HELEN BERENTS, CAITLIN MOLLICA, CASEY ODGERS-JEWELL, HAYLEY PAYNE AND SAVANNAH SPALDING |
The global pandemic, political upheavals, and crises have transformed research methodologies, especially in fields like international relations. In our study, we advocate for a feminist, collaborative, and care-full approach to research. This method prioritises inclusion and empowers marginalised voices, particularly young people, to become knowledge producers, not mere subjects.
The study focuses on youth-led, adult-supported research on youth activism and peacebuilding in South Sudan, Afghanistan, and Myanmar. It critiques traditional, extractive research approaches and promotes empowering youth researchers through mentorship and skill development. Through virtual interviews and a collaborative research design, the authors emphasise ethical, reflexive, and responsive engagement with communities traditionally marginalised in peace and security discourse.
Key contributions of care-full research
- Challenging Power Hierarchies: Feminist researchers have long highlighted unequal power dynamics in international research. A care-full approach addresses these by valuing participants’ knowledge and creating collaborative, horizontal partnerships.
- Empowering Youth as Knowledge Producers: In traditional research, youth have often been viewed as passive subjects. This approach centres young people as active participants, driving the research process. It moves beyond ageist assumptions to recognise their expertise in peace processes.
- Feminist Ethics and Reciprocity: Care-full research builds trust through mutual engagement, ensuring that research outcomes are valuable to participants as well. The pandemic raised challenges regarding distance and participation, making it vital to emphasise ethical, inclusive research practices that respect and reciprocate the contributions of youth researchers.
- Flexibility in Research Design: The authors argue for an adaptive and reflexive research process that evolves based on participant needs and feedback. This flexible approach can produce more responsive research outcomes, reflecting the real-time challenges and complexities of crises like the COVID-19 pandemic or political instability.
Four Principles of Care-full Research
- Creating Communities: Collaborative research fosters a sense of community among researchers and participants, ensuring that relationships are at the centre of the research.
- Accountability: Researchers must remain accountable to their participants, being mindful of how knowledge is produced and shared.
- Responsible Reflexivity: Researchers are encouraged to reflect on their positionality, power, and impact on the communities they work with, ensuring that the research process is transparent and ethical.
- Empowering Expertise: By centering participants’ motivations and expertise, the research empowers them to contribute meaningfully, creating more effective and sustainable outcomes.
In conclusion, Conducting Care-full Research emphasises the importance of fostering collaborative, youth-led research agendas. It showcases the potential of care-full research to challenge conventional knowledge production, amplify marginalised voices, and lead to more equitable, inclusive, and responsive research processes amidst crises. By nurturing meaningful relationships and centering feminist ethics, this approach offers a transformative framework for conducting research in international relations, particularly in complex and unstable environments.
Helen Berents (Griffith Asia Institute), Caitlin Mollica (University of Newcastle), Casey Odgers-Jewell, (Monash University) Hayley Payne (Griffith University), and Savannah Spalding (Queensland University of Technology).
This article is a synopsis of the journal article “Conducting Care-full Research: Collaborative Research amidst Corona, a Coup, and Other Crises” published in International Studies Perspectives.
Research for this project was funded by an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (DE200100937) held by Dr Helen Berents.
