Description
Feminists have long called attention to often profoundly uneven power relations in international relations research, the assumptions regarding of who is able to be a ‘knowledge producer’ and the risks of research that is extractive. In research ‘on’ and with young people, these dilemmas are compounded by ageist beliefs about youth competencies. This paper reflects on efforts by the authors to design and undertake a youth-led, adult-supported research project on youth activism and peace processes in South Sudan, Afghanistan and Myanmar through virtual interviews. It discusses how our approach to skills training, mentorship and research design empowers youth researchers to engage in dialogue with youth peacebuilders to establish a more collaborative research agenda. Broadly, centring collaboration as both an aim and approach offers opportunities for more responsive engagement with communities traditionally marginalised within the research environment. The global pandemic has raised questions about research at a distance, the requirements of ‘participation’, and the ethics of reciprocity with research participants as knowledge producers. In each country, challenges—poor internet access, a collapsing peace process, and a coup—raised difficult questions about the ethics of pursuing research in these complex contexts. We offer the idea of care-full research that centres a feminist, reflexive approach, is collaborative in multiple ways and generative of new possibilities of knowledge creation amidst multiple crises and beyond.
