ETHNOGRAPHY OF A NORTH-SOUTH RESEARCH PROJECT. FROM EPISTEMOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES TO ETHICAL CHALLENGES AND POWER RELATIONS

This article examines the concrete application of institutional ethics in a North-South research partnership project on the diversity memories in post-conflict societies. It is based on ongoing ethnographic research on the practices of researchers (from Europe and from three countries in the global South). My analysis will consider how research ethics is framed by certain norms and apparatuses, and will also examine how these concretely-and sometimes contradictorily-affect the production of knowledge. I will also address the connection between the apparatus in place and research politics, as well as how relations between team members are structurally impacted. The scientific charter of the project considers ethics in terms of security, which leads to a discussion on how risk is constructed. The second part of the article analyzes my own position as a project member in relation to the various disciplinary and methodological obstacles I have encountered.