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Accepted Paper:
The Ethical Dilemma and the Emotional-Moral Burden of Ethnographers in Conflict Zones
Aamir Shiekh
(Lancaster University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper aims to challenge the rules of being an objective researcher and need for space within academic research for the emotions (ideological and material) of the researcher. It discusses how ethical boundaries set by ethics boards challenge researchers to make compromises with (emotional) field
Paper long abstract:
The central theme of this paper explores the question, of how Scientific Objectivity in academic research has reduced researchers to “machines” for knowledge production. I reflect on this question through my own experience as an ethnographer as well as a person who grew up in a conflict zone (Indian-Occupied Kashmir). Informal conversations with researchers working in conflict zones will be used as methodological tools to unpack this question. This paper discusses the challenges of ethnographers in violent conflict zones in maintaining objectivity in their research. The neutrality of ethnographic research in conflict zones is questionable in that the epistemological and ontological assumptions may be linked with particular political and ethical stands. The commitment and accountability of a researcher working in a conflict zone do not end with research process and publication. Equally important is their responsibility to anticipate and understand the impact of their research on the conflict, their interlocutors, respondents, researchers themselves.
Being an insider and spending a long time in the field, I developed emotional bonds with the (non)human ‘field’ irrespective of my choices. These emotions became a ‘burden’ when they didn’t find any space in process of knowledge production and therefore the entire process became extractive and exploitative. The ethical and moral obligations of the researcher over their own emotions with the field become the intellectual grounds of contestation between epistemology and dis-epistemology. This paper makes a case for human ethics over the ethical standards set by various anthropological and sociological associations and publishers across the world.