Decolonial Entangled Ethnographic Research: Transformative Collaborations With the UK Alevi Community Over the Last 15 Years

ABSTRACT The vibrant British Alevi community has settled in London and other parts of the UK since the late 1980s, constituting the largest population of Kurdish Alevis outside of Turkey. Their religion is Alevism, but they are often mistakenly identified as Turkish and Muslim, contributing to their invisibility in this country. We have worked with this marginalised community for at least the last 15 years, witnessing significant changes as it gained public recognition and in how we approach our collaboration. Our main priority is political, with academic/methodological rigour secondary. Our aim is always to work collaboratively with and for the community to achieve social justice outcomes in partnership with them. This entails putting their concerns at the forefront of the agenda and co‐producing knowledge, rather than simply telling their story. In this article, we present our research as a ‘decolonial, entangled ethnography’, which best describes how our work has evolved, aiming to capture its complexity and commitment to social justice activism. Moreover, we situate ourselves in relation to the community and our involvement with them, using the projects we have undertaken to address issues relating to youth, religion and identity, and how our research practice has evolved, changing both us and our approach. We identify key principles of decolonial entangled ethnographic research to achieve transformative social justice outcomes with the Alevi community.