Paper short abstract:

Researching sensitive topics in polarised and/or restricted political spaces requires careful reflexive practice on the part of the researcher. This article critically examines how positionality is co-constructed between researchers and research participants and reflects on ensuing ethical dilemmas.

Paper long abstract:

Researching sensitive topics in polarised and/or restricted political spaces requires careful reflexive practice on the part of the researcher. We have to assess how our positionality shapes the research and its findings, ensure ethical practice and methodological rigor. While the frequent use of the singular in the noun ‘positionality’ might suggest otherwise, the positionality of a researcher is not fixed. Our fieldwork identities are multi-layered and as researchers we have multiple – and at times conflicting – actual and perceived roles in the field; part of them we choose, many of them our research participants attribute. Drawing on over 30 months of ethnographic fieldwork on state – society relations, urban conflict and environmental rights in Ethiopia, this article unpacks ‘reflexivity in practice’ from the perspective of two researchers, one black Ethiopian male and one white French female national. It critically examines how positionality is co-constructed between researchers and research participants and reflects on ensuing ethical dilemmas.

Paper short abstract:

A pedagogical approach to research ethics must consider reflective approaches, which enhance the researcher's ability to be open to self-construction and sensitive to the multiple positionalities, histories and geographies that mingle in development studies and research.

Paper long abstract:

Authoritative voices in adult learning, like Mezirow (1991) and Kolb (2014), have articulated the differences between knowledge gained through critical self-reflection and knowledge gained from our technical interest in the objective world (Malinen, 2000, p. 37). In many ways, HE approaches to teaching research ethics, and ethical clearance procedures are reminiscent of positivist interpretations of the world and emphasise institutional regulatory procedures, which may fail to acknowledge the various positionalities, histories and geographies that mingle in development studies and research. Like Swazey and Bird (1995) argue, it is essential to appreciate the diverse social and cultural frameworks that may be used to interpret ‘ethical issues’ within research. Additionally, the multiple positional spaces the researcher occupies during ‘field’ research may impact research experiences in various ways, including defining and responding to ethical issues. This paper advocates a more reflective approach to teaching ethical and responsible research within development studies and research. A pedagogical approach to research ethics should consider the multiple spaces that the researcher may occupy in their everyday interactions. Part of this includes the researcher’s ability to be open to self-construction and a sensitivity to the various positionalities, histories and geographies in development studies and research.

Paper short abstract:

We have a limit to know the reluctance of the persons in charge of the private universities to open their universities to us because they will think of a control of their offers of formations and to dismiss them from their lucrative activities.

Paper long abstract:

Scientific research is a field that makes it possible to produce scientific knowledge in a domain and to provide answers to the concerns of current and future society.

In the Handbook of Academic Integrity, editor Tracey Bretag (2016) observed, “Academic integrity is such a multifarious topic that authors around the globe report differing historical developments which have led to a variety of interpretations of it as a concept and a broad range of approaches to promulgating it in their own environments” (p. 3)

Scientific integrity is defined as "the set of rules and values that must govern research activity in order to guarantee its honest and scientifically rigorous nature". An essential condition for maintaining the trust society places in research actors.

Scientific integrity is the set of values and rules that guarantee irreproachable research activity. It is a prerequisite for trust between research groups and between science and society.

Research activity, particularly in the social sciences, refers to the acquisition of documentary knowledge, its operationalisation in the field through data collection techniques, their analysis and interpretation and their formalization. In a document with scientific content in order to understand and explain a social fact in a well-defined area of investigation and explain a social fact in a well-defined area of investigation.

The question we asked ourselves was why is research integrity not in the training curricula of Masters and PhD students in the public universities of Côte d'Ivoire?(Issue)

Paper short abstract:

I bring exciting experiences, lessons and nuances of 'responsible research' and 'integrity' encountered by an 'insider researcher' in fieldwork. Again, I will contribute new insights in reflecting on local people's rights to anonymity and confidentiality in publications to promote integrity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects on the fieldwork experiences and lessons of the doctoral researcher in the Sikalenge and Lubimbi wards in the Binga district, Zimbabwe. It considers firstly the University of Reading Research Ethics processes and how it relates or does not relate with the reality during fieldwork in the study sites. Secondly, the paper examines the doctoral researcher’s positionality as an ‘insider researcher’ and how it mapped or did not map the reality the researcher experienced during fieldwork. The researcher used field diaries on fieldwork as primary data for writing the paper. He also conducted a desk review on the critical scholarship of responsible research ethics and positionality in the social science discipline. The study reveals that the University of Reading Research Ethics processes are relevant to a more considerable extent. However, due to contextual factors such as culture, politics and policy entrepreneurs, the ethics guidelines need to be tweaked to suit the local situations. The paper suggests considering local ethics approval via a more formal institutional link with a University in the country where the research is being undertaken. The study also provides new insights into the positionality of the ‘insider researcher’. Because the researcher profoundly knew the local context and dynamics of the study community, his social ties rippled far and wide; perhaps the published papers by the insider researcher might compromise local people’s rights to anonymity and confidentiality.

