Risk dumping in field research: some researchers are safer than others
EADI BLOG by Linda Johnson and Rodrigo Mena
A quick glance at who is out collecting data in ‘the field’, including in remote and sometimes hazardous environments, is enough to make our point clear: the main executors of in-situ research (also known as fieldwork research) are local researchers and research assistants, sometimes together with junior or PhD researchers from research institutions in the Global North. These groups are being systematically and disproportionately exposed to safety and security issues linked to field research.
Read the full blog.
Dazu gehört
Global scientific partnerships should generate and share knowledge equitably, but too often exploit research partners in low-income countries, while disproportionately benefitting those in higher-income countries. Here, I outline my suggestions for more-equitable partnerships.
Christopher H. Trisos, Jess Auerbach & Madhusudan Katti
UKCDR and ESSENCE launched a new Equitable Partnerships Resource Hub, which brings together guidance, tools and principles on equitable partnerships from across the world.
This book provides case studies of “ethics dumping” that were largely facilitated by loopholes in the ethics governance of low and middle-income countries. It is instructive even to experienced researchers since it provides a voice to vulnerable populations from the forementioned countries. Ensuring the ethical conduct of North-South collaborations in research is a process fraught with difficulties. The background conditions under which such collaborations take place include extreme differentials in available income and power, as well as a past history of colonialism, while differences in culture can add a new layer of complications. In this context, up-to-date case studies of unethical conduct are essential for research ethics training.
This publication by swisspeace and the KFPE demonstrates, in eight contributions, how scientists view their research as dependent of national and international power structures. Research in conflict zones can point to ways and means to diffuse tension, if consciously undertaken. To achieve this objective, field research projects need to consider these specifics from the very outset.
Grenzüberschreitende und interkulturelle Forschungspartnerschaften bedingen neben der Erarbeitung fundierten Wissens auch einen ständigen Prozess gegenseitigen Lernens und Aufbauens von gegenseitigem Vertrauen und gemeinsamer Verantwortung.