A Methodological Reflection on Feasibility of Transnational Focus Group Discussions

Conducting focus group discussion research in a cross-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-country context brings a number of methodological and practical challenges. Each configuration of languages, cultures or countries in international focus group research requires a different approach to fit to the specific circumstances faced by researchers. The presentation reflects upon an attempt to conduct focus group research that could be labelled as “transnational focus group discussions”. The HEUREC project aimed to understand how European citizens perceive and debate issues of solidarity, reciprocity, and fairness in the European Union (EU). For that, we employed focus group discussion method. Initially, we conducted separate focus group discussions with citizens in each of nine selected EU member states. However, we further aspired to prompt a transnational dialogue, and invited participants from the project countries to gather together in a face-to-face setting and exchange ideas about solidarity in the EU with their fellow European citizens. We presumed that such a transnational setup will create a semblance of a European debate space. We expected that a communicative cross-country interaction will stimulate fresh insights on how solidarity is negotiated beyond participants’ national contexts. The configuration of truly transnational focus groups is not common in social and political science research. The presentation, therefore, makes a valuable contribution to the field sharing reflection on how we implemented transnational focus group discussions; where we succeeded but also failed, and how do we assess the overall potential to employ transnational focus group discussions in the future.