Paper short abstract:

Much research in international development remains extractive and exclusionary, posing a fundamental challenge to both relevance and impact in the Anthropocene. Who has agency in multi-institutional research teams and how can accountability for responsible research be embedded and sustained?

Paper long abstract:

On the face of it, much research in international development remains extractive and exclusionary in relation to its loci of conception, and its modes (including research methodologies and production of outputs) and models of working (including allocations of responsibilities for 'work packages', informal alliances and working groups, and lines of authority) over time. Where multi-country research 'partnerships' for 'rethinking connection and agency' in the Anthropocene are regarded by all actors as a sine qua non of research that is at once ground-breaking AND responsible, the extractive and exclusionary nature of such research poses a fundamental challenge to its legitimacy/relevance, multi-scalar impact and its integrity. But who has agency in multi-institutional research teams, and how can broad accountability for research integrity be embedded and sustained over time, ensuring that it goes beyond the narrow, managerialist requirements of the university research ethics processes? These complex issues, of concern to many researchers in international development, are explored through reflections on relevant aspects of a recently completed, multi-year and international UK-funded research programme into climate change in Africa, where the author was a research associate.

Paper short abstract:

The main aim is to gain insights into principles that guide research practice in migration and development research in Czechia and to critically discuss ways forward including drawbacks associated with simple imitation of procedures taken from different disciplinary and/or geographical contexts.

Paper long abstract:

Research in migration & development often includes sensitive topics and different cultural, political, or socioeconomic settings, resulting in a plethora of ethical dilemmas. However, the role of ethical research committees and guidelines varies in different geographical contexts and across experimental and non-experimental science disciplines. In some cases, this leads to underdevelopment of research ethics awareness on both the systemic and individual level. Consequently, ethical aspects of research tend to be reduced to the issue of informed consent or publishing ethics. To our knowledge, there is surprisingly little debate about ethical regulation and practice in the context of non-experimental social sciences dealing with migration and development research in Czechia, including research that involves fieldwork in the Global South. On the bright side, this potentially leaves space for the establishment of an alternative way of approaching research ethics to create a more reflexive and just research culture that addresses broader power imbalances and responsibilities in research. We adopt a qualitative case-study approach to gain insights into principles that guide research practice in this sociocultural context (including wider regional and global trends). Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to analyse both the existing ethical protocols and semi-structured in-depth interviews with researchers having experience from various contexts of the Global South. The main aim of this paper is to critically discuss ways forward including drawbacks associated with simple imitation of procedures taken from different disciplinary and/or geographical contexts.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the concept of responsibility in development research by examining the multiple moral logics that can be at play in research relationships, arguing that such an examination can lead to vital questions about the locations and temporalities that define 'responsible' research.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects on the concept of responsibility in development research by examining the multiple moral logics that can be at play in research relationships. It begins by discussing examples of these multiple moral logics - from transactional exchange to relations of care - drawing on research experiences in Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka and previous work on the ethics of giving back in research in relation to David Graeber's study of debt. This focus on different modes of acting ethically in research relationships helps reveal vital issues related to how the governing moral logic for a given research interaction comes to be decided. Crucially, it enables a critical questioning of who makes such decisions and, thus, also the locations and temporalities of decision making. By advocating that the locus of such decision making should be within, or at least closer to, the contexts of the research relationships themselves, the paper begins to outline a more pluralistic and grounded idea of responsibility in research, one which may be better suited to decolonising research agendas. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of this alternative framing of responsible research for the practices of institutional review and ethical protocol formation that currently govern the landscape of research ethics in development.

Paper short abstract:

The views of children on the role of their donkey/s have never been sought directly. This paper outlines ethical considerations arising from working with children in the field that had not been foreseen at the planning stage, and the challenges in obtaining ethical approval.

Paper long abstract:

Two mixed-sex focus group discussions (FGDs) in two different study sites were held with children during the 2018 dry season in northern Ghana. The same protocol was followed with two separate-sex FGDs during the 2019 wet season. Four double interviews with boys and girls from donkey and non-donkey-owning households in both study sites, and two semi-structured interviews with siblings from a donkey and non-donkey-owning family in Gia only were held. Respondents were between 10 – 16-years-old: none took part in more than one research activity and informed assent and consent were obtained from all children and their parents. Consideration was given to the deeper ethical sensitivities when working with children compared with adults, especially the uneven power dynamics when working in the Majority world. However, issues arose in the field that had not been taken into account at the planning stage. These included: protection from harm, with perceptions of potentially lowering standards of safety in different field settings and the impossibility of ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of young participants in rural village settings. Results indicate that using age-appropriate research instruments children from a young age can provide accurate, in-depth data on their interactions with animals, including how they are used in gender-specific ways. Researchers need to be aware that unexpected ethical issues may arise during research in the field that may not allow time for the careful thought and ethical reflection needed to make optimal ethical decisions, especially for inexperienced Ph.D. students.

Paper short abstract:

A group of mangrove rice farmers in Guinea-Bissau was provided with funding for the construction of a dam to protect their rice fields from the sea. The construction was participated by European researchers. We discuss the politics of hiding used to navigate interfaces of difference.

