Researchers and professionals often focus on what they perceive as the average individual, which prevents them from recognizing those who fall outside this scope. These unseen and unheard individuals typically have an intersecting complexity of social problems or belong to marginalized groups. There is a consistent lack of data about the needs of these individuals. With the Power of One team, which comprises researchers from psychology, industrial design, cultural history, cell biology, law, interdisciplinary sciences, and English literature, we examined the barriers that prevent individuals from being empowered to make their needs and views known to professionals (including researchers, policymakers, and aid workers). We examine barriers related to collecting data from marginalized groups in the workplace, the difficulty of reaching out to a representative set of patients to be included in medical research, and the challenge of reaching out to neighborhood residents with activities and support (e.g., social and sports activities). Through interviews, participatory research and co-creation methods, and by collaboration with societal partners (e.g., The Netherlands Patient Federation, Workplace Pride Foundation, the municipality of Utrecht), we investigated how individuals in society who are often not reached can be better included. In the current report, we summarize the output of the Power of One with an emphasis on the last and third phase of the project.

Individuals with intersecting identities or complex situations are often unseen and unheard in society. The Power of One focuses on these individuals who are often not reached by professionals, and whose needs are often not assessed. In our team, consisting of a social psychologist, sociologist, industrial designer, cultural historian, cell biologist, methodologist, data privacy expert, and language researcher, we have identified barriers related to data collection from marginalized groups in workplace and hospital settings by interviewing professionals (Phase I) and patients and employee (Phase II). We have identified multi-facetted barriers that prevent individuals to make their needs and views known, namely practical, personal, relational, socio-cultural, and assumption-driven barriers. In addition, we have been exploring a new narrative research tool developed by Renee Noortman to investigate barriers related to patient inclusion. In the report, that you can download via the button, we share our findings of Phase II.