Emotional and Ethical Challenges for Field Research in Africa

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: Why Stories Behind the Findings?

   • Susan Thomson, An Ansoms, Jude Murison

   Pages 1-11

3. From Humanitarian to Anthropologist: Writing at the Margins of Ethnographic Research in the Democratic Republic of Congo

   • Luca Jourdan

   Pages 12-26

4. The Contested Fruits of Research in War-Torn Countries: My Insider Experience in Northern Uganda

   • Lino Owor Ogora

   Pages 27-41

5. Dislodging Power Structures in Rural Rwanda: From ‘Disaster Tourist’ to ‘Transfer Gate’

   • An Ansoms

   Pages 42-56

6. Challenges of Interviewing Political Elites: A View from the Top in Post-War Burundi

   • Judith Vorrath

   Pages 57-69

7. The RPF Control Everything! Fear and Rumour under Rwanda’s Genocide Ideology Legislation

   • Larissa Begley

   Pages 70-83

8. From Scientific Research to Action in Southern Kivu: Ethical Dilemmas and Practical Challenges

   • Julie Van Damme

   Pages 84-95

9. Research as ‘Social Work’ in Kampala? Managing Expectations, Compensation and Relationships in Research with Unassisted, Urban Refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo

   • Christina R. Clark-Kazak

   Pages 96-106

10. Nacibazo, ‘No Problem’: Moving Behind the Official Discourse of Post-Genocide Justice in Rwanda

    • Yolande Bouka

    Pages 107-122

11. Dealing with Deceit: Fieldwork Encounters and Lies in Burundi

    • Lidewyde H. Berckmoes

    Pages 123-138

12. Academic Integrity and Ethical Responsibilities in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Working with Research Ethics Boards to Prepare for Fieldwork with ‘Human Subjects’

    • Susan Thomson

    Pages 139-154

13. Back Matter

    Pages 155-169

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Academic literature rarely gives an account of the ethical challenges and emotional pitfalls the researcher is confronted with before, during and after being in the field. Giving personal accounts, the authors explore some of the challenges one can face when engaging in local-level research in difficult situations.

• emotion
• ethics
• interview
• social work

'This volume will be an excellent resource both for the seasoned field researcher and for those preparing to conduct research in conflict-affected countries, whether in Africa or elsewhere, for the first time. The contributions are both self-reflective and sobering, and should provoke careful and critical preparation by researchers. I look forward to recommending it to my own students.' - Professor Chandra Lekha Sriram, University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK

'The authors take us behind the scenes of the fieldwork process to reveal the interpersonal encounters and relationships, the privileges and vulnerabilities, and the ethical stakes and emotional costs that are the very sources of knowledge in this kind of research. If the study of social and political conflict and change aspires to be any kind of science, it must reveal rather than cover the human tracks through which an understanding of such conflict/change is produced. The book also offers a much-needed antidote to the crude checklist approach to research ethics by providing on-the-ground experience, reflection, and advice on the unexpected and shifting dilemmas and choices that face those who are committed to socially engaged research. This should be required reading for both undergraduate and graduate students of not only Africa, but all area studies and social sciences that take fieldwork as a primary source of knowledge.' - Kimberly Chang, Associate Professor of Cultural Psychology, Hampshire College, USA

• Colgate University, USA

  Susan Thomson

• Centre for Development Studies, Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

  An Ansoms

• University of Antwerp, Belgium

  Jude Murison

SUSAN THOMSON is Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University, USA. Her research and teaching interests are in state-society relations in contemporary Africa and qualitative research methods, with particular focus on research ethics and doing research in difficult environments.
AN ANSOMS is Assistant Professor in Development Studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. She conducts research on poverty and inequality in the Great Lakes Region and pays particular attention to the challenges of rural development in land-scarce post-conflict environments.
JUDE MURISON is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, Belgium. Her research focuses on human rights, transitional justice, forced migration, health and agricultural production through the interplay of national policies and laws, and how they are implemented on the ground.

Policies and ethics