Paper long abstract:

Rice producing villages in Guinea-Bissau depend on dams that protect mangrove rice fields from tides. The construction of these dams is labour and knowledge intensive. In a village, a group of farmers was provided with funding for the construction of a dam to recover rice production. Both the construction and funding management was participated by European researchers. Based on that engagement, this communication looks closely at the meanings and politics of hiding used to manage interfaces of difference. First, researchers decided to hide the name of the person who individually funded the construction of the dam, and the funding was formally delivered through an association. The group of farmers managing the fund decided to hide the existence of funding from the rest of the village. Researchers asked the funding and its spendings to be presented to the village once the dam was finished. When presenting the funding, a farmer decided to attribute the responsibility of selecting the group of farmers responsible for the funding to the researchers. A farmer wondered why white researchers hid themselves from being included in the constructing of the dam when telling the story of the construction. These calculations of hiding identities, used by both European researchers and African farmers, speak both to postcolonial notions of representation and to the ethics of redistribution, respectively. Hiding was crucial to different aspects of succeeding in the construction of the dam but it is in tension with the premises of responsible research and development.

Paper short abstract:

This case study of a higher education institution situated in the global south discusses the limitations of research-oriented ethics policies, and how it can be effectively translated for action-oriented practice, hence ensuring ethical conduct.

Paper long abstract:

Academic research and action-oriented practice are two distinct yet interrelated ways of engaging with the challenges of the anthropocene. This dichotomy influences and often structures organizations, funding mechanisms, scope of work, and also the practice of ethics. In the global south, this distinction is embedded with challenges emerging from knowledge transfers and finance flows, which makes the boundary between research and practice often yielding, if not fungible. A less understood aspect in this relation between research and practice is the role, relevance and impact of an ethics process that traverses the distance between the two. Research collaborations and partnerships that originate in the global north often take the form of practice in the global south, but continue to be governed by research-oriented policies. This includes their approach to responsible research and research ethics, which does not always translate well for practice. In this paper, the authors present the case of a higher educational institute situated in the global south that works in the domain of urban transformation through knowledge building as well as practice. This case brings to light the challenges faced by researchers and practitioners in translating principles and best practices of ethical conduct of research, to suit the requirements of action-oriented or client facing projects. This distinction asks for an ethics policy that can adapt to the various needs of such an institute, and ways of operationalizing it. The paper discusses this through the aspects of training, on the ground best practices, and general institutional process management.

Paper short abstract:

What might an innovation process look like that brings in both participants’ ideas and actions and the needed clout for larger change from development organisations? We reflect on learnings from a community research & design project on resilience within a savings group program in Nigeria

Paper long abstract:

Resilience is a strategic focus of most development actors such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID, FAO and WFP. There has been some criticism, however, that without a real framework, it runs the risk of being “just another buzzword” seen as donor requested by program teams (Mitchell 2013).

We ran a three-week participatory research and design sprint with savings group members, facilitators and program team members of a savings group program in Northeastern Nigeria aimed at exploring three research questions:

1. How do savings group members view and try to achieve resilience currently?

2. What new ideas or improvements might we develop together to improve resilience?

3. What can this process teach us about participatory and community-centered innovation?

Six community researchers – all savings group members or facilitators – conducted 43 interviews and focus groups with savings group members in two states in Northeastern Nigeria. Together with participants, they created visual maps of participants’ financial lives, social networks, annual cashflows, income sources and use of saving groups. Community researchers then analyzed findings together with program team members in two co-analysis workshops and developed new ideas in discussions between themselves, a co-design workshop with other NGO representatives and in discussion sessions with participants.

We reflect on this process, its outcomes for participants, community researchers and the NGO partner, and our experience as we try to answer the question what “true” participatory innovation looks like and what responsibilities we have in the process as NGO project lead (Wale) and lead researcher (Anne).

Paper short abstract:

Societal impact is gaining importance in the assessment of university research. However, research is performed in time-limited projects. In case of successful outcomes, there is a risk of discontinuity and even reversal of livelihood. How should real-life research cope with this?

Paper long abstract:

Societal impact is gaining importance in the assessment of university research. Complete research funding calls are weaved around ideas on “impact through research”. At least partially because of this, studies with real-life relevance become more attractive for researchers and funders. This influences the selection of research topics and the design of research setups. Especially in studies on new technologies and solutions in development research, emphasis on simultaneous impact to the livelihoods of the studied participants and communities is important to explicate. However, the project-based arrangement of research makes this setup vulnerable: how to deal with successful results that would require continuation even after the research project has ended? The limited timeframe of research poses a risk.

In this paper, we present a case study on the setup of an innovative electricity provisioning, a smart microgrid, in under-served community settings. The outcomes proved out a success. However, the sustainability and continuity of the pilot study turned out to be a challenge. How to continue? By analysing this particular research case we attempt to create a model for more sustainable research structure which may be considered in the planning and formulation of societally impactful research which (perhaps surprisingly) results in successful results with desired continuation in target communities. Our initial model implies the combination of community-based governance and commercial service development, aligned with contemporary PPPP-models (public-private-people partnership) on development. We aim to present the model in such a form that it can serve as a practical tool for sustainable research design.