rather than an analytical prompt, enabling participants to consider experiences, feelings, and acts of wellbeing in relation to significant others in their past and present lives.  Qualitative methods were used appropriately in gathering and analysis of data.

The paper balances the voice of the refugees with the observations of the researchers, and there is a sense that the project was one of empowerment for participants. The research is worthy of publication.

I have one recommendation:

There is something of a gap in the explanation of the process between the young refugees selecting a special object, the art workshops with an art therapist, and the narratives arising. Specifically, there is nothing on the artworks in the paper, so the reader questions why making artworks was a necessary part of the process? The young refugees could simply have spoken about their objects. The paper would be stronger with the artmaking element of the project embedded with a rationale, for example, making artworks put the young refugees in touch with emotions, thoughts, memories etc., not always easy to put directly into words, particularly when working in a group. It would be interesting to learn what narratives there were in connection to the artworks, for example, whether colours or brushstrokes etc. were used to convey significant aspects of the object in terms of relational wellbeing.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article aims to address an important theme in refugee studies, that of representation and relational wellbeing of young refugees. However, this topic needs to be explained in more detail, both in terms of the presentation of the theoretical aspects this study is drawing on as well as the justification of the methodology used in this study. The author/s claim that there are no known studies that use objects to facilitate narratives of young refugees, however there is a multitude of studies where visual ethnographic and participatory arts based approaches have been used to explore wellbeing, both with refugees as well as other vulnerable groups  (see the work of Dokter D, Hogan S, Pink S, Sandu A among many others).

The methodology is clear overall, however, its justification and link to the research questions needs clarifying. The authors should offer a clear explanation of what data was collected, when and how as well as the link to the final themes presented in the article. This will have further implications for the conclusion, where the author/s claim a theoretical and practical link of the relational wellbeing approach. What does this mean in terms of this study's contribution to knowledge. What is known and what is the actual gap in the literature this study is addressing?

Several concepts need to be defined and explained in more detail - example fixities and flows. 

Line 39-42 - additional references need to be added to show the extent to which similar studies have explored the topic of home, identity and belonging among refugee and migrant groups.

Line 47 - it is not clear if the quote offered is from the current study or a study by S White 2017, without a page number - adequate reference needed- this is not consistent to other references where first name's initial is not mentioned. This name appears later as Sarah White and also as White, 2015. The consistency is needed throughout. The over-reliance on White's work to define relational wellbeing needs to be addressed (lines 100-122)

Line 53 - additional references to that of Brooker, 2010 are needed, particularly from visual methods where photography has been used to initiate conversations with participants in a similar way; the authors need to give a fuller account of the literature to show their contribution to this field.

Line 64-69 - similarly, these references need updating to capture the multitude of studies where art-based approaches have been used to explore themes of home, trauma following forced migration. 

line 134 - Needs editing - one reference ends another beginnings with parenthesis at the beginning of the sentence. 

line 136-139: paraphrasing needs to be improved as sentence is unclear.

line 145: the concept of 'nurturance' needs defining and explaining in this context.

149-150- English needs improving - social relations and relating - not clear how these are different? also, I suggest changing 'many colours' as this is a loaded word.

lines 241-256 - I suggest placing the tables at the end of the article as it breaks the flow of the argument as they currently stand

line 267 - a few words about how the analysis was done would be helpful here (or earlier). 

line 489 - I suggest expanding the literature search beyond Lith 2016, again a multitude of studies use objects (or photography of objects ) as a symbolic meaning and link to migrants' past . 

line 555 - Statements need to be backed up by evidence. Whose claim is it, for example: 'Memories generate wellbeing'? One could argue they can generate trauma or can re-traumatise. This needs to be carefully considered and discussed in light of the literature.

line 588 - the conclusion needs to be strengthened in light of the comments above- see particularly the contribution to knowledge and implications for practice. What theory, which practice? where and how will this study's findings be implemented? Please avoid generalisations - i.e. remarks such as line 593. This very study needs to present and defend the data and the analysis in a rigorous way. 

Please see above in the line by line comments; the manuscript could benefit from proofreading and editing by a native English speaker. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf