Field Experiments in the Global South: Assessing Risks, Localizing Benefits, and Addressing Positionality

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have emerged as a leading methodological tool to strengthen causal inference in the social sciences. Yet RCTs carry significant risks for ev- eryone involved, from participants to researchers themselves, especially in the Global South. In this article, we explore how researchers’ identities and power influence the conduct of research and their positionality within the research contexts—especially when conducting RCTs in the Global South. Our goal is to center local contexts and demands at each stage of the research process. Overall, we argue that centering local contexts, stakeholders, and de- mands at each stage of the research process is key to ensuring that RCTs in the Global South are ethically sound and generate insights that can serve the communities they investigate