المنتدى

THE ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK IN CONFLICT SETTINGS

Abstract:

This article aims to analyze some of the ethical challenges that face field researchers working in conflict areas. I will rely on my own ethnographic field research completed in 2018 in the Moroccan Rif region, notorious for its conflicts and ecological confrontations over water and land. I will discuss the procedures that I adopted in implementing the principle of “do no harm” in the field research ethics. After presenting the general methodology, I will examine the conditions under which fieldwork took place in the local tribal community during the research period. I will then cover the measures which ensured that interviews were conducted with people giving their fully informed consent, and demonstrate all the steps I undertook in the field, before explaining the procedures pertaining to the anonymity of participants and ensuring the confidentiality of data collected in conflict circumstances. I will discuss the particular ethical dilemmas I have encountered in the research, including the complexities of community representation, researcher identity, and the emotional challenges in an ethno-tribal environment, a source of confusion for the researcher. I will finally analyze some new research questions arising in the context of conflict conditions.

For the full article: https://zbw.eu/econis-archiv/bitstream/11159/6435/1/177562319X_0.pdf#page=207