Fieldwork in the Global South : Ethical Challenges and Dilemmas

This book provides fresh insights on ethical issues faced when conducting fieldwork overseas by hearing from the experience of current or recent postgraduates rather than established academics with many years of experience. Their personal experiences and real examples offer honest and self-critical reflections on negotiating ethical challenges and dilemmas, which will appeal to postgraduates, undergraduate students and all other researchers conducting their research in the Global South.

Since ethical issues face the researcher at every turn and cannot be compartmentalized into one part of the research process, this book puts them at the very center of the discussion and uses them as the lens with which to view different stages of fieldwork. The book covers four thematic areas: ethical challenges in the field; ethical dimensions of researcher identity; ethical issues relating to research methods; and ethical dilemmas of engagement with a variety of actors. This volume also provides fresh insights by drawing on the experiences of research students rather than those of established academics. The contributors describe research conducted for their master’s degrees and doctorates, offering honest and self-critical reflections on how they negotiated ethical challenges and dilemmas.

The chapters cover fieldwork carried out in countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America on a broad sweep of development-related topics. This book should have wide appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, and early-career researchers working under the broad umbrella of development studies. Although focused on fieldwork in the Global South, the discussions and reflections are relevant to field research in many other countries and contexts.