The researcher’s erotic subjectivities : epistemological and ethical challenges

Aquest article pretén aprofundir en la qüestió de la rellevància potencial i la importància d’incloure reflexions sobre el desig i la sexualitat de la persona que investiga en els resultats de la seva recerca. Analitzem críticament l’excepcionalització de les interaccions sexual(itzade) s en la recerca: quines són les raons per les quals el contacte sexual(itzat) entre la persona que investiga i les persones participants es considera no ètic o problemàtic, i quines són les conseqüències del fet d’evitar la intimitat —o l’(auto)censura en relació amb el debat— en el treball de camp? Aquest debat ens porta a defensar una aproximació ètica alternativa a la prescrita pels protocols ètics institucionals. L’aproximació ètica que plantegem es basa en la premissa que la producció de coneixement mai no es dona fora dels nostres cossos i que la relació de recerca no és fonamentalment diferent de cap altre tipus de relació. El que proposem és una ètica relacional de la recerca que creï espais per al debat obert i en diàleg amb altres persones sobre les conseqüències (potencials) de les nostres accions com a investigadors/es/éssers humans en unes relacions d’asimetria de poder canviants.This paper aims to deepen the conversation about the potential relevance and importance of including reflection on the desire and sexuality of the researcher in research outputs. We critically scrutinise the exceptionalisation of sexual(ised) interactions in research: why is sexual(ised) contact between researchers and participants considered unethical or problematic, and what are the consequences of the avoidance of—and/or the (self-)censorship with regard to discussin —intimacy in the field? This discussion leads us to argue for an alternative ethical approach than that prescribed by institutional ethical protocols. The ethical approach that we envision is based on the premise that knowledge production never occurs apart from our bodies and that a research relationship is not fundamentally different from any other human relationship. What we propose is a relational research ethics that creates space for discussing openly and in dialogue with others the (potential) consequences of our actions as researchers/human beings within relationships of shifting power asymmetry

Theorizing Risk and Research: Methodological Constraints and Their Consequences

Conflict, postconflict settings, and other risky research sites are important with wide-ranging policy implications. Microlevel, field-based research lends critical insights to how conflicts work and the mechanisms behind macrolevel correlations that underpin quantitative political science. This article identifies how the risks associated with conflict and postconflict contexts influence researchers’ choices by theorizing the existence of distinct adaptive strategies. Specifically, researchers facing elevated risk generally manage it through three main strategies: outsourcing risk, avoiding risk, and internalizing risk. We argue that these strategies systematically shape and circumscribe outputs. We conclude by discussing how the relationship between risky fieldwork and what we know about conflict is poorly acknowledged. Thinking about how we manage risk should play a larger role in both our preparation for and interpretation of research, particularly in conflict and postconflict contexts

The 'problem' of ethics in contemporary anthropological research

Why is it that ‘ethics’ is seen as a problem in anthropology? This paper seeks to explore this question by looking at (a) historical shifts in the relation between ethnographers and their subjects/informants and (b) anthropological practice. I am interested in past anthropological practice to see whether it provides a reasonable guide to future practice, specifically with regard to the ethical conduct of ethnographic fieldwor

Producing knowledge about ‘Third World women’: The politics of fieldwork in a Zimbabwean secondary school

Fieldwork is a project in which ‘researcher, researched and research make each other’ (Rose, 1997, p. 316), yet far more attention has been given to the making of the research and researcher than to the researched. Focusing on three aspects of the research process (the researcher’s presence in the field, research topic and choice of methods), this paper uses examples from the author’s own fieldwork to debate whether it is possible to shape fieldwork such that the knowledges created and consumed in the field by the researched serve to destabilise dominant discourses of race, gender and age

Research Note - “Doing the research I do has left scars”: Challenges of Researching in the Transitional Justice Field

Transitional justice research involves critical examination of difficult topics that can raise ethical and methodological issues for participants and for researchers. Empirical research is a common approach to transitional justice studies in the field, yet researchers’ accounts of the tensions that can arise when undertaking research in politically sensitive environments are largely missing from the scholarly literature. Informed by the insights of scholars and researchers who work in the transitional justice field, this paper aims to open discussion about the myriad ways that researching sensitive topics may affect researchers, and to bring attention to strategies used by researchers to negotiate these challenges. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving the wellbeing of researchers when working with difficult topics in the field

ETHICS IN ECONOMIC FIELD RESEARCH or SHORT STORIES OF DEPENDENCY

The paper is an attempt to use the idea of reflexivity in order to organise and set �ready for answers� the ethical issues which have arisen at the very beginning of the field research (on a topic in the economics area) and have been anticipated for later stages of the research project. While at the beginning, the ethical issues were well covered under the appearance of �everyday� research practical problems to be resolved, the interaction with research participants revealed the theoretical depth that those same issue can have and the extend to which they might affect the research project itself. The paper as well as the issues are divided for analysis purposes, into three categories: the first deals with ethics concerning the terminology, vocabulary and narratives during or after field research; the second, discusses the ethical issues connected the interaction with participants, especially two issues: their acceptance to participate in the project and the information exchange; and the third part, discusses the cases where the researcher faces petitions for assistance in constructing something, that according to the research proposal, belongs to the object of the research.ethics, field research, reflexivity

Interdisciplinary Practice

In commenting on the state of affairs in contemporary archaeology, Wylie outlines an agenda for archaeology as an interdisciplinary science rooted in ethical practices of stewardship. In so doing she lays the foundations for an informed and philosophically relevant “meta-archaeology.