In 2020, during an early morning walk at Centennial Park on Gadigal land in Eora Country, we floated the idea of writing a book about the marginal place of lived experience-led knowledge in the academy. The thought stemmed from our reflections on a co-designed project with refugee-background co-researchers on ethical practice principles in community-based participatory research, with team members in so-called Australia and England. We had the privilege of learning enormously through enriching knowledge sharing during our project discussions. But it left us wondering why this felt like such a rare occurrence despite our commitment to collaborative and participatory research.

While we proceeded on our walk, we discussed several frustrations linked to the realm of participatory research claiming to focus on lived experiences – including our own earlier research and publications, which were not immune to these shortcomings. We were complicit in a system we found faults with but did not challenge often enough.

We grappled with the commonplace academic writing practice of selecting decontextualised ‘snippets’ of people's narratives and use them as quotes to illustrate themes and arguments in publications claiming to convey lived experiences. We hardly question this norm. ‘Lived experience’ still has a largely utilitarian value instead of being considered a rich form of knowledge and expertise.

Another issue was the familiar experience of searching for scholarship on lived experiences of complex and multifaceted social justice issues, only to realise that authors are rarely people with relevant lived experiences. We were growing tired of this imposition of an outsider gaze and continual reliance on so-called expertise from western academic institutions and usually white, cisgender male, middle-aged, middle-class, ableist, Christian, English-speaking and heteronormative standpoints in knowledge production.

In our own research in refugee studies, we had shifted to co-research, co-production and co-authorship models to better reflect the contributions of people with lived experiences of forced migration – which we have not experienced personally – to the academy. But we had to admit that there were still problematic aspects.