Researching in fragile contexts: Exploring and responding to layered responsibility for researcher care

Abstract

Researchers face multiple risks working in fragile contexts such as forced migration, where complex engagements in the field and uneven power dynamics can yield sensitive data. The literature has long identified tensions around participatory methods, emotional labour, vicarious trauma and the need for tailored training and debriefing, with calls for more institutional responsibility seemingly unheeded. This paper draws on the research experiences of three Australian forced migration scholars to explore the lived experience of researching in fragile contexts. It examines strategies to mitigate risks of harm to researchers, particularly through listening as a methodology. We draw from a two-year collective biography methodology using triadic interviews, and from this we discuss the significant emotional and embodied impacts on researcher wellbeing. Our consideration of the layers of responsibility for care led to recommendations at three levels: greater institutional responsibility through the provision of targeted research and ethics training for fragile contexts, community responsibility through the development of a community of ethical inquiry and individual responsibility through debriefing and self-care.