Negotiating Relationships with Vulnerable Communities

Abstract

This chapter outlines key aspects of the author’s personal experience of the ethical and methodological pitfalls of carrying our ethnographic work with vulnerable communities. Focusing on the case of Colombia, it considers the politics of the relationship between researchers and researched, the problem of political engagement and the ways in which knowledge transfer functions during the research process. The case studies mentioned include an analysis of the dynamics of political participation in the Pacific lowlands, a nationwide study of the political discourse and nationalism, and ethnographic work on the social imaginaries through which participants make sense of the Colombian conflict. The chapter argues for the continuing value of ethnographic work as a process which enables the building of lasting relationships with communities and individuals.