Researching with care: ethical dilemmas in co-designing focus group discussions

Abstract

This paper reflects on the ethics of research and knowledge co-production aimed at addressing urban inequality. It draws on work within the Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW) programme, which aimed to co-produce knowledge to activate transformation. We employ a lens of feminist care ethics to examine ethical challenges in research partnerships, which derive from interrelated layers of power asymmetry and inequality. We focus on ethical dilemmas that emerged during the planning stage of research work led by the NGO Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI), Tanzania, in collaboration with University College London’s Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP). We argue that contextualizing the value of knowledge co-production in generating transformation in the long term reveals a necessity for simultaneously addressing the immediate needs of intersectionally marginalized research participants. We suggest that ethical awareness of both long- and short-term modes of “caring for” could better support initiatives for addressing urban inequalities in context.