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Researcher Vulnerability, Positionality and Objectivity in Conflict Research
Abstract
Objectivity is considered an inherent part of scientific research. As researchers we examine people or phenomena as outsiders and afterwards explain the world based on the findings. This thinking is challenged when researching vulnerable people and conducting fieldwork in conflict-affected societies. People who have experienced violence and loss can not be researched as mere study objects who give the researcher information. Along objectivity, vulnerability and emotions of the researcher become essential. This article draws from my fieldwork experiences with civil actors in the Syrian war. I have not managed to be completely objective, nor have I sought to be, but I have showed interlocutors my vulnerability and my emotions. Building on feminist scholarship on conflict and violence that emphasizes care, I argue that being open about researcher’s vulnerability and positionality can facilitate research because it will ease building trust with gatekeepers and interlocutors. This article proposes openness about researcher’s positionality as a method to make research more ethical as it acknowledges the feelings and experiences of the research participants and the researcher.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